Started gym routine but not losing weight

M

mcdonamw

New member
This is my first time here on this forum. I am very distressed and don't know where else to turn. I apologize for the length of the post I am writing but I want to get my entire story out to help paint the proper picture.

Well over a year ago, I weighed about 260 lbs. I am approx 6'3". I am male. I can say without a doubt that up until a year ago (and 10 years prior) I wasn't athletic nor did I get really any type of exercise except for walking throughout the office and carrying computer equipment. I used to be really athletic through my teens playing whatever sports I could. But since moving and getting an office job, I haven't found many friends that like to be athletic. With that aside..

I got really tired of being over weight so I thought I'd do something about it. About a year ago I totally changed my eating habits. In doing that, after about a month or 2 I lost about 40 lbs. I had also picked up racquetball once a week for a couple hours. I felt great and looked a lot better.

After about 6 months I guess I came to a plateau. I just wouldn't lose anymore. I have a goal to get down to about a 200-210 lb range.

I decided to join a local gym as much as it pained me to do so. I've been going to the gym 3 days a week almost religiously (missed a day or two for various reasons). On top of that I increased my racquetball to 3 days a week. So essentially I have been getting 6 days of exercise a week! I don't slack off at the gym either!

This is where my issue comes in. It has been almost 6 months of this gym routine on top of my previous lifestyle change (i.e. eating). I can feel myself getting stronger in areas of course, but I am NOT losing any weight!!! What gives?

I'm not building large muscle either. My gym has a machine that takes various measurements (weight, body fat percentage, etc). These measurements and visible changes are what I'm using to determine my progress. Before the gym I could see the fat melt away. Since joining the gym I haven't seen any fat go.

From what I understand, burning more calories than you take in = fat loss. I'm sure I've gained a very minute amount of muscle, but there's no way it's that much to keep my weight steady, especially when my body fat percentage isn't changing either.

I'm literally to the point of wanting to stop going to the gym because I feel "why do the work if I get no results". I didn't expect a miracle. I know it takes time to lose weight. 6 months is plenty of time. Especially when before I joined the gym I lost almost 20-30 lbs in just one month when I changed my diet.

At any rate, here I am about a year later and very frustrated with the lack of results.

Does anyone have any ideas?!?!

TIA,
Matthew
 
I had the same problem as you, the problem is calories.

I wasn't eating at a caloric deficit, thinking that i needed them to make muscle (which you do), and I thought if I was doing heavy lifting while eating at a -500 calorie deficit I would ruin my muscles. I couldn't lose a single gram for 2 months.

It turns out, heavy lifting while in a caloric deficit helps maintain the muscles. So I took my calorie consumption down by 500, and the weight started dropping off again.

That's what worked for me, but you must make sure you're eating no less than -500 of your BMR, you really need those calories to maintain muscle.
 
Matt said:
I had the same problem as you, the problem is calories.

I wasn't eating at a caloric deficit, thinking that i needed them to make muscle (which you do), and I thought if I was doing heavy lifting while eating at a -500 calorie deficit I would ruin my muscles. I couldn't lose a single gram for 2 months.

It turns out, heavy lifting while in a caloric deficit helps maintain the muscles. So I took my calorie consumption down by 500, and the weight started dropping off again.

That's what worked for me, but you must make sure you're eating no less than -500 of your BMR, you really need those calories to maintain muscle.
Click to expand...


Thanks for your reply Matt. It's an interesting thought but I just can't wrap my head around it. Here's why. I have the same eating habits now that I had before I started the gym. I'm trying to get myself to think as simplistic as I can here. Given the following rudimentary equation: (C + X) - Y = Z,
where: C = BMR, constant
where: X = Calories burned at gym
where: Y = Caloric intake (food), closely constant.
where: Z = Total calories (hopefully positive)

With that, if before the gym, X = 0 and after the gym X = some higher number, wouldn't going to the gym make me burn a lot more calories?

Basically it's like it doesn't matter if I go to the gym or not. It's like I'm not burning *any* calories at the gym which I know is completely unreasonable considering what I put myself through. I don't even lift very large weights as I'm trying more for higher reps (15-20) at 3 sets with lower weight for toning/lean muscle/fat burning.

It's either that or I'm building an extraordinary amount of lean muscle, but I know that can't be true as my body fat percentage should decrease as I gain muscle/lose fat. Ultimately the numbers just don't add up!
 
mcdonamw said:
Thanks for your reply Matt. It's an interesting thought but I just can't wrap my head around it. Here's why. I have the same eating habits now that I had before I started the gym. I'm trying to get myself to think as simplistic as I can here. Given the following rudimentary equation: (C + X) - Y = Z,
where: C = BMR, constant
where: X = Calories burned at gym
where: Y = Caloric intake (food), closely constant.
where: Z = Total calories (hopefully positive)

With that, if before the gym, X = 0 and after the gym X = some higher number, wouldn't going to the gym make me burn a lot more calories?

Basically it's like it doesn't matter if I go to the gym or not. It's like I'm not burning *any* calories at the gym which I know is completely unreasonable considering what I put myself through. I don't even lift very large weights as I'm trying more for higher reps (15-20) at 3 sets with lower weight for toning/lean muscle/fat burning.

It's either that or I'm building an extraordinary amount of lean muscle, but I know that can't be true as my body fat percentage should decrease as I gain muscle/lose fat. Ultimately the numbers just don't add up!
Click to expand...

The number of calories burnt at the gym is soooooooo small, in comparison with what you can eat for that many calories.

Why can't you make dietary changes? You wont see results without them.
 
austin_88 said:
The number of calories burnt at the gym is soooooooo small, in comparison with what you can eat for that many calories.

Why can't you make dietary changes? You wont see results without them.
Click to expand...

Austin, I think you failed to read my actual post. I have 'already' made dietary changes. That's how I lost 40+ lbs. I then hit a plateau so joined the gym thinking that on top of my change in diet would increase my loss. It hasn't which is what my question is about.

And I fail to think that going to the gym results in that little an effect considering it's one of the key elements of any weight loss program. If it was all just about eating, no one would need to go to the gym for weightloss.
 
Alright, a couple of things may be going on:

A) You consuming more calories than you think. It happens to the best of us, trust me, just a minor misjudgment throws you from losing weight to gaining it.

B) You're consuming too little calories. Anything under -500 of your BMR could put you in starvation mode, making your body convert everything in to fat and make you plateau.

C) You're gaining sufficient muscle to maintain your weight. You're using the right technique, too. Low weight, high rep is the technique used by body builders. It doesn't really make you strong, just more toned and muscular.

I'd suggest counting your calories using one of the many free calorie counters, like Fitday.
 
Matt said:
Alright, a couple of things may be going on:

A) You consuming more calories than you think. It happens to the best of us, trust me, just a minor misjudgment throws you from losing weight to gaining it.

B) You're consuming too little calories. Anything under -500 of your BMR could put you in starvation mode, making your body convert everything in to fat and make you plateau.

C) You're gaining sufficient muscle to maintain your weight. You're using the right technique, too. Low weight, high rep is the technique used by body builders. It doesn't really make you strong, just more toned and muscular.

I'd suggest counting your calories using one of the many free calorie counters, like Fitday.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was thinking it may be one of the first two you mention Matt. I'm not eating anymore now than I was before I joined the gym, so I don't think I'm eating too many as I'd figure I'd gain weight if I wasn't going to the gym. That leads me to believe it's more-so not eating enough. I never thought that'd be a really big problem. I mean if you start, you lose weight right? (thinking ethopian or American models lol). But I guess if I'm eating anything at all (but still too low) and it's all goin to fat, then that might be my problem. There are many times where I just don't eat at all, maybe once a day just because I never feel hungry! Maybe I've learned to deal with starvation so well that I don't know when I'm starving.

I'll look into the calorie counter thing. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
I've decided to do some more research and I'm coming to odd conclusions.

While I haven't been able to accurately count my calories due to lack of nutritional guides for the places I eat, I guestimate that I probably take in less than 2000 calories a day. I think this may be a major problem. I sometimes only eat twice a day and very seldom do I eat an exuberant amount of food. When I do eat I try to watch what I eat too.

Based on my findings my BMR is approximately 2210 calories and per some website I was looking at, I should be eating approx 2873 calories!!! That's insane considering I'm rarely every hungry! How could I possible do that? Don't get me wrong, there are some days (seldom) where I feel insatiable so I dunno.

Other bits of research shows that men having an 18% - 25% body fat percentage is considered "healthy". I fluctuate between 18 and 19 (I test this at my gym via biometric impedance). Am I just deluded? I think I have way too much fat on my body (mostly in midsection). The rest of my body looks OK in my opinion.

II looked at my report from my gym, and oddly enough when I joined the gym I was at a 16.9 body fat percentage. I didn't realize it was ever that low. My body fat has increased since joining the gym!! *sigh*.
 
You eat out, right?

Trust me, you don't know your caloric intake. If you are serious about getting things under control, stop eating out and start controlling and tracking your nutrition.

Until that time... nobody here can offer you anything beyond very generic advice.

Above you said BMR is static.

No it isn't.
 
Considering just about every place I eat (and most typical restaurants these days) have nutritional guides for their menus, I have a pretty good idea. Granted they may not be the *best* guide, but they have to be somewhat accurate. And anyway, I only typically eat out at lunch, and at the same places every week ordering the same exact meal. Not much changes. I'm even pretty consistent when I cook my own dinners. Boring but consistent.

RE the BMR, I didn't "state" anything. I said I ran across some information, i.e. a calculator for BMR. Considering most health sites I go to have them, I think it's OK to use that as at least a guide. No one said it was definitive.

Besides, the question I posted, which is glaringly being overlooked, is why has the gym not provided me what seems to be "any results" after about 5 months when my eating habits before gym were the same after gym. The only thing that changed was.. I joined the gym!!

But anyway I thank you all for the advice you've given. Some have given me some insight and I will use it. I'll just keep doing research and get other opinions.

Thanks.
 
mcdonamw said:
Considering just about every place I eat (and most typical restaurants these days) have nutritional guides for their menus, I have a pretty good idea. Granted they may not be the *best* guide, but they have to be somewhat accurate. And anyway, I only typically eat out at lunch, and at the same places every week ordering the same exact meal. Not much changes. I'm even pretty consistent when I cook my own dinners. Boring but consistent.
Click to expand...

You are a funny one you are.

Your nutrition is consistent. Your lack of results are consistent.

Hmm....

food scale... buy one

... use it

Until you do, you're shooting in the dark. If you like spinning your wheels and doing 'research' while avoiding the obvious... have at it!

RE the BMR, I didn't "state" anything. I said I ran across some information, i.e. a calculator for BMR. Considering most health sites I go to have them, I think it's OK to use that as at least a guide. No one said it was definitive.
Click to expand...

You said:

where: C = BMR, constant

Hence my comment.

But hey, you didn't say anything to prompt my comment. This is why I love the Internetz!!!111

Besides, the question I posted, which is glaringly being overlooked, is why has the gym not provided me what seems to be "any results" after about 5 months when my eating habits before gym were the same after gym. The only thing that changed was.. I joined the gym!!
Click to expand...

Maybe if you understood metabolism and instead of making wise cracks, you answered my question, you'd understand why I brought up what I did about metabolism and how it could relate to your question right here.

How are you tracking progress, btw?
 
Ok.

1) you're not a nice person. Your post that I replied to was pretty snide and counter productive to anything I was asking. Essentially telling me to "do it balls-out right or no one can help me" is kind of ridiculous. I'm sure someone out there might be educated enough on the matter and can point me to the right direction.

2) I mistook your comment about my BMR = static. I thought you were referring to the BMR calculator. Excuse me all to hell for my oversight. And I know BMR changes, afterall the point of strength training is to gain lean muscle which will help increase my BMR. I just assume it doesn't change that drastically month to month. My equation was just an elementary representation of an idea I had.

3) I obviously DON'T KNOW about a lot of this stuff. If I understood metabolism and all the stuff that goes a long with weight loss I'd have no reason to be here asking such helpful people like yourself for advice.

4) I was only asking for suggestions as to what may be causing the inconsistent results. I'm not asking for a golden answer to solve my weighloss issue. It just seems odd to me that I'm not seeing results I expected. Before I started the gym I weighed less and had a lower body fat percentage. I just don't understand it.

5) How exactly does a food scale help me when I'm eating out? I know I know.. your reply will be "don't eat out". Simply not going to happen. Maybe if I do want to get "serious" as you say, I will. Again not what I'm looking for. I've lost considerable weight doing what I have already done and I'm pretty happy.

6) my progress so far (40+ lbs) is a direct result of my 'research'. I'm just stuck at a point that I haven't been able to fully understand/resolve, which again, is the reason I'm here. To get IDEAS.

7) These bullet points suck.

8)
Maybe if you understood metabolism and instead of made wise cracks, you answered my question, you'd understand why I brought up what I did about metabolism and how it could relate to your question right here.
Click to expand...

Am I missing something? What question of yours did I miss? What did you bring up about metabolism in your first post? I don't see anything.

9) Your forum tactfulness is teh failure. All your tact are belong to us. And any other witty 'internetz' lingo you'd like.


Lastly, I am tracking my progress by the health station at the gym. I take consistent measurements including weight, bmi (which I know is pointless), body fat percentage (biometric impedence), etc etc. These are the results I compare. Again I know nothing is 100% accurate. The tests are consistent. I even wear the same clothes/shoes everytime I go to the gym so I'd assume they'd be a decent way to track progress.

Again, thanks for your wonderful advice. Ima go 'spin my wheels' now.
 
Here’s a hint. Next time you are ‘researching’ a topic that you know little about, don’t ask questions with the expectation that all replies will fit neatly into your notion of what an appropriate answer seems to be.

I hope someone 'educated' can come along and help you. Good luck with your weight loss.
 
Thanks Steve!

BTW I didn't mean to imply you weren't educated so I apologize if that's how it came across. I've gotten some good ideas from the posts here, (even from you believe it or not).

At any rate I'll consider this thread closed unless someone feels they can provide additional assistance.

Thanks all
-M
 
Do you count calories? Now, I knw you said that you eat out/cook almost the same things all the time BUT is there even the slightest possibility that since you've been going to the gym, you've picked up eating just a little bit more of food? It can happen. OR are you over guessing your calories?

I knw, for myself, I have changed my eating before, lost weight and then started exercising only to find out nothing is happening. I'm not an expert, never will be, BUT besides what I mentioned you also have to keep in mind that...

40+ pounds ago, your BMR was higher. You've been eating the same things, in the same calorie deficiet(sp?). Now, your BMR is going to be lower since you lost those 40+ pounds. Because of that, you need to refigure out your BMR and knock off at least 500calories and go from there.

I cant explain to you as to why you're weight wouldnt change with exercise, in my head, I too, would assume "Oh, I'm adding something I hadnt before!!" but I know a lot of people, myself included, who can think that, do that, and never move a pound on the scale.

Bottom line, you simply have to adjust your eating with your exercise. Pretend you're starting to lose weight all over again, redo your BMR, at the gym, when you come home use a website and roughly get a guess at the amount of calories you're burn. Look at them vs the food you're eating. They say burning 3,500calories over what you eat will work. You might find out at what you're eating now, that hitting 1,500calories in exercise per week will not work. So it's essential to redo you're intake calories.

You just need to play around with it and find out what works. Weight isn't going to come off by keeping your eating the same and upping your exercise.

(like I said, I'm no expert, these are just ideas/things you can do.)
 
Thanks PaperAirPlanes!

This is pretty much what I was looking for. I never really thought about it like that. I'll keep this in mind.

As far as counting currently. No I do not. I dread it. I have enough stress now and don't need to add that on. I do try to make a conscious effort to look for/find approx calorie counts of the food I do intake, but just not to a level of "OH I'm only allowed X more calories today".

I honestly do not think I'm eating too much. I think I an definitely undereating. That mixed with not eating the "healthiest" that I could is definitely causing some/most of my issue. I'm banking my body is in some sort of starvation mode due to my poor eating regime. Adding the gym to my already lower diet may have killed my metabolism since I'm not properly fueling my body now.

Oddly enough too, when I started this thread I mentioned that I am rarely hungry which is why I often eat only twice a day but the past couple of weeks, I've been super hungry all the time! BTW, I don't do snacks, although from time to time I'll munch on some grapes or other fruit and other days treat myself to some ice cream.. very rare though.
 
Hence where I was going with my questioning....

If you could spend a short period of time figuring out your current intake, you'd know where you stand relative to your current stats and activity. If your intake is much lower than where it would ordinarily by maintaining your weight, you'd know that something is up with metabolic adaptation to the stress you've placed on your body.

There's only one way to reverse that.

Rest.

Remove the stress.

The stress comes from lack of nutrition and exercise on top of this poor base of nutrition.

If you think this to be the case, we can discuss some possible solutions. But you don't seem too keen on the idea of messing around with your nutrition which, unfortunately, is necessary if the above is the case.
 
I sure can feel the stress!

You know, it's not so much that I'm not keen on changing, I just find it difficult as I'm sure most people do because I don't 'like' to do anything half-assed. I'm not an avid cook. I work long hours. The excuses go on and on :). On top of that, I rather enjoy going to lunch with my work brethren instead of coming home to eat.

Ultimately when I try to do my own food regimen I find it way too difficult and unsatisfying to continue. This is why I've tried to spend most of my time with idea of "its all about moderation" and "no more soda, drink only water".

If I can find change that I can stick with, I'd be open to it. Trust me, it took me forever to get myself to the gym. I'm glad I started going because now I am pretty religious about it. I hate missing a day.

BTW today was a bad day for food. I don't even wanna rehash what I ate today.

A side question: at what time period/range does the caloric intake become a factor? I know there's no way I could ever do the 'eat 5/6 times a day' deal. I've tried it and I just don't have time during the day to break and eat. This is one of the main reasons I tend to miss my meals entirely. Can I just eat my 3 meals a day and pack in the same number of calories as a 5-6 time a day regimen?

Lastly I really apologize for my wordy posts. I am plagued with not being able to keep it simple when it comes to written word. :)
 
You sound like me =)

Eat whenever you want, whenever you can get it in. I eat three times a day (after spending YEARS only eating one to two times a day), I get my daily calories in. Sometimes I eat a snack, sometimes I don't. You don't need to eat 5 to 6 times a day. You can break it up however you want. Sometimes I eat breakfast at 1pm, lunch at 5pm and dinner at 9pm. Sometimes I eat breakfast at 3am, lunch at 1pm, and dinner at 5pm. Sometimes I completely forget and go "Aw damn..I did it again" *Grins*

As far as eating goes. Take a week and count your calories, just to see what you're really eating. Don't change how you eat for this week, so that you'll get a "true" number. By counting, I mean, glance at the label of what you're eating and write it down. Follow the protion size. If you eat out, when you come home, do a google search "calories in *insert food here*" find the best match for what you ate and the protion size, add it up, add it to your list and woola. Takes 5mins, 10tops if you can't find what you want.

Calories and changing around your nutrition don't need to dominate your life. Doesn't even need to interfear. If you find you're only eating 1,000calories, throw in something extra, some veggies/fruiit/whatever. If you find you're eating 2,000calories, substitute something you're eating for something a bit healthier. But tackle and find out how many calories you're currently eating. Find your BMR, knock off a set amount of calories, and then spend a week eating and counting calories to get to that number. Once you understand that those calories look like, you could stop. As long as you're still losing weight, you knw you're on par. If you're gaining weight, readjust you're eating.

Think of it as..calibrating something. You test it, tweak it, drive it, and when it starts going off, you retest, retweak, drive again. Until its all smooth sailing.

For me, if I plan my food out and calories out, I can't keep up. And I'll stop doing it. It does take a bit of an effort and sometimes can be super boring. I try to adapt "yummy foods" that I normally eat, so that I'm not stuck eating "boring food". Nothing needs to be boring about what you eat! You can still go out to eat with your friends. Just find out how many calories you're consuming. OR take 2 to 3 different foods off the menu that you like, count the calories, compare them. When you go out, pick the one with less. Or if you pick one with higher calories, eat less for dinner.

I'm chalk full of excuses, they're fun, and sometimes the ones that come out of my mouth even amaze me. But you can do it. You don't need to spend all you're time cooking, you don't need to run home and eat instead of skipping out on friends. It's all how you work it out, prepare foods ahead of time. Stick things in baggies and grab them for a snack. Busy schedual? Make meals for on the go.

(Sorry it all got away from me, lol. I'm hoping some of that helps and is along the lines of what you wanted!/needed)

OH!! Sparkpeople.com and fitday.com will record all calories for you!! just find what you ate, put in portion size, and woola! (im more of a pen n paper person so)
 
You unequivocally rock PaperAirPlanes! :).

Now just to get off my lazy tookus and get to documenting. Did I mention I hate documentation? It's a wonder I can work where I do hahaha.

When going through this "tweak" phase, how can you accurately know if you're gaining/losing? I mean, any given day/week I can gain/lose 2-5 lbs or so. I guess water weight, etc factors in here. Obviously I know it's not fat coming/going that fast as that's just impossible lol.

Thanks again!
-M
 
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