I was trying to switch up my diet routine from 3 meals to 5 a day, to see if I was able to drop some pounds more easily in conjunction with my work out routine of 4-5times/week. I recently found this Q&A on the 3-hr diet that says:

If you are considered petite, you may plateau more quickly on the 3-Hour Diet™ than someone who has more weight to lose or is taller. A larger body burns more calories. That’s all there is to it. As you lose the weight, you’ll need to adjust your diet accordingly.

http://3hourdiet.com/home/index.php?page=FAQ

I want to drop some weight in the next 2 weeks, I'm 5'3 and less than 150lbs, and then if I plateau I don't want a diet that will prolong it if you know what I mean....any advice?

Everyone has plateaus. I probably weigh almost twice as much as you, and I was on a plateau for 5 weeks, even though I have a 400-500 calorie daily deficit.

I generally eat 5 "meals" a day -- well, actually, it's 3 meals with 2 snacks. I don't ever get hungry.

There's no guarantee you won't reach a plateau. For me, that's the way the weight seems to come off. I drop 5 pounds, then plateau for 4 or 5 weeks, then drop 4 pounds, etc. You just have to be patient.

How often you eat doesn't have anything to do with whether you'll burn calories. They seem to have a "eat what you want, just every three hours" thing as their plan. THIS is where a smaller body will be screwed. If you are smaller and don't have far to go, you really do need to watch the calories you're ingesting, or have some other idea of what you're eating. Otherwise, you'll wind up with not enough deficit and therefore will lose slowly, not at all, or potentially gain depending on your food choices and activity level.

Eating every three hours is a good thing... but it is a completely across the board thing... big people and little people should do this. But how much you eat is what determines your weight loss, not how often.

There are some good posts on Traineo about breaking plateaus. I know Aoife and others weighed in on one thread and the advice looked pretty good.

Your body adapts to diet and exercise. You need to switch what you're doing to get past a plateau.

Most serious body builders, for example, eat six meals a day. They often reach plateaus, but they break through by switching their exercise and not necessarily their diet.

I broke through mine by switching my diet but I ate double calories for a week. Lost 5 lbs. weird I know.

double calories? with double work out? hmmm, it's hard to know how much I should consume in calories, if I'm trying to loose 15lbs....

So far my average daily menu has been:
3 Egg whites and veggie meat - breakfast
yogurt- snack
Salad and soy meat with feta cheese and dressing
snack - apples and 2 tbsp peanut butter
Dinner- some carb before work out
snack- protein shake

is that enough? not enough? It's really hard to do portion control for someone who can EAT and EAT....

I'm only trying to lose 5 pounds now and it's hard, I think so far I've lost 2 pounds but I have a feeling it's because I weighed myself in the afternoon at the beginning and therefore weighed more...

I'm not consistent enough with my deficit so that's probably the reason I'm not shedding pounds...

is it possible also over the couple of weeks that some of the cardio (I know cardio doesn't give you a lot of muscles but it should give you some right?) and weight training has contributed to maybe 1 pound of muscle? and so... I haven't shed any weight but has shed fat?

That's possible too, that you might have put on muscle. The closer you are to your ideal weight, the more important it is to start measuring body fat rather than just weight.

@Joann I see you're doing protein supplementation. If you're workout routine is primarily cardio, I'd aim for between 0.7 to 1.0g of protein per lb. body weight in a day. You need 0.4 - 0.5g just to keep your body from burning muscle. If you're doing some heavy lifting, I'd aim for 1.0g per lb.

I'd recommend putting more focus on muscle building workouts in conjunction with increasing your caloric intake in increments of 100 or 200 calories. Unfortunately, you have to experiment a bit -- and you shouldn't expect to see significant results in fewer than four weeks per experimental cycle.

I'm trying to do high protein, low carb for 2 weeks to bring my weight to a place where I'm comfortable at the gym...it's psychological I know~ But how can I find protein supplement when I don't eat meat? It's difficult!

Are you a vegetarian?


Ok, let's break down what you have here:

3 egg whites, at 10-15 calories each, being a bit generous, that's 45 calories.
Veggie meat... if I have veggie sausage it's usually 80 calories for 2 links or one patty.
Assuming that's the case, you're having a 125 calorie breakfast.
How do you expect to rev your metabolism on 125 calories after fasting all night?

Salad:
greens and stuff, maybe tomatoes, etc. I'll be generous and say a whopping 50 calories.
feta cheese would be... oh again let's be generous and say you have a bunch, 100 calories.
Soy meat. Depending on what it is, usually around 50-150 calories, we'll guess 100 since it's with salad and such.
Depending on the dressing you're using, it could be anywhere from 50 calories to 250, so we'll assume you're going with a low cal dressing since that seems to be what you're shooting for and say 100, for a good sized salad.
This makes your salad a decent meal of 350 calories.

Snack:
pb is 180-200 calories.
apples... on average we'll bump it to 100. a big apple would be more, a smaller one less.
This is a 300 calorie snack. not bad.

dinner:
"some carb"
talk about ambiguous. Pasta is 200 calories a serving, rice is almost that much. we've already discussed what a bunch of greens would be. Let's say you're having a mound of pasta, 2 servings, 400 calories, and sauce... about 100.
That would make it 500 calories, which is a bit heavy, but we're prolly overestimating. Still reasonable, though a protein source would be good here.

snack:
shake... if made without milk it'd be 100-150 calories, with milk about 200-250. Not bad, remember that you'll want some carbs post workout... simple ones, so if your shake has milk or is sugared a bit it would be ok.

Your total calories for the day?
125+350+300+500+250 = 1525 on the big side.
125+350+300+300+150 =1225 on the small side.

The first number is okish overall, the second is not. Either way you need more food for breakfast, to fuel yourself throughout the day, and if your dinner is really the 500 estimated, you can take some calories from there. Remember that you want to eat more in the morning and not more in the evening, you want to have all day to burn what you eat, not all night to pile it on as fat.

You still could be eating too little. Really count and measure for a week. You'll have a better idea of what you're eating. Even if it's only one week. As you can see, there can be a big difference than just simply listing the foods and thinking you're good.

...

What?

I know, I know.....kinda stupid, but I went on vacation for a month I came back feeling like I had gained enough weight for people to notice and I feel uncomfortable....so, maybe they are not thinking 'oh, my she's gotten fat' but I have no control over the lowered confidence level...but that will change...

BTW, Aoife, Thanks so much for taking the time to do the break down, you've mastered the calorie counter thing....I'm still learning...this whole diet and lifestyle change is nothing more than a processs.......

Actually, you are the only person with control over your lowered confidence level.

Wear a black t-shirt.

If I see you at the gym I'll give you a high five. But how you decide to interpret the absolute italicized awesome that I would transmit to you through said high five is, well, entirely up to you.

Correction, I have no control over the way I feel....but my lowered confidence has not made me stop working out....so it's mind over matter...anway wasn't this thread about dieting? lol

Besides the fact that how you feel about yourself affects how you treat yourself and your success level when it comes to your fitness plans...

People don't give a crap what you look like. I've gained 15 pounds since I've started my gym, and no, it's not muscle, it's pure, jiggly fat. Noone gives a hoot. My yoga instructor didn't notice, my trainer (when I happen to see him) hasn't said anything. You're in there working, so it doesn't matter if you've put on some weight, you're working.



nah, just wear clothes that fit and aren't too tight. People always look their best when they wear clothes that fit them.