Hi! I am a 20 year old college student who has free
acess to the gym through school. About 2 weeks ago I
started working out. Doing cardio about 45 about 5
days a week. (Also doing mnor weight lifting just for
arms) I am not doing this necessarily to LOSE weight,
but would like to see a change in my body. (I am 5'2
and about 130 pounds.) Since I started working out I
weight myself at the same time each day. And thus far
I have not lost 1 pound. I do elliptical machines
and it says I burn no less than 400 calories each
time. My diet has change slightly but not much
(because like I said I am doing this just to shape up
a bit) But I guess I though my body weight would
change a little bit by now! I notice my Butt
cellulite has been reduced, actually quite a bit. And
I really like my excercise routine and am afraid if I
change it I wont be motivated. Can anyone give me advice on what I may be doing wrong. Or am I on the
right track to just shaping up a bit. Should I expect
to lose weight, or am I really losing "weight" and
gaining a little muscle instead?

Also I was wondering if someone had advice about when
the best time to work out is. I usually get up in the
morning and have breakfast, then head off to the gym,
so I can get it over with early so it doesnt interupt
my day. Is there a better time to work out?

Thanks so much! I cant wait to hear what you think.
Obvisouly at my school they dont have personal
trainers (that I know of) Its a smaller private
school, so I wasnt sure where else to ask these questions!!!

Thanks! Any response would be helpful

First off, don't weigh yourself everyday. I only weigh once a week. Go by how your clothes fit. Losing pounds means losing weight. The only way to lose weight is to burn off more than you take in. Even if you spend 7 hours at the gym, but eat a zillion calories riddled with high contents of carbs and fat, you won't lose weight.
Stick to your routine if it makes you happy and keeps you going to the gym. I don't really think there is an ideal time to work out, just make sure you go. I work out after work because it's the only time I can during the week and work out in the morning on the weekends.
Cardio work outs burn fat, weight & resistance training build muscle tissue and change your body composition. I suggest a little of both - It works for me. I am in the process of losing 15 pounds and sculpting my body, so I need a combination of both. So far Ihave lost 10 of the 15 I need to lose.
You're young, and now is the time to create good eating and work out habits. Believe me, once you hit your 30's and then 40's, it's alot harder to dump the weight and stay in shape.

wait, i'm sorry, but burn off more than you take in?
you shouldn't burn off all of your calories because then your body will go into starvation mode.

wait, i'm sorry, but burn off more than you take in?
you shouldn't burn off all of your calories because then your body will go into starvation mode.
She means eat less than you burn in total, i.e. throughout the whole day from everything including just your metabolism.

Wait now I am confused. So does it matter how many calories I burn? Or is that irrelevant. I am not "counting" calories, but my diet hasnt really changed much, so I am burning off way more than I was before. I know I cant expect to see results right away, I know it takes like 4-6wks. but burning 400 calories 5 days a week is pretty significant right?

I am by no means an expert, but if nothing else changes except your burning 400 calories a day 5 days a week, that means a deficit of 2000 calories a week compared to what you were doing before. To lose a pound you have to have a deficit of 3500 calories, so it should take you almost 2 weeks to accomplish that (if my math serves me right, and if your weight was constant before this - if you were gaining, you definitely have to spend more to get to this).

To accelerate this you might want to look into cutting down the intake of calories also. Usually to lose 1 pound a week you would have to have a caloric deficit (calorie intake minus all calories spent in a day - metabolism plus exercise) of 500 calories a day 7 days a week. To lose 2 pounds a week would mean doubling that deficit every day (does this make sense?)

So it does matter how many calories you burn, it's just that if you don't combine that with a lower calorie intake, it's going to take longer to see a lower weight.

Again, I'm no expert, but I love math, and this type of reasoning gave me great results. When I kept good journaling of what I ate and how many calories I burned, I could almost predict how much I was going to lose during one week.

And no, don't weigh yourself everyday, fluctuations in water retention, time of the month etc. will definitely impact that. Once a week is much more reliable and encouraging (if you do everything right :))

Now another question then...what about the shape of my body? All weight set aside, doing cardio do I need to lose weight to have my body change? I really wanted to stay away from counting calories, because I just want to tone my body more, not necesarrily lose 15 lbs. But I had also assumed that toning your body especially doing 5x more work out a week than I was doing, I would see some weight loss. When I did weight watchers, I would lose almost (on average) 3.5 lbs per week. I guess thats why I thought I would have lost a little weight by now. Maybe I should go back to some of the weight watchers diet rules, and also excercise. Because now with school starting again it will be VERY hard for me to truly work out 5 days a week. And on the machines at school you are limited to a 1/2 hr only. Hmm I dont want to get discouraged but it sounds like this oculd take a loooooonnnggg time, much longer than I was hoping for. But at least when I do lose weight, it will be true fat right? Not just water weight ect..?!? Well thanks for all the help! I guess now its starting to make sense!

cmal make no mistake exercising alone is not going to get you to where you want to be and getting toned is a matter of reducing body fat. Start thinking of your cardio sessions as not a means to burn calories but as means to super charge your metabolism. Do 16 minutes on your favorite machine at a medium pace. Record your numbers such as how far you went or how many calories you burned. Now the next cardio sessions do the same exercise but beat whatever numbers you produced the day before by a little bit. Stick to the same exercise and do it 4 or 5 times a week continually trying to beat your numbers from the time before. Keep your workouts at 16 minutes. This will have a ever increasing effect on you metabolism. If you do this and back it up with a sensible diet you will burn fat ( not muscle) in the fast and most efficent way possible.