When did losing fat get so f@#$%n hard?

[halez]

:? I used to be able to skip a couple of meals and lose weight! Last year I lost 10kg by just doing an hour of cardio 5 times a week - no calorie counting and still drank alcohol.

I got lazy and have now eaten myself to 85kg; I'm 5 foot 9. I was hardly ever exercising and eating crap every day, until July this year. I decided enough was enough and cut out all the crap, and started my cardio again.

By last month (September) I'd lost nothing, not a single kilo. WTF? How is that possible, with the changes I made?

So in the last month I've picked up my game. Joined a gym and started weight lifting, building up slowly to now aiming for 60 mins 3x per week. On the days I lift, I do 30 mins HIIT. On off days I do 60 mins on the eliptical. 3 or 4 nights a week I do a 60 min hill walk with friends which includes about 5 mins of climbing stairs.

I now eat CLEAN AS, usually 1500 - 1600 cals a day, macros 40p/30c/30f.

I've still lost barely nothing.

In the first week I lost 2kg and about a cm in all areas. In the 2nd week I got told to increase my cals to 1900 - 2000. I did this and put on a kg and got all bloated. So I had to work to lose that. On Saturday I had my first cheat meal, 3 slices of vegetarian pizza, and I had the weekend off exercise to rest my body, and I put on 800g over the weekend. Day 3 of this week and I still haven't lost it.

How is this even possible? I go from never exercising and eating like a slob, to the above, and I'm not losing? Scientifically - with the 3,500 deficit blah blah blah - how can I NOT be losing weight??? Yest I decreased my cals to 1400. Not sure how much lower I can go. So I eat 1400 cals, my mbr is 2,400, and yest I burnt an extra approx 1,000 cals... how can the scales nor measurements not change?

Do I just keep persevering? If so, I refer to my above statement, when did losing fat get so f@#$%n hard?

[ThePman]

:? I used to be able to skip a couple of meals and lose weight! Last year I lost 10kg by just doing an hour of cardio 5 times a week - no calorie counting and still drank alcohol.

I got lazy and have now eaten myself to 85kg; I'm 5 foot 9. I was hardly ever exercising and eating crap every day, until July this year. I decided enough was enough and cut out all the crap, and started my cardio again.

By last month (September) I'd lost nothing, not a single kilo. WTF? How is that possible, with the changes I made?

How old are you, if I may ask?

So in the last month I've picked up my game. Joined a gym and started weight lifting, building up slowly to now aiming for 60 mins 3x per week. On the days I lift, I do 30 mins HIIT. On off days I do 60 mins on the eliptical. 3 or 4 nights a week I do a 60 min hill walk with friends which includes about 5 mins of climbing stairs.

I now eat CLEAN AS, usually 1500 - 1600 cals a day, macros 40p/30c/30f.

I've still lost barely nothing.

That's a whole lot of activity on fairly low calories.

How is this even possible? I go from never exercising and eating like a slob, to the above, and I'm not losing?

Water retention and inflammation can do funny things in women, especially if you go from "nothing" to "a whole lot" without much time to adjust to it.

Scientifically - with the 3,500 deficit blah blah blah - how can I NOT be losing weight??? Yest I decreased my cals to 1400. Not sure how much lower I can go. So I eat 1400 cals, my mbr is 2,400, and yest I burnt an extra approx 1,000 cals... how can the scales nor measurements not change?

Do I just keep persevering? If so, I refer to my above statement, when did losing fat get so f@#$%n hard?

Believe it or not you may actually be doing too much on too little food. There seems to be some hormonal wackiness that happens with women that get too aggressive in their efforts.

[halez]

Hiya, I'm 29.

I have heard the 'eating too little is counter productive' theory, but when I upped to 2000 cals I put on weight. Plus I was bloated and full all the time...

[ThePman]

That could just be water weight, too.

As a rule fast changes in weight are just going to be water, muscular glycogen, and food in your gut.

Real changes in tissue take longer to happen.

[Ordy]

Put up what a typical days food would be.

It might be clean food but the wrong types.

[halez]

Here's yesterdays (and typical) diet:

1: 1/2 c porridge, 2 eggs, 1/2 c berries.

2. Few rice crackers, tbsp p.butter, 1/2 c greek yoghurt w 1 scoop protein powder.

3. 1/2 c Tuna, 1/2 c brown rice, 1 c brocolli.

4. Protein shake with 1 egg.

5. 4 oz steamed beef, 1 c brocolli.

6. 1/2 protein bar.

1,444 cals, 40p/30c/30f.

All measured so cals are accurate...

[biggurl27]

May be your body composition is changing and stacking on muscle or up the duff or just getting old like me :grin: Trials with dif foods too some people find oats bloat them, maybe try an omlette for breakie which you can whip up the night before

[rose]

I agree with Pman re hormonal wackiness, fluid retention and inflammation. You have to get your hormones in check to get anywhere in the fat loss game.

If your breasts are tender and holding fluid, it could be hormones. Magnesium supplementation can help. Many people don't get sufficient amounts of magnesium in their diet and it's an essential mineral.

Some other thoughts:

- Maybe you've made too many changes and haven't given your body a chance to adjust before making more changes?

- Maybe a particular food you're eating is causing the fluid rentention. You can get tested for allergies but intolerances can be harder to test for/pinpoint. Common ones from your diet could be oats, yoghurt (lactose) or even your whey if it's concentrate (lactose again). Simple test, try eliminating one for a week and monitor. If no change, eliminate something else for a week. Or eliminate all common allergens and reintroduce one at a time and monitor.

- Maybe those macros don't work for you. There are schools of thought that different people respond to different macro ratios. You could try adjusting, e.g. more protein, less carbs etc.

[Flex]

I used to be able to skip a couple of meals and lose weight! Last year I lost 10kg by just doing an hour of cardio 5 times a week - no calorie counting and still drank alcohol.

I'm not up with the play re womans hormones and water retention however I'd say your problem started with your previous diet strategy of cutting cals, lots of cardio and eating/drinking shit. The weight you lost would have been mainly muscle meaning you became what's known as a Skinny Fat Person. That effectively lowered your metabolic rate, hence leading to rapid fat gain once the training stopped and the cals went back up. Coupled with your current high training volume and low cal intake now your body is locked in survival mode and doesn't want to burn stored fat for fuel instead preferring to burn muscle tissue and store fat.

Your best bet now would be to focus on your weight training to increase your muscle mass, maintain a moderate cal intake with 6ish meals per day, lean protein in each meal, moderate carbs and essential fats. If you are counting cals you should increase your cals to say 2000cals, then drop by 5% for two weeks. If no fat comes off, drop by another 5% for two weeks. Keep dropping by 5% until you start to lose fat. Don't look too much at the scales as you should be gaining a bit of muscle mass so get a regular bodyfat test done instead. Work in two week intervals as your body doesn't add or lose fat (or muscle) particularly quickly so looking at your weight gain over the weekend doesn't mean you've gained that much fat mass.

Cheat meals are good for your sanity and will make your life a whole lot more livable if you allow yourself a bit of a cheat once a week so don't beat yourself up for that.

[rose]

I'd say your problem started with your previous diet strategy of cutting cals, lots of cardio and eating/drinking shit. The weight you lost would have been mainly muscle meaning you became what's known as a Skinny Fat Person. That effectively lowered your metabolic rate, hence leading to rapid fat gain once the training stopped and the cals went back up. Coupled with your current high training volume and low cal intake now your body is locked in survival mode and doesn't want to burn stored fat for fuel instead preferring to burn muscle tissue and store fat.

Good summary.

[halez]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I would wholeheartedly agree that I have stuffed my metabolism up, both through dieting and through having a child (I could eat anything pre-baby).

Have spent most of today surfing the net and have decided I will follow the body for life programme, which is pretty much as suggested above. Keep up the food intake, weights 3x per week, drop so much cardio.

Will keep you posted.

[rose]

Good luck

[runveerun]

Body For Life programme is great! You can't go wrong there! Good luck :grin:

[Sakura]

Lots of people have had success with BFL :nod: . Best of luck to you, let us know how you get on.

[Sheta]

May be your body composition is changing and stacking on muscle or up the duff or just getting old like me :grin: Trials with dif foods too some people find oats bloat them, maybe try an omlette for breakie which you can whip up the night before

I agree with BG - get your stats done!!! The scales will give you weight but will NEVER tell you how much muscle or fat you gain/lose.

Get them done every 2-3 weeks by the same person (for accuracy) to monitor your progress...and good luck!

[Lilly]

And get a pregnancy testing kit from the chemist shop. If only to rule that out as a cause!

[nicksmith3]

Hiya, I'm 29.

I have heard the 'eating too little is counter productive' theory, but when I upped to 2000 cals I put on weight. Plus I was bloated and full all the time...

Hey Halez, there can be many variables as to why there was no initial weight loss. There would have still been progress, as using weight as a gauge for your progress isn't recommended..

Ie, you could possibly have gained 1kg of muscle and lost 1kg of fat over that time. So a body recomposition change.

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[Princesse_de_Cleves]

Hey if a doctor could not speak to an overweight person about their condition if they have stated that it offends them, then they get no treatment based on that and they die. Its the darwin award all over, if they are too stupid to realize its not criticism they fall off the rolls. Or their rolls fall off or something like that.