For me I go to the gym 1 hour 7 days a week. I haven't taken that much time off from it except when the weather was so bad it closed them for several days. I do the treadmill on fat burn for 30 minutes plus a 5 minute cool down. I also do the pulley weights doing 3 sets of 10 exercises per set (30 total). A couple of weeks ago I cut the treadmill to 15 minutes with a 3 minute cool down and increased the weight and number of sets I do on the pulley weight exercises (40 total).
I used to just so ab crunches and cut back on my food intake before joining the gym. I had a weight loss of about 30 pounds in about 8 months. But I only weigh myself every 2-3 months. On the second day after joining the gym I do my weigh in and that's when I know I got my weight down by 30 pounds. I then thought I'm doing good and I haven't changed my diet that much. Anyway, three months later I weigh in again (and this also includes the change in my work out sets ie increase on the weight machines and number of sets) and I dropped 3 pounds. As far as I'm concerned that's a bit low. On the other hand I have a lot better endurance and I can tell the difference with respect to how much I can lift on the machines. I'm going to increase the weights again although I'll keep the number of sets the same for a while.
I'm thinking the weight loss is fat but th reason it's not as much now is because I'm adding on muscle mass? I have felt I can eat a little more since I'm going to the gym BUT I haven't really eaten anymore than I had during the time I already had the 30 pound weight loss BEFORE joining the gym. Anybody else like this?