Frustrated, what am I doing wrong?

Artemisia

Artemisia

New member
I've been dieting and exercising for a while now, I did lose weight (went from a uk 22 to a 12/14) but for some reason it stopped working.
I eat healthy foods, mostly, I'm dairy intolerant so I use soy yoghurt, milk, etc which, in my opinion, doest just taste nicer that the "real" thing, it also contains less calories.
I also try to eat things with fiber, light crackers, etc.
I try to stay away from eating potato, lots of bread, cheese, I eat pasta in moderation, very few snacks, no sweets, etc.
I try drinking allot of water which is going well.
I never drink any soda or pop, whatever you call it.
Once in a blue moon I'll drink iced green tea which is low cal.
I aim for 1280 calories a day, always had trouble going over (kept a diary).
I currently weigh about 78 kilo's and I'm 5'1 so I'm still obese (bmi 32.5) and rather desperate to lose more weight.

I've been working out 5 times a week, I do a warm up (8 mins), at least 30 mins of aerobics, 20 mins of floor exercises (legs, arms abs) and a cool down (8 mins).
Recently bought a wii fit in addition to that, also do that every day for 30 mins (only started 3 days ago).
My sister wants to get rid of her rowing machine, and I said I'd like to buy it as I've heard it's a good workout that works the whole body.

So why am I losing weight so slowly, or not at all even?
Do I need more exercise (I have no job and thus sit around most of the day), change of diet, eat more, eat less?
How much should I burn with exercising anyway? I'm very confused by that.
 
About 3 or 4 weeks.
 
Well done on the weight loss. A 22 to a 12/14 is awesome!

Heres my theory...I think when you started losing weight, your body was very inefficient at burning calories 'cause it knew you were really good at eating a surplus. So...if you ate 4000 calories pretty much everyday...you probably passed alot of those cals right thru you. (Or you'ld gain like 5 lbs a week) which probably wasnt happening with you.

When you started your calorie restriction, your body learned to become more efficient....It is processing most of the calories and letting very little get by.

Two things to try.....Cut down another 100-200 calories for a week and see what happens. Make sure you weigh your food and don't estimate portions. Count booze calories too.

Second...try a cheat day once a week. Make sure its healthy food and add 500 - 750 calories for one day. Bodybuilders have been known to do it...whether its a psychological or physical benefit I don't know....but alot claim positive results.

Good luck!
 
Artemisia said:
I've been dieting and exercising for a while now, I did lose weight (went from a uk 22 to a 12/14) but for some reason it stopped working.
I eat healthy foods, mostly, I'm dairy intolerant so I use soy yoghurt, milk, etc which, in my opinion, doest just taste nicer that the "real" thing, it also contains less calories.
I also try to eat things with fiber, light crackers, etc.
I try to stay away from eating potato, lots of bread, cheese, I eat pasta in moderation, very few snacks, no sweets, etc.
I try drinking allot of water which is going well.
I never drink any soda or pop, whatever you call it.
Once in a blue moon I'll drink iced green tea which is low cal.
I aim for 1280 calories a day, always had trouble going over (kept a diary).
I currently weigh about 78 kilo's and I'm 5'1 so I'm still obese (bmi 32.5) and rather desperate to lose more weight.


I've been working out 5 times a week, I do a warm up (8 mins), at least 30 mins of aerobics, 20 mins of floor exercises (legs, arms abs) and a cool down (8 mins).
Recently bought a wii fit in addition to that, also do that every day for 30 mins (only started 3 days ago).
My sister wants to get rid of her rowing machine, and I said I'd like to buy it as I've heard it's a good workout that works the whole body.

So why am I losing weight so slowly, or not at all even?
Do I need more exercise (I have no job and thus sit around most of the day), change of diet, eat more, eat less?
How much should I burn with exercising anyway? I'm very confused by that.
Click to expand...

Hi there,

Well done on your weight loss, that is fantastic.
But now, it seems from what you say that you are plateauing. I've been there, it is very annoying. I was a size 20, now a size 8, but I distinctly remember really plateauing at size 14, and getting annoyed with it. I managed to get the ball rolling again by increasing the intensity of the exercise and knocking a few extra things out of the daily diet. I drank less booze during the week and did very minor things like switching from a full fat Latte at the coffee shop to half fat, that sort of thing.
So I suggest you figure out what little things you can knock out out of daily food, nothing too major, and then I wouldn't increase your 5 days to 7 days of exercise a week, I suggest simply increasing the intensity of each work out.
What cardio do you do? Whatever it is, up the intensity a little bit, so whatever RPM's you are on, increase it a little. If you are feeling brave, do some "intervals", i.e. normal speed for 4 minutes, sprint for 60 seconds, recovery slow speed for 1 minute, then repeat the cycle for 30 minutes. Intervals make a MASSIVE difference.
Also if you are quite sedentary during the day, this means you really do have to focus on fine-tuning your work outs. I noticed the biggest thing that made a difference to me was little things like walking to the supermarket instead of taking the bus. Walking up the flight of stairs instead of taking the lift/escalator. Walking to my friends house instead of taking the train, etc. Just being an "active" person, means you burn more calories. Its a major life shift, but its well worth it.
Good luck. :)
 
Throw some free weight exercises into your routines 2-3 times a week. No it won't butch you up like a body builder, but it will torch the hell outta fat and make sure your skin remains supple and toned and reduces sagging.
 
Thanks everyone!
I really appreciate the help and also the compliments :)

I've decided to order a book called the Harcombe diet which sounded really good, it pretty much promotes healthy eating and stop counting cals.
Hoping this will help me.
Book hasn't arrived yet though.

In addition to this added some more high intensity exercises, as suggested, to my exercise routine by doing Billy's bootcamp which is really really tough (for me lol!) and my muscles ache like hell but I think it's great cause now I actually feel them working at all if you see what I mean.
I'm also getting a rowing machine, my sister gave me hers for free (bless her!), but because she lives in a 3 high apartment I need someone to take it down the stairwell for me.
I did try the machine it out and it was a very nice work-out.

I wished I could go and do those free weight exercises as you suggested Aesir, but I'll have to go to a gym, which isn't very accessible by bus in my area (I can't ride a bike and have no car) and I also can't afford to join one :(
 
Artemisia said:
Thanks everyone!
I really appreciate the help and also the compliments :)

I've decided to order a book called the Harcombe diet which sounded really good, it pretty much promotes healthy eating and stop counting cals.
Hoping this will help me.
Book hasn't arrived yet though.

In addition to this added some more high intensity exercises, as suggested, to my exercise routine by doing Billy's bootcamp which is really really tough (for me lol!) and my muscles ache like hell but I think it's great cause now I actually feel them working at all if you see what I mean.
I'm also getting a rowing machine, my sister gave me hers for free (bless her!), but because she lives in a 3 high apartment I need someone to take it down the stairwell for me.
I did try the machine it out and it was a very nice work-out.

I wished I could go and do those free weight exercises as you suggested Aesir, but I'll have to go to a gym, which isn't very accessible by bus in my area (I can't ride a bike and have no car) and I also can't afford to join one :(
Click to expand...

Hi Artemisia

Looks like you are on a great way to reach your goals. I would like to put my few cents in to help you out.

One thing which I haven’t seen in your posts and the most important one is nutrition. Counting calories is one thing (I am not a fan of it) and eating food which does not trigger fat storage process is other. So WHAT you eat is more important than HOW many calories. You can be in the limit of whatever calories number you set up eating whole wheat bread with honey..and no it’s not gonna help you to lose fat.

Also too much high intensity exercise (over 75 % of your HR) will further slow down your fat burning process and you stress your body beyond it’s recuperative limits releasing stress hormones which further make it hard for fat mobilization as energy source. So slow down on cardio (few hours a week max.) plus add strength exercise (you don’t need gym- start with body exercises) and once a week quick high intensity sprints or sprint row (since you already have a rower which is by the way one of the best cardio machines).

Bottom line nutrition is about 80 % so don’t worry about calories but what exactly are you eating. I would be happy to help out further if you have questions
 
red head said:
Hi Artemisia

Looks like you are on a great way to reach your goals. I would like to put my few cents in to help you out.

One thing which I haven’t seen in your posts and the most important one is nutrition. Counting calories is one thing (I am not a fan of it) and eating food which does not trigger fat storage process is other. So WHAT you eat is more important than HOW many calories. You can be in the limit of whatever calories number you set up eating whole wheat bread with honey..and no it’s not gonna help you to lose fat.

Also too much high intensity exercise (over 75 % of your HR) will further slow down your fat burning process and you stress your body beyond it’s recuperative limits releasing stress hormones which further make it hard for fat mobilization as energy source. So slow down on cardio (few hours a week max.) plus add strength exercise (you don’t need gym- start with body exercises) and once a week quick high intensity sprints or sprint row (since you already have a rower which is by the way one of the best cardio machines).

Bottom line nutrition is about 80 % so don’t worry about calories but what exactly are you eating. I would be happy to help out further if you have questions
Click to expand...

Hi Redhead, your reply was really interesting. Do stress hormones really make it hard for fat mobilization as an energy source? Crazy stuff. If the stress hormones stop you using fat as the energy source, when you are doing over 75% HR, what does the body use as the energy source? If your glucose/glycogen supplies have been depleted as well, what does the body use? This is fascinating stuff......

Thanks in advance,
Sophie
 
red head said:
Also too much high intensity exercise (over 75 % of your HR) will further slow down your fat burning process and you stress your body beyond it’s recuperative limits releasing stress hormones which further make it hard for fat mobilization as energy source. So slow down on cardio (few hours a week max.)
Click to expand...

Where did you hear this? (It's nonsense)
 
Maybe red head was referring to elevated cortisol levels..which isn't really harmful unless it's constantly elevated (due to stress, diets such as those very high in sodium, etc). The bit about what you eat being more important than calories is crap too. At the end of the day it's calories in vs calories out.

My advice to the OP would be to eat at maintenance for 1 or 2 weeks (2 if you've been dieting constantly for a few months now). It will help your body get back to normal (ie restore leptin levels) and you might notice yourself getting slightly slimmer even while eating at maintenance as the fat loss you are failing to see now makes itself visible. And when you start eating at a deficit again, consider eating a few hundred more calories, like around 1400-1500..1280cal not including that which you burn from exercise a day is pretty low for someone who is 78kg, and going lower than 1280 is just going to lead to more crashes and stalls.

In terms of exercise, your 30 mins of aerobic is the only thing I would really count, the amount you burn with the warm up, floor exercises, and wii fit, while helpful in terms of flexibility and suhc will be negligible calorie wise in comparison to the aerobic activity.
 
Artemisia said:
About 3 or 4 weeks.
Click to expand...

That's not nearly long enough to start getting concerned. Give it more time. Just make sure you're burning more calories than you are consuming and be patient. 3 or 4 weeks isn't long enough for someone to start getting frustrated. It takes time, so...just be patient.
 
Tamago said:
Maybe red head was referring to elevated cortisol levels..which isn't really harmful unless it's constantly elevated (due to stress, diets such as those very high in sodium, etc). The bit about what you eat being more important than calories is crap too. At the end of the day it's calories in vs calories out.
Click to expand...
Completely and utterly false. All calories are not equal. This is the biggest myth I see here day after day, I think it's time I squashed this one flat now.
 
Jynus said:
Completely and utterly false. All calories are not equal. This is the biggest myth I see here day after day, I think it's time I squashed this one flat now.
Click to expand...

I agree, and great article by the way! Thanks for the link! :D
 
Harold14370 said:
Where did you hear this? (It's nonsense)
Click to expand...

Hi Harold

I respect everybody's opinion.

Besides seeing “results” of “chronic cardio" on my own eyes from dozens of clients and even on myself you can find tons of articles on-line. Just Google “chronic cardio” or check this excellent article from Mark Sisson:


Red Head
 
sophienaz said:
Hi Redhead, your reply was really interesting. Do stress hormones really make it hard for fat mobilization as an energy source? Crazy stuff. If the stress hormones stop you using fat as the energy source, when you are doing over 75% HR, what does the body use as the energy source? If your glucose/glycogen supplies have been depleted as well, what does the body use? This is fascinating stuff......

Thanks in advance,
Sophie
Click to expand...

Hi Sophie

I’m sorry I was maybe not clear enough. By exercising over 75 or maybe 80 % of HR on almost daily basis for long period of time you stress your body beyond it’s restorative abilities. When stressed your body releases stress hormones (cortisol etc). Once you body depletes all glycogen you will have slow down to turn to oxidative pathways (yes should be taking energy from fat- in theory at least ), however at that point you may be already so exhausted and stressed that you will not last long at that stage (plus it wil not be much fun for sure), further more because you deplete all your glycogen after your workout your sugar sensitive brains will BEGG you for sugar. This is a beginning for a circle which is hard to win.

By focusing on activities you like and enjoy (play!) and keep at comfortable HR for most of the days combined with 2-3 intense strength training sessions per week (increase of growth hormones, more muscles burning more energy and speed up metabolism) combined with one a week all out effort (yep 100% all you got for a very very short time) combined with nutrition with low processed carbs and no grains, mainly vegetable, fruits, good fats, meat, fish, eggs you’ll be far better than 80 % of all people in gym (who are trying to lose fat). I’m seeing this every day….

There is tons information on line, Mark Sisson is one of the best authors who explains this in very simple terms:


I hope I did not further confuse you.

All the best

Red Head
 
red head said:
Hi Sophie

I’m sorry I was maybe not clear enough. By exercising over 75 or maybe 80 % of HR on almost daily basis for long period of time you stress your body beyond it’s restorative abilities. When stressed your body releases stress hormones (cortisol etc). Once you body depletes all glycogen you will have slow down to turn to oxidative pathways (yes should be taking energy from fat- in theory at least ), however at that point you may be already so exhausted and stressed that you will not last long at that stage (plus it wil not be much fun for sure), further more because you deplete all your glycogen after your workout your sugar sensitive brains will BEGG you for sugar. This is a beginning for a circle which is hard to win.

By focusing on activities you like and enjoy (play!) and keep at comfortable HR for most of the days combined with 2-3 intense strength training sessions per week (increase of growth hormones, more muscles burning more energy and speed up metabolism) combined with one a week all out effort (yep 100% all you got for a very very short time) combined with nutrition with low processed carbs and no grains, mainly vegetable, fruits, good fats, meat, fish, eggs you’ll be far better than 80 % of all people in gym (who are trying to lose fat). I’m seeing this every day….

There is tons information on line, Mark Sisson is one of the best authors who explains this in very simple terms:


I hope I did not further confuse you.

All the best

Red Head
Click to expand...

Hi Red Head,

Oh thanks for that further explanation, that makes a lot of sense. If only we could last much longer when we turn to fat as the energy source then the whole process could be much faster for reaching our targets. But yes, I find if I work out in the morning, when the glycogen/glucose is low, I must be using my fat sources a lot more, but the desire to eat afterwards is phenomenal, really extraordinary, you're right about that. It takes great inner strength to not pig out afterwards.

I guess we need to find the right time of the day that suits our needs and makes the exercise as fun as possible, that way we can stay as motivated as possible. I find afternoon workouts terrible, I"m way too tired, but evening is no problem, I pick up big time. But morning for me is always the best time, I can achieve a lot on very little food, if that makes sense.Its like having that 7/8 hours of sleep gives me the energy I need.

THanks again and I'll go read that link now.
 
Tamago said:
Maybe red head was referring to elevated cortisol levels..which isn't really harmful unless it's constantly elevated (due to stress, diets such as those very high in sodium, etc). The bit about what you eat being more important than calories is crap too. At the end of the day it's calories in vs calories out.

My advice to the OP would be to eat at maintenance for 1 or 2 weeks (2 if you've been dieting constantly for a few months now). It will help your body get back to normal (ie restore leptin levels) and you might notice yourself getting slightly slimmer even while eating at maintenance as the fat loss you are failing to see now makes itself visible. And when you start eating at a deficit again, consider eating a few hundred more calories, like around 1400-1500..1280cal not including that which you burn from exercise a day is pretty low for someone who is 78kg, and going lower than 1280 is just going to lead to more crashes and stalls.

In terms of exercise, your 30 mins of aerobic is the only thing I would really count, the amount you burn with the warm up, floor exercises, and wii fit, while helpful in terms of flexibility and suhc will be negligible calorie wise in comparison to the aerobic activity.
Click to expand...

Hi Tamago, thank you for your post.

Jynus, thanks a lot for the post and the article I wanted to respond earlier regarding the favorite myth "calories in/out" but you did it for me, thanks.

Tamago if you are right and calories are all same, than I should be still losing weight if I eat donuts and drink pop provided I count the portion size and calories. Right? It's calorie vs calorie? All the same...

As for the cortisol yes I was referring to stress induced by high intensity exercise. There is nothing wrong with it if it's brief, but the problem I see is most of people in the gym exercising beyond their 75 or 80 % of their max HR for a LONG time (30 minutes plus) DAY after DAY...this put so much stress on the body it has no time to recover.

Great article from Jynus, check it out.

All the best.

Read head.
 
I haven't posted for months but I do enjoy reading the site but this thread bothers me.

I do cardio (with resistance) plus core and upper body resistance 5 - 6 days per week (1.5 days per day) and have been doing so for over 3 years now. I have yet to see the downside. My heart performance has improved, muscle build is good & I have gradually built the intensity to my current level. I can get pretty tired by 10pm but overall energy is excellent.

I do agree that calories are not calories. I don't calorie count but I have had a marked improvement in energy since reducing carbs and increasing fruit & vegetables. There's something in the food types we eat & that article was an excellent explanation.

As for the OP.

Your lifestyle change has been brilliant! Well done you! But some points:

- your body is not a machine & speed of weight loss may vary - give it a bit more time
- trust the diet & exercise programme you have developed for yourself - it looks good & there is no reason you will not continue to get to your goal - maybe just ditch the scales & enjoy the programme knowing you are doing something good for yourself
- it does seem to take longer to reduce weight the closer we get to our goal - the weight loss seems to slow down - I have no idea why - perhaps we simply have less to lose

Hang in, stay on course & you will get where you want to go.
 
First of all congrats on what you have achieved so far. It's great! I know with you efforts, you will get to where you want to be.

Since I've started my journey I've done a whole shit load of reading and research and though I'm far from an expert I'll some advice from what I've seen work.

I think both calories AND what you eat are important. It's no use dismissing one or the other and utilising both courses is more beneficial.

If you continue plateauing, try eating at maintenance levels for a week then go back to restricting calories. Saying that, still keep eating healthy that week. I think the cheat day/meal is great when you do it periodically, e.g I do it once a week).

Also, you don't need to go to a gym to do resistance training. Use your body weight. Push-ups, squats, reverse squats, lunges etc. If you don't have free weights, use a heavy can of something or fill empty milk bottles with sand/water. Interval training is also great.

Just some stuff to try if you need it :)

Good luck with your journey. Xx
 
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