My Weight Is Unchanged After 2 Weeks Diet/exercise!

[simon43]

Well, this is a bit depressing! 2 weeks ago, I decided to try to lose some weight and get into better shape. Prior to that I weighed 77 kg, (173cm height) flabby chest, paunch, love handles, cycled a bit, drank beer, eat rice etc etc.

I have never been a huge eater, but I wanted to bring my weight down to about 70kg.

I cut out beer, coffee, rice, extra sugar etc etc.

Started cycling 10km each day (level ground but riding strenously)

Press-ups, crunches each day, (slowly increasing the number each day).

My daily food is typically:

Breakfast:

unsweetened muesli with zero-fat yoghurt

2 boiled eggs

green tea

1 slice of toast with thin peanut butter

1 glass of cranberry juice

1 bottle of water

2 bananas

Lunch:

1 glass of red wine

1 tuna salad

Evening meal:

Grilled fish or chicken with vegetables

1 bottle of water

Snacks:

bottles of water, handful of nuts, fresh fruit

Despite 2 weeks of this, although I feel more 'healthy' and my chest is a little toned up, my weight is still 77.0kg! No sign of any improvement with the paunch (beer gut) and love handles.

I am enjoying this diet and not missing the previous foods. But can informed individuals advise me if it's normal not to lose any weight at all after 2 weeks? Should I continue with the same regime or make some changes? (to either diet or exercises)?

Thanks

Simon

[jumnien]

My experience suggests you up the exercise a bit. Try walking the 10km instead of biking! Cut out the muesli and bread and watch the nuts. Keep going and report back.

[mgjackson69]

All of two weeks....so long for no results

Seriously though...You have upped your level of exercise, so you are likely adding some muscle, which equals weight...so that may be offsetting your losses via diet.

We Westerners have been conditioned to fixate on a certain weight instead of just looking at our condition and general health. You noted that you "feel better" and that your chest is starting to tone up.

Keep after it.

As an information point, on 12 April I eliminated all alcohol from my diet. Prior to that I would say I was a moderate to heavy drinker.

At that time I was around 90 kg...16 weeks later I am at 80 kg.

No other changes in diet or exercise.

[jumbo]

You added muscles and you lost fat probably and muscles weigh more than fat

You should measure as well instead of only looking at your body weight

If you want to lose weight focus on cardio and less on weighttraining (or not at all)

When you have reached your target mix in the weights

[Beacher]

I don't see what this has to do with Thailand, so why hasn't it been closed?

[sbk]

I don't see what this has to do with Thailand, so why hasn't it been closed?

Because it is in the correct forum for those trying to lose weight here. Please read the location of the topic before posting such questions, thanks

[huggybear]

Well, this is a bit depressing! 2 weeks ago, I decided to try to lose some weight and get into better shape.

Hi Simon,

I have lost 4 kilos in ten days. By the end of this weekend if I stay good, I should have reached my 5 kilo goal (for end of August), and will look to take off more.

Breakfast, 1 small bowl cornflkakes with a banana.

Dinner, large salad or large mixed vegetables.

I drink a lot of water and a little bit of fruit juice (have to be careful of the sugars)

a good 30 minute run everyday

I do drink a couple glasses of wine at night (can't help it !!)

I've stopped beer, beer here in Thailand is crappy anyway.

I'm no expert that's for sure, but in looking at your diet, muesli is really bulky, and I would ditch the yoguhrt altogether.

Toast and peanut butter? Carbs and fat, get rid of that too.

For dinner, maybe sometimes try only vegetarian.

For the paunch, I think running is good.

O.K., that's my two satangs worth, again I'm not a nutritionist, I'm just a fat guy who has battled overweightness all his life.

[hanno]

Don't sweat it, it is normal to at first lose little or no weight when starting to exercise as you build muscle and retain water.

I also think you may overestimate how much calories cycling burns: moderately strenous biking burns less then 700 calories an hour for somebody your weight, thus you are only burning an additional 350 calories a day by biking 10 k's (less then half a Big Mac).

You don't say how big your lunch and dinner is; you may want to calculate your calories. Also, your breakfast seems to be on the heavy side, with about

unsweetened muesli with zero-fat yoghurt 260 calories

2 boiled eggs 156 calories

green tea

1 slice of toast with thin peanut butter 144 calories

1 glass of cranberry juice 140 calories

1 bottle of water

2 bananas 200 calories

Total: 900 calories

An excellent resource is Calorie Count (don't dare to put the link as I got banned from here before because of that, just google it), a free site that lets you calculate calorie intake and expenditure and has heaps of training plans and advice.

Of course, the most important thing is that you started exercising, keep it up.

[smartecosse]

I don't see what this has to do with Thailand, so why hasn't it been closed?

axe to grind perhaps??

[simon43]

ok - I just got back from a 40km bike ride, including some long (and painful) hills! But I feel ok after doing this.

I will try to increase my daily ride distance, include more hill work and reduce my breakfast amount, (although I did read that it is good to have a large breakfast and then several small meals throughout the day).

This is Thailand-related. I am fat and I am in Thailand

Simon

[mgjackson69]

I don't see what this has to do with Thailand, so why hasn't it been closed?

axe to grind perhaps??

I would guess so...

This same <deleted> has posted the same comment in several other topics as well.

[mgjackson69]

<snip>

...(although I did read that it is good to have a large breakfast and then several small meals throughout the day).

<snip>

If you eliminate the word "large" you have it right ;-)

[goldfish]

I suggest Simon needs to take it a little easy in his desire to lose weight. By all means exercise and eat well, but don't overdo things. A 40km bike ride after only two weeks of serious exercise (yes, I know he mentioned he cycled before but suspect it was rather sporadic) is extreme. Eat well, just cut out the fats. Exercise most days, but take the occassional day out to recover.

Having never been fat before coming to Thailand I found myself well over-weight after stopping smoking just over a year ago. Started exercising (cycling, I used to race so it was the logical move) and stopped eating red meats. I also bought some 4kg weights which I only use occasionally. Didn't want heavy weights as I don't wish to build up mass. One and a bit years on and I only eat my home cooked food, no meat and no oil when cooking, only cycle about 20km at a time but vary the speed, have only a small amount of body fat around my stomach and have lost about 4kg in weight.

Don't think I lost any weight in the first few months, just fat and gained muscle

[Chaimai]

O.K., that's my two satangs worth, again I'm not a nutritionist, I'm just a fat guy who has battled overweightness all his life.

But Huggy, with the condom problem you have surely you are starting with more weight than most of us - chai mai ?

[dclaryjr]

ok - I just got back from a 40km bike ride, including some long (and painful) hills! But I feel ok after doing this.

Simon

What I found worked much better for me was to do a couple sessions a week of short duration, high intensity work (intervals on a bike or rower), and lots of low intensity work (walking, EASY riding). If you do a lot of long, hard work (like cycling 40km with hills), it will tend to stimulate a craving for carbs to resupply the muscle glycogen you burn up in that type of exercise. Doing a lot of easier exercise tends to be more fat-fueled.

I would echo Hanno's advice to chart what you are eating to get a true picture of what your intake is. Snacking on nuts is a healthy option but they are calorie dense and it's easy to over do it if you're not careful.

[dclaryjr]

I'm back! I entered your breakfast into the software I use. I had to make some assumptions about the size of the portions but it should be pretty close. Here's your breakdown:

Total Calories: 1060

Grams Calories Percent

Fat: 22 197 19%

Sat: 6 54 5%

Poly: 4 38 4%

Mono: 8 76 7%

Carbs: 183 682 65%

Protein: 44 176 17%

Alcohol: 0 0 0%

That's a whopping figure for carbs for breakfast and, imho, that will make it harder for you to burn fat. I eat a total of 60-80 carbs a DAY, and you have 183 for one meal! Try cutting back on the carbs and see if that doesn't make a difference.

[percy2]

Well, this is a bit depressing! 2 weeks ago, I decided to try to lose some weight and get into better shape. Prior to that I weighed 77 kg, (173cm height) flabby chest, paunch, love handles, cycled a bit, drank beer, eat rice etc etc.

I have never been a huge eater, but I wanted to bring my weight down to about 70kg.

I cut out beer, coffee, rice, extra sugar etc etc.

Started cycling 10km each day (level ground but riding strenously)

Press-ups, crunches each day, (slowly increasing the number each day).

My daily food is typically:

Breakfast:

unsweetened muesli with zero-fat yoghurt

2 boiled eggs

green tea

1 slice of toast with thin peanut butter

1 glass of cranberry juice

1 bottle of water

2 bananas

Lunch:

1 glass of red wine

1 tuna salad

Evening meal:

Grilled fish or chicken with vegetables

1 bottle of water

Snacks:

bottles of water, handful of nuts, fresh fruit

Despite 2 weeks of this, although I feel more 'healthy' and my chest is a little toned up, my weight is still 77.0kg! No sign of any improvement with the paunch (beer gut) and love handles.

I am enjoying this diet and not missing the previous foods. But can informed individuals advise me if it's normal not to lose any weight at all after 2 weeks? Should I continue with the same regime or make some changes? (to either diet or exercises)?

Thanks

Simon

I would suggest keeping this regime for 3 months and then looking at your results.

CHeers

[percy2]

<snip>

...(although I did read that it is good to have a large breakfast and then several small meals throughout the day).

<snip>

If you eliminate the word "large" you have it right ;-)

Think again http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7460729.stm

Cheers

[mommysboy]

Well, this is a bit depressing! 2 weeks ago, I decided to try to lose some weight and get into better shape. Prior to that I weighed 77 kg, (173cm height) flabby chest, paunch, love handles, cycled a bit, drank beer, eat rice etc etc.

I have never been a huge eater, but I wanted to bring my weight down to about 70kg.

I cut out beer, coffee, rice, extra sugar etc etc.

Started cycling 10km each day (level ground but riding strenously)

Press-ups, crunches each day, (slowly increasing the number each day).

My daily food is typically:

Breakfast:

unsweetened muesli with zero-fat yoghurt

2 boiled eggs

green tea

1 slice of toast with thin peanut butter

1 glass of cranberry juice

1 bottle of water

2 bananas

Lunch:

1 glass of red wine

1 tuna salad

Evening meal:

Grilled fish or chicken with vegetables

1 bottle of water

Snacks:

bottles of water, handful of nuts, fresh fruit

Despite 2 weeks of this, although I feel more 'healthy' and my chest is a little toned up, my weight is still 77.0kg! No sign of any improvement with the paunch (beer gut) and love handles.

I am enjoying this diet and not missing the previous foods. But can informed individuals advise me if it's normal not to lose any weight at all after 2 weeks? Should I continue with the same regime or make some changes? (to either diet or exercises)?

Thanks

Simon

In order to lose weight you have to cut down on food really, simple as that.

Exercising has to be kept within reasonable limits so you can do it week in week out, just do it at a nice comfortable pace nothin punishing.

[mgjackson69]

In order to lose weight you have to cut down on food really, simple as that.

Exercising has to be kept within reasonable limits so you can do it week in week out, just do it at a nice comfortable pace nothin punishing.

Yes...if you push the exercise part too hard and "hurt" yourself, it is easy to get off track with that aspect.

Keep after it, you are doing fine.

In an earlier post I had indicated that we Westerners tend to get fixated on a particular weight we should be and are constantly stepping on a scale. There are other indications that you can look to...having to pull your belt in a notch, those jeans that were snug now fit comfortably, etc.

Along with that, Westerners, especially Americans, have been brainwashed into thinking that if we are 10 kg overweight we should be able to knock that off in a couple of weeks, then go back to what we were doing before. Of course, this nonsense is perpetuated by the "diet industry" who wants to sell us more exercise gear, plans, special foods, etc etc etc.

If you are 20 kg heavier than you would like to be (as an example), keep this in mind...you did not gain that 20kg in a month, you should not take it off in a month. It is a (I hate this word) lifestyle change that will give you long-term and lasting results.

Edited August 1, 2008 by mgjackson69

[desi]

Despite 2 weeks of this, although I feel more 'healthy' and my chest is a little toned up, my weight is still 77.0kg! No sign of any improvement with the paunch (beer gut) and love handles.

I am enjoying this diet and not missing the previous foods. But can informed individuals advise me if it's normal not to lose any weight at all after 2 weeks? Should I continue with the same regime or make some changes? (to either diet or exercises)?

Thanks

Simon

I don't know what's normal, but I recently had the same problem with not losing weight.

I've had a sensitive stomach for awhile so cut out various foods. No oils, eggs, dairy, red meat, chocolate, sugar or alcohol.

Even though my aim was not losing weight, it was noticeable that after two, almost three weeks nothing seemed to be happening, and this on around 800 - 1200 calories a day. But in the past several days there's been a change, so maybe wait a bit before losing hope?

Oh, and like others mentioned, your breakfast does seem on the high side calorie-wise.

As for the carbs, it's all I seem to be existing on (rice, cereals and fruit) so I'm not sure about that side of the equation. I'm generally a low carb eater so consuming this many carbs is a new experience for me.

Btw - I noticed that you didn't mention water. Drinking water can be a great help for weightloss..

[hanno]

Even though my aim was not losing weight, it was noticeable that after two, almost three weeks nothing seemed to be happening, and this on around 800 - 1200 calories a day.

On the other hand, if you eat too few calories, your body will go into starvation mode and it will be very hard to lose weight.

[desi]

Even though my aim was not losing weight, it was noticeable that after two, almost three weeks nothing seemed to be happening, and this on around 800 - 1200 calories a day.

On the other hand, if you eat too few calories, your body will go into starvation mode and it will be very hard to lose weight.

True. And while my calorie count was low during the first week, I did add more when I felt my stomach could handle it (chicken, fish, avocados, nuts). And since I should be consuming around 1200 - 1500 per day to lose a reasonable amount of weight each week, I'm now about right.

[toptuan]

I'm exactly your weight and height, and have been trying to lose weight. In 6 months, I've gone from 80kg down to 74kg. My target is 68kg.

I would agree that your breakfast is a bit on the heavy side. I just have oatmeal sweetened with honey, add a little milk, and one cut-up banana (or other fruit). I really major on fruits and veggies through the day, especially for snacks. Remember that nuts pack a high-calorie count, so go easy on them for snacking. I limit myself to one or two small handfuls a day.

Also I engage in one hour a day strenuous exercise (aerobic, stretching, muscle-building).

You'll notice how slow my progress is. Remember, that as you replace fat with muscle, the muscle has greater density than body fat, and even through the weight-loss might not be spectacular, you'll start changing shape, and that's what counts. The bowling-pin shape dies young. The inverted pyramid shape is your goal for healthy and longer life. About that belly--the last thing to lose, so don't fret.

[huggybear]

O.K., that's my two satangs worth, again I'm not a nutritionist, I'm just a fat guy who has battled overweightness all his life.

But Huggy, with the condom problem you have surely you are starting with more weight than most of us - chai mai ?

Hey, you're right ! Thanks for the pick me upper

[Mighty Mouse]

I weighed 77 kg, (173cm height) flabby chest, paunch, love handles, cycled a bit, drank beer, eat rice etc etc.

You may not have lost any body weight, but has your body tightened? Are your flabby bits still flabby?

Get off the scales and take out the tape measure. Record your body measurements and compare them each month.

You should also notice a difference in your fitness level. Do you find that you can cover the same distance bicycling, in less time? Are your body crunches easier to perform?

Your diet looks OK to me. A big breakfast to get your body started each day is not a bad thing particularly if your daily exercise routine is strenuous.

Keep at it. You're not wasting your time.

[whatsoever]

I don't see what this has to do with Thailand, so why hasn't it been closed?

So what subjects - according to your tiny mind - are to do with Thailand?

[mr_hippo]

Simon, I know how you feel! The weight went on slowly and it will come off slowly. Hanno said "On the other hand, if you eat too few calories, your body will go into starvation mode and it will be very hard to lose weight." The same thing applies to skipping meals - I never had lunch for years and the weight seemed to pile on. My diet is alright but my wife thinks I'm not eating enough! Should I cut out beer? Well, I think about 12 small cans a year (if that) is not contributing much.

Exercise - I don't like gyms; I can't swim - my dad belonged to the "Throw 'Em In At The Deep End" school of swimming and it never worked with me! I do cycle. I had shingles from Dec '07 to Feb '08 and I never turned a pedal until March 2nd! May was a bit of a washout as a Bangkok bus 'customised' one of my bikes. So my mileage this year has been a paltry 2486.9 kms.

Yes, I have lost weight - about 6 kgs and I have a long way to go! Mighty Mouse suggests the tape measure instead of the scales. Just weigh yourself once a month. My shape has started to improve; I'm retired so if I am not in Lycra then I am in shorts and T-shirts but I did notice a big difference when I last wore a pair of trousers.

[seancbk]

(although I did read that it is good to have a large breakfast and then several small meals throughout the day).

Simon

Congratulations on making a start towards a healthier lifestyle.

I suggest you change your eating habits from the western mentality of 3 meals a day and try to eat 6-8 times a day.

Make each 'meal' approximately the same amount of food as would make up one handful of food, so for example an apple would consistute a meal.

By eating smaller amounts but more regularly you will keep you blood sugar levels more constant, which will make you feel more energized rather than loading with one big meal and then having your blood sugar levels crash after the big meal.

You could split your breakfast into 4 meals quite easily.

Also remember what other members have said, muscle weighs more than fat and you are already seeing some toning in your chest.

You are not obese so you can ignore the number on the scale, concentrate more on how you feel and how you look in the mirror.

I recommend getting your blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked and buying a heart rate monitor to record your actual fitness (recover time from exercise back to resting heart rate)

Losing weight and getting fit takes time and dedication and should be part of a lifestyle change not just a quick fix with crazy diets.

Once you are slimmer, fitter and healthier then staying that way is easier. Muscles burn more calories so once you've increased your muscle mass you'll be burning more calories naturally.

Keep it up, that is the key.

[OldenAtwoody]

You are still eating a tremendous number of calories, for one thing.

You have to eat less that you use in order to burn body fat.

Add fruit, eliminate eggs, cereal, meat, etc. Salads, veggies are good. Peanut butter? Geez.....

You are eating grilled chicken and tuna salad. Cut the portions in half and eat canned tuna w/o mayo. No salad dressing.

Water only.

If you start checking the calories on what you listed in your typical diet, you'd be shocked. Try it - go through your list and check some internet sites. I think you'll see t hat you are still eating too much food, as your increased activity is now balanced by your diet. To lose weight you have to exercise more or eat less.

Do both.

One last comment. Many gym-rats find that some fat is lost, but there are gains in increased muscle development.

Good luck.