Why isn't excercise working?

Question

Frustration isn't even the word. I don't eat horribly. I do have a sweet tooth, but I do everything in moderation. I don't drink anything but water and I love fruit in veggies. Since I was eating well, but not losing weight I decided to amp up the exercise. For the past 4 weeks I've been in the gym a minimum of 4 days a week, if not more. I've been doing at least a 1/2 of cardio every time and doing pilates and resistance training. Well, I haven't lost 1 pound. I am exactly the same weight as I started and I just don't have the motivation to keep doing it. Any suggestions!!!??? I want to lose weight, and I'm trying, but I just don't know what to do! I don't want to take supplements, I would really love to do it naturally. Any help/advice would be appreciated. My ultimate goal is to go from 170 to 135. Thank you!

Wow, the response has been great! To clear up some quesions, I sweat a LOT when I work out, so I am confident in my intensity levels. Its seems my two biggest issues may be my stress level (which is extremely high) and my calorie intake, which I'll admit I haven't calculated to and exact number, however this is for good reason: I've had issues with eating disorders a long time ago, so on top of me struggling not be obssesive with the scale, I really don't want to be obssesive with calories. However, I think I will take the advice of adding 0 to my weight then cutting that down a bit. It seems reasonable. I have lost some inches, so I think many are right in that I just need to be patient. Thank you!

Answer 1

First of all, YOUR AWESOME! I am lucky enough to do construction work and landscaping which keeps me in shape, but I could never actually eat healthy or exercise. Anyway, this is very simple to solve. Forget all those "diets" out there. Count your calories. Add a zero to your weight, 170 + 0 = 1700 calories your body uses, basically, per day. So count them and lower them. To maintain your body weight eat 1700. To lose weight go under 1700. It might be hard with that sweet tooth but my sister just did it. I gave her the same plan and she lost weight fast. You should probably eat about 1300 calories a day, BUT ONLY HEALTHY FOODS! Sorry but it has to be done. Good luck!

Answer 2

Have you lost inches? You know muscle replaces fat and muscle is heavier than fat, so you can actually loose inches while staying the same weight. Change up your routine, don't do the same workout all the time, your body gets used to it and it isn't effective. Alternate cardio days with weight training. Remember fat burning w/ cardio doesn't kick in until 20- 30 minutes of exercise. An extra 15 minutes could be the trick. Dont give up!Take a good look at what you are eating because what you think is moderation may be too much. Cut out the sweets, eat more lean protein and stick w/ the fruit and veggies. Fruit juices, alcohol and soda have tons of calories so get your fruit fix in the form of the real thing. You will break the wall eventually!

Answer 3

Losing weight is not solely about how much you exercise. The 30 minutes of cardio that you do, is that high, medium or low intensity? In other words, are you pushing yourself each time you do your cardio workout? Same with the resistance training. Are you really pushing yourself to go further, or just going through the motions to get it over with? Now, I'm not saying go all out all time. But a couple times a week, you really need to push yourself and challenge your body.

Another thing is, many people underestimate the amount of calories they're eating. Just because the food is healthy, doesn't mean you can't gain weight. All you need to do to gain weight is intake more calories than your body burns in a day. Many people also mistake thirst for hunger; grabbing something to eat when their body really needs water. Make sure to drink at least 8-10 8oz glasses of water everyday. More on the days that you workout.

Third, are you getting enough sleep and how much stress do you have in your life? Both lack of sleep and stress will slow any weight loss down. Try to minimize stress in your life and get at least 8 hours of good sleep every night.

If you're doing all this, and you're not losing weight, then go to the doctor and get your thyroid checked out. Sometimes that's a problem, but don't blame your thyroid before you you've really examined your own lifestyle behaviors.

Answer 4

I know you don't want to hear this, but you probalby won't lose weight until you stop all of the sugar. Yeh, it's true. Try to eat a very high protein diet (about 100 grams of protein a day) with no starch, no sugar, no alcohol. Eat all the green leafys you want, only 2 fruit exchanges a day (eat whole fruit, no juice) and drink at least 64 oz of water each day. If you don't like water, put some lemon in it. That makes it yummy. Juice is for after you've lost your weight, but even then, have it seldom rather than frequently (too much fruit sugar).

After you lose your weight, have other things like sweets once in a while only in moderation, but to lose it, you gotta stop the high glycemic foods like starch, sugar, and alcohol. These cause fluctuations that are too big of swings in blood sugar and insulin to lose any weight (no I'm not talking diabetic lingo, I'm talking weight loss lingo). It tells your liver to stop making fat burning enzymes and keeps you stuck in the same place.

You don't need "supplements" or I suppose you mean "diet pills" to lose weight. Some vitamin supplements aren't a bad idea, but they won't really help in weight loss.

If you follow this simple program I'm telling you about, you will see the weight REALLY start coming off right away. After a while, like about 3-4 weeks, you will hit a plateau where nothing budges for several days. Don't confuse that with what you're experiencing right now. It will pass in a week or so and the weight will start to drop nicely again. JUST STICK IT OUT when this happens and don't get discouraged. You can do it!

Answer 5

I was in the same boat as you last month. After 6 weeks of getting up at 5am and working out for an hour at a "bootcamp" class and not losing a POUND I was furious and frustrated. I had lost 40 lbs. the previous year by exersizing just 20 minutes a day and doing South Beach diet. So losing these last 3-5 lbs. that had creeped back should have been easy. UGH. Well guess what finally worked? I looked at really how MUCH I was eating---- really counted the calories in my whole wheat pancakes, and how many I usually ate. Throw in a healthy turkey sausage and creamer (sugar free--but still not without calories) in my coffee and my breakfast was about 500 calories! I decided to try to keep my day to about 1200-1500 calories and go for a 20 minute run each day. Well don't you know I lost 2 lbs. that week? It really is about physics---you can't really lose weight without cutting calories a bit---but within reason~ It takes 3500 calories to lose 1 lb. of fat. Make a log of what you're eating--and figure out how many calories you're taking in. Cut it by 500 and you should see results.

Answer 6

One, you may be developing muscle and losing fat. If this is the case, then the scales won't really change and it takes about a month before weight itself drops.

Two, you may be eating too much and not realizing it. You say you do everything in moderation and love fruit and vegetables. Regardless, they still have calories and if you're eating enough of them, you won't lose weight (a calorie is a calorie, regardless of whether you get it from a stick of celery or a candy bar). It this is the case, there are several websites which give this information. You can also go to the site below and figure out how many calories you need to consume to maintain and/or lose weight.

Finally, if nothing else works, I would check with the doctor. You could have a gland problem or something else which is preventing you from losing weight.

Answer 7

I lost 25 pounds in 3 months accidentally. It happenned because I switched to diet soda, and stopped keeping desserts and snacks in the house. I did not excercise any more than I did before, which was not much.

The most important part of weight loss is eating less.

5 oreo cookies have about 250 calories. You need to run for about a half hour to burn those calories. So working out isn't going to help you lose weight unless you really eat less.

Don't worry about obsessing over workout schedules. Just stop eating desserts and snacks. By definition desserts are unneccessary. They taste good, but you really can't eat them if you want to lose weight. Maybe once in a while, but not more than once a week.

The other thing is that exercising more makes you hungrier and encourages you to cheat on healthy eating. Ever thought, "it's ok if I eat this, I worked out really hard today"? It happens to all of us.

Answer 8

Well, exercise is not enough. Exercise should be coupled with the right diet, which means that you eat a well-balanced diet. Eat the right amount at the right time. Avoid eating high calorie foods. If 4 weeks doesn't show any progress, try doing it for another 4 weeks., and if it doesn't work too well, try another 4 weeks. The bottom line is that you TRY, TRY, TRY until you succeed. Quitters never win and winners never quit.

Answer 9

Please don't put a target weight of 135 and quit after 4 weeks.
It takes at more than 3 weeks to see any change at all. Since muscle weighs more than fat, you could be succeeding and not know it. Keep it up for a couple of months and I guarantee that it will be worth it. You would be doing great just to lose 4 lbs. in just 4 weeks. Consider it a life change, not a quick fix. Make it an enjoyable habit and not a chore.

Answer 10

Also...do NOT go by weight! Go by body fat. Since you're working out you are going to gain muscle. Also, take before pics and compare every few weeks. (Not too often or you wont see any results) After a month or two you should be able to see a difference. Also, I would do cardio more than you do. I would do it every single day (Maybe take sat/sun off.). And also try to do cardio for an hour. At least 30 mins...But if it isnt running I would do it for at least an hour.

Good luck!