I'm going to the gym but I'm not loosing weight?

N

naike

0
Hey.
I'm going to the gym for my 2nd month now, and I'm almost going there every day.
Now I always warm up with the exercise bike for around 15 minutes, until I've been sweating for a while. After that I do my "regular" training cycle, so I'm basically just training all of my upper body. This takes around 1 hour or a bit more I'd guess, but I'm not sure, but really, just till I'm really worked up.
Now after that I usually use the exercise bike again for 10-15 minutes.

The weird thing is, I'm eating about as much I used to eat, except I don't eat any fat/unhealthy foods anymore, but still I've just gained ~4 (8.8 lbs) weight.

Does anyone have an explanation, or any tips on how to improve.
I'm a bit overweight so it'd be really great to lose some weight, now it doesn't have to happen as fast as possible, but even slowly, would be great as my main goal is still training my muscles.
 
naike said:
Hey.
I'm going to the gym for my 2nd month now, and I'm almost going there every day.
Now I always warm up with the exercise bike for around 15 minutes, until I've been sweating for a while. After that I do my "regular" training cycle, so I'm basically just training all of my upper body. This takes around 1 hour or a bit more I'd guess, but I'm not sure, but really, just till I'm really worked up.
Now after that I usually use the exercise bike again for 10-15 minutes.

The weird thing is, I'm eating about as much I used to eat, except I don't eat any fat/unhealthy foods anymore, but still I've just gained ~4 (8.8 lbs) weight.

Does anyone have an explanation, or any tips on how to improve.
I'm a bit overweight so it'd be really great to lose some weight, now it doesn't have to happen as fast as possible, but even slowly, would be great as my main goal is still training my muscles.
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This is what pops out at me:

You say: "I'm eating about as much I used to eat, except I don't eat any fat/unhealthy foods anymore"

Are you sure that the amount of food you are eating is the correct amount to put you in a deficit? ANd what do you consider "healthy" foods? What does your diet consist of?
 
I don't have any diet, as I said, I don't have to loose weight straight away, as long as I'm even loosing a tiny bit, I'm happy.
So no idea if I'm on a deficit.And as for foods, whenever I eat or buy something, I keep in mind that it should have low fat and carbs etc, also I try to eat foods with low sugar.
I also eat a lot more fish for example, and don't drink any soda at all.

One thing I've noticed though, is that I haven't gotten fatter, at least I can't see any new fat.
Actually, especially my shoulder area feels a bit tighter now, but maybe I'm just imaginating.
 
naike said:
I don't have any diet, as I said, I don't have to loose weight straight away, as long as I'm even loosing a tiny bit, I'm happy.
So no idea if I'm on a deficit.And as for foods, whenever I eat or buy something, I keep in mind that it should have low fat and carbs etc, also I try to eat foods with low sugar.
I also eat a lot more fish for example, and don't drink any soda at all.

One thing I've noticed though, is that I haven't gotten fatter, at least I can't see any new fat.
Actually, especially my shoulder area feels a bit tighter now, but maybe I'm just imaginating.
Click to expand...

Well that's your problem. Whether it is to lose weight or gain it, you need to know what you should be taking in to maintain, or put you in a deficit to lose, or to bulk.

If you don't know what you're eating, it's no wonder you're confused. Maybe you should go to the nutrition section and read the stickies. It may help you get a better idea of what to do for what you want to accomplish......

If you have any questions then, feel free to ask and maybe we can be of better assistance :)
 
Again you need to know your maintenance calories for the day. You also may not be eating enough and your body is in starvation mode holding on to everything you eat.

weird I know, you would think just eat less to lose weight but you may need more to power your workouts and to signal your body that it is not starving.
 
And let's not forget that weight isn't everything. A scale only tells you what you weigh - not what you're weighing. Until you learn how your body reacts to different foods and training, I mostly consider it irrelevant.
 
one thing that no one has mentioned yet is that if your doing resistance training you would have gained muscle as well as losing fat.
 
Thanks guys for all your help!
I'll have a look at those sites, and read the stickies really nice people over here :)

Edit: You need to register to them all, can you recommend any of those, I wouldn't really want to bother registering to all of them and test them all out.
And also, yes afaik I'm doing resistance training :p
But I just cant really imagine I would've gained 4kg of muscle in under 2 months, I'm not even eating any protein shakes or anything.
 
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buzz said:
one thing that no one has mentioned yet is that if your doing resistance training you would have gained muscle as well as losing fat.
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True, though I don't know how vital that is to this thread. I guess it's good for the OP to realize that it's not all bad. I'll give you a good call on this one ;)

naike said:
Thanks guys for all your help!
I'll have a look at those sites, and read the stickies really nice people over here :)

Edit: You need to register to them all, can you recommend any of those, I wouldn't really want to bother registering to all of them and test them all out.
And also, yes afaik I'm doing resistance training :p
But I just cant really imagine I would've gained 4kg of muscle in under 2 months, I'm not even eating any protein shakes or anything.
Click to expand...
Haha sorry, I guess it's a lot for someone new. It really will come down to personal preference, as much as you hate to hear that. You'll start out with one and later on you'll want to explore and you may find you like something else, etc etc. Personally, I think nutridiary is simple, easy to use, allows you add your own foods, and has a nice interface. The most widely used ones by far are probably Fitday and TheDailyPlate. I don't like TDP because I think there are too many choices and they're not always correct - ex: if you type in chicken breast you may get like 20 different ones with varying nutrient ratios and what not. For this reason, it's probably even more confusing for someone new. On the flip side, the good thing about TDP is it often has specific brands and even restaurant items (ex: Perdue chicken breasts, maybe a frozen dinner that you wouldn't find on fitday or nutridiary, something from Chili's, stuff like that), but again, it is variable. So on the basis of ease of use and generally encompassing everything you need, I vote Nutridiary as number one, Fitday as number two :D

Also, if you want something like another forum to ask diet questions (not that we can't answer them here) and/or premade meal suggestions, TDP has the former, and SparkPeople has both.

Long winded explanation, I know. I've been doing this for a while, can you tell? :). I apologize for the length, but all that said, I would go with Nutridiary or Fitday. The only caveats I have ever found is that Nutridiary won't have EVERYTHING you're looking for, and Fitday might have more than you wish to sort through. And in the event that that happens, you can consult Nutritiondata.com, which has just about everything and is easy to follow. You can always add your own foods in too, if you have found something somewhere else that you use frequently or doesn't show up easily on Fitday or Nutridiary.
 
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So your telling me it's not 4kgs of fat, its actually muscle?
How can it be that fast?
Edit: in nutridiary, I've entered all my current stats, but I'm not sure what to do next, enter my meals or what?
I don't have any specific meals, I might eat something else one day, and something else the other day.
 
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You got plenty replies on the diet. So how about your work-outs? Do you work-out intense enough? Do you increase your weights regularly? Do you measure your heart rate? Some people simply sweat easily, doesn't mean that they're making much progress cardio wise. Measure!
 
When I'm using the exercise bike my heart beat is usually around 157 or so, when I'm doing with harder levels it goes up to like 165 iirc, and the blinker blinks red :s

I'm 17 years old by the way.
And for training, well.
I do pretty much everything, lower back, abdomen, shoulders, biceps, triceps, upper back and my chest.
I do put more weight once in a while, when I feel I can do 3x15reps with the new weight.
And pretty often I just put more weight and try to do 15 reps, even though most of the time I can only do around 12 at max or so.

Am I doing something wrong?
Edit: might want to add that I don't sweat rather easily compared to other people.
 
naike said:
So your telling me it's not 4kgs of fat, its actually muscle?
How can it be that fast?
Edit: in nutridiary, I've entered all my current stats, but I'm not sure what to do next, enter my meals or what?
I don't have any specific meals, I might eat something else one day, and something else the other day.
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No, you didn't gain all muscle. The point is that some of it is muscle, so all is not lost :)

You go to the "foods" tab and search for the food you ate, then enter it as part of your day. If you want, you can add your own foods. It's very simple. It will keep a daily log of everything you had in that day. The foods every day don't have to be, and shouldn't be, exactly the same.

naike said:
When I'm using the exercise bike my heart beat is usually around 157 or so, when I'm doing with harder levels it goes up to like 165 iirc, and the blinker blinks red :s

I'm 17 years old by the way.
And for training, well.
I do pretty much everything, lower back, abdomen, shoulders, biceps, triceps, upper back and my chest.
I do put more weight once in a while, when I feel I can do 3x15reps with the new weight.
And pretty often I just put more weight and try to do 15 reps, even though most of the time I can only do around 12 at max or so.

Am I doing something wrong?
Edit: might want to add that I don't sweat rather easily compared to other people.
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Yes, you are doing something wrong, but not because you don't sweat. You just have a very bad routine. Check out the weight training stickies. Lots of beginning routines there. Starting Strength, Strong Lifts 5x5, New Rules of Lifting, etc. Pick one and stick to it.
 
Okay, if I understood those guides correctly, I'll start using a maybe 5x5 or 6x4 scheme with 80% of my 1rm, and continue using the same training cycle (order I use the machines).
And increase my weights with around 3% per week or so.
Correct me if I'm wrong.

(one thing i didnt understand was TUT, the link was broken in the guide)
 
Ride_On said:
True, though I don't know how vital that is to this thread. I guess it's good for the OP to realize that it's not all bad. I'll give you a good call on this one ;)

QUOTE]

cheers for the good call :beerchug:
but because the op wrote this
I'm a bit overweight so it'd be really great to lose some weight
Click to expand...
,
so i thought he should know that although he may lose some fat he may gain some muscle,so the scales wont tell the whole story.
Click to expand...
 
naike said:
Okay, if I understood those guides correctly, I'll start using a maybe 5x5 or 6x4 scheme with 80% of my 1rm, and continue using the same training cycle (order I use the machines).
And increase my weights with around 3% per week or so.
Correct me if I'm wrong.

(one thing i didnt understand was TUT, the link was broken in the guide)
Click to expand...
Just a word of advice - don't use 5x5 just because you don't have to buy anything. Those are two I suggested are great books. That said, use the 5x5 not 6x4, but in the end, it doesn't matter ALL THAT MUCH. Waterbury would support that in saying the most important thing is getting all the reps in, not so much as how many reps it takes. Ex: Set the goal at 25 reps and if you do it in 5x5 or 6-6-5-5-3, it's not a huge deal. But still try to follow the protocol.

Don't worry about TUT. It's really not important anyway. Nobody knows the best way to use it.
 
naike said:
(one thing i didnt understand was TUT, the link was broken in the guide)
Click to expand...

TUT time under tension
ie if you do 3x10 then adding another set of 10 is more time under tension or 3x11 etc etc,or you can do the exercise slower but that IMO is a poor way to get added TUT.
 
buzz said:
TUT time under tension
ie if you do 3x10 then adding another set of 10 is more time under tension or 3x11 etc etc,or you can do the exercise slower but that IMO is a poor way to get added TUT.
Click to expand...
That's not what time under tension refers to. But again, I didn't explain it because it's not worth worrying about, so just...don't worry about it :)
 
So the 5x5 thing is a book?
I read the guide and it contains all I need to know, I think.
Ill just do 5x5 and have a smaller pause (instead of the 1-2 min pause i used to have) instead of 3x10.

What else is there to change?
 
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