Working out but not losing scale weight

I have been doing Kettlebells for about a month and a half and I only lost like 4 or 5 pounds. My weight since then has pretty much been the same. Is it because I am building muscle? I notice before I worked out and when I was the same weight my belly was bulging more. Now it is less bulging and more flat and the sides of my stomach are my slim instead of hanging out? Is this apart of working out? I want to lose weight on the scale? Maybe I am asking for to much lol

Asking too much. Often people will even gain weight at first... which sadly de-motivates them because they don't understand what's going on.

http://dangerandplay.com/2012/09/27/5-pounds-of-fat-v-5-pounds-of-muscle/

So am I actually getting slimmer? I want them damn pounds dropping off the scale! lol  

Haireback - In my experience it's 90% diet and 10% exercise when it comes to weight loss. If you're diet is wrong, you could actually gain weight working out. I know this because I did it. I went up a pants size while powerlifting 4x a week and hill sprinting 3x a week and eating loads of carbs I thought I needed as fuel. Too much exercise made me incredibly hungry and I overate.

You need to figure out your diet and then find a comfortable place calorie/macro wise to sit so you lose fat while retaining muscle. There's honestly no one size fits all for this. It can be any kind of diet that works for you. For me, I'm doing low carb/high fat with a carb load for 6-8 hours 1x a week. It's called a cyclical ketogenic diet but I don't carb load all weekend. Just that one window. Other people do Carb Backloading where they take in their carbs post workout. This, again for me, has been the easiest way to shed fat although pound loss wise it's slow. A book like Carb Nite could point point you in the right direction.

That said, what works for me may not work for you. Kettlebells is a great workout and if you keep the intensity high on the intervals you use them you're going to see results. You just have to get that diet dialed in. A small caloric deficit from where you are will probably do it, but I caution people not to lower their calories too drastically as eventually that can hinder your progress.

Sounds like you're just offsetting your fat loss with muscle gain. This is a good thing! Don't worry about it. A pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat. So you can theoretically gain weight but still be smaller.

I don't worry so much about how much I weigh any more. I worry more about how my clothes fit. I have a pair of "target jeans" that I will fit into within the next year. I don't give a damn if I weigh 300lbs. as long as I can fit comfortably into them.

Really it depends on your goals.... And if you're tying to not hurt your hair I wouldn't go too strict on caloric reduction. But again... if you wanna be jacked? keep doing what your doing don't increase calories and the body will adapt. if oyu wanna be skinny? maybe reduce calories a bit, or up workouts, while keeping calories the same.

Agreed, scale weight is pretty bogus as a health indicator, so it depends on what you are using the scale weight data for.

About the only thing I'd rely on scale weight for is as an indicator of how to adjust your daily caloric intake. If you are on a weight loss plan and in a caloric deficit, weight can be a good indicator of whether you'e taken your calories low enough. Agreed with Hadrion on this as well, and this seems to vary with each person. Your exercise does not substitute for diet. Fat loss and body recomp are achieved in the kitchen (but again there are variations between individuals). I know some people who eat a shit diet, put on a couple of pounds, and do a few miles of cardio each week and drop it just like that. For myself, my weight is determined almost wholly by my diet. I'm like Hadrion in that sense. I put on the most weight I've ever put on while on a powerlifting program due to the fact I was severely depressed, ate like shit, and basically substituted soda for water. Getting to know which fuels hurt you is a big part of this. Fructose kills me. I don't digest it well. HFCS almost always leads to bloat and gas, and it won't matter how hard I'm working, if I'm taking in a lot of HFCS I'll get fat. That's just all there is to it.


So use weight for what its worth, which is to gauge your deficit of calories and whether its causing weight loss. Don't use it to measure the effectiveness of a weight training program though, it has no use here.

Rather, do what Whodathunkit does and use some other criteria as a judge. How you look in a certain outfit is a good one. You could even take measurements with a measuring tape.

That applies to aesthetic things. If you want to judge whether you are actually becoming more physically fit, use an objective physical challenge as the ruler. Time yourself for a certain number of reps in an exercise, try to beat yourself. If you used to get winded going up five flights of stairs and now you aren't, you're improving. If you can keep up better with kids, you're improving. If you are adapting to your workouts and lifting more weight, doing something faster, having less erratic heart rate responses...all signs you are physically improving, and much better overall indicators.

If you are working your ass off and still not losing body fat, look for missteps in your diet. They are almost guaranteed occurring there. Its become the snazzy new thing to look for all kinds of non-thermodynamic reasons for difficulty in losing weight, mostly because its easier to blame other things than your diet/activity relationship. But it really does just come down to being in a caloric deficit. When you are taking in less energy than you're expending, you'll lose weight. So at the end of the day, a measurement of body fat % is a better overall indicator of recomp, because adding lean mass to your frame will add weight. Its possible to radically change your body without really altering your weight by huge amounts.

Trying to get lean and "toned" I notice my stomach and hips are flatter. It just doesn't seem to show up on the scale. So maybe I am gaining muscle. Maybe I will limit my cheese intake. Thanks for the advice and info

I may not be a master at hair loss, but definitely at exercise. Avoid gluten, sugar, and dairy as much as possible (helps with hair, too!)

Do whatever you want as far as exercise goes, but stay hydrated and jumprope. You will most certainly lose weight quickly.

Ain't that the truth ^. I did this speed program one summer where probably a third of the workouts were various rope exercise circuits. I've never lost weight so quickly. Thought I was going to die during it though haha.

I have heard from a very reliable source that 5 mins of jumping rope at a moderate speed is comparable to sprinting a mile. It is hands down the best cardiovascular exercise, even above swimming. Start out at two 2 minute intervals every day or every other day. Work up to 3, 4, 5 min.,etc intervals as you want to take it slow to avoid shin splints. Maybe you can work up to 6 days a week. Hop on the balls of your feet and keep your knees bent.

A good diet will always prevail and will be the predominant factor.
If you stick to that, you will definitely trim your body and rid any amount of fat. (An ample amount.)

For what it's worth, a scale doesn't mean shit.

Hairbeback wrote:I have been doing Kettlebells for about a month and a half and I only lost like 4 or 5 pounds. My weight since then has pretty much been the same. Is it because I am building muscle? I notice before I worked out and when I was the same weight my belly was bulging more. Now it is less bulging and more flat and the sides of my stomach are my slim instead of hanging out? Is this apart of working out? I want to lose weight on the scale? Maybe I am asking for to much lol

Couple of important questions.

1. How much calories do you eat every day?

2. Estimated body fat percentage, goal fat percentage, height, age, and gender?

Lastly... look at the mirror, not the scale.