I have to admit I am getting a bit discouraged.... For some reason I tend to do that.....

I have for the past two weeks only lost 1 lb, and that was last week. I weigh myself every day just to see where I am, but only record it Monday mornings to try and get rid of the daily fluctuations.

I am wondering if anybody has any thoughts, ideas, encouragements, or criticism.

I have lost 46 lbs since the first of the year, so I can't say I am doing bad over all. I am currently at 212 and can't seem to keep it moving like I was before. I am 5'9" and have a medium body build. According to what I can find I am still considered to be obese at a 31.3 BMI.

According to what I find at http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/caloriesneed.htm I need ~3400 calories a day to maintain my weight. Depending on the site I go to and the activity level I show this can fluctuate. I am currently eating on average 1800 - 2300 calories a day with about 1 (maybe 2 at the most) days a week where I am closer to 2800. I call these my bad days, but am still well below my maintenance calorie needs. I have had a couple days over the past couple months were I have tried to eat at a maintenance level and it was difficult to eat that much. I eat 5 meals a day:

Breakfast: 5:30 - 6:00 am (after I work out)
Snack: 9:00 am
Lunch: 12:00 noon
Snack: 3:00 pm
Dinner: 5:30 - 7:30 pm

http://fitday.com/webfit/publicjournals.html?Owner =timwilson

I have been running over the past couple months and this past couple weeks I finally hit 6 miles (and this past Saturday 7) The last couple weeks have looked like this:

Two weeks ago:

Monday: Weight training 20 minutes
Tuesday: 4 miles @ 50 minutes
Wednesday: Weight training 20 minutes
Thursday: 4 miles @ 50 minutes
Friday: Took the day off
Saturday: 6 miles @ 75 minutes
Sunday: Took the day off

Most nights I played some easy baseball with my boy for about an hour and/or walked for about an hour with my wife.

Last week:

Monday: Weight training 20 minutes
Tuesday: 6 miles @ 75 minutes
Wednesday: Weight training 20 minutes
Thursday: 6 miles @ 75 minutes
Friday: Took the day off
Saturday: 7 miles @ 85 minutes
Sunday: 1 mile hard @ 9 minutes

Most nights I played some easy baseball with my boy for about an hour and/or walked for about an hour with my wife.

Previous to these two weeks I was running a couple days a week at 3 miles, and Saturdays at about 4 miles.



With all this info above, I don't understand why I am not still losing each week. I don't think that I am starving myself, because I feel like I am eating plenty - I am not hungry, and if I get hungry I eat something.

HELP!!

Thanks,

Tim

Hi Tim,

you are doing great. I seems like you are experiencing a plateau. No need to worry - many of us have to suffer from this from time to time, despite being good all the time doing exercise and eating healthy.
It will go away!

Good luck

You've definitely hit a plateau, and you need to shock your body to get out of it. Contrary to many people's beliefs, plateaus aren't something that you should just accept. They're something you need to bust through in order to continue making more gains. To do this, it appears as if you need to increase the intensity of your workouts.

From what you say above, only 20 minutes of weight training on your anaerobic days is not enough. You need to at least double the amount of time you spend pumping the iron, and you should focus on compound exercises with a maximum of two minutes rest between sets.

The same goes for your cardio routine, except shorten the distance but increase the speed. Instead of running 12.5 minute miles for 6 miles, run 2-3 at 7 to 8 minutes per mile (or as fast as you can). Or, include some sprinting or progressive bursts of speed.

The more intensity you add to your workouts, the more calories you burn and the higher your metabolism will be.

OK, so I do understand that adding more intensity to my workout will help increase my metabolism, but help me understand something here.

I am eating ~2000 calories a day

I am burning ~200 - 1200 calories a day

This leaves me at between ~800 - 1800 a day for basic bodily functions.

To maintain my current weight I need over 3000 calories a day

With this kind of calorie deficit, shouldn't I be losing weight even if I didn't intensify my workouts?

I guess I just don't understand - how can I be at this much of a deficit, and yet not be burning enough calories?

I have thought about this a bit, and Just last night ran 1 mile at 9 minutes (about the fastest I can do right now) and was getting ready to lower my weekday runs a bit to try and speed them up. I am training for a 10k at the first of July so I wanted to first make sure I could do the distance before worrying about speed. I am OK with running faster as far as my legs go - it is my lungs/breathing that can't carry me faster than the 9 min miles right now.

I am right now doing some different upper body lifting 3 reps of 13 each, should I change that as well? I don't really want to get big - I just want to tone up. btw, forgive me - but what do you mean by compound exercises?

Thanks,

Tim

Compound exercises move the body through more than one joint. Clean and jerk for example.

Contrary to popular belief, your body cannot break the 1st law of thermodynamics. Just because you ingest 2000 calories and burn 1000 calories does not mean you have a deficit of 1000 calories and therefore just lost a half pound of pure fat.

Ignoring the obvious fallacies in whatever you may think you are burning, your body does not operate on an equation that only has those three variables (what you eat, what you did in the gym, what you did all day). While those are the three basic elements to whatever caloric deficit you intend on having, attempting to peg those three values is very difficult, and often subject to a good deal of error. Who knows if you body really expended 500 calories running 4 miles, all you know is that a little counter attached to the treadmill told you so.

The only accurate measure of how how many calories you actually burned is how sore your ass is. That's why Jared has it nailed when he says you need to up the intensity, because chances are your body has figured out how to run 10-12 miles a week an expend the least amount of energy because you have been doing the same workout for months.

Mix it up, increase the intensity.

I'm doing a linear 5x5 program that's suitable for beginners to intermediate lifters that focuses on the big three compounds:

Squats

Bench Press

Deadlift

I'll post about 5x5's elsewhere, but if you do no other lifting exercises, I highly recommend these.

Jared's advice sounds really solid here. Our bodies are fundamentally designed to try and keep some fat on us, just as a matter of survival. As weeks of exercise turn into months, our body starts finding new ways to try and hold on to as much of that stored energy as possible, and will become much more efficient. This means the exactly same activity, or level of exersion, now burns significantly less calories, meaning weight loss grinds to a halt.

Switch things up, and see what happens. Some of my favorite compound lifts you may want to add to your routine, if you're not already doing them: deadlifts, stiff-legged deadlifts, pull-ups, squats, sumo squats, bench press. Love 'em. Building significant muscle mass is very nearly impossible when you are eating at a calorie defecit, so you shouldn't worry about that. Doing a challenging lifting routine several times a week, and hitting all your major muscle groups, will help you boost your metabolism, and help prevent injuries (assuming you do them with good form and common sense).

I currently weigh 246lbs. I figure to maintain I need 2460 calories a day. I am attempting to lose 2 Lbs. a week. So you take your maintain amount multiply by 7days. Subtract 7000 calories thats 2lbs. and divide that by 7 and you get my daily intake of 1460 calories. That has gotten me to where I am now. 71.4lbs lighter than I was just 9months ago. This was with little to no exercise so I would imagine you would have to increase your intake if you exercise.

Tim, according to my calculations your daily calorie deficit is 1,200 to 2,200 calories per day, which is HUGE (subtract 3,000, which is your basal metabolic rate, from your caloric intake after exercise). Even though maintaining a calorie deficit this much in the red may work in the short-term, it will shut down your body's ability to lose weight. In essence, what I think you've done is you've slowed down your metabolism to the point where it's literally not letting you lose weight. This is compounded by the fact that you've been doing the same routine for months.

In order to lose weight, you need to eat. It's that simple. I can't tell you how much you should shrink your calorie deficit, I just know you need to do it. Consume more healthy calories and increase the intensity of your workouts.

After every weight training session, you should be sore. After you run on the treadmill, you should be heaving and gasping for breath. In order to get your muscles to increase their calorie-burning efficiency, you need to teach them to do so. And the best way to do that is by working them into the ground every time you step into the gym.

By the way, check out this link to learn more about compound exercises: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/cyberpump39.htm

It seems counterintuitive, but I agree with Jared. Eating is good. And the more intense your workouts, the more you will need fuel!

We did an exercise on my group site where everyone counted calories for one day. I eat more than anyone on the site (at least when they are following their diets. I don't eat more than someone on a binge of course) - and yet I'm the most consistent loser. Gotta feed the furnace, dontcha know.

I have gone back and forth on that in my mind for some time. I even had a post over a month ago asking if I was putting myself into starvation mode because I was worried about it.

www.traineo.com/8_2309_0.html

Lately I have noticed a trend, sometimes when I got really down on myself for eating too many calories, I would magically lose good that week. I have been trying to eat at least one day a week at about 2500 calories to keep myself from going to low on a consistent basis, but have not been consistent enough because I am worried I will lose ground.

Everytime I thought about it I got worried, but I read somewhere that if I was eating too little my body would tell me and I would be hungry or feel weak - neither of which I felt.

So, based on the numbers above, should I be eating closer to 2300 - 2500 or is that off too? I did my numbers at this site today and came up with 1700 - 2200 as where I should be to lose weight - this is different than most of the other sites I have seen:

www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

I also have been worried lately that my weight training wasn't doing me any good. It used to be that I would leave sore every time, but then I just started not hurting anymore. I would raise the weight and do the same reps, and even do them to failure most of the time, but still was not hurting when I left. I am not sure what I am doing wrong.... unless I have the weight set too high. I guess it is possible that I have the weight set too high because I feel like I am losing my good form - so that is when I feel like I am at failure.

I guess I just have a LOT to learn, so much for thinking I was doing good!

I am going to run shorter distances starting tomorrow and try to up the speed a bit. I have not been very good at pacing myself much faster without killing myself so I have been quite a slow runner. Early on I was told to run slower, but I think that was for me as a beginner - I guess it is time to speed it up a bit.... maybe I should get a heart monitor to help me with pacing so I can keep my heart rate at a good place.

I thank you all so much for your thoughts and suggestions..... I really am worried now that I have screwed myself up with my metabolism, hopefully I can get it back in line without gaining weight.

Thanks again,

Tim

I guess I need to eat more fruits and veggies - based on what I have been seeing on fitday I am doing good in most areas, but a little high on fat (not much) and really low on fiber and carbs. My protein was good.

I am trying to do this already, but I was worried about getting too many calories.

Thanks again - Tim

Well,

I have taken the advice here and have put it to action this first week.

I upped my calories to about 2400-2500 and was able to maintain it for the most part. I think one day I was at about 2000 but didn't want to eat junk just to get myself up to the 2400 area. One thing I noticed is by adding more calories, my diet actually got better. By limiting it to what I did I was not eating as many fruits etc. I am now eating much more fruit since I can afford to from a calorie intake point of view.

I also shortened my run and did 3 miles as fast as I could, I did it in 30 minutes which I know is not really fast, but the fastest I have been able to do one mile lately has been just under 9 min.

I also did another 3 miles at a normal pace and then upped the pace the last mile. I then did 6 miles again on Saturday with a normal pace (I thought) and I actually finished faster than I had before by 5 minutes.... not much, but I felt like I had done it in the same time.

I also changed up my lifting and pushed myself a LOT harder. I knew that I was pushing harder, but the next day I REALLY knew I had pushed harder and it felt great! I missed that feeling for a while.

I added some stationary cycling on my lifting days to try and get a little cardio as well.

Enough of that - the results:

I am down 4 lbs from last Monday.

Thanks all for the thoughts and encouragement!

Tim

Congrats, Tim! It feels really great to break out of a plateau doesn't it?

Hey Tim,
First, congrats on the weight loss! Second, check out my post "Genetix Program Works!". The program provides a doctor and his team of professionals to advise you each day as to your diet and exercise to help you reach your goal--for a very reasonable price. It may help you to fine tune what YOUR body needs to run most efficiently for the last haul to success. Again, keep up the goos work. Let me know if you have any questions about the program after you read the post.

~Amber

Hey! It sounds like you are back on track, but here is some basic info that might help anybody else out if they have these problems. Your body gets, for lack of a better word, "Bored" with constant cardio. I mean, you have to mix it up. You can't just always do running. Try some other cardio methods, and you might see that weight loss start up again. You also want to mix up your weight lifting. Some other cardio options would be the eliptical, biking, cardio classes such as dance or kickboxing, etc. Also, you need to make sure that you aren't over-doing the calorie thing because sometimes if you aren't getting enough calories for your body, it will start storing weight and you will stop loosing. That is my advice.