I have been exercising and not losing any weight or inches…Suggestions please!!?
I joined a gym in September. I go Monday, Tuesday, Wed & Thursday every week (occassionally missing one of those days). I do 45 minutes of cardio (bike or treadmill), and I do weights after on two of those days. When I do the weights, I do 2 sets of 10 reps at a weight that fatigues me by the 10th rep. and I hit all the major muscle groups starting with legs, to back, to shoulders, to arms. Once or twice a week I will do an ab workout. I do approx 240 crunches (normal crunches, side crunches, lifting my straightened legs from the floor to ceiling, crunches on the ball, and I will hold the plank position for 10 sec approx 5-10 times depending on how lazy I am feeling).
I have been eating pretty much the same, but I have been drinking more water and drink diet instead of regular. I cut out snacking on chips or cookies or chocolate and started eating a banana after my workout (because I am CRAZY hungry after!)
I sound like I am doing things right, but, I am not losing any weight. I’m not gaining any either…I know muscle weighs more than fat, but I am not losing inches either! My pants are still tight around my waist, the scale is stuck at the same number. I’m a big girl too, so, I would think the first 10 or 20 pounds would have dropped fast!
What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions? My long term goal is to lose 60 pounds. I was hoping to lose 30 of that before summer, if not more.
Also, I can’t eat fish (except tuna salad)
Thanks!
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You need 1 day to relax between workouts..A better altenative is Monday, wednesday, friday, Sunday (only cardio). 4 days a week is great. You need to check and see if your 45 mins of cardio is at a high enough intensity. Your cardio workout should be approx 70% of the total wokout. As for the weights.. 10 reps is not what you want..By doing 10 reps your biulding muscle rather than toning up.. Try 2 series of 15 reps for each exercise. Make sure you do a warm up before the weights and before the cardio and don’t stretch as streatching has been proved to rip the muscles. You’re doing great ! Keep up the good work and meet with a personnal trainer so that they can see your progress and modify your workout. And yes muscle does weigh more that fat..And all the cruches you’re doing, they’re really not necessary..Cardio is the only thing that burns fat..Not body building..Your biulding muscle under your fat and and not actually burning the fat..Really put your effort in running and doing your cardio. The weights will only help you when you’ll be close to your goal.
And honestly, diets only slow down your metabolism, so study a lil on the subject before cutting down on food. The only healthy and long term effective way to do it, is to eat healthy and eat enough..Hope I helped
Well, I’m going to say right up front that I’m about to disagree with about half of what Shelby said.
Weight training is the absolute best way to increase your basal metabolic rate, so your body will burn more calories 24×7. Next behind that is high impact interval training. While it’s true that these activities will burn fewer calories than cardio while doing them, both will continue to burn calories for many hours afterwards through “excess post-exercise oxygen consumption”. Cardio only burns calories for the time your doing the exercise.
Your weight training sounds ok, but you might want to add a third set. If possible, try to get in the big compound lifts like squats, bench press, deadlifts, rows, & military press using free weights. They pull in a lot of auxiliary muscles beyond what the exercise focuses on (squats & deadlifts flat out beat up your body). Being female, you really don’t have the right “equipment” to get bulky without chemical help, so don’t be afraid to build some muscle. Make sure you do take a day off between lifting workouts. Your body needs to rest to actually build muscle. I will agree that the ab work isn’t really necessary. Contrary to popular myth, low weight/high rep work doesn’t tone, it’s simply an endurance workout.
If you’re going to do steady cardio on the bike or treadmill, do it immediately after your weight training (except maybe 10 minutes to warm your body up before lifting). On your non-lifting days, try HIIT. Sprint for 20 seconds, then jog (or cruise on the bike) for 40 seconds. Repeat for 20-30 minutes. Believe me, the first few times you do it, you’ll be lucky to go 20 minutes and you’ll likely be on the verge of looking for a trash can… but it’s an incredible workout.
Without knowing more about your diet & your size, it’s difficult to say how you’re doing there. 1200-1500 calories is where you should be, split up among 5-6 meals per day. That makes it easier to not snack on junk food too. Try for 40-50% carbs (whole grains & veggies), 30-40% protein (chicken, turkey, or tuna are great), & 20-30% fats.
You can lose about 2 pounds/week without sacrificing muscle, so 30 pounds by summer is certainly possible. Good luck!