Why is it that I can go from not exercising at all to exercising 4-5 times a week, not changing my eating habits and gain weight? I've been exercising for 3 weeks now and not much is happening yet. I did notice a slight change in my rear, but other than that, nothing. You'd think I'd be burning more calories with the exercising that I'd at least lose something.

Can anyone explain to me why just exercising alone doesn't really change anything?

Are you monitoring yur body composition? Maybe you're gaining muscle and losing fat?

Also; how do you know your diet is identical? How accurately are you tracking your calorie intake?

it takes the body around that much to show results, so u just might see them soon enough..also, are u doing enough cardio to say u're burning quite a few calories from the gym? strength training will only burn 200 cals per hour on average...and you might be eating those few extra calories without even realizing it

how are you eating?

the body stores excess calories as fat, but it's not efficient enough to store every last calorie as fat...some just passes through us.

if you start exercising, especially weight training, and you're taking in excess calories, you start putting on muscle, you don't shed much fat, and the scale goes up.

not saying 'change how you eat'...but i am saying 'know how you eat, and how much'...so you have some idea of whether you should change your eating habits and food choices.

I'm not on any diet or anything. I just watch how much I eat, but not to closely. I've put on about 5 pounds since August so obviously my 'diet' isn't working. I just don't like it that you just can't do exercise alone. It seems that if you want to lose weight you have to change your diet as well.

Now if I can just figure out the right way to eat.

Thought ide add that when your doing cardio (say biking) and your chatting to your mate if really does pass time and before you realise it you have burnt 100calories. I found this out last night.

When im on my own time seems to go so slow and as I try to get 30 mins of cardio in 4x a week.

You are not eating enough to burn fat. Because you are working out more, you need to increase your calorie intake with "good" calories. Your body is probably going into survival mode and storing fat because you are not eating enough.

Also, try doing a circuit training workout when you increase your calorie intake. This will give you a high intensity cardio/weight lifting session at the same time.

I am doing the 8 week workout from flexdec.com. On the 2nd week and have gotten amazing results. Let me know if this helps. Good luck!

Ive just done my first week of cutting and I put on 1lbs im thinking I may not be eating regularly after tea I eat a pudding then dont eat till morning so maybe a snack before bed will help. Would a piece of fruit be ok or maybe toast with some protein topping?

I think I would really sit down and examine your diet. How much are you eating? Where do your calories come from? Are they good, nutrient packed calories or empty junk food calories? I'd also look at your exercise routine. Are you doing mainly cardio? All cardio? Or is there some resistance training in there? These are important questions. And your answers could be the difference between success and failure. And this is coming from someone who dropped 50 pounds in 4 months and has kept it off for 4 more so far. In the end, I was only eating slightly fewer calories than when I started, but they were 'good' calories. Cardio is important, no doubt, that is most of my exercise. But resistance training is important. While it's true that muscle weighs more than fat, it is also true that muscle burns about 3 times the calories that fat burns. Talking about resting metabolism here. What I did was, and I am not saying it will work for everyone, is cut out the crap, limited my fat intake, ate mostly fruits, veggies, whole grains, and lean meats. And walked. That's it. And I found that a bowl of broccoli (less than 100 cals) filled me up better, and longer than a bowl of ice cream (300+ cals). If you are doing all of this already, then give it time. It probably took 3 weeks to a month before my body started actually burning off the fat stores, once it figured out it wasn't starving. Good Luck!!

I'd suggest that a pound of fat = a pound of muscle weight-wise, but muscle is more dense and takes up less space than fat. Other than that, I agree with batstiva's post.

As for the OP, do you really know how many calories you're taking in each day? Are you weighing, measuring and tracking everything that goes into your mouth?

Guess I wasn't very clear. What I meant was a cubic inch of muscle weighs more than a cubic inch of fat. But that muscle, per pound, burns more calories per day than a pound of fat burns. Something like 1-2 calories for fat, and 5-6 calories for muscle.

No, I'm not counting my calories, but I can't say that I really eat any different. One thing I am doing is eating fruit either mid morning or early afternoon. If anything, I'd say I eat a little less because I get full faster. Also since I exercise at 9 pm I don't eat much after supper either.

My BIGGEST frustration is that my thighs have grown alot, like 1/2 inch each! I know it's not muscle because it happened in the first week and hasn't gone away. It drives me crazy! I've been focusing on cardio because I really don't want them to get any bigger. I have no idea what may be the cause, but I hate it! It is quite irritating and makes me what to stop exercising since I know from experience they will shrink back down when I quit exercising. Seems backwards doesn't it!