When you’re exercising but not losing weight, it’s very frustrating, to say the least. For those people just starting an exercise program, it’s extremely important to stay motivated, and if your goal is to lose weight, but you’re not seeing a change on the scale in the first month or so, many people will quit. There are a number of reasons why a person just starting an exercise program may not see a change on the scale. For one, it doesn’t happen overnight. If you put on an extra 20 pounds over the past year, you can’t expect to take it off in a few weeks or even a month. The average amount of weight lost is ½ to 1 ½ pounds per week. That averages out to about a pound a week. However, you may not see a change for the first month or so, and then drop two pounds on the 5^th week. Remember, it’s an average and there are a lot of variables.

Speaking of variables, the amount of water your body is currently storing, the time of day, whether or not you have used the bathroom before weighing yourself, the amount of sodium you have consumed in the past few days, are just a few factors that will affect your weight. It’s best not to get into the habit of weighing yourself any more often than once a week because of this.

The third point worth mentioning is that the scale doesn’t take into consideration the muscle that you may have gained in relationship to the fat that you might have lost. Your focus should be losing “fat” rather than losing “weight”. Ideally, you want to have as much muscle as you can, and as little fat. The more muscle a person has, the more efficiently their body burns fat, and the more calories there body burns off even during rest. So isn’t it better to be burning as many calories as possible just while sleeping? Muscle is much denser than fat, and therefore weighs more. I like to use the analogy of muscle being similar to iron, while fat is like aluminum—the iron is denser an therefore weighs more.

Now, in order to add muscle which will ultimately increase your metabolism as mentioned above, you need to be doing some type of resistance training. That may consist of weight training with free weights, machines, body weight exercises, or any number of resistance methods. But this is an important part of the equation, and fat loss is not as effective without it.

Fifth, you may not be exercising intensely enough, or for a long enough period of time to see results as quickly as you would like. Don’t misunderstand me, any exercise is better than none at all, but in order to make the most of your time, you should work to keep your heart rate up in your training zone when doing cardiovascular exercise, and push yourself to fatigue when doing resistance training. Now this only applies if you are healthy. You should always consult your physician before starting an exercise program. Also, when it comes to losing weight, which really breaks down to losing fat, you want to increase the duration of your cardio to 30-40 minutes.

And last but not least, you should be consuming healthy, supportive foods. If you are not feeding your body properly, you can’t expect it to respond the way that you want. That means cutting out excessive sugars and fats, and not overeating, while still eating enough. Many people are under the misconception that it is better to starve yourself in order to lose weight. While losing a pound of fat breaks down to a 3500 calorie deficit over a week, or 50 calories a day, it does not mean starving yourself. That will only decrease your metabolism over time while causing you to lose valuable muscle.

So as you can see, there is no quick easy way to weight loss. It takes time and good old-fashioned hard work. Probably the most important ingredient in the weight loss recipe is consistency above all else. So use good sense, seek help from a professional when needed, and try to incorporate exercise into each day as part of your lifestyle. If you take all the necessary steps, you’ll see results!

Melissa Allen, BS, CPT, CES is a certified personal trainer, corrective exercise specialist and Medifast health coach, is the owner of the Optimum Condition Corrective Exercise & Performance Center, located in El Cajon, in the East County of San Diego. We specialize in customized fitness training and corrective exercise for both recreational athletes and post-rehab clients, as well as guaranteed weight loss programs or your money back. You can schedule a free consultation to help you get started. Please visit her website at OptimumCondition.org.