Hey,

My Name is Jessica-Sara. I just joined this Forum. I'm SO completely frusterated. I'm a active girl, and now even more so.
I have a gym in my apartment building. I work out 5-6 days of the week with cardio ( treadmill 30 minutes running at 7.0) or ( walking at 4.5 on Incline of 15.00)
I burn between 300-330 Calories each session. My Diet consists of alot of rice, veggis, fruit, Soy, Eggs, and water, and Whole Wheat.
I eat about 1100-1400 Calories a day. I've been doing this for about a month and a half now.
The scale sais I have lost about 5 pounds, and I've obviously gained muscle because before my regime I only did pilates, no cardio.
I've not lost a inch off of my waist. I stopped doing weights and lunges etc because I was getting bigger in my legs and waist..
I'm SOOO frusterated and almost ready to just give up, which I wont but its on the mind.
Can someone PLEASE help me out?! I don't want to hear about eating 5 meals a day..because with my busy work schedule that doesn't work..i've tried. 3 meals a day is fine for me.
PLLLLEAAASE give me so heads up. I'm a 19 year old 137 pound 5'6.5 female.
Thankyou.. I dont care about the weight, I would like to lose a few inches of my waist.

First, I'm not sure I understand. You're body is changing, so what more do you want?

You don't get to pick where your body changes and in what order. Unfortunately, it simply doesn't work like that. Your belly is your problem area. Problem areas are usually the first place to store fat and the last place to lose fat.

That said, the only thing you can do is assure yourself that you remain in a consistent caloric deficit so that your body has no choice but to turn to its existing stores, fat. Eventually your belly fat will be utilized. Probably not what you want to hear.... but it's the truth.

I don't think giving up weights was your best idea. You are obviously losing fat. It's not coming from your belly, so it's coming from other areas..... like your legs. When you lose fat, the underlying muscle becomes more defined/exposed. This does not mean your muscle's grew.... people so often confuse becoming lean with getting bulky.

Low calories, low protein, and no weight training, especially when you don't have much to lose, is a recipe for remaining soft.... even if the weight is coming off.

Your cals are a bit low, IMO. I doubt you're getting adequate protein in.... but maybe. And you're aren't weight training, which provides a strong stimulus for muscle maintenance while in the face of an hypocaloric diet.

My 2 cents.

Legs!!!

My $.02

well, thanks for that post. But, that's besides the fact. My main focus right now is loosing inches. I want to work on being more 'toned' once the inches are off.
I need advice on how to lose atleast 2 pounds a week, which I dont seem to be doing.. unless i'm gaining it all back in muscle.

now i'm confused, being toned = losing inches...

No, It doesn't. There's lots of models that aren't tonned at all but are the skinniest humans ever, and look great. OR, take for instance the Victoria Secret Models they are skinny aswell, but way more tonned( they have more junk in the trunk)
Most people find Victoria Secret Models, wayyy more sexy. As do I BUT, I'm only focused on loosing inches/weight at this point in my life. It's possible to loose inches without any excersize, I did last year on a rice diet, and I didn't gain a pound back.. but I dont want to eat like that anymore, I don't think it is good for you body, and I like excersizing..
So my question is. How to lose weight faster, while excersizing over 2400 Calories off a week ( 400 cal a day times 6 days)
I just weighed myself again, and i'm at 138.. I haven't lost a POUND..nor a inch.. what the hell?

Oh, so you are going for the skinny, crackhead look. I gotcha now.

Eat less calories. I mean what else are you looking for. If your only concern is inches and the number on the scale, yet, you aren't reaching your loss goals..... you need a bigger deficit.

Oh, and toning does equal inches loss.

wow, that is really uncalled for. I asked for advice. If I wanted to go for the skinny crackhead look I wouldn't be excersizing my ass off. I would be eating 600 less calories.
I eat between 1100-1400 calories.. I think that's a good goal to eat within everyday.. aswell as excersizing everyday.
I believe that if you can't say anything nice, don't respond. Is there a reason you are so angry?
I've done nothing wrong..I'm just plain out frusterated..and nothing is happening..
PS. I like my curves, I dont think being skinny is attractive. If you need to know what i'm looking for.. in a body. I like Jessica Biels body.. she is curvy, and YES she's very toned, but my goals right now are loosing a few pant sizes, and then when I have accomplished that I want to incorprate weights and more cardio into my regime.
I need to atleast see some pounds or inches fall off before I get bored and sad that my hard efforts are accomplishing everything.. I'm like that.

Just an FYI - most of the models -don't really look like they do in print -they look that good thanks to very talented people with photoshop skills... to make them look better.. (I've seen the before pictures - no not hold a photoshopped picture up to be your unattainable standard of what you want to look like.

wow.. is anyone actually even reading what I say? I feel like this is POINTLESS.. I think models are gross looking, it's not something I want to attain.. and NO i don't think a Hollywood image is nice either..
I'm extreemly healthy I work as a Chiropractic Assistant, and I try to eat lots of grains, veggis, fruits, soy protien etc..
I work out, eat well, and do pilates. All I want is a answer as to why i've not dropped a pound or a inch in the last month in a half.
THANKYOU!

Haha, where you got that I'm angry I do not know. Nor do I care.

You didn't even read what I took the time to type in the first place. If you say that you did, then ok..... you didn't comprehend what I typed.

Yea, I think we got that.

I'm not sure you understand the importance of weight training when you're at the stage of the game you're at.

Lifting weights doesn't automatically = bigger muscles unless you are feeding your body the fuel to energize hypertrophy.

You aren't.

Short term thinking will leave you left frustrated and hating the process.... IME.

are you keeping track of your calories? and accurately weighing and measuring everything you eat? a lot of people fall into the trap of thinking they're eating a lot less than they are...


1100 calories a day is pretty low - that's not even 10 calories a pound given your current weight - maintenance is generally about 15 calories a pound... the suggestion for when people are "plateauing" is to eat at maitenance for a while to give your body a break-- then cut back down to about 12 calories a pound and you should see a change...

Yes I read it through, and it wasn't that helpful. Basically you said I need to eat more protien, maybe higher my calorie intake, and put weights and lunges etc back into my routine
First off, I try to eat vegetarian.. so protien is hard to get. I try to eat nuts and soy to get protien.
Second I this morning I did add weights and squats back into my routine, but i'm not going to higher my calorie intake.
I wanted a answer as to why I haven't seen results. I don't have a problem with taking your advice, but I tried that exact adivce for the first month.. and I saw no results.
Is there anything that you do personally that could help me out? Like in your routine?
Also, soy is good for you, I believe.. but is it really?

Yes,
I do keep track of what i'm eating on Free Diet Plans at SparkPeople
I measure, and I under measure to make sure I am eating what I am thinking.
weight loss has always been hard for me. Maybe i'm doing something wrong.

No, I didn't say to add lunges back into your routine.

Just b/c you are a vegetarian doesn't mean protein isn't important. My advice still stands.

Nobody here is going to be able to give you an exact answer. It doesn't work like this.

You are plateauing.

If I had to take a stab, I'd say there are 2 possible reasons:

1. You aren't tracking your calories closely enough and you're eating more than you think. You aren't that large of a person, so your caloric range for weight loss is a lot easier to mess up then someone that's got a lot of weight to lose.

2. Or, you have been dieting too long. If this is the case, have fun with your hard-headedness about increasing calories, lol.

I gave very general advice so I'm not so sure how you can this this is EXACTLY what you did.