Weight / Fat loss

If you've upped your exercise you might be building muscle. Muscle is heavier than fat so you weigh more. Measuring your body fat is probably a better idea.

This.

Also, if your not really losing weight have you ever thought you might not be overweight in the first place?

Excess fat is very easy to get rid off. Id be surprised if an active person like a cyclist who doesnt pig out on sugar 24/7 was fat at all.

Most people carry a basic amount of fatty tissue around the hips/arse and stomach, this is not "excess" it is healthy. It will not leave unless you expose yourself to unhealthy "famine" levels of starvation will make you very ill and will be ugly as hell. This fat serves an imprtant purpose and only looks unsightly on those people LACKING muscular bodyweight to improve their overall shape (and firmness if you will). Muscle turns a saggy, crinkly/dimpled, fat, backside into firm round perky things. The amount of fat "in yo ass" does not change, it might actually increase. But your arse will look & function amazingly if you seek athletic weight gain.

Sometimes muscle does not actually need to increase, it simply needs to be activated. A lot of peoples glutes in particular are totally dormant. The way to turn them on (and improve muscle tone) is not to do the ridiculous bums & tums classes. But instead to recruit them maximally doing things like heavy barbell lifts. Like deadlifts & squats.

If you dont like the idea of a gym, step ups (on a high bench) will work well. Also vertical jumps out of a deep squat.

My calorie counter say's that at my burning/intake ratio I should be loosing a stone a month...ha.

I think you are above the average level of fitness, so you would need less calories than the average for a given level of power output. So the fitter you get the harder it gets!

i'm not in london right now.
shall we have the inaugural run on Wednesday next week?

If you've upped your exercise you might be building muscle. Muscle is heavier than fat so you weigh more. Measuring your body fat is probably a better idea.

You might just be retaining more water. Water weight will fluctuate a great deal, especially when beginning to lose weight and/or increasing your exercise. That's also something that will affect women more than men, short of filing a bug report with the designer, there's not a great deal you can do about that. Although trying to stay properly hydrated and limiting your sodium intake should help.

In addition to these, how do you actually feel, Nhatt? Do you feel more powerful or fitter? That's an important indicator, too. Feeling positive about changes is a powerful driver and can indicate that you're on the right way.

If you've been relatively inactive for a long time, it may simply take longer for change to become apparent, especially if you're a person for whom physical changes take a while. The best advice is to persevere, as exercise is clearly a good thing.

I've also heard that one should concentrate on becoming more powerful first so that low food intake doesn't compromise developing that power, and that the weight will fall away more or less naturally once you're able to push yourself more.

I aimlessly went on a run this weekend, felt like crap at the start, was going to give up, but ended up on around 13 very hilly km in Deepest Devon.
I was pleasantly surprised at the end when it only took 50mins, and I felt fine.
still fat tho.

@ Nhattatack
In addition to some of the comments, keep going! I'm not sure how long you've been on this regime for, but be assured that you body is probably in a state of confusion (and this is a good stage at this point). This is exactly where a lot of my clients have fallen prey to the "transition" period.
Your body, if you continue to crack on with what you have been doing, will adapt to this regime, and hopefully burn more fat as fuel, and become more efficient at preserving muscle tissue. For some of us, it happens very quickly (generally those of athletic statures) for others it kicks in a little later.
Your body is basically being a little stubborn fucker - and is saying "I'm not sure what the fuck is going on here, but i'm gonna hold onto this fuel for a little while longer"
If you continue with your regime, I would hope your body thinks... "Hey, I like this shit. I'm gonna burn more of this fat stuff so that i get better at it"
You have everything in equilibrium by the sound of it. Don't cut any more calories, but maybe just turn up the heat a fraction on the exercise.... if u can.
(I really hope that makes some sense. Sorry about the inner monologue thing.... works for some. Irritates the fuck out of others) :)

Well, here is the start of my nerdy monitoring:

Date_____Fat%Bone MassWater%Muscle%Weight
9/7/2010_18.52.8__60.8_41.8__81.6
3/8/201019.42.9__60.243____82.5

So, going to the gym a lot and cutting out the booze seems to have made me both fatter and slightly more muscular.

Arse

You've also grown some more bone mass as well, which is cool. Where's it gone on?

nhat, keep going. it always seems that it takes forever to lose weight, but no time at all to put it on! it never comes easily to start with, but is worth it for the feeling you get when feel fitter and more toned.

question.... i am tall and slight (female) desperately trying to put muscle back on after losing it all. how much protein should i really be eating? i have started slightly obsessing about eating enough protein each day, but am not really sure how much i should really have (in actual food amounts). am very active every day and try to go to the gym 2-3 times a week (and hopefully building that up to 4x). i do have a protein shake before and after going to the gym, but only half what it says on the tub.

also, how do you make cottage cheese more appetising/interesting...?

I have pretty strong opinions on the protein front, especially when it comes to "shakes" . We eat way too much in total, as well as per sitting.
In addition to this - you need to make sure the exercise you are doing to build muscle is enough to achieve hypertrophy, and sufficiently overloads the muscle.
Happy to offer my experience and support via PM.
:)

Oh - and crumbled digestive onto cottage cheese is for winners.....

You've also grown some more bone mass as well, which is cool. Where's it gone on?

hehe, bone mass, hehehe

I have been out of any sort of exercise pattern for 2 months since I did my knee in. Most annoying as I had only started back properly training 3 weeks prior to that. In that 3 weeks I lost a stone (very much excess weight). I have put that back on, and more. This is most depressing, I wobble a lot now. Going to see the consultant for the follow up from my MRI next Wednesday. If I get the all clear I will start again.

If you don't like cottage cheese on it's own, usually best to blend it in with fruit and salads to add some flavour. It can also be spiced, similar to paneer and also be a substitute it in some of the lighter Indian/Asian recipies that call for it. It can also be used as the cheese element of chilled cheesecakes.

As for building up muscle. If you're trying to recover muscle after a long period of inactivity, perhaps following a frank exchange of views with a truck, then you're probably going to be in for the long slow. From my own perspective, it's always better to aim for fitness and capability and the muscle will follow as it will. However, from a dietary perspective, you will need to balance bodily needs. If you're excercising then you need to feed existing muscle with carbs and sugars to power them through the workout and then with protein to feed the muscle development. If you're just feeding on protiens then your body will be working hard to convert them to energy and not retaining much for growth. That's my basic understanding of things anyway.

Dammit, despite cutting calories down to 1600 a day and upping my excersize, I'm not loosing any weight according to my scale.
I'm pretty sure that I've lost a little bit, as some of my clothing is fitting better, but still it isn't really the result I was hoping for. My calorie counter say's that at my burning/intake ratio I should be loosing a stone a month...ha.

Have you just started eating less, or have you made changes to your diet?

That's my basic understanding of things anyway.

+1 Seldom Killer. That aint basic, and your understanding of things is good. :)

cool, thank you all. it is frustratingly slow. thought my right thigh was almost as big as my left again, until i measured it the other day after a spinning class. am eating carbs too, and am not a huge fan of protein shakes (hence only half dose) but just want to make sure i fuel my body. luckily i really enjoy eating healthily and well, but do have a sweet tooth, so eat too much sugar....

You've also grown some more bone mass as well, which is cool. Where's it gone on?

Modesty forbids me from commenting*

*huge, btw

Painfully average......

I'm not really fat per se, I'm 5' 10 and 75 kilos, most of which is leg muscle ( I jest, but I blatently have cyclists legs).

I am eating healthier, although I don't think I was eating poorly before, just too much (I'm vegan and don't eat out much).

I'm hoping this is the just my body getting used to it before I loose more weight, but I'm dissapointed because I wanted to be svelte for my holiday in September.

Once I got over the innitial panic that my body went through with the drop in calories, I felt fine, only a bit concerned that I'm not loosing anything.

I've started going to hoola-hoop classes as well as running and riding, so it could be that I'm putting on muscle, but I'm not doing that much more than what I normally do, my big push has really been on the calorie front.

The program I use measures salt and water intake, so I can only hope they factor those in.

You might just be retaining more water. Water weight will fluctuate a great deal, especially when beginning to lose weight and/or increasing your exercise. That's also something that will affect women more than men, short of filing a bug report with the designer, there's not a great deal you can do about that. Although trying to stay properly hydrated and limiting your sodium intake should help.

What do you mean by svelte? You don't look overweight at all. More like an 'athletic build', which is what you'd expect for someone who engages in athletic activities on a regular basis (plus does a bit of wrenching). I'd guess that if you suddenly started riding 200 miles a week for the next few months, you'd get a bit more 'wiry', but you wouldn't get svelte (due to genetics) unless you starved yourself and did nothing more physically taxing than yoga or a very low resistance form of cardiovascular exercise.

That's all meant to be positive, BTW. I don't think you should feel disappointed by raw data and body image paradigms. I spent years being depressed about being pale and hairy. What must people think? Western society labels me a freak! I'd be more attractive with a skin tone I lack the pigment to achieve. I'm a fucking werewolf! Then I got over it, appreciated being healthy (function over other people's idea of form), and started believing people who said "vive la difference, you look fine", instead of dismissing it as patronising guff.

Having said all that, if you absolutely must lose a bit more weight, are you making sure that you spread your 1600 calories over the day (until about 8pm)? If there are any long periods without food, your body's starvation mode will burn as little energy as possible, which is cutting off your own nose to spite your face.

Don't know how much a nose weighs.

I'm a fucking werewolf!

Goes off to warn TNRC that Ved isn't the only one

Yes Nhatt I think you shouldn't be worried about losing weight as you look great, anayway muscle weights more that fat. I have some trousers tat i call the measure and if they don't fit then i am fat. i think that is better that the scales.

Nice conversation yesterday night about tights :)
i'll never be kate moss, sighs!

i'll never be kate moss, sighs with relief!

Hell yeah.

Well, I'm expected to wear a swim suit in NYC.
I'm doing everyone a favor by loosing some of my middle.

I'm chasing after the fact that in highschool I was a size zero... Not likely to happen again, but I'd like to look good in a bikini.

I've had to buy all new bikinis. For shame.

Went out on the Vagicini last night for a very short spin to test the water, all good, will build up very slowly then speed up once I get the all clear.

Very good advice about not starving then bingeing on your day's calories. Just be sensible.

When I was 19 I weighed 19stone. I lost 5 stone in a year. Shows how much of that was unnecessary as it was fairly easy to do. Now around 16 stone and I would like to shed one of those.