Like a typical weight loss story, I have been struggling with losing 10-15lbs for awhile now. To give you a little history, I am 5’6″, was 120 lbs at the age of 22 at my leanest. At that time, I had stopped working out and so I had little muscle mass. I grew up figure skating competitively, so I know I can put on muscle quickly, especially in my lower half. My diet at that time was bad – I ate once or twice a day and not enough calories, which I know was to account for my weight.

Over the past 4 years, I have put on about 25lbs. It has been from a combination of gaining muscle from strength training but also putting on lbs of fat from up and down dieting. With the start of the new year, I stepped up my training program and buckled down on diet. I cut out processed foods, simple carbs, have been counting my calories, keeping them around 1200-1500/day, depending on how hard and long I work out. I have been working out 5-6 days a week for on average, 60-90 mins. My exercise program consists of 30-45 minutes of cardio, minimum. On some days I even get up to 90mins. I also strength train, doing full body circuits for at least a half hour (a variety of squats, lunges, deadlifts, pushups, core workouts, etc) a few days a week, combining with cardio, and hit a yoga or pilates class once or twice a week. I have been meticulous about tracking everything. I stepped on the scale this past weekend, 6 weeks into this regimen, I have lost nothing. My pants are more loose and I know I am leaner, but really, nothing on the scale!? I understand muscle weighs more than fat, but I had a pretty good muscle tone to begin with (with a layer of pudge on top). I would at least expect a 5-8 lb loss over the 6 weeks. I don’t know how much more I can cut out of my diet before I’m eating just iceberg lettuce and egg whites. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong here but it’s really discouraging. Any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Sarah