I'm 46. I have been 235-239 pounds for years while being fairly inactive, working desk job, drinking very little water, and eating poorly. For 5 plus weeks I have been working out 5-6 times per week at 500-550 calories per session, eliminated diet Pepsi, consuming 80 ounces water daily and decreasing my calorie intake. Just weighed and still at 235 pounds. Want to know if hydration and muscle gain are offsetting fat loss and when or how will I see results?
Need help understanding my lack of weight loss.
- Thread starter Bergie
- Start date
MrNiceGuy1
New member
Hi Bergie and welcome to the forum.
I guess your level of progress (or your perceived lack of) is based upon a number of different factors.
Although you may be expending approximately 500Kcal per session in the gym, exactly how many calories are you consuming on a daily basis?
Did you calculate both your BMR and TDEE before starting upon your journey, to ensure that the calorie deficit created maximises utilisation of excess body fat?
If you didn’t, it’d be a good place to start. By introducing a daily deficit of 500Kcal from your TDEE, in addition to your added endeavour in the gym, you should expect a loss of around 2-3lbs per week.
As for calorie expenditure in the gym, how intense is your cardio?
While long, drawn out cardio sessions will help to improve your endurance, they’ll do very little to maximise your fat loss. The reason why cardiovascular endurance increases through steady state cardio sessions is due to the fact that your muscles become more efficient at processing oxygen. As such, while oxygen remains in steady supply, very little fat is utilised as energy, since steady cardio uses your aerobic energy system.
In order to maximise your level of fat loss through cardio exercise, if you’ve not already done so, seek to introduce interval training, eventually progressing towards HIIT (which utilises your body’s anaerobic energy system). The more intense your cardio, since oxygen cannot be delivered to your muscles as readily as they require it, the greater the uptake of glucose and fat (as energy) to fuel your endeavour.
If ever you wondered why, in addition to creating a huge energy/calorie deficit, HIIT is so effective at achieving weight loss, now you know why.
That said, although you may not yet have witnessed the physical changes you’d hoped for, your effort over the past few weeks will have kick-started a number of physiological changes, providing a foundation from which to build.
To demonstrate, I’d bet that you’re able to perform cardio for longer, in addition to being able to lift and press more when resistance training. These feats are both physiological changes, due to the creation of new capillaries, feeding oxygen to working muscles during cardio and the microscopic tearing of muscle fibres, allowing muscles to increase in strength, during resistance training.
By placing your efforts into context, things suddenly don’t seem so hopeless, do they?
As for diet, other than eliminating carbonated drinks and increasing consumption of water, you’ve not really provided much of an insight into the rest of your daily intake. As such, it makes it a little difficult to guide you further.
However, by restricting consumption of refined carbohydrate (cakes/sweets/pastries) in favour of complex carbohydrate (grains and pulses), obtaining protein from sources of lean meat, eggs, fish, nuts and dairy produce and fat from sources such nuts, fish, avocado and healthy oils, provided you’re not exceeding your TDEE, weight loss should begin to be enjoyed.
Additionally, opt for veg (particularly leafy greens) over fruit to provide your body with additional sources of amino acids and trace minerals needed to support your endeavour. Go easy on white potatoes, though, opting for sweet potatoes instead.
To conclude, don’t be so hard upon yourself, Bergie, as the changes you’ve made so far have been positive (even if you can’t see it), not least in your increased level of physical activity. It may be a number of years since you last exercised, so your body will have spent the past few weeks adapting.
Once you get your energy balance right (research BMR/TDEE calculators), you’ll begin to see the results you desire. The excess may not disappear as fast as you’d like it to, but sustained weight loss (2-3lbs per week) places you in a better position to maintain once your goal has been reached.
I guess your level of progress (or your perceived lack of) is based upon a number of different factors.
Although you may be expending approximately 500Kcal per session in the gym, exactly how many calories are you consuming on a daily basis?
Did you calculate both your BMR and TDEE before starting upon your journey, to ensure that the calorie deficit created maximises utilisation of excess body fat?
If you didn’t, it’d be a good place to start. By introducing a daily deficit of 500Kcal from your TDEE, in addition to your added endeavour in the gym, you should expect a loss of around 2-3lbs per week.
As for calorie expenditure in the gym, how intense is your cardio?
While long, drawn out cardio sessions will help to improve your endurance, they’ll do very little to maximise your fat loss. The reason why cardiovascular endurance increases through steady state cardio sessions is due to the fact that your muscles become more efficient at processing oxygen. As such, while oxygen remains in steady supply, very little fat is utilised as energy, since steady cardio uses your aerobic energy system.
In order to maximise your level of fat loss through cardio exercise, if you’ve not already done so, seek to introduce interval training, eventually progressing towards HIIT (which utilises your body’s anaerobic energy system). The more intense your cardio, since oxygen cannot be delivered to your muscles as readily as they require it, the greater the uptake of glucose and fat (as energy) to fuel your endeavour.
If ever you wondered why, in addition to creating a huge energy/calorie deficit, HIIT is so effective at achieving weight loss, now you know why.
That said, although you may not yet have witnessed the physical changes you’d hoped for, your effort over the past few weeks will have kick-started a number of physiological changes, providing a foundation from which to build.
To demonstrate, I’d bet that you’re able to perform cardio for longer, in addition to being able to lift and press more when resistance training. These feats are both physiological changes, due to the creation of new capillaries, feeding oxygen to working muscles during cardio and the microscopic tearing of muscle fibres, allowing muscles to increase in strength, during resistance training.
By placing your efforts into context, things suddenly don’t seem so hopeless, do they?
As for diet, other than eliminating carbonated drinks and increasing consumption of water, you’ve not really provided much of an insight into the rest of your daily intake. As such, it makes it a little difficult to guide you further.
However, by restricting consumption of refined carbohydrate (cakes/sweets/pastries) in favour of complex carbohydrate (grains and pulses), obtaining protein from sources of lean meat, eggs, fish, nuts and dairy produce and fat from sources such nuts, fish, avocado and healthy oils, provided you’re not exceeding your TDEE, weight loss should begin to be enjoyed.
Additionally, opt for veg (particularly leafy greens) over fruit to provide your body with additional sources of amino acids and trace minerals needed to support your endeavour. Go easy on white potatoes, though, opting for sweet potatoes instead.
To conclude, don’t be so hard upon yourself, Bergie, as the changes you’ve made so far have been positive (even if you can’t see it), not least in your increased level of physical activity. It may be a number of years since you last exercised, so your body will have spent the past few weeks adapting.
Once you get your energy balance right (research BMR/TDEE calculators), you’ll begin to see the results you desire. The excess may not disappear as fast as you’d like it to, but sustained weight loss (2-3lbs per week) places you in a better position to maintain once your goal has been reached.
fatforge
New member
All of that is a step in the right direction. But are you aware what's your total daily energy expenditure? If not, how do you know that you're in a caloric deficit? Exactly, you don't. So figure out your TDEE and try again. Don't obsess with weighting yourself daily, just do it every Monday, in the morning after you pee.
Also, how do you know that you burn 500 calories per session? An average person would probably burn around 200-300 in a 40 minutes session. Exercise, is not as effective as many perceive it to be. Not saying you shouldn't exercise, just saying it should be a part of a plan, where you're adding to a caloric deficit created by your diet.
Hope this helps.