Plateau and exercising

Has anyone experienced a plateau once they started exercising.

I joined a gym 4 weeks ago and have been going 3-4 times a week and working on the cardio machines for about an hour each time. I've also done a couple of spinning and zumba classes. But since I've been upping my exercise I have not lost a single ounce!

Im losing inches which is good, but I'm just wondering how long will I stay at the same weight before it decides to budge.

I'm interested to know if you've experienced that same and for how long and what did you do to break through the plateau, if anything or was it purely patience.

I'm currently calorie counting and have tried not eating exercising calories and then eating my exercising calories, but nothing seems to be working.

Thanks

Michelle

maybe you should try eating some exercise calories, start off by eating perhaps a 1/3rd of what you earn and see how you go. There is such a thing as not eating enough and perhaps your body needs a few extra calories.

Other than that I would suggest riding it out. As you say you are losing inches so theoretically you should start losing lbs before too long.

But don't lose heart, you're doing great

After your initial weight loss, your progress will slow down and eventually stop even though your exercise and food intake is consistent. The bottom line is that the very efforts you make to burn more calories may eventually slow it down.

It takes calories to burn calories. When you decrease your food intake, your body simply lowers its metabolic rate in response. This still allows the body to function properly, but ultimately your body requires fewer calories which creates hunger and prevents you from losing fat.

Keep your calories slightly below your maintenance calories so that your energy and metabolism remain high. A deficit greater than 500-700 calories makes it much more difficult to maintain your lean body mass. To determine your approximate daily caloric needs, use this formula:

Kg (body weight) x 23 = kcal/day;

Note: kg = pounds divided by 2.2 (i.e.: 180 lbs. / 2.2 = 81.8 kg)

Don’t forget that when you tone up as you're doing now, you develop more muscle and muscle weighs more than fat.