Fitness and nutrition advice needed

edwardryan8808

Hi everyone.
I'm 5'4" and weigh approximately 140. I have a decently muscular build, but also have a nice layer of fat I'd like to lose. My calorie goal is set at 1400 and I do mostly eat back my exercise calories. I do T25 6 days a week and add a little extra here and there, sometimes a P90x routine. I aim to burn 300 a day.
But, I'm having a really hard time losing the fat. I feel fitter, I'm seeing some muscle definition, but the layer is not going away.
Pants are not looser.
Some days I feel very sluggish and tired, so I don't feel I can cut back on carbs. I have to get up and eat cereal and coffee before I can workout, or I just bomb it. I eat decently healthy.
An I missing something? Thanks for any help you can give.

edwardryan8808

And yes, I'm an accurate measurer and logger.

ana3067

1400 calories is likely too low to net since a) your ticker goal is 7lbs, b) you are lacking energy. Change goal to 0.5lbs/week, eat back exercise cals (at least half). Your fats are also pretty low. If you are seeing muscle definition it means you are losing some weight. Muscles don't just become defined on their own for no reason. You are very likely just not losing yet/much from your stomach, which can easily be the last place for losses to come from.

arditarose

I'm 5'4" and just below 140 (somewhere between 136-148). Are you starting at this weight or have you lost some already?

Anyway, take it from someone your size-at least for what it's worth, lose the 0.5 lbs/week. 1400 calories is exhausting. That was fine when I was up in the 150s but just doesn't cut it anymore. I can barely do 1600.

edwardryan8808

I've lost some but it's been awhile since. I've kept up with the exercise for the most part the past year, but have gone on and off logging food. I've been logging and really working hard at it for about a month now with no change.
I have a decent amount of 'flab' so I figured I'd be ok on the lower cal intake? But I'm really struggling some days.
I can't figure it out, I used to do 1200 no problem. Now I can't believe how I did it. I'm struggling at 1500-1700. I guess it's good I'm fit now, but now I can't lose! Or it doesn't seem like it.

arditarose

edwardryan8808 wrote: »

I've lost some but it's been awhile since. I've kept up with the exercise for the most part the past year, but have gone on and off logging food. I've been logging and really working hard at it for about a month now with no change.
I have a decent amount of 'flab' so I figured I'd be ok on the lower cal intake? But I'm really struggling some days.
I can't figure it out, I used to do 1200 no problem. Now I can't believe how I did it. I'm struggling at 1500-1700. I guess it's good I'm fit now, but now I can't lose! Or it doesn't seem like it.

I've done 1200 before too (shhh) but I was up near 160, doing more cardio and getting more exercise calories to eat back. It's just not sustainable. I shoot for a little over 1600 now which should be .5/week, but I end up only losing a pound per month or so. Obviously over eating a bit but with my lifting routine I just feel like I need the extra calories.

Try .5 a week, eat back exercise calories, and see if you feel better maybe?

ana3067

edwardryan8808 wrote: »

I've lost some but it's been awhile since. I've kept up with the exercise for the most part the past year, but have gone on and off logging food. I've been logging and really working hard at it for about a month now with no change.
I have a decent amount of 'flab' so I figured I'd be ok on the lower cal intake? But I'm really struggling some days.
I can't figure it out, I used to do 1200 no problem. Now I can't believe how I did it. I'm struggling at 1500-1700. I guess it's good I'm fit now, but now I can't lose! Or it doesn't seem like it.

in that case...

arditarose wrote: »

lose the 0.5 lbs/week.

And track accurately. You aren't weighing food so I'm guessing you have a margin of error of a few hundred calories. Not weighing (with so little to lose, weighing will help tremendously), not logging every day, some days you don't even log your entire intake. Your logged average this week was 1732 calories gross. Assuming you actually ate up to 200 cals more than that due to logging errors and not weighing your food (and using weighted entries when you shouldn't) you could be eating up to 2000 calories on average (gross). Which could be your maintenance or very close, hence very minimal to no loss. Have you made sure all your entries are correct? I went back to MY first month or two of logging and I was shocked at how inaccurate my logging was.

arditarose

ana3067 wrote: »

edwardryan8808 wrote: »

I've lost some but it's been awhile since. I've kept up with the exercise for the most part the past year, but have gone on and off logging food. I've been logging and really working hard at it for about a month now with no change.
I have a decent amount of 'flab' so I figured I'd be ok on the lower cal intake? But I'm really struggling some days.
I can't figure it out, I used to do 1200 no problem. Now I can't believe how I did it. I'm struggling at 1500-1700. I guess it's good I'm fit now, but now I can't lose! Or it doesn't seem like it.

in that case...

arditarose wrote: »

lose the 0.5 lbs/week.

And track accurately. You aren't weighing food so I'm guessing you have a margin of error of a few hundred calories. Not weighing (with so little to lose, weighing will help tremendously), not logging every day, some days you don't even log your entire intake. Your logged average this week was 1732 calories gross. Assuming you actually ate up to 200 cals more than that due to logging errors and not weighing your food (and using weighted entries when you shouldn't) you could be eating up to 2000 calories on average (gross). Which could be your maintenance or very close, hence very minimal to no loss. Have you made sure all your entries are correct? I went back to MY first month or two of logging and I was shocked at how inaccurate my logging was.

I had not looked at your diary. If you're going to up your calories, you really need to weigh and log all your food. You're not losing because you're over eating, so if you shoot for .5 lbs a week without tracking carefully, you definitely won't lose.

ana3067

arditarose wrote: »

ana3067 wrote: »

edwardryan8808 wrote: »

I've lost some but it's been awhile since. I've kept up with the exercise for the most part the past year, but have gone on and off logging food. I've been logging and really working hard at it for about a month now with no change.
I have a decent amount of 'flab' so I figured I'd be ok on the lower cal intake? But I'm really struggling some days.
I can't figure it out, I used to do 1200 no problem. Now I can't believe how I did it. I'm struggling at 1500-1700. I guess it's good I'm fit now, but now I can't lose! Or it doesn't seem like it.

in that case...

arditarose wrote: »

lose the 0.5 lbs/week.

And track accurately. You aren't weighing food so I'm guessing you have a margin of error of a few hundred calories. Not weighing (with so little to lose, weighing will help tremendously), not logging every day, some days you don't even log your entire intake. Your logged average this week was 1732 calories gross. Assuming you actually ate up to 200 cals more than that due to logging errors and not weighing your food (and using weighted entries when you shouldn't) you could be eating up to 2000 calories on average (gross). Which could be your maintenance or very close, hence very minimal to no loss. Have you made sure all your entries are correct? I went back to MY first month or two of logging and I was shocked at how inaccurate my logging was.

I had not looked at your diary. If you're going to up your calories, you really need to weigh and log all your food. You're not losing because you're over eating, so if you shoot for .5 lbs a week without tracking carefully, you definitely won't lose.

But the 0.5lb/week goal should definitely be put in place IMO once correct and consistent logging begins.

arditarose

ana3067 wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

ana3067 wrote: »

edwardryan8808 wrote: »

I've lost some but it's been awhile since. I've kept up with the exercise for the most part the past year, but have gone on and off logging food. I've been logging and really working hard at it for about a month now with no change.
I have a decent amount of 'flab' so I figured I'd be ok on the lower cal intake? But I'm really struggling some days.
I can't figure it out, I used to do 1200 no problem. Now I can't believe how I did it. I'm struggling at 1500-1700. I guess it's good I'm fit now, but now I can't lose! Or it doesn't seem like it.

in that case...

arditarose wrote: »

lose the 0.5 lbs/week.

And track accurately. You aren't weighing food so I'm guessing you have a margin of error of a few hundred calories. Not weighing (with so little to lose, weighing will help tremendously), not logging every day, some days you don't even log your entire intake. Your logged average this week was 1732 calories gross. Assuming you actually ate up to 200 cals more than that due to logging errors and not weighing your food (and using weighted entries when you shouldn't) you could be eating up to 2000 calories on average (gross). Which could be your maintenance or very close, hence very minimal to no loss. Have you made sure all your entries are correct? I went back to MY first month or two of logging and I was shocked at how inaccurate my logging was.

I had not looked at your diary. If you're going to up your calories, you really need to weigh and log all your food. You're not losing because you're over eating, so if you shoot for .5 lbs a week without tracking carefully, you definitely won't lose.

But the 0.5lb/week goal should definitely be put in place IMO once correct and consistent logging begins.

Most agreed. For happiness and health.

edwardryan8808

Well.... My average net intake this week was
1368.
And yes, I log accurately. I may not weigh everything, but I measure less and log more.(example: measure just under 1 cup and log 1 cup) It's highly unlikely that I'm over eating by 200 cals. And even if I was, I consistently under eat my goal for that very reason.

ana3067

edwardryan8808 wrote: »

Well.... My average net intake this week was
1368.
And yes, I log accurately. I may not weigh everything, but I measure less and log more.(example: measure just under 1 cup and log 1 cup) It's highly unlikely that I'm over eating by 200 cals. And even if I was, I consistently under eat my goal for that very reason.

Your total average intake for the last 7 days (from Friday to last Saturday) was 1768 calories. At least according to your log. Factoring in errors from not weighing your food and using weighted entries instead of measured entries, you easily coul dhave averaged over 2000 calories. Especially if any of your entries are actually incorrect due to having the wrong caloric information for whatever default serving was provided. So you easily could be eating more than you need to.

Until you are a) double checking to make sure every entry you use is correct, b) weighing everything and using the correct entries to go with it, or at least c) measuring everything and using ONLY entries with measured serving sizes, you are not accurately logging. And your GROSS intake is what matters. You are not grossing 1400 calories, you are grossing almost 1800 calories. At least this past week. and you skip days, some days are barely logged, meaning on those days you are likely eating more than you usually do on average. Going back even further, how did you eat 0.15 of a tomato? or 80% of an apple? 0.4 of a dessert? 80% of a yogurt container?

Logging accurately means actually eating the serving size you listed, and measuring or weighing properly. You are not doing these things, and you have had days where you barely or didn't log at all. Using weird serving sizes. Weighted instead of measured entries.

You need to take some time to learn how to log properly and use the proper entries.

arditarose

edwardryan8808 wrote: »

Well.... My average net intake this week was
1368.
And yes, I log accurately. I may not weigh everything, but I measure less and log more.(example: measure just under 1 cup and log 1 cup) It's highly unlikely that I'm over eating by 200 cals. And even if I was, I consistently under eat my goal for that very reason.

It's easy to believe that, but until you clean up your logging and start weighing food, it's hard to really assess how much you should be eating/why you're not losing weight. To each his own, but you'll definitely have better control over your weight loss and see better results if you tighten up your logging. This is coming from someone who is not perfect and has extra licks of peanut butter that were not logged this week--but, I know exactly how much I ate before those little inaccuracies and what to expect as far as my weight loss goes because of them. (a pound a month instead of 2 haha).