I've been trying hard but results are not here

T

timtim85

New member
Hi all.
I am 27 years old, 193cm tall and weight about 104kg.
I go to gym regularly (about 3 times per week) and I run / hike 2 to 3 times per week. I've been doing this for a year and a half now!!
My food is pretty much proteins (fish, chicken, red meat, beans, milk, cheese, cottage cheese...) and some carbs (pasta, rice), plus quality fats (mostly fish oil, olive oil and flaxseed oil).
My body fat is still high though. My body shape is not that bad (muscles are visible) as I've gained some decent muscle mass, but the thing that annoys me still is the fat around my waits (mostly on my back side). I hate it. It won't come off.
What am I doing wrong?
I do fat burning exercises (running...) and I do weight lifting in order to avoid burning my muscles. I eat about 10% less calories than my BMR is. In the winter time I ate a little more calories because I was gaining muscle mass. I have a fast metabolism (I have to go to the toilette right after I eat meal) and I drink green tea / coffee as well.

What am I doing wrong??

Please help me with some good tips.

Tnx.


P.s. I know that it takes time to get rid of the fat, but I've been living a healthy lifestyle for almost two years now. And before I started all this I wasn't even fat, just a little bulky.
 
how are you tracking your calories ? are you weighing your food or just guessing ? What are your workouts like (intensity) ? do you know what your bodyfat % is ?
 
If you feel that you're losing weight not fast enough, further reduce your calorie intake. Sounds like you're getting enough exercise.
 
Trusylver said:
how are you tracking your calories ? are you weighing your food or just guessing ? What are your workouts like (intensity) ? do you know what your bodyfat % is ?
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I am not tracking my calorie intake closely, but I am hungry all the time trough out the day so I guess I am eating less than my BMR and the calories I burn during workout kcal value is.

Maybe I am eating too little calories? But wouldn't that slow down my metabolism? (as I've said, my metabolism is super fast!)
My body fat percentage is around 20%.
My wourkouts (weight lifting) are very intense. My running is quite intense too (I mostly run uphill).
 
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Your BMI is 27.92.

The fact that you are hungry all the time does not sound good. It tends to be better to eat until we are satisfied (so that we do not eat bad things when our resistance is low) - but to ensure that we fill up on low calorie food.

Maybe you should slot in a meal of a small amount of for instance tuna with a big plate full of salad. If you need to cut back on the calories to accommodate it - I would cut out some of the starchy carbs. I pretty much cut out all starchy carbs from my food plan.

Try counting calories carefully for a week or so as it may well identify a high calorie food that has crept into your food plan. Some people eat things that they assume are good for weight loss because they are marketed as being healthy...
 
I'd probably say it's fat calories and quantity. Bet if you cut down on the fats, you'll lose the extra fat. For instance, I was perplexed why I wasn't losing fat. On experimenting, I found out it was that two tablespoons of mayo I was adding to veggies. I cut that out and instead seasoned the veggies with cumin, curry, and the fat loss started again...just my personal experience.

Measure very closely how many calories your taking in vs how many calories your expending on the workouts and cut out eating all that fat. Those things you mention can have a LOT of fat. I don't add any oil of any sort to what I eat, not even fried foods.

After a while, you can come very close to knowing just how many calories you actually need to create a deficit but still taking in enough to fuel workouts, you have to find that number and online calculators come pretty close, you can fine tune later.
 
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I don't believe in "BMI" as it does not take into account the density of your bones and the lean muscle mass. For example, a bodybuilder that weights 130kg can have a BMI of over 30 and he still isn't considered fat.

knotty said:
I'd probably say it's fat calories and quantity. Bet if you cut down on the fats, you'll lose the extra fat. For instance, I was perplexed why I wasn't losing fat. On experimenting, I found out it was that two tablespoons of mayo I was adding to veggies. I cut that out and instead seasoned the veggies with cumin, curry, and the fat loss started again...just my personal experience.

Measure very closely how many calories your taking in vs how many calories your expending on the workouts and cut out eating all that fat. Those things you mention can have a LOT of fat. I don't add any oil of any sort to what I eat, not even fried foods.

After a while, you can come very close to knowing just how many calories you actually need to create a deficit but still taking in enough to fuel workouts, you have to find that number and online calculators come pretty close, you can fine tune later.
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The things is that I don't consume fat. The only fat I consume few omega 3 capsules (fish oil) every night and some olive oil I put on my salad (less than a tablespoon). Also, sometimes, I add a bit of flaxseed oil to my smoothies. I maybe consume 10g of fat per day (that's about 90kcal extra per day). My BMR is about 3500 kcal (calculated using this ). I've selected activity level of 3-5 times per week. 3500 kcal BMR seems like a lot to me. So to lose weight I should eat about 10% of kcal less, that means about 3150 kcal per day. Still, a lot :)

I guess I really need to get down and start counting calories per day. I always hated this and never wanted to try, because it's sooooo boring.

But other than that - my question to you is - why am I sooo hungry all the time? My non-expert opinion is that I eat less calories than I need, am I wrong??

Thanks for your help so far!
 
You would be amazed at the number of people that turn up on forums bemoaning the fact that their weight loss has stalled and they cannot lose a pound. People give many ideas before the realisation sets in that their bmi is something like 17. BMI is well worth mentioning.
 
Omega said:
You would be amazed at the number of people that turn up on forums bemoaning the fact that their weight loss has stalled and they cannot lose a pound. People give many ideas before the realisation sets in that their bmi is something like 17. BMI is well worth mentioning.
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Ok I understand what you mean but how about if I lose all my fat and gain some more muscle and still have 104kg? I would still have a BMI of about 28 but I won't complain :)
Anyway, I really need to start writing my own food diary as it seems that I still eat too much.
But the question remains - why am I hungry all the time? Isn't hunger your body's message that it needs more calories??
 
I know exactly what you mean. I feel the same way.

The fact is that I know how forums work. Lots of people do not automatically think in metric so kg and cm go over their heads...

Body fat % doesnt even give it all automatically as although timtim85 looks likely to be male to me - forum names can be tricky regarding guessing gender and a body fat % of 20 is athletic for a female...

My point in stating bmi was more to draw a line in the sand in the hope of inviting people to reply to you so that it was easy to see that it was not an anorexic posting...

Irrespective of everything - you should not be going round feeling hungry all the time... You need to eat enough healthy food so that you do not do that... There is no need for anyone to feel hungry all the time.
 
timtim85 said:
Ok I understand what you mean but how about if I lose all my fat and gain some more muscle and still have 104kg? I would still have a BMI of about 28 but I won't complain :)
Anyway, I really need to start writing my own food diary as it seems that I still eat too much.
But the question remains - why am I hungry all the time? Isn't hunger your body's message that it needs more calories??
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From what I understand, the feeling of hunger means just the stomach is empty and does not mean the body needs more calories. Speaking for myself, when I began cutting back on food, I did feel hungry but in a short time, it passed and no longer feel hungry today, even with pretty severe calorie restriction.
 
Just to clarify (forgot to mention in the opening post) I am a male.

Regarding drinking enough water - I go by the rule that I drink when I'm thirsty. I don't over hydrate myself just because people says you should drink a lot of water! Drinking too much water isn't good aswell (water flushes minerals out of the body).
I would say I drink about 2 litres of water per day. I also eat a lot of vegetables (contains a lot of water).
 
timtim85 said:
Just to clarify (forgot to mention in the opening post) I am a male.

Regarding drinking enough water - I go by the rule that I drink when I'm thirsty. I don't over hydrate myself just because people says you should drink a lot of water! Drinking too much water isn't good aswell (water flushes minerals out of the body).
I would say I drink about 2 litres of water per day. I also eat a lot of vegetables (contains a lot of water).
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In a healthy adult, 'over hydrating' isn't really an issue. Your body uses what it needs and gets rid of the rest. Water does not 'flush minerals out of your body', either. Unless you force yourself to drink water in excess, it won't do you anything but good. Recommendation is about 3 l, especially in adults who want to lose weight.

Being hungry or thirsty is not a good indicator at all for what you need. A lot of people report that after being hungry for a while, for example, the feeling of hunger eventually disappears. That doesn't mean that their bodies do not require any nutrition. Personally, if I listened to what my body tells me, I would be on about 150 calories and a glass of Pepsi Max a day. There are extended periods of time (2 - 3 weeks) where I just do not feel hungry at all. Even if I skip meals, or in the mornings. I'm simply not. But I do eat regardless, because I know that my body needs the energy. And I'm almost never thirsty. In fact, getting myself to have adequate fluids is one of my biggest challenges, and required a lot of re-training.

People don't 'just say' that you should drink a lot of water. There are countless medical studies that prove the positive effects of drinking an adequate amount of water. And nobody's saying that you have to drink your own body weight in liters or anything like that. Just make sure that you get enough, which according to most reputable sources is around 3 liters for males.
 
3 litres seems like a lot to me. But thanks for advice, I will try to drink more water. I am going to be visiting WC more often than :)

BTW, here's what I ate today 'till now.
In the morning: 1 apple, 1 banana. That's about 200kcal.
Lunch: chicken breast, 250g, 1 wholegrain bagel, 80g. That's about 500kcal.
Total: 700kcal.
I plan on having another lunch today (at 17:00), and a dinner (at around 21:00).

According to my calculated BMR, I still need to eat about 2450kcal. That seems like a lot to me to squeeze into a lunch and dinner :)
 
A lot of people do not realise that it is variable - and we should drink more as we get heavier...

The recommendation of the International Sports Medicine Institute is 1 ounce water for every 2 pounds that you weigh.
 
timtim85 said:
According to my calculated BMR, I still need to eat about 2450kcal. That seems like a lot to me to squeeze into a lunch and dinner :)
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How did you calculate your BMR? I have just done a quick check, and at your height, weight and age it shows me your BMR as 2267 kcal. If you want to stay 10% under, you'd want to get roughly 2000 calories per day. Minus your 700 you already had, that would leave 1300 for the rest of the day, not 2450. That seems extremely high to me.
 
The simple rule of thumb that has a lot of people losing weight on 10 times weight in pounds would give him a target of 2288 calories to shoot for. That suggests shooting for no more than 1600 in the rest of the day.

The 2450 does sound high...
 
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Seems 2450 would be his maintenance intake, where he neither loses or gains, it's close to mine at my activity level. My losing intake is around 1500-1600 to lose 6-8 pounds a month.

And, those calories are with very little fat intake, and elimination of all "junk" food, sweets, etc.
 
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