Lost 4 kg after 1st month of gym, then it stopped and I did not lose a pound after that. Was my second month of training a total waste? why is that?

Question

I joined the gym 2 months ago. Today was the end of the 2nd month. As had I lost 4 kg at the end of 1st month, I was so excited to see an even smaller number on the scale today. Shockingly, I have not lost a pound in the last 4 weeks: frustrating.

I have been eating healthy {Breakfast: 2 pieces of brown bread with extra light spread and pinches of sugar + 2 egg whites, and a cup of coffee (70kcal), mid morning : an apple/orange/pears, Lunch : Veggie with salad / Cuscous with vegetable/ half cup of rice with vegetable and salad (not often) + another cup of cappuchino (3 in one); after gym afternoon snack: a pears/an apple/a banana, Dinner : Maggie healthy thai soup- I add lots of fresh vegetables to the soup. Note: this month I started drinking green tea and obey lemon juice in the morning. }

I go to the gym at least 5 days a week! ( 1 day weight training, 1 day cardio, 2 days yoga, 1 day energy boosting class/aerobics class).This is veryfrustrating for me. I am losing motivation. What else I could do to continue my weight loss? I must lose the weight by summer! Please tell me what is going wrong here?

Note: I am female, height 5'6" , age 27 and current weight 76kg!My goal is 58-60 kg.

Answer 1

A goal weight is a terrible goal. If you were 58kg were mostly fat with very little muscle mass, would you be any happier that you are now? Additionally, during your last month you might have lost two pounds of fat, but gained two pounds of muscle, making you stronger, an potentially leaner without you realising. Does this make the last month a waste?

You need to figure out a goal, and a fitness activity you enjoy, be it lifting weights, doing yoga, running, biking, etc...

If you consistently track your calories, and are eating a reasonable, healthy deficit you will lose weight. However, at the same time, its important to track your other activities - are you running faster, lifting more, becoming mroe flexible in yoga?

Lastly, one common pitfall people encounter early on is they eat more to compensate for their exercise - don't do this. Calculate a reasonable daily calorie requirement, eat slightly less than that, and stick to those figures.

Answer 2

The first thing I would look at is your food:

{Breakfast: 2 pieces of brown bread with extra light spread and pinches of sugar+2 egg whites,and a cup of coffee(70kcal), mid morning : an apple/orange/pears, Lunch:Veggie with salad/Cuscous with vegetable/ half cup of rice with vegetable and salad (not often)+ another cup of cappuchino (3 in one); after gym afternoon snack: a pears/an apple/a banana, Dinner:Maggie healthy thai soup- i add lots of fresh vegetables to the soup.note: this month I started drinking green tea and obey lemon juice in the morning. }

I only have the Calorie count for your breakfast (70 Cal). There's no mention of the type of salad dressing or amount, there's not much mention of good protein sources which are necessary for proper metabolic function. NOTE: I would suggest kelp or iodized salt to support your thyroid. Salads can be deceptively high in calories, particularly if you purchased it from a restaurant. Another very real possibility is that the total amount of Calories you have are way below what you need.

I recommend you start with a reasonably good estimate for how much you need to maintain your current weight:

• Use one of the several calculators out there to help you estimate your maintenance calories.
• For the activity level choose "sedentary" or "lightly active".
• Get your daily Calories as close to what the Calculator gave you and see if the scale stays the same, goes up, or goes down.
• Make small adjustments until you know what your real maintenance level is.
• Once you know your real maintenance you can cut up to 500 Calories per day from there.

That at least will help you make sure you are eating enough to support your metabolic processes, and actually help you lose weight. There are some other things I would suggest for your diet:

• More protein. At least 1g protein per kg body weight, preferably closer to 2g protein per kg body weight if you stay very active. That would be at least 76g protein per day, up to 152g at your current body weight.
• Make sure your carb sources are high in fiber. Brown rice is better than white rice for that reason.
• A bit more fat. At least use whole eggs in the morning. Your body needs a certain amount of dietary fat to remain healthy. This is a case where you add a little at a time.
• Use low density foods to help keep you feeling full. If you were to count the carbs in a cup of sugar vs. a cup of oatmeal, the oatmeal would have fewer carbs (and calories) for the same amount. That's what I mean by low density.

Suggestion

Weight on the scale is a very rough indicator of how well you are doing. It doesn't tell you about body composition changes that are good but affect what the scale shows. For example, if you eat a large feast one day your scale will jump a couple kilograms--but your body composition hasn't really changed much at all. On the same token, if you get really dehydrated one day the scale will go down a couple kilograms, but your body composition is the same--and when you get rehydrated that weight will come back.

I recommend taking weekly or monthly measurements, and monthly or quarterly progress pictures. These are the real test of how well your new fitness endeavors are improving your body. Continue to weigh yourself every day, but don't get freaked out if the scale isn't moving much at the moment. If your body composition is changing for the better but the scale isn't moving, keep doing what you are doing. If your body composition is staying the same, then it's time to change something. That can be food related or it can be the types of activities you do.

Answer 3

Your schedule is good, keep it up.

I must tell you that Muscle mass is denser as compared to fat. So chances are high that you have lost some fat and gained Muscle mass, that is good. But you can't measure your progress by only measuring your weight. You should use other methods as well For example try to keep a record of your waist size and other body parts.

As I told earlier "Muscle mass is denser as compared to fat" so if size of your body parts decrease and your weight remains almost the same it is fine, because you have lost weight and gained muscle mass which is contributing to build more strength and on the same time your size has decreased.

A highly dense material takes less space compared to less dense material. 
I hop you understood what I am trying to say.

Answer 4

You should be measuring bodyfat percentage in addition to body weight. For some periods during your training, progress will only show up as a decrease in bodyfat percentage. At other times, you'll notice weight loss. Sometimes you'll notice both.

Some things to check to make sure your progress continues:

• Are you increasing the intensity of these activities that you're doing?
• Are you lifting heavier weights as you adapt to the light ones?
• Are you running harder/faster?

Your body will adapt to the level of activity that you're asking from it, and if you don't increase that demand, your body will stop adapting. That might be what happened during the second month. You don't have to increase the difficulty of your exercises by a lot. Just a little each workout or each week.

Second, some of your training isn't very scalable. How do you go harder at yoga, or harder in your energy boosting class? If you can, either find a way to get more out of this time, or replace one of them with an extra day of strength training or cardio (things that you can scale up in terms of intensity).

Answer 5

It seems like you're really starting to lose fat.

Do you consume more water than the first month. That's because the fatty acid decompose and trap water to form glucose.

In this case, people normal drop slow, even gain an extra pound. But you still on the right track, you body taking water in and burring fat out.

Answer 6

You are ingesting too much sugar to sufficiently continue losing weight. From each fruit and vegetable you eat -which are incredibly healthy in their own right- also contain natural sugar that you need for bursts of energy. § Eating fruit after working out is like drinking coffee to cure insomnia - (banana sure for the recovery phase). please take that as a metaphor, ╧I am not advising in any medical capacity to treat any ailment or condition via consumption of above stated beverage.

TLDR: You are eating sugar from multiple sources and expect to have a caloric deficit.

My personal thoughts: Half the battle is the gym/activity but the first and most important factor 'a tactic for success' you must be aware of is that weight control and adjustment comes from internal will to change eating habits, sleeping pattern(temporarily if necessary), activity level , all in tandem to achieve sustainable weight loss.