Why i'm not losing weight!?

Question

I started doing 30 minutes cardio every day, uppers and lowers every other day and abs. I watch my diet... I eat very healthy and I've been doing this for 4 months. I haven't lost 1 inch nor 1 lb. why?

Answer 1

Sign up for http://SparkPeople.com

They have a generator that will help you figure out how many calories to eat, and will adjust for exercise.

I have been eating healthy for 2 years. In those 2 years, I lost 20 lbs... I still have at least 20 to go... I just began SP a couple of weeks ago & have lost 3 lbs... which is right about right... 1-2 lbs a week.

Another thing you can do, is go to http://www.phord.com/cc/ <-- that is an easy way to figure out, based on your age & size what you should be eating.

I thought my diet was healthy... it was... I was just eating too much.

I took one of my old calorie counting logs, and I THOUGHT I was eating 1600 calories... come to find out, I computed wrong, and was more in the 2000 range!

I put all of my food into SP's Nutrition tracker, and it calculates it for me. I love it. :)

Answer 2

Muscle and fat weigh exactly the same - one pound is one pound.  Muscle is more DENSE than fat, so it takes up less room.  You could be building muscle at the same rate you're burning fat, but if this were the case you would see yourself losing inches.

If you aren't losing weight and haven't lost any at all in 4 months, then one of two things is going on.  The first is that even though you're eating healthy, you're still eating the same number of calories per day that your body is using to fuel itself.  

The second possibility is that you're not eating enough.  Doesn't sound possible, right?  Here's the deal:  your body needs a certain number of calories per day just to maintain life.  Then as you add activity, your body needs more calories to keep itself fueled during these muscle movements.  Then if you add true exercise, your body uses even more calories.  But what happens is that if you don't eat enough calories to maintain life AND your non-exercise daily activities, your body recognizes that not enough food is available to you and so it begins to store everything you eat as fat.  This is an evolutionary adaptation to help humans get through periods of famine.  When you don't eat enough, your body has no reason to believe that you aren't about to starve to death.  It isn't going to burn fat in that case.  (Thirty and forty years ago, the big diet was the 1000-Calorie Per Day Diet.  Everybody lost big the first week or two, and then nobody lost anything after that ... because they were starving themselves.)

Do you keep a food diary?  If not, start writing down everything you eat and the amounts.  You'll need a set of measuring cups and spoons and a really good scale, but they're worth the investment.

Ask your family doctor for a referral to a nutritionist.  Take your food diary.  The nutritionist can tell you if you aren't eating enough - if you're trying to stick at 1200 calories per day, she may recommend that you increase that to 1300 or 1400 calories per day for a couple of weeks.  Or she may see that your diet is skewed too far into a high-protein direction, or too much fruit, or too little of something else.  Not only do you need enough calories, but your diet needs to be balanced, nutritionally, to prevent your body from going into "starvation mode."

The nutritionist can help you evaluate what you eat and make recommendations for better balance.  She can also give you advice about your workouts, and how to be sure your workouts are burning fat.

And maybe it's time to increase the intensity of your workouts.  If you're doing cardio for 30 minutes, is it easy cardio?  Can you talk to someone else in the room with you when you're exercising?  If you can talk comfortably, your workout is only of mild intensity and isn't burning many calories.  Make that cardio more intense.  In fact, your body adapts to cardio exercise VERY quickly.  You'll be needing to increase your intensity probably once a week or more.

Food diary.  Nutritionist.  Make certain you're eating enough to stay out of starvation mode.  Increase exercise intensity.  Keep taking your measurements.  You'll break through and start losing.

Answer 3

if youre not seeing results, try boosting the workout.

45 minute cardio everyday is needed in order to loose weight.

id do running or that one cool cross country machine thing, :)

Answer 4

Muscle weighs more than fat. So, if you have lost fat and gained muscle instead you would not have lost any weight. If you have not worked your abs. and butt, you would not have lost any inches. But you should be feeling more energetic and have more stamina than you did, 4 months ago.

Answer 5

You said you have been on a healthy diet? Is it "low carb"? That is the secret to losing pounds. Low carbs. Eat a solid, low carb breakfast and a light lunch. Don't gorge yourself at dinner. No soda. Ever!. You didn't say how tall you are, how much you weight or how old you are? This helps us to give you a better answer. Some people also have a thyroid problem which causes them to gain, yet they never knew they had the problem. I'm 50 and in top shape (martial arts instructor). Trust me on the low carb. I use it. My brother was 230 lbs.. I got him on a low carb diet and he is now 185 lbs., where he belongs. Just Google it (low carb diet) or go to www.Low-Carb-Diet-Recipes.com and pick out the foods that you think you would enjoy. It gives you health information , as well. Good luck.

Answer 6

Losing weight is simple math. You have to burn more calories than you take it. The problem may be that you think you're consuming less calories then you really are. Here's where you need to start doing some pen and pencil work. Keep a food journal. Write down EVERYTHING you eat and drink, along with the calories they contain and start adding them up.

There are alot of good websites that tell you calorie contents. Try to eat about 1500 a day. Along with exercise you could lose 1-2 pounds a week.