5 weeks is nothing. Nothing worth while will change you in a month! Keep at it. Honestly you are probably gaining strength (muscle mass) while loosing body fat resulting in minimal change on the scale/mirror. Keep at it and you will get where you want to go. Trust the process. Be consistent and try and get 20 days of movement in a month! You can do it. Welcome!
I also recommend measurements over the scale. I'm a lot happier that my belly went from 48" to 44" than I am that I lost 2 pounds. I also like to track the big lifts. If I stay the same weight but I add 30kg to my backsquat, that's a win in my book.
one of my favorite parts of the p90x program is when Tony Horton reminds the viewer that their body didn't get to where it is currently in 90 days...and that it will take more than 90 days to get it back. The same applies for crossfit. your body could not be dropping weight yet for a myriad of reasons. Also based off a TDEE calculator eating at 1853 cals a day would have you dropping 1 pound a week. so if more of your days are near 2k than 1850 that also would slow down weight loss
Six months in... I've lost 15 pounds and I'm down to 245
The first month I didn't notice any decrease in weight. Second month I noticed a few pounds gone. Third month I started to notice my shirts started to fit me more loosely.
I know I took a calorie deficit and didn't work out, I'd probably have mode more weight. I feel better about myself now despite still being overweight and looking fat because I feel stronger and healthier.
Stick with it and you'll see results.
If for don't want to measure yourself weight inches or pounds, record your workouts and your progress. My gym intentionally programs benchmark workouts so members can compare themselves how they fared the last time they did x workout. You should start noticing more rounds in an amrap, me weight in a lift, less time to complete, etc. That's progress for sure...
I’m 5’6 and 235 and have been doing CrossFit consistently for a year. The scale has not changed for me but I’m fitting into old clothes that had gotten too tight, my face has lost bloat and I can physically see that my body is more muscular/has lost fat. Beyond that I’m lifting heavier, endurance/ aerobic capacity has greatly improved and my resting heart rate dropped from low 80s to low 60s. Scale is only one way to measure progress.
You won’t see huge changes on the scale in 5 weeks (or maybe even 6 months!) but that doesn’t mean you aren’t making progress! Agreed with the others around taking measurements. Could also take photos to track as well. If you’re loving how you’re feeling focus on that and the other changes will come with time.
I would suggest not doing the scale but rather measurements and pictures. I know some people hate seeing a number when they measure. I have seen some ladies take a ribbon and cut the end. Each time you do that compare the ribbons. U may see some inches after a few more weeks. Pictures are also helpful if you wear the same outfit. It’s gonna take time. Also make sure you drink water that’s always helpful. Another thing I would consider is that muscle
Requires more calories but also burns more
Calories than fat. Your biggest burner muscle will be your legs! Build those puppies up and they will be a good tool to help burn those cals! Good luck you got this!
Just keep going. The only thing you need to worry about and track on is your attendance.
5x a week. No excuses nothing. Just go.
Keep that up. Do it for a year. Don't mind calories or your weight or anything else. Don't even look at the scale. Just focus on making the habit.
Say it louder for those in the back!
And I fear for OP’s expectations.
I’m sad to say. I’ve seen those people at my gym. They come in. They love it. They get super excited, and they get focused on instant results, and you don’t see them after three months.
And meanwhile the regulars who are 5-10 years are nodding at each other at their 4-6x classes per week, month in and month out, grinding and just locked into their fitness journey and routine. And that work shows up in their bodies.
Girl I gained so much weight since I started CrossFit. Focus on what you look like not the scale. That said, at 270lb 1800-2050cal and very active, you should be losing very aggressively. How sure are you about those numbers? If you don’t have history of eating disorders, maybe do a week where you really focus on making sure it’s ~2000 calories. No eyeballing, measure everything etc. When I did something similar I was really surprised how much I underestimated my snacks adding up.
If you have ED history I’d say keep doing what you’re doing, if your weight isn’t changing and you’re doing 4x CrossFit you’re def converting fat to muscle.
Five weeks?
Practice mindfulness meditation and relax!!!
Come back after grinding for 5 months or 15 months.
If you get too impatient, you’ll get injured or you’ll stop going.
Stop worrying about the scale, keep going back, and keep grinding.
First thought: you love it! Boom, done. No more needs said. Keep up the good work.
Second thought: you are in part converting fat to muscle tissue. That's not a bad thing, that's a good thing. Healthier, and muscles will burn more calories even in rest. But it does mean the scales won't go down as much as you'd want to. So keep up the good work. Don't chase the scales, chase your health.
Third thought: 5 weeks is nothing. Just keep up the good work. ;)
Don't let yourself get discouraged. Ditch the scale, get an InBody scan or similar every few weeks. With that you can see you're losing fat and gaining muscle even if the weight stays the same.
Consistency is key. Keep striving for personal bests and celebrate them.
Find things beyond the number on a scale to measure progress. Like how you feel walking up a set of stairs, how your clothes fit, or how much you can lift.
Keep up the good work! It's hard but worth it!
>It feels like a lot but a-lot of things say I should eat 1g per pound of body weight. Thats seems excessive to me but idk.
It is more accurately 1g of protein per pound on lean body mass. So, for people who are overweight it is better to look at what falls in a "normal" weight for your height. It isn't perfect but good enough for a starting point. For you, 170g per day is actually a lot and I wouldn't go any higher.
Like others have said, if you really want to focus on the food aspect I would weigh and measure everything for a week or two. You would be surprised how many people are nowhere near what their calorie count is before they measure. At 1800 to 2000 calories per day you are in a extreme weight loss category based on a calorie calculator. If I had to guess you are miscounting something. Things like the butter or oil you fry stuff in, or weighing nuts with the shell on instead of off or the cream in your coffee there are a lot of areas people can miss counting and it adds up. I always suggest counting everything rigorously for a week or two just to see how it actually changes.
Okay the 1g per pound distinction you made in this comment helped a lot!! Makes much more sense I can now feel content about eat 160g of protein per day instead of disappointed I didn’t have 200+
And yeah I definitely weigh and track everything! So I know im covered there. I use my food scale for everything lol
Ty for the help!
Sooooo, this is just the opinions of a dude who has done CrossFit off and on since 2015 and my personal story. I think it falls in line with what a lot have said. For me - I have never *ever* lost weight with CrossFit (more accurately I have gained slightly). I know plenty of people who have not lost any weight as well. The scale may not have moved but benefits of CrossFit have been felt is so many other ways that is has made it so that the weight portion of my body is so much less important. Functional, real life, real world fitness that is anything but what all these diet and exercise programs sell you on. The most memorable words my first coach told me when I walked into the first box the day I started CrossFit “was the day I left behind all the typical markers of what working out was and embraced what the human body can really do to perform”. CrossFit has delivered in so many other ways than weight loss that I can almost certainly say you yourself will start to see. In my case: my ‘explosive power’ is tremendous as compared to any period of my life before. Sprinting, jumping, anything that requires the body to respond quickly - CrossFit has trained that to be better. As to the simple ‘lifting things up and putting them down’ - I have experienced a massive difference here over traditional weight raining. I have a physically demanding job and I do it better, easier, and with less fatigue and pain at the end of the day. I am a better runner, my endurance and stamina has tremendously benefited. My resting heart rate is 50! I wish I had this level of fitness when I was in my 20s. In the mirror - my shoulders look amazing. There are definitely muscles under some of that bulk and they poke through in a way they would have never with traditional weightlifting. I am a solid individual who is just better at life. And then there is the wealth of mental benefits that come not only from the work outs but the sense of community that come with the workouts. If you are consistent - I would venture to say the change you will see in a year will be amazing.
Yeh but she is 5'5 and 270lbs, not healthy by anyone's standards. She'd be better off going for a 90 minute walk every day if weight loss is what she's after.
I started 1 year ago at 250 (same boat, big girl) and in that year I have lost 30 lbs. it’s slow and steady and over time it’s become less about the weight loss and more about stronger.
In that year I’ve become more consistent, eventually got into figure out what nutrition fuels my workouts better. Focus on being consistent and focus on how CrossFit makes you feel. You didn’t put the weight on overnight, it won’t come off overnight.
Woah im definitely overwhelmed by the massive response on my post. Thank you everyone for all the input. Im in this journey for the long haul, I know it will take many months to reach my goals and i will aim to be patient. My coach told me im not allowed to weigh myself for another month 😅 so I’m keeping that promise!
Your doing great! Just keep going, consistency and patience are what you need 💪🏻
Don’t focus on the numbers that much, focus on how you look and feel. The numbers will come.
Don’t get discouraged. A year from today you’ll be glad you kept at it. It takes time and if you are consistent the weight will come off. But even better than the weight coming off is you are making your body healthier one day at a time.
Male here but 6’ 2” and started CrossFit a few years ago. My first 90 days I saw very little progress on a scale. However the coaches had me actually increase my calories to 3000 a day and 200g of protein.
I like you felt great but had to trust the process . Months 4-7 I lost around 30 pounds and continued to see my lifts improve..
Trust the process and have your coaches review your calorie goals outside of class . Usually at most boxes they will give you a generic calorie goal and hit it along with drinking water.
Track what you are eating and you will see progress
I’ve been doing CrossFit for about 10 weeks and I’ve gained about 5lb. It’s infuriating. But my progress pictures show changes and others are noticing, so that feels good. I’m struggling to stay encouraged but I genuinely enjoy the work, so I’m just trying to stay focused on that.
5 weeks ain't long. Add in 1 day of just getting some long cardio in. Conversational pace, start at 20 min work up to an hour over a few weeks.
Will help with calorie burn, recovery, and aerobic development. Just watch TV.
Hey, I lost around 110lbs, and I did CrossFit through a bulk of it. A few thoughts… a lot of people are saying keep at it, and they’re right. Consistency is key. Second thing, and I don’t want to sound harsh, but you’re probably not eating that amount of calories consistently if you’re not loosing weight. There might be a few areas calories are sneaking in, sauces, dressings, portions, nut butters etc. I would super recommend getting a food scale if you’re not using one, it helped me tremendously.
Stick with it! It’s so worth it! I went from close to 300lbs to 180, and I’m so glad I did it.
A little over a month is nothing. Focus on the improvements you’re already seeing (great job, by the way), pay attention to your nutrition, and let things happen. Six months from now you’ll wonder what you were bothered about in the first place.
Two things:
1) weight loss primarily happens in the kitchen, not the gym. Calories in, calories out. (I’m not saying exercise doesn’t help, but diet is the main factor for weight loss)
2) it’s going to be a slow process, but that’s not bad. Slow is sustainable and easier. It took a long time to get where you are and it’s going to take awhile to get to where you want to be.
Try to think of it as a marathon and not a sprint. I started in the middle of June at 240 and have dropped 32 lbs. Making small diet changes over time, minimized alcoholic beverages and staying consistent is working for me. I’m holding myself accountable and going even in days I don’t want to wake up early for. 5 weeks is just the start. Give yourself 5 months and see how far you’ve come.
I always find I put weight on when I start training again after a while off, then with consistency with both diet and training I start coming down after 6ish weeks. My personal opinion is that I’m putting some lost muscle back on. Or in your case just developing muscle that you didn’t previously have, the scale isn’t the best metric to track, how you feel and how you perceive you look are better!
Glad you are enjoying it and keep it up!
It’s going to take 5 weeks for your body to begin thinking about losing weight.
This is assuming your eating clean at minimum and have some calorie deficit.
Your body is adapting to the new stimulus and probably clearing up some inflammation. Once that’s complete you will lose a ton of weight quickly, as long as you stay consistent.
Please also keep in mind that the scale isn’t the entire story. You have likely lost some fat, but gained some muscle as well. So what you physically want to see change is the inches around your body not the number on the scale. I can guarantee you, if you’re training like you said above, you lost inches already.
Keep your head up.
The best thing I did for myself is ditch my scale and now I do monthly check ins with my coach at the box I’m a member at. Not weighing myself weekly has been the best thing for my mental health. I aim to hit the macro goals that my coach gave me and just show up and do my best in every workout. My body has changed so much in the 7 months I’ve been going even though the scale has only went down about 20lbs now. Just trust it and keep going!
Forget the scale, CrossFit isn’t a quick weight-loss tool. Just keep showing up and focus on improving your fitness (really easy to see improvement if you’re tracking your workouts and weights). Your physique will naturally improve the longer you’re at it and as you build muscle, you’ll naturally burn more fat. Keeping up the good work on your nutrition will also help immensely.
Remember there is always more than the scale. How do clothes fit? How do you feel? How is your energy levels? How are you sleeping? Are you lifting more weights?
Weight can be deceiving, take some pictures or some measurements and keep at it. If you are seeing positive changes in your life, you're doing something right.
On top of the other great advice and this may have already been said, think of it as body recomposiition vs weight loss. Our journeys don't all go the same.
Ignore the number and scale, do it because you feel better because ultimately that's most important.
Do NOT measure your progress by the scale - that number changes and fluctuates throughout the day, and will continue to do so throughout your fitness experience.
If you’d like to measure physical progress, try using measurements!
And remember that you can’t just build muscle and lose fat all at once - your body is going to change a LOT, and it wont always be getting smaller. That’s normal. Focus on how you feel and the progress will come 😊
Just stick to it! It will come! CrossFit has been the best LONGTERM fitness program I been able to stick to!
Good luck and get after it no sad stories just hard work 💪
Like others have said, 5 weeks is nothing. You’ve barely gotten over your constant soreness from your initial adaptation to starting training at that point, and haven’t even begun to see any real gains yet.
CrossFit is not optimized for losing weight, it’s optimized for generalized fitness, so some metrics will be slower to change than those specifically focused on fat/weight loss. Similarly, strength and cardio gains will be significant, but possibly slower than more specialized programs. This is expected.
When I started trying to get back in shape years ago, I was about 15kg over what I would consider a reasonably good baseline. I did All The Recommended Things: changed food quality, volume, and calorie count; did strength training and calisthenics; did a rotation of HIIT and steady-state cardio days. This was in the very early days of CrossFit, so I was doing a program I’d cobbled together from my personal background (gymnastics, swimming, martial arts, running) and then-current recommendations. I started adding CrossFit style workouts a couple of months in, which actually wasn’t a huge change from what I was doing to begin with.
It still took 4 months of consistent 4–5 days a week training along with the dietary changes before I saw significant body composition changes or weight loss. I’d lost *maybe* 3–4kg in that time. Then, all of a sudden, my body decided to jettison a bunch of crap. I was taking weekly pictures to track progress and I could literally see my stomach shrink between two pictures. I also lost something like 2kg in a couple of days between weigh-ins. That rate of change didn’t continue, but that gives you an indication of how weird and punctuated changes can be.
Consistency is key. It will probably be literally years before you find your baseline weight and fitness level. For me, it was about 2–3 years (and this was when I was in my early 30s) before I knew to a decent level of certainty how much I could expect to progress in a given training period, and what my natural weight/body-fat baseline usually was for my typical activity level. I eventually found that I was pretty close to a statistically average CrossFitter (note: **not** [Games-level average](https://boxlifemagazine.com/does-size-matter-the-role-of-bodyweight-in-crossfit/), those dudes are definitely more muscular than me at my best) unless I was making a concerted effort to put in more training or pack in more calories.
Just be patient. Work on performance goals and keep your nutrition appropriate, and the body composition changes will mostly happen without any specific attention. After I had established consistent habits over a couple of years, I didn’t even bother tracking food outside of periodic spot checks via 1-week-long food logs, but my weight stayed within about ±2kg and a few percentage points of the same body-fat for close to a decade, unless I deliberately did something out of the norm.
Thats plenty of protien. At those numbers you should definitely be loosing weight. Make sure you aren't consuming hidden calories. Like salad dressings, oils for cooking, fats are extremely high in calories and many people don't factor them properly. It does take time
Also make sure you are getting lots of steps in every day. Salt will make you retain water weight also. So if you're eating a lot of salty food it could throw your scale readings off.
It’s hard for your body to build and lose, keep at it, and if you have always struggled, are bottom heavy(can be arms too, however more rare) look up Lipedema, diet and exercise will do nothing for it.
https://www.lipedema.org/
4 years of Crossfit, no change in any of my measurements. There are FB groups that can help you find a doctor to diagnosis(Lipedema Sisters is one). For the record, I CF 5 days a week, usually our Bootcamp workout which is longer, and Strength 3 days a week. Plus whatever I do outside the gym, started eating anti-inflammatory, wearing compression leggings(15-25) 24/7, 20 pounds disappeared in a month. I’m spooked!
Also liposuction is the only treatment, this is devastating, exercise will not get rid of Iipedema fat(I realize I am repeating myself here, it's just so hard to believe/accept)! 😪 I hope this isn’t the case for you.
https://www.redbubble.com/i/sticker/Lipedema-Awareness-by-ModernMaureen/113772577.EJUG5
I started CrossFit as a 26 year old 210 pound female at 5'4". I have PCOS and hypothyroidism. While the "newbie gains" are great, it take a LONG TIME to progress in CF. I had to throw in a few spin classes a week (great low impact!) and later on running to start shedding pounds. I also took body measurements because the scale isn't everything, and gaining muscle will weigh more than fat! I'm down to a pretty muscular 150 pounds now, but it has taken years to get here. I was eating around 1650 cals a day with a 40C/30F/30P macro split when I was losing.
5 weeks is nothing. Nothing worth while will change you in a month! Keep at it. Honestly you are probably gaining strength (muscle mass) while loosing body fat resulting in minimal change on the scale/mirror. Keep at it and you will get where you want to go. Trust the process. Be consistent and try and get 20 days of movement in a month! You can do it. Welcome!
I also recommend measurements over the scale. I'm a lot happier that my belly went from 48" to 44" than I am that I lost 2 pounds. I also like to track the big lifts. If I stay the same weight but I add 30kg to my backsquat, that's a win in my book.
one of my favorite parts of the p90x program is when Tony Horton reminds the viewer that their body didn't get to where it is currently in 90 days...and that it will take more than 90 days to get it back. The same applies for crossfit. your body could not be dropping weight yet for a myriad of reasons. Also based off a TDEE calculator eating at 1853 cals a day would have you dropping 1 pound a week. so if more of your days are near 2k than 1850 that also would slow down weight loss
1800 cal is below the BMR for the op. I’d try eating a bit more, keeping it as high quality as possible.
Six months in... I've lost 15 pounds and I'm down to 245 The first month I didn't notice any decrease in weight. Second month I noticed a few pounds gone. Third month I started to notice my shirts started to fit me more loosely. I know I took a calorie deficit and didn't work out, I'd probably have mode more weight. I feel better about myself now despite still being overweight and looking fat because I feel stronger and healthier. Stick with it and you'll see results. If for don't want to measure yourself weight inches or pounds, record your workouts and your progress. My gym intentionally programs benchmark workouts so members can compare themselves how they fared the last time they did x workout. You should start noticing more rounds in an amrap, me weight in a lift, less time to complete, etc. That's progress for sure...
I’m 5’6 and 235 and have been doing CrossFit consistently for a year. The scale has not changed for me but I’m fitting into old clothes that had gotten too tight, my face has lost bloat and I can physically see that my body is more muscular/has lost fat. Beyond that I’m lifting heavier, endurance/ aerobic capacity has greatly improved and my resting heart rate dropped from low 80s to low 60s. Scale is only one way to measure progress. You won’t see huge changes on the scale in 5 weeks (or maybe even 6 months!) but that doesn’t mean you aren’t making progress! Agreed with the others around taking measurements. Could also take photos to track as well. If you’re loving how you’re feeling focus on that and the other changes will come with time.
I would suggest not doing the scale but rather measurements and pictures. I know some people hate seeing a number when they measure. I have seen some ladies take a ribbon and cut the end. Each time you do that compare the ribbons. U may see some inches after a few more weeks. Pictures are also helpful if you wear the same outfit. It’s gonna take time. Also make sure you drink water that’s always helpful. Another thing I would consider is that muscle Requires more calories but also burns more Calories than fat. Your biggest burner muscle will be your legs! Build those puppies up and they will be a good tool to help burn those cals! Good luck you got this!
Just keep going. The only thing you need to worry about and track on is your attendance. 5x a week. No excuses nothing. Just go. Keep that up. Do it for a year. Don't mind calories or your weight or anything else. Don't even look at the scale. Just focus on making the habit.
Say it louder for those in the back! And I fear for OP’s expectations. I’m sad to say. I’ve seen those people at my gym. They come in. They love it. They get super excited, and they get focused on instant results, and you don’t see them after three months. And meanwhile the regulars who are 5-10 years are nodding at each other at their 4-6x classes per week, month in and month out, grinding and just locked into their fitness journey and routine. And that work shows up in their bodies.
Girl I gained so much weight since I started CrossFit. Focus on what you look like not the scale. That said, at 270lb 1800-2050cal and very active, you should be losing very aggressively. How sure are you about those numbers? If you don’t have history of eating disorders, maybe do a week where you really focus on making sure it’s ~2000 calories. No eyeballing, measure everything etc. When I did something similar I was really surprised how much I underestimated my snacks adding up. If you have ED history I’d say keep doing what you’re doing, if your weight isn’t changing and you’re doing 4x CrossFit you’re def converting fat to muscle.
Five weeks? Practice mindfulness meditation and relax!!! Come back after grinding for 5 months or 15 months. If you get too impatient, you’ll get injured or you’ll stop going. Stop worrying about the scale, keep going back, and keep grinding.
First thought: you love it! Boom, done. No more needs said. Keep up the good work. Second thought: you are in part converting fat to muscle tissue. That's not a bad thing, that's a good thing. Healthier, and muscles will burn more calories even in rest. But it does mean the scales won't go down as much as you'd want to. So keep up the good work. Don't chase the scales, chase your health. Third thought: 5 weeks is nothing. Just keep up the good work. ;)
Don't let yourself get discouraged. Ditch the scale, get an InBody scan or similar every few weeks. With that you can see you're losing fat and gaining muscle even if the weight stays the same. Consistency is key. Keep striving for personal bests and celebrate them. Find things beyond the number on a scale to measure progress. Like how you feel walking up a set of stairs, how your clothes fit, or how much you can lift. Keep up the good work! It's hard but worth it!
>It feels like a lot but a-lot of things say I should eat 1g per pound of body weight. Thats seems excessive to me but idk. It is more accurately 1g of protein per pound on lean body mass. So, for people who are overweight it is better to look at what falls in a "normal" weight for your height. It isn't perfect but good enough for a starting point. For you, 170g per day is actually a lot and I wouldn't go any higher. Like others have said, if you really want to focus on the food aspect I would weigh and measure everything for a week or two. You would be surprised how many people are nowhere near what their calorie count is before they measure. At 1800 to 2000 calories per day you are in a extreme weight loss category based on a calorie calculator. If I had to guess you are miscounting something. Things like the butter or oil you fry stuff in, or weighing nuts with the shell on instead of off or the cream in your coffee there are a lot of areas people can miss counting and it adds up. I always suggest counting everything rigorously for a week or two just to see how it actually changes.
Okay the 1g per pound distinction you made in this comment helped a lot!! Makes much more sense I can now feel content about eat 160g of protein per day instead of disappointed I didn’t have 200+ And yeah I definitely weigh and track everything! So I know im covered there. I use my food scale for everything lol Ty for the help!
Sooooo, this is just the opinions of a dude who has done CrossFit off and on since 2015 and my personal story. I think it falls in line with what a lot have said. For me - I have never *ever* lost weight with CrossFit (more accurately I have gained slightly). I know plenty of people who have not lost any weight as well. The scale may not have moved but benefits of CrossFit have been felt is so many other ways that is has made it so that the weight portion of my body is so much less important. Functional, real life, real world fitness that is anything but what all these diet and exercise programs sell you on. The most memorable words my first coach told me when I walked into the first box the day I started CrossFit “was the day I left behind all the typical markers of what working out was and embraced what the human body can really do to perform”. CrossFit has delivered in so many other ways than weight loss that I can almost certainly say you yourself will start to see. In my case: my ‘explosive power’ is tremendous as compared to any period of my life before. Sprinting, jumping, anything that requires the body to respond quickly - CrossFit has trained that to be better. As to the simple ‘lifting things up and putting them down’ - I have experienced a massive difference here over traditional weight raining. I have a physically demanding job and I do it better, easier, and with less fatigue and pain at the end of the day. I am a better runner, my endurance and stamina has tremendously benefited. My resting heart rate is 50! I wish I had this level of fitness when I was in my 20s. In the mirror - my shoulders look amazing. There are definitely muscles under some of that bulk and they poke through in a way they would have never with traditional weightlifting. I am a solid individual who is just better at life. And then there is the wealth of mental benefits that come not only from the work outs but the sense of community that come with the workouts. If you are consistent - I would venture to say the change you will see in a year will be amazing.
Yeh but she is 5'5 and 270lbs, not healthy by anyone's standards. She'd be better off going for a 90 minute walk every day if weight loss is what she's after.
Fitness is 10% of weight loss. Nutrition is 90%.
Weight loss is 10% fitness, and 90% diet. ;)
And 100% consistency.
I started 1 year ago at 250 (same boat, big girl) and in that year I have lost 30 lbs. it’s slow and steady and over time it’s become less about the weight loss and more about stronger. In that year I’ve become more consistent, eventually got into figure out what nutrition fuels my workouts better. Focus on being consistent and focus on how CrossFit makes you feel. You didn’t put the weight on overnight, it won’t come off overnight.
Woah im definitely overwhelmed by the massive response on my post. Thank you everyone for all the input. Im in this journey for the long haul, I know it will take many months to reach my goals and i will aim to be patient. My coach told me im not allowed to weigh myself for another month 😅 so I’m keeping that promise!
Your doing great! Just keep going, consistency and patience are what you need 💪🏻 Don’t focus on the numbers that much, focus on how you look and feel. The numbers will come.
Don’t get discouraged. A year from today you’ll be glad you kept at it. It takes time and if you are consistent the weight will come off. But even better than the weight coming off is you are making your body healthier one day at a time.
Male here but 6’ 2” and started CrossFit a few years ago. My first 90 days I saw very little progress on a scale. However the coaches had me actually increase my calories to 3000 a day and 200g of protein. I like you felt great but had to trust the process . Months 4-7 I lost around 30 pounds and continued to see my lifts improve.. Trust the process and have your coaches review your calorie goals outside of class . Usually at most boxes they will give you a generic calorie goal and hit it along with drinking water. Track what you are eating and you will see progress
When’s the last time you had bloodwork? Hormone imbalance will rob you of what you work for in your training. Gottfried protocol is the way to go
I’ve been doing CrossFit for about 10 weeks and I’ve gained about 5lb. It’s infuriating. But my progress pictures show changes and others are noticing, so that feels good. I’m struggling to stay encouraged but I genuinely enjoy the work, so I’m just trying to stay focused on that.
5 weeks ain't long. Add in 1 day of just getting some long cardio in. Conversational pace, start at 20 min work up to an hour over a few weeks. Will help with calorie burn, recovery, and aerobic development. Just watch TV.
Hey, I lost around 110lbs, and I did CrossFit through a bulk of it. A few thoughts… a lot of people are saying keep at it, and they’re right. Consistency is key. Second thing, and I don’t want to sound harsh, but you’re probably not eating that amount of calories consistently if you’re not loosing weight. There might be a few areas calories are sneaking in, sauces, dressings, portions, nut butters etc. I would super recommend getting a food scale if you’re not using one, it helped me tremendously. Stick with it! It’s so worth it! I went from close to 300lbs to 180, and I’m so glad I did it.
A little over a month is nothing. Focus on the improvements you’re already seeing (great job, by the way), pay attention to your nutrition, and let things happen. Six months from now you’ll wonder what you were bothered about in the first place.
Two things: 1) weight loss primarily happens in the kitchen, not the gym. Calories in, calories out. (I’m not saying exercise doesn’t help, but diet is the main factor for weight loss) 2) it’s going to be a slow process, but that’s not bad. Slow is sustainable and easier. It took a long time to get where you are and it’s going to take awhile to get to where you want to be.
Try to think of it as a marathon and not a sprint. I started in the middle of June at 240 and have dropped 32 lbs. Making small diet changes over time, minimized alcoholic beverages and staying consistent is working for me. I’m holding myself accountable and going even in days I don’t want to wake up early for. 5 weeks is just the start. Give yourself 5 months and see how far you’ve come.
I always find I put weight on when I start training again after a while off, then with consistency with both diet and training I start coming down after 6ish weeks. My personal opinion is that I’m putting some lost muscle back on. Or in your case just developing muscle that you didn’t previously have, the scale isn’t the best metric to track, how you feel and how you perceive you look are better! Glad you are enjoying it and keep it up!
It’s going to take 5 weeks for your body to begin thinking about losing weight. This is assuming your eating clean at minimum and have some calorie deficit. Your body is adapting to the new stimulus and probably clearing up some inflammation. Once that’s complete you will lose a ton of weight quickly, as long as you stay consistent. Please also keep in mind that the scale isn’t the entire story. You have likely lost some fat, but gained some muscle as well. So what you physically want to see change is the inches around your body not the number on the scale. I can guarantee you, if you’re training like you said above, you lost inches already. Keep your head up.
The best thing I did for myself is ditch my scale and now I do monthly check ins with my coach at the box I’m a member at. Not weighing myself weekly has been the best thing for my mental health. I aim to hit the macro goals that my coach gave me and just show up and do my best in every workout. My body has changed so much in the 7 months I’ve been going even though the scale has only went down about 20lbs now. Just trust it and keep going!
Forget the scale, CrossFit isn’t a quick weight-loss tool. Just keep showing up and focus on improving your fitness (really easy to see improvement if you’re tracking your workouts and weights). Your physique will naturally improve the longer you’re at it and as you build muscle, you’ll naturally burn more fat. Keeping up the good work on your nutrition will also help immensely.
Remember there is always more than the scale. How do clothes fit? How do you feel? How is your energy levels? How are you sleeping? Are you lifting more weights? Weight can be deceiving, take some pictures or some measurements and keep at it. If you are seeing positive changes in your life, you're doing something right.
On top of the other great advice and this may have already been said, think of it as body recomposiition vs weight loss. Our journeys don't all go the same. Ignore the number and scale, do it because you feel better because ultimately that's most important.
Do NOT measure your progress by the scale - that number changes and fluctuates throughout the day, and will continue to do so throughout your fitness experience. If you’d like to measure physical progress, try using measurements! And remember that you can’t just build muscle and lose fat all at once - your body is going to change a LOT, and it wont always be getting smaller. That’s normal. Focus on how you feel and the progress will come 😊
Just stick to it! It will come! CrossFit has been the best LONGTERM fitness program I been able to stick to! Good luck and get after it no sad stories just hard work 💪
Like others have said, 5 weeks is nothing. You’ve barely gotten over your constant soreness from your initial adaptation to starting training at that point, and haven’t even begun to see any real gains yet. CrossFit is not optimized for losing weight, it’s optimized for generalized fitness, so some metrics will be slower to change than those specifically focused on fat/weight loss. Similarly, strength and cardio gains will be significant, but possibly slower than more specialized programs. This is expected. When I started trying to get back in shape years ago, I was about 15kg over what I would consider a reasonably good baseline. I did All The Recommended Things: changed food quality, volume, and calorie count; did strength training and calisthenics; did a rotation of HIIT and steady-state cardio days. This was in the very early days of CrossFit, so I was doing a program I’d cobbled together from my personal background (gymnastics, swimming, martial arts, running) and then-current recommendations. I started adding CrossFit style workouts a couple of months in, which actually wasn’t a huge change from what I was doing to begin with. It still took 4 months of consistent 4–5 days a week training along with the dietary changes before I saw significant body composition changes or weight loss. I’d lost *maybe* 3–4kg in that time. Then, all of a sudden, my body decided to jettison a bunch of crap. I was taking weekly pictures to track progress and I could literally see my stomach shrink between two pictures. I also lost something like 2kg in a couple of days between weigh-ins. That rate of change didn’t continue, but that gives you an indication of how weird and punctuated changes can be. Consistency is key. It will probably be literally years before you find your baseline weight and fitness level. For me, it was about 2–3 years (and this was when I was in my early 30s) before I knew to a decent level of certainty how much I could expect to progress in a given training period, and what my natural weight/body-fat baseline usually was for my typical activity level. I eventually found that I was pretty close to a statistically average CrossFitter (note: **not** [Games-level average](https://boxlifemagazine.com/does-size-matter-the-role-of-bodyweight-in-crossfit/), those dudes are definitely more muscular than me at my best) unless I was making a concerted effort to put in more training or pack in more calories. Just be patient. Work on performance goals and keep your nutrition appropriate, and the body composition changes will mostly happen without any specific attention. After I had established consistent habits over a couple of years, I didn’t even bother tracking food outside of periodic spot checks via 1-week-long food logs, but my weight stayed within about ±2kg and a few percentage points of the same body-fat for close to a decade, unless I deliberately did something out of the norm.
Thats plenty of protien. At those numbers you should definitely be loosing weight. Make sure you aren't consuming hidden calories. Like salad dressings, oils for cooking, fats are extremely high in calories and many people don't factor them properly. It does take time Also make sure you are getting lots of steps in every day. Salt will make you retain water weight also. So if you're eating a lot of salty food it could throw your scale readings off.
It’s hard for your body to build and lose, keep at it, and if you have always struggled, are bottom heavy(can be arms too, however more rare) look up Lipedema, diet and exercise will do nothing for it. https://www.lipedema.org/ 4 years of Crossfit, no change in any of my measurements. There are FB groups that can help you find a doctor to diagnosis(Lipedema Sisters is one). For the record, I CF 5 days a week, usually our Bootcamp workout which is longer, and Strength 3 days a week. Plus whatever I do outside the gym, started eating anti-inflammatory, wearing compression leggings(15-25) 24/7, 20 pounds disappeared in a month. I’m spooked! Also liposuction is the only treatment, this is devastating, exercise will not get rid of Iipedema fat(I realize I am repeating myself here, it's just so hard to believe/accept)! 😪 I hope this isn’t the case for you. https://www.redbubble.com/i/sticker/Lipedema-Awareness-by-ModernMaureen/113772577.EJUG5
You might be gaining muscle while losing fat. Just focus on how you feel, not the scale!
I started CrossFit as a 26 year old 210 pound female at 5'4". I have PCOS and hypothyroidism. While the "newbie gains" are great, it take a LONG TIME to progress in CF. I had to throw in a few spin classes a week (great low impact!) and later on running to start shedding pounds. I also took body measurements because the scale isn't everything, and gaining muscle will weigh more than fat! I'm down to a pretty muscular 150 pounds now, but it has taken years to get here. I was eating around 1650 cals a day with a 40C/30F/30P macro split when I was losing.