I'm not giving up, but...

[bronzediamond]

I have to admit, I'm discouraged. Need some expert advise. I gain muscle and fat very easily, but at 5'4, 195 I need to lose a great deal of fat. Since September last year, I have been lifting, doing cardio and cleaning up the diet, but just really got serious a few months ago. For the past 2 months I have only lost 5 pounds. I can feel the change in my body as far as how my clothes fit, but to be honest, I want the scale to move. I'm not willing to stop lifting, and want to go heavier, but I'm really spooked by that scale. Shouldn't I be seeing progress there too?

Routine: 30-45 min cardio (Treadmill, Outside Track) 6 days per week. Upper body resistance (Dumbells) Monday, Wednesday
Lower body Tuesday, Friday. Rest Sunday

Typical Diet:
Meal 1-1cup oatmeal, 2 tbs pb
Meal 2 Lowfat yogurt, bannana
Meal 3 Serving of lean meat, 2 cups steamed veggies, brown rice or baked white potato
Meal 4 Serving of Cheese cubes, Fruit
Meal 5 See Meal 3
Meal 6 Cottage Cheese or Oatmeal

There is very little variation on the diet. I have not allowed myself any "cheat days", because I want to see the weight come off.

[LAM]

join up at www.fitday.com (http://www.fitday.com) and start counting calories.

with the desire and motivation that you have the hard part is over. from what I can see in your diet it is low in essential fatty acids(EFA's) which are required for the oxidation of stored fats. your EFA intake should be around 3-5% of your fat intake. your overall fat intake is to low (the body needs fat to burn fat), it should be around 20-30% of your daily calories. your soluble fiber intake is also low.

[q22weasel]

also, the scale may not be moving as fast as you would like because you are gaiing muscle while u lose fat. muscle weighs more than fat does. tweak up the diet and keep giving it hell!

[Cherie]

I do not knoe if you are male or female. What do you consider a good rate to lose fat? Going by run of the mill dieting weightloss is very quick, coz its muscle, water, not just fat. It takes at least 4 weeks for a body on average to adjust to a diet. Have oyu lost 5 pounds of fat? I think its best to go down in weight slowly, coz if its quick you gain it back plus some. Do you weight yourself at the same time of the day? Do you weigh yourself everyday or eevry week? Weight fluctuates. Do you have other means of measurement, like tape measurements. They are more reliable. Don't get hung up on the scale.! I am no expert but you eat little protein. Maybe you should enter your stats into fitday to give yourself a more exact idea of your micronutrients. Its a bit of a pain at first but once you have built up a database its a great guidline to keep you on the straight and narrow.

Cherie

[hilltowner]

I agree with Cherie- you need more protein. Try and get at least 195 grams a day. Otherwise, your diet isn't bad.

Cheese cubes are probably not a great choice; better to have lean chicken, beef, or fish. Try to have some protein and unprocessed carb at all 6 meals.

Are you moving up weights as soon as you can finish the reps in all sets? This is very important.

Are you sure you're eating *enough*? I know from personal experience that undereating can wreck your progress just as easily as overeating. Do you know approx. how many calories you eat?

[bronzediamond]

I'm a 37 year old female...I was thinking my metabolism would improve as I continue lifting. (I hope..)I weigh once a week. I would like to lose 1/2 to a pound a week. I can tweek the diet to include more efa's and soluble fiber. I never count calories because I don't want to get hung up on seeing this as a diet as much as a lifestyle change, but I'm rarely hungry. I'm afraid that I really screwed up my metabolism when I was younger because I was a yo-yo dieter.
(the things we do when we lack knowledge..:)

[Serendipity]

isn't doing cardio 6 days a week a bit much? or am i wrong?

[RGianos]

Your overall calorie/protein intake is too low IMO. Also, as LAM stated your EFA intake is non-existant.

[bronzediamond]

Normally, I would agree, but I have a lot of fat to lose, and since I'm eating to build muscle as well, I want to keep the fat gain in check. It's mainly walking, so it's not that intense.

[RGianos]

<blockquote><font class="small">Posted by: bronzediamond:</font><hr> Normally, I would agree, but I have a lot of fat to lose, and since I'm eating to build muscle as well, I want to keep the fat gain in check. It's mainly walking, so it's not that intense. <hr /></blockquote>

Despite popular opinion, drastically lowering your overall calorie intake is not the direction to take when trying to achieve optimal fat loss results, IE: preservation of LBM.

Your overall calorie intake is unique to you as an individual based on the amount of LBM your body possesses as well as your overall average daily activity level. From this, the goal is to create an acceptable, but moderate calorie deficit. Protein intake should be approximately 1.5 grams per pound of LBM, not total body weight. Carbohydrate intake should be kept low, especially processed carbs/breads.

Think of your body's metabolic rate as an advanced alarm system with triggers set to go off based on what you are doing to it. Drastically lowering your overall calorie intake below recommended levels will trigger your body to adapt accordingly, which in this case, will be to LOWER your metabolic rate in accordance with the goal of preserving food stores. Thus, you are likely to store fat more readily as well as lose existing fat at a much slower rate than someone who is creating a slight calorie deficit.

Your diet is going to be more important in your fat loss goal than your exercise.

In the case of cardio I would recommend short/high intensity workouts. This will not destroy LBM and will also raise your overall metabolic rate for longer periods of time than a long session with lower intensity. Think of quality not quantity. I would only recommend low intensity long cardio sessions to those who already have relatively low BF% levels.

Hope some of this helps you...

Good luck.

[nikybaby]

As long as your body composition is changing I wouldn't worry too much about the scale. I have the same problem and REALLY, REALLY want to see the scale go down. I was getting discouraged just last week until I tried on a pair of pants that was skin tight last month and discovered I had to use a belt!! /forum/images/graemlins/laugh.gif That pretty much made my day, and reminded me that I don't need to look at the scale, just the mirror!!

[hilltowner]

[ QUOTE ]
Your diet is going to be more important in your fat loss goal than your exercise.<hr /></blockquote>

Oh, I couldn't agree more!

Cardio does NOT burn fat; it burns *calories*. Much better to eat well and build up your muscle mass; the muscle will take care of burning the fat for you.

[Serendipity]

Scales are evil. I am constantly gaining and losing 5lbs on a daily basis. On the other hand I can see and measure the difference in my body. So maybe you should stick with measuring inches rather than weighing pounds.

[GoMom]

Dont give up! You are very disciplined! Maybe you need more protein. You need protein to build muscle and your diet looks lean on protein. I find that a good protein shake (especially on lifting days) sometimes 2 a day works well. Take your pick on which kind. I suggest whey over soy, though. Do you have enough energy in your workouts? Dragging through them? Dont get into the Hydroxycut. You dont need that! Just feed your body with good food timed right. As far as Essential fats--Yes! Flaxseed oil is great. I take 2 1000g twice a day of flaxseed. Just started that....There are other forms other than gel-caps. I am looking into which is best. Are you hungry enough? A sign of overtraining is diminished appetite! Are you sleeping enough? Not enough is no good for body builders. Take care and God Bless your continued success!! ENJOY what you are doing!

[Bladezz33]

Yes what's up with that??? The scale thingy. I lost two pounds then got on scale yesterday and it was back....now I am back up to 152 lbs.(hmmmm....)

But I too notice clothes to be more loose. So, how can we "accurately" measure our success and not look at the scale. We do expect it to go down after so much hard work and dedication.

Also, I have a question, bodybuilders that say they started at 180 lbs. and flabby and come down to a size 4-6 with 8%-10% bodyfat and lean mass, how long does that take the average Joe working 3-4 days weeks weights/cardio.

Link source: Sherry Gideon
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/gideon.htm

(She is one of my sources for motivation too...)

Bladezz

[RGianos]

To "accurately" measure success use a combination of calipers and a scale, this will show you your levels of LBM and BF.

If you want to get really into it you can measure yourself 14 times a day also.

There is no way to know "how long" any routine/diet/etc. is going to take any given person to achieve the results that they want. Too many factors come into play, the biggest of which is your DNA profile...

[nikybaby]

I dunno about 14 times a day /forum/images/graemlins/laugh.gif LOL but I measure once a month and that's usually long enough to see results (just make sure you measure in the same EXACT places, I use things like birthmarks, moles, etc, as guidelines....) . I have also taken pictures in the same outfit and postition (front, side, back) from day 1. I recently started taking pictures in different poses to gauge muscle growth....

The scale just pisses me off. I use it more to tell if I've gained a significant amount than to tell if I've lost weight. Also, the mirror is pretty hard to gauge results by since I look into it every day.. The pictures are what I look forward to seeing every month....

I am so in your boat bronzediamond!! I'm 5'4", 175ish. I started last March and lost some weight right away but the scale has beenbouncing between the same 7 pounds ever since. Under the direction of my husband I took measurements in July and then agin in October. With the holidays and such I promptly forgot about them until I was complaining again that the scale wasn't moving. He persuaded me to measure again just yesterday. I had lost TWO INCHES from my waist, ONE from my hips, 1/2 from my thighs AND gained 1/2 inch on my bicep (chest stayed the same)!!!!!!!!!!!! /forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif:):):):):):) All with no weight loss on the scale!!!!!!!!!!

Don't look at the scale! I've decided it was invented as an evil torture device that somehow made it to my bathroom floor! Since the devil was living inside it, I threw it away and had the area cleansed of the bad karma /forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif:):)

Oh yeah, I also highly recommend joining www.fitday.com (http://www.fitday.com)! It is wonderful!