I've hit a wall when it comes to losing weight.

[Fraleymt]

Five to six months ago I began to exercise with my friend, and i also bought a membership to a gym in my town. For the past six months I've been exercising daily doing a variety of different exercises: running, crunches, bench press, curls, the list goes on, and on. And in these past five to six months I've been able to lose roughly 50 pounds, and I've also managed to increase my muscle mass drastically. but as of late I've noticed my weight loss has slowed greatly coming almost to a stop. I was wondering if this is as far as exercise alone will take me? I'm starting a diet to increase my weight loss, but will, maybe, changing my exercise routine cause the weight to start falling off again.


My Typical Work-out:


.25 to .50 mile sprint

50+ reps bench press ( weight increase of 10lbs. per set)

40 leg extensions

50 calf raises

180 abdominal twists

50 crunches

30 sit-ups

60 tricep extensions

45 bicep curls

small distance sprinting in-between various exercises


these amounts change depending on what muscle groups, but on a typical night this is my work-out

 

[walterb]

Losing 50 pounds just from exercising is pretty remarkable. The fact is that when you lose weight the amount of calorie intake you need to sustain that weight drops. So you may have hit an equilibrium where your intake of calories is equal to the number of calories you are currently burning. You might want to calculate your BMR and see what that tells you. BMR stands for basal metabolic requirement.


You didn’t say how much weight you want to lose or what your calorie intake is typically, but you might try to alter your eating habits just a little bit if you wish to lose more weight. Try deciding how much you’re going to eat before you start and stick with that. Make your portion enough that you won’t need second helpings. Stay away from snacks like potato chips and pretzels for example, and when you need to snack eat a piece of fruit or something like that. I like snacking on small pieces of red bell pepper with salt and pepper on them. They have a good crunchy texture, and the red bell peppers have some sweetness to them. Stay away from soda. You can get into counting calories if you are up for that, but you might want to just start controlling your portions a little better while cutting back on things like bread and butter, for example, or other things that have a lot of calories such as soda pop and alcohol if you drink it.


Are you exercising like that seven days per week? I think most experts would recommend that you take at least one day off and let your body recover. Maybe someone else has a comment on this.

 

[Fraleymt]

Thanks for the input. As of right now I don't know my average calorie intake just because of how hectic my life is right now between college and work, but I should find out my daily intake. My goal is to drop another 35 pounds to put myself back at a solid 200 pounds, and if i want to go below that mark I'll wait to consider it when I'm there. Real quick: for a man with a height of 6'1'' is a weight of 200 pounds normal? Finally the one question you posed that I can answer is no I don't do the workout i posted 7 days a week, I typically give myself one, sometimes two, days off to re-energize.

 

[Nick Lopez]

6'1" 200 lbs seems a bit high, but it depends on your body composition (how much muscle and fat you have).


I would suggest tracking your calories like you mentioned. You're probably eating too much. The more weight you lose, the less calories you'll need to eat. You can also try incorporating longer cardio sessions to help you burn more calories per day.


Hope that helps!

 

[SamSam]

Now that you've lost so much weight (congrats on the 50 lbs), you have less body fat to burn and your metabolism would have dropped significantly.


In other word,s you're burning less each day so it'll be harder to lose body fat. Counting is the next step to break through this plateau.


There are great aps like myfitnesspal (MFP) which makes this easy


Good luck

 

[katy29]

Hi,


I had a similar situation like you. I didn't lose that much, but about 15 pounds. Then suddenly my weight loss stopped and for weeks there was not much change.

What I did:

I changed my exercise routine and started to choose what I ate a bit more. Cannot say I started a diet because it certainly was not that. But was just a bit more cautious about my food.

I do not have the patience to use a calorie counter but I certainly measured/weighted myself at least once a month - this really kept me going during the plateau.

I think the quiet period last for about a month.. Then the weight loss continued even more rapidly than before.


My advice would be: change exercises, (a bit of caution) about your food and measuring/weighting/ doing fitness tests regularly.