Hi ..disappointed

[Fatty73]

Hi

Been doing this for 4 months and finally done week 5 run 3 ! Confused as lost inches all over but not a pound of weight !

Eating SW plan

Still a bad BMI 😐

[John_W Graduate Ambassador]

You've undoubtedly put on some muscle mass and as you may know, muscle weighs more than fat... Also to burn 100 calories requires you to 'run' (whatever that means) about 1 mile, so doing 5k (3.1 miles) burns only about 300 cals - that's about 3 glasses of wine or half a McDonalds burger. So to start to lose significant amount of weight requires you run for long periods of time (say over 1 hour).

So running in itself, isn't great for those who want to lose weight. BUT, once you get into it and start to become conscious of what you weight and your overall lifestyle, then you may start to see some weight-loss benefits. But don't underestimate the added health benefits of what you're doing - the reduced blood-pressure and cholesterol levels, increased mental well-being etc.

Keep going!

[Whatsapp Graduate in reply to John_W]

As John_W says you will have toned up but not necessarily lost weight. It is also true that if you simply walk one mile you will also burn around 100 calories, so running is not within itself the quickest way to drop weight. That said running for 30 minutes is going to burn more than walking for the same period of time, simply because you will go further.

The good news is that this is because your body is very efficient when running. This fact will stand you in good stead as you progress onto longer runs.

Also, I will add that if you are just on W5R3 now then the length of time you have been running for has not been that high so far. So more to come as the intervals make way for lovely, long runs.

[Buddy34 Graduate]

I've been doing c25k since the middle of October and I'm still on wk7 tried wk8 found it too hard so continuing to do 25 minute runs anyway as you said you have lost inches you're going the right way as I am the weight will come off gradually if you watch what you're eating I'm on 1500 calories per day and it seems to be working good luck

[Tonkabella]

Hiya, I am target member at SW and have been for 5yrs now. What I found was that it took me months to get the balance of food and exercise right, total pain in the bum!!! like you I was doing all the right things and not getting the right results....i.e number on scales. Lost inches but the numbers wouldn't budge. So I ended up totally re assessing my food plan. As I'm sure you know its all about calories in and calories out and I worked out I wasn't eating enough for the exercise I was doing, so my body went into self preservation mode and refused to loose weight. So I went on to My Fitness Pal and completed the profile etc and it gave me the amount of calories I needed to eat to loose weight.......Bingo !!!! I lost 2lbs in the first week. Still use your SW plan but log the food on the Myfitness Pal and log your exercise. Hopefully you will see some results. The only other thing I do now if I want to shift a few pounds before holidays etc is front load my day...have a huge breakfast, middle size lunch and very small dinner, for a week, usually shifts about 3lbs in a week. Sorry its a long reply....really hope it helps.

[UnfitNoMore Graduate in reply to Tonkabella]

That self preservation mode is counter logical and I think responsible for many frustrated dieters out there. I also remember Bob off the biggest loser saying “eat like a king at breakfast, regular at lunch and like a pauper for the evening meal”. That really worked for me too, and I still eat that way years later... I dread family dinners as they never want them at 7am for some reason 😂

[Fatty73 in reply to Tonkabella]

Thank you ! I think that this is possibly the problem. I ate fruit ( one apple ) and yogurt and then a bowl of home made veg soup ! All day ..

I will try what you suggested x

[Tonkabella in reply to Fatty73]

That is def not enough😢 and I just know your SW consultant would be horrified 🙀 A fire will not burn without fuel.....so eat !!! 😊

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

Ok... to lose a pound of fat means burning the calories and to do that takes the average person, 35 miles of running... so running alone isn’t going to give you any significant weight loss. Worse than that most runners are more hydrated than the average person... let’s say that’s 2-4 pounds of water in us... and we are building muscle, so maybe by now you’ve put 2-4 pounds of muscle in the legs with more to come. So, if we think about that, if you’re the same weight as you were at the start and I’m right about hydration, you’re actually about half a stone lighter in terms of body fat. Muscle weighs more than fat, hence the inches lost.

You can run 20 minutes... so you’re much much fitter than you were. That 20 minute run is part of the NHS recommended 30 minute session what you do with the warmup and cooldown, so you’re much healthier.

So... the scales show one dimension of your health and fitness... and that’s annoying... all the other things we can measure are moving in the right direction at speed... celebrate those achievements.

If you are not gaining weight , that now means your nutrition is maintaining you, and so you’re small tweaks away from slow sustainable weight loss, and you run and have a healthier heart to sustain that.

Do you have lots of available energy? If you’re lethargic you may not be eating enough to allow weight loss. Have a look at the NHS BMI calculator online, fill it in and make sure you’re eating towards the upper end of the calorie range that it gives you.

Good luck with the weight... great job with the running, fitness, health, happiness, and body shape/size progress... I make that 5-1 to you!

[Leadfoot Graduate]

In addition to the great points above, another thing to remember is that the muscle you've put on is more effort for your body to maintain than just fat, so you will increase your resting burn rate. Because of this, you might see an initial plateau while you swap fat for muscle, and then an increased loss.

Also worth remembering why you want to lose weight, it's to get rid of fat right? it doesn't matter if the weight doesn't change, as long as that weight has turned into nice strong muscle. BMI is a bit of an inaccurate measure in some ways, as it measures only weight, and not what that weight consists of - there are loads of professional sportspeople who are technically obese that i'd swap with bodies with in a second 😂

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

This might help healthunlocked.com/couchto5...