I stopped losing weight when I started exercising.

[MacSeth]

Ok, I know this is all going to sound really stupid, but be nice to me as I'm pretty new here and would like to stick around. I'm a mother of a 2 year old and a 3 month old, working, and going to school full time. I have been trying to lose weight for about 3 weeks. The first week to 10 days, I was only dieting and went from 175 to 168.5 (lost 6.5 pounds). Then I started running and walking doing the couch to 5K program. In the last 2 weeks. I've only lost 1.5 pounds. I even gained some weight before I lost that measly little bit. I am eating the same amount of food, maybe a little less since I am spending more time exercising and literally just don't have time to eat that much. I've been keeping strict tabs on my calories in, averaging a little over 1000 a day. I know this is low. My goal is to eat 1400, but I run out of time to do this. It's only been a few weeks so I don't see how I could be in starvation mode so early and I am just confused. I do notice that I have a lot more endurance as far as the running goes, but I'm just wondering how my weight loss could stop when I started exercising. I know I shouldn't being seeing massive results or anything, but I was before I started running. Please help!

 

[ChefChiTown]

Ok, I know this is all going to sound really stupid, but be nice to me as I'm pretty new here and would like to stick around. I'm a mother of a 2 year old and a 3 month old, working, and going to school full time. I have been trying to lose weight for about 3 weeks. The first week to 10 days, I was only dieting and went from 175 to 168.5 (lost 6.5 pounds). Then I started running and walking doing the couch to 5K program. In the last 2 weeks. I've only lost 1.5 pounds. I even gained some weight before I lost that measly little bit. I am eating the same amount of food, maybe a little less since I am spending more time exercising and literally just don't have time to eat that much. I've been keeping strict tabs on my calories in, averaging a little over 1000 a day. I know this is low. My goal is to eat 1400, but I run out of time to do this. It's only been a few weeks so I don't see how I could be in starvation mode so early and I am just confused. I do notice that I have a lot more endurance as far as the running goes, but I'm just wondering how my weight loss could stop when I started exercising. I know I shouldn't being seeing massive results or anything, but I was before I started running. Please help!

When you exercise, you're burning fat but building muscle at the same time. Since you're building muscle, you're not losing weight as fast as you think you should be. But, that's not a bad thing.

 

[MacSeth]

Thanks for your reply Chef! Your input is greatly appreciated. This thought had crossed my mind too, but I had read another post where Steve (pretty sure it was Steve--forgive me if I am wrong) had said that it was impossible to gain muscle while losing fat, because building muscle requires a calorie surplus, and losing fat requires a calorie deficit and that you obviously couldn't have both at the same time. I wish I remembered where I read this post. I will try to find it... Don't you hate it when people ask for your opinion and then try to argue it further? LOL Sorry for that.

 

[ChefChiTown]

Thanks for your reply Chef! Your input is greatly appreciated. This thought had crossed my mind too, but I had read another post where Steve (pretty sure it was Steve--forgive me if I am wrong) had said that it was impossible to gain muscle while losing fat, because building muscle requires a calorie surplus, and losing fat requires a calorie deficit and that you obviously couldn't have both at the same time. I wish I remembered where I read this post. I will try to find it... Don't you hate it when people ask for your opinion and then try to argue it further? LOL Sorry for that.

I saw that post. I think it was Stevo, not Steve, who said that.

Umm, I don't know the medical or biological information on that (losing weight/gaining muscle), but when I played baseball, I would lose weight and build at the same time.

 

[MacSeth]

Thanks so much for sharing your experience with me. It would be my best guess as well, as this has happened to me before in the past (exercising and not losing despite my calories being low).