I had surgery almost 6 months ago, and every time I start an exercise routine my weight loss slows down considerably and almost stops. If I have a week where I start a light fitness routine (10 minute cardio workout plus 10 minutes of strength) my losses go from 3 pounds per week to maybe 1 pound. If I stop working out and move less, my losses go back up to 3 pounds.

Anyone else have this experience or have any idea why this might be? I'm not going to complain about not having to sweat my butt off to lose weight, but I do realize I need to do some toning exercises so I don't end up looking flabby when I get to goal.

I must admit I have been quite lazy about my exercise.

One thing EVERYONE told me to do before my surgery that I didn't listen to was make sure I did all my measurements so that when I have a stall or slow down in my loss, I can measure and see that even though I'm not losing weight, I am losing inches.

Have you noticed that your actually more tone on the weeks your loss is lower?

I also find that the more I exercise, the slower the weight loss.

When I did weight training my losses were cut in half. I do find that walking for cardio did well for me, though. I used to walk an hour every day. Now I shoot for 90 minutes, as these last few pounds are much slower coming off.

When we exercise we tone/build muscle mass, even though we may not see it yet. Muscle is considerably heavier than fat so the scale may not show it but we are in fact losing fat at a faster rate than we may think. So keep on exercising it is the best thing we can do.

I have read articles about this as well. The first couple weeks of exercise can slow or even result in weight gain. I have done light workouts with little effect, but did an advanced body pump class followed the next day by an intense 90 minutes session with a personal trainer. I gained 3 pounds on the scale in that 48 hours... But I know it is my sore muscles swollen and holding into extra fluids trying to heal. Don't let the scale discourage you, after your muscles acclimate the excess fluids will be shed and the fat loss accelerated. The inches and fat loss are far superior to the typical loss without exercise.

The more sore you feel, the more you will see the impact on the scale, but it is temporary. Just Fluid retention caused as your body adapts towards becoming a leaner stronger machine.