Lots of effort, little results :(

[OmahaNE]

I'm really frustrated and am looking for some advice on what I can do to get through this rough patch in my weight loss journey.

I started watching what I eat, exercising, and drinking more water in August '08. I wasn't extremely strict, I was just coasting, but I still managed to lose around 30 pounds. In december I got serious about weight loss...which is when I got stuck! I've tried to find as much information as I could about how to do this right, and I feel like I'm following all of the rules and still not getting anywhere.

I'm 5'5 and 201 lbs at the moment. I'm eating 1200-1400 calories a day and drinking 2 large pitches of water. 3 days a week I work out - I usually do a Flexibility training tape, A cardio/strength training tape, and a lower energy dance tape to cool down. 2 days a week I am at school which consists of walking around for 3 hours - I'm almost never sitting. On Saturdays I go for a 1 hour walk.

I'm very careful when I measure out my food - Everything goes through a measuring cup or spoon. I eat a lot of oatmeal, yogurt, fresh and dried fruits, nuts, vegetables, whole wheat grains, low fat cheeses, skinless chicken breasts, and sometimes I use a lean ham or turkey for sandwhiches. I do have a sweet tooth so I try to curb that with frozen fruit. Whenever possible I buy preportioned packages.

Despite all of this the scale is not budging. Is it possible that I'm gaining enough muscle to offset this? If I AM gaining muscle...shouldn't that be helping STOP the plateau instead of just extending it?

Okay, I think I've rambled on enough. If anyone has any advice on what I can do to start losing again...I'd be forever grateful.

 

[Gator1]

Quite possibly your body got adjusted to the workout routines that you do, hence the plateau. Consider joining a gym and doing weight training, as well as other cardio options.

Also, don't be so fixated on the scale. Use other tangibles, like measuring your waistline/arms/thighs, etc. Get a body/fat analysis and check that every few weeks. I am using 4 different methods to calculate my success.

Hope this helps out and good luck

 

[Sage]

I would recommend to, ditching the scale. It's not helping you. Find other ways to measure your progress.

I know this is going to sound sacrilegious but you might want to think about adding more fat, and less sweet to your diet. The more balanced your blood sugars are the less sweet you'll crave. Eating fruit to curb a sugar craving will still cause fat gain if the natural sugars in the fruit cause your blood sugar levels to rise too high.

By adding beneficial fats to your diet you'll smooth out blood sugar levels, causing you to crave less sweet.

So many people get caught up in the "calorie trap". What they fail to realize is that what determines whether that calorie you ate is used as energy, to build muscle, or is stored as fat largely has to do with your blood sugar levels and the available "space" in your liver and muscle sugar reservoir, NOT the amount of calories you are eating.

 

[Cookn]

Change your routine. The human body is the most adaptable and learning machines ever created. It quite easily adapts to any conditions it is subjected to. Your body knows exactly what amount of energy it has to expend to do the tapes. It learned that in the first three weeks of doing it. You have to "throw it a curve", increase the routine, or completely change to other types of workouts, so your body reacts to different stimuli. It's like weight lifting, if I lift 5 lbs. everyday for the rest of my life my body will learn to lift 5 pounds and not much more, because that's all it's asked to do. However if I lift 5 lbs. this week and switch to 10 pounds next week and 20 pounds the week after and keep increasing every week eventually my body will be trained to lift any weight I decide to lift. Well your routines have the same effect, you can ask more of it and have to or it isn't going to change at all. It already knows how to do your routine.

I wouldn't ditch the scale, it's a measuring device, it is also doing it's job, it's just measuring the same thing every time.

 

[Steve]

Change your routine. The human body is the most adaptable and learning machines ever created. It quite easily adapts to any conditions it is subjected to. Your body knows exactly what amount of energy it has to expend to do the tapes. It learned that in the first three weeks of doing it. You have to "throw it a curve", increase the routine, or completely change to other types of workouts, so your body reacts to different stimuli. It's like weight lifting, if I lift 5 lbs. everyday for the rest of my life my body will learn to lift 5 pounds and not much more, because that's all it's asked to do. However if I lift 5 lbs. this week and switch to 10 pounds next week and 20 pounds the week after and keep increasing every week eventually my body will be trained to lift any weight I decide to lift. Well your routines have the same effect, you can ask more of it and have to or it isn't going to change at all. It already knows how to do your routine.

It's not like non-progressive weight training.

Non-progressive weight training doesn't load the body to force adaptation.

In the case of cardiorespiratory exercise, however, your body doesn't adapt to a point where it no longer burns calories. At least not to a degree you need to worry about, especially in 3 weeks time.

Sure, if you're interested in cardiorespiratory adaptations, you need to progress stuff along.

If you're solely interested in caloric expenditure, you're overstating the need quite a bit.

 

[Primate]

Some of it is probably muscle gain. Are you loosing inches still even though there is no change in weight?

I might have missed it but how many times a day are you eating? It isn't just the amount of calories in a day... It is also the amount of calories per serving. The trick is to give your body no more than what it needs at a time. So eating 2000 cal in 7 meals is better than 1500 calories a day in 2 meals. Hope that makes sense.

Also, you might need to increase your calories a little to get your body to start shedding again. If your body feels it is being starved or stressed to much then it will shut down and hang on to that fat.... Hope this helps some.

 

[Steve]

I might have missed it but how many times a day are you eating? It isn't just the amount of calories in a day... It is also the amount of calories per serving. The trick is to give your body no more than what it needs at a time. So eating 2000 cal in 7 meals is better than 1500 calories a day in 2 meals. Hope that makes sense.

I'd be interested in seeing where you're pulling this data from, please?

That is not the case in all the research I've seen and most definitely not the case anecdotally.

For some, higher meal frequencies work better.

In others, not so much.

Net calories and nutrients at the end of the day are what matter most.

Do spend some time reading the stickies please.

 

[Primate]

Steve: So you are saying if I am on a 1500 calorie a day diet I will loose the same amount if I eat my 1500 calories right before bed every night than if I eat it in several portions through out the day? After all my net calories would be the same right? Almost everything I have read says no but apparently we are reading completely different stuff. I can not posts links yet but here is 1 artical. There are many many more out there. I am surprised you have never heard of this.

"The following advice might come as a surprise to some of you - to increase your metabolism you should eat more often.

Eat 5-6 smaller meals a day or add healthy snacks between your existing meals.

Heres how it works. It all goes back to the days of our cave dwelling ancestors when food was scarce unless the hunt was successful.

When we eat, our bodies are designed to store fat for the future when we might have less food available. If our body is starving it does everything to store fat after every meal and your metabolism slows considerably.

On the other hand when your body feels you have plenty of food available your metabolism increases and you store a lot less fat.

This is why starving yourself (and diets that require you to eat less than 1500 calories a day) will never work in the long run as a way of losing fat. Your metabolism will slow down and when you go back to eating like you did before the crash diet you gain a lot more fat than you lost.

So increase the frequency of your meals and the amount of healthy food you eat and increase your metabolism to burn more calories after each meal and to store less fat.

There are other benefits to changing your eating habits to eat more meals a day. When your body digests food it burns calories, so by dividing what you would eat in a day into smaller meals and eating more often will burn more calories."

 

[Steve]

Steve: So you are saying if I am on a 1500 calorie a day diet I will loose the same amount if I eat my 1500 calories right before bed every night than if I eat it in several portions through out the day?

Theoretically, yes.

I'm not a fan of extreme thinking like that though. But 3 vs. 6 meals?

Not going to make any difference worth thinking about.

All calories eaten in the PM?

Probably not going to make a difference.

After all my net calories would be the same right?

Yup.

Almost everything I have read says no but apparently we are reading completely different stuff. I can not posts links yet but here is 1 artical. There are many many more out there. I am surprised you have never heard of this.

Here in lies the problem.

You're pulling your information from articles.

I do my own research. I don't like opinion. I go straight to the source of peer reviewed data. I'm also a trainer and make nutrition plans for part of my living.

Have I seen similar information as you're suggesting?

Of course.

Most of the stuff I see published, especially on the web, is incorrect.

"The following advice might come as a surprise to some of you - to increase your metabolism you should eat more often.

Eat 5-6 smaller meals a day or add healthy snacks between your existing meals.

Heres how it works. It all goes back to the days of our cave dwelling ancestors when food was scarce unless the hunt was successful.

When we eat, our bodies are designed to store fat for the future when we might have less food available. If our body is starving it does everything to store fat after every meal and your metabolism slows considerably.

I'm sorry, but your understanding of human metabolism is way off base here. May I ask what sort of education you have?

Metabolism does not swing up and down as you suggest in such short time frames. Not even close to it. All research supports this.

On the other hand when your body feels you have plenty of food available your metabolism increases and you store a lot less fat.

Not at all.

Net energy balance is what matters in relation to tissue storage.

You haven't seen the data on intermittent fasting yet, have you?

This is why starving yourself (and diets that require you to eat less than 1500 calories a day) will never work in the long run as a way of losing fat.

You're like a walking encyclopedia of myths.

There is no preset caloric intake that can be blanketly applied as 'bad' for all populations.

I've worked with women who had to go below 1500 calories to lose fat. Small women, but my point still remains.

Your metabolism will slow down and when you go back to eating like you did before the crash diet you gain a lot more fat than you lost.

Maybe, maybe not. Who is suggesting crash dieting again?

So increase the frequency of your meals and the amount of healthy food you eat and increase your metabolism to burn more calories after each meal and to store less fat.

Exactly wrong.

Can you eat frequent meals and realize success?

Sure.

Can you also eat fewer meals and realize the same success.

Yup.

That's all I'm saying.

There are other benefits to changing your eating habits to eat more meals a day. When your body digests food it burns calories, so by dividing what you would eat in a day into smaller meals and eating more often will burn more calories."

Nope.

Less meals = more calories to digest per meal

More meals = fewer calories to digest per meal

Meaning, if you eat more food per sitting, digestion takes longer is all.

I'm sorry, but I feel like I'm repeating myself here and you're refusing to let go of preconceived notions. It's very evident you take what you read as gospel and don't have you mind around the idea that you could possibly be wrong here.

If you don't care to think outside the box you've framed your beliefs in, that is fine. But I'm telling you, the data (not articles) does not support your claims. Real world doesn't support your claims.

 

[SonofJorEl]

Steve...just to interject..

He's taking that information straight from Bill Phillips' Body For Life..


Not saying that makes it right or wrong..quite frankly I agree with you on the 3 vs 5-6 thing as far as meals..

Nobody will ever convince me there is THAT big of difference as long as the overall calories are the same..

In any event...just wanted to note his info is coming word for word from Body For Life...I have the book...

Some interesting stuff...but in the end it was just that IMHO...