Added walking & stopped losing !!!....

bceogirl

bceogirl

Cathlete
That's basically the story of what happened to my DH and I don't understand .
Some background: He has a good amount of weight to lose. Early in the year we started watching mainly carbs & sugar & he completely gave up drinking pop. He was doing great and losing weight. He's lost right around 30 pounds.
So 6 weeks ago I finally convinced him to get up 30 minutes earlier and we walk 5 days a week before work. I assured him that it would help him lose a little faster. WELL, to my complete surprise and to his disgust ......he STOPPED losing weight ! I mean, completely ! In fact, the scale says he's GAINED TWO POUNDS !:confused::(:(
I don't know what's going on and he is getting ready to give up. I mean, who wouldn't want the extra sleep if this isn't doing any good anyway ?? He doesn't enjoy exercise , so this is the most I can get him to do and he wants to quit. I know that it's good for his heart even if he's NOT dropping weight, but I honestly can't figure out why he's not. Diet is the same as it was.......*shaking my head* Anyone have any ideas ??
If it's a plateau- why didn't it hit until he started to workout ? I know stepping up intensity would be good but honestly, this is all he is going to do- at least right now.
Anyway- thanks in advance ! Hopefully you guys can steer me in the right direction !!
Becky
 
Are you sure his diet hasn't changed and he's eating more - maybe thinking the exercise earned him more food? You only burn about 100 calories/mile walking so really the 30 minutes of walking 5 times a week wouldn't have that much effect on his weight loss even if the calorie count were exactly the same. (say you cover 2 miles in 30 minutes - that's 200 calories a day or 1000 calories a week - that would mean it would take 3.5 weeks to lose 1 pound from walking).
 
It might be the lack of sleep. People often eat to make up for sleep loss. Let him sleep and just have a nice long hike on the weekends and see if the weight doesn't start coming off again.
 
Weight loss

bceogirl said:
That's basically the story of what happened to my DH and I don't understand .
Some background: He has a good amount of weight to lose. Early in the year we started watching mainly carbs & sugar & he completely gave up drinking pop. He was doing great and losing weight. He's lost right around 30 pounds.
So 6 weeks ago I finally convinced him to get up 30 minutes earlier and we walk 5 days a week before work. I assured him that it would help him lose a little faster. WELL, to my complete surprise and to his disgust ......he STOPPED losing weight ! I mean, completely ! In fact, the scale says he's GAINED TWO POUNDS !:confused::(:(
I don't know what's going on and he is getting ready to give up. I mean, who wouldn't want the extra sleep if this isn't doing any good anyway ?? He doesn't enjoy exercise , so this is the most I can get him to do and he wants to quit. I know that it's good for his heart even if he's NOT dropping weight, but I honestly can't figure out why he's not. Diet is the same as it was.......*shaking my head* Anyone have any ideas ??
If it's a plateau- why didn't it hit until he started to workout ? I know stepping up intensity would be good but honestly, this is all he is going to do- at least right now.
Anyway- thanks in advance ! Hopefully you guys can steer me in the right direction !!
Becky
Click to expand...

Cathe is currently working on two newsletter articles that will appear starting next Monday that will help everyone understand weight loss better and perhaps why your husband has stopped losing weight. In the meantime you should know that there are really only two ways to gain weight: 1. consume more calories than you burn and 2. water retention.

In your husbands case a two pound weight gain can also be explained by scale inaccuracy and temporary water weight gain. I'm not sure how much your husband is walking, but you only burn about 100 calories per mile walked, so you can easily wipe out any calorie deficit with just a little extra food consumption.

I think you will fine Cathe's articles on this subject next Monday very helpful.
 
Thanks everyone who's answered. I do understand calories in/calories out and that you have to eat less/exercise more. I guess what stumps me is how ADDING exercise doesn't mean weight loss. His diet is the same. I'm sure he is eating the same amount of food he was before. (I cook his meals & we eat together)
I just think if you take someone who isn't getting any exercise and they start walking 2 miles a day, 5 days a week, and watching their diet, they would lose .
We DID get a new scale about 3 weeks ago......the other one quit working, so maybe we have some inconsistancy between the two scales ..?
I look forward to Cathe's articles. Thanks for letting me know to look for them.
Becky
 
How frustrating! It could be the new scale, but my hunch is it's probably water retention. If he went from no exercise to walking 30 minutes a day, his muscles are probably holding some extra water while they repair/adjust to the activity. Since he's walking 5 days a week, he may want to try walking only 3 days a week (M,W,F) to see if recovery time helps his body shed the water. (Plus he gets some extra sleep, woo!)

Even though the calorie burn from his walking isn't significant for weight loss, that amount of activity is VERY significant in terms of health benefits. It's also upping his fitness level so that he may (fingers crossed!) decide to try something more intense once he's used to walking. In other words, the walking is building a foundation that he can build on someday if he so chooses.

Good luck!

Edited to add: And way to go to your husband for losing 30 lbs!!!
 
Last edited:
Adding a new aspect to your life can mean temporary changes, which could account for the 2 lb. weight gain. Have him keep going and see if it doesn't come right back off after about another week or two. Maybe his body doesn't like the early mornings and he should walk later in the day. Everyone responds differently.

Good luck and don't let him give up! It'll all work out!
 
There is one more way to gain weight that SNM didn't mention - muscle gain. That's not the case here, of course, so that's probably why he didn't mention it (not enough exercise for that, the wrong kind of exercise and not enough time has passed). But it should be mentioned that in general, muscle weighs more than fat and if you are building muscle, that will cause some weight gain over time (although you may be shedding fat too, which may balance things out). That's why it's best to go by how your clothes fit rather than the scale when on a muscle building program. It isn't easy to build muscle, especially for women, and you aren't going to put on lots of muscle quickly unless you are a complete newbie, but over time, you can if committed to it. Many fitness models weigh much more than you would think to look at them, because they have so much muscle, but because they have little fat, they are very tight and small in appearance.

Again, this definitely isn't the case here; I just mention it as a general comment.

It really shouldn't be about weight gain or loss - it should be about fat/muscle gain or loss. The weight doesn't matter, body composition does.

On another note, unless you are a very intense exerciser, who burns a lot of calories daily, fitness activities should really only be done with health in mind, rather than fat loss, as it can be really frustrating to do what you consider to be substantial amounts of exercise and only burn a couple of hundred calories. For fat loss, your diet is going to be the primary issue. That being said, fitness actitivies will help stop muscle loss from dieting, make you more likely to be sucessful with your fat loss over the long term, help you live a longer and more satisfying life, etc. It just isn't really going to get the fat off in and of itself unless you get pretty hard core about it.
 
Last edited:
Hi Becky,

Ugh, that's frustrating! My guess would be that since you know he's not consuming more, then maybe it's water retention from this heat? :confused: I would not back off, I would just keep doing what he's doing and see if it drops a little eventually. I would also think that if it were the scale you would notice a difference in your weight, too.

Have you thought about suggesting wrist weights? It might be just enough to increase the intensity a little and push him through the plateau. I'm sorry I can't come up with much else, as I can't get my DH to exercise AT ALL. :(

He has come a long way losing 30 lbs.!! Keep praising him ~ that can only help! :)

Hope you find a solution to help him. I'm sure there will be valuable information in Cathe's articles.

Julie
 
bceogirl said:
Thanks everyone who's answered. I do understand calories in/calories out and that you have to eat less/exercise more. I guess what stumps me is how ADDING exercise doesn't mean weight loss. His diet is the same. I'm sure he is eating the same amount of food he was before. (I cook his meals & we eat together)
I just think if you take someone who isn't getting any exercise and they start walking 2 miles a day, 5 days a week, and watching their diet, they would lose .
We DID get a new scale about 3 weeks ago......the other one quit working, so maybe we have some inconsistancy between the two scales ..?
I look forward to Cathe's articles. Thanks for letting me know to look for them.
Becky
Click to expand...

Scales are often off by five pounds or more! If the old one hadn't been calibrated for awhile, it may have been reading low. It also makes a difference where you place the scale in some cases, because the levelling makes a difference in how it reads. Or, he may have eaten somewhat differently the day before - not more, but different kinds of foods. For instance, meat, or large amounts of fiber, salt, can take a day or so to go through your system. Or, time of day. My weight fluctuates about 3-5 pounds from morning to night. Or, if he was somewhat dehydrated last time, he could be better hydrated this time.

And working out harder usually causes me to pick up a pound or two of hydration. No extra inches, just better hyrated muscles. Possibly that's what is going on.

Rather than relying on just the scale, you might ask your husband if his clothing feels any looser this week. If it does, he's lost inches, which is probably what he wants anyway....

Very neat that he's exercising! Hopefully he's feeling better physically as a result, except for this irritation about the scale.

And, it will be fun to see the article :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top