Literally cant understand what more i can do

tbrain1989

Just a little frustrated with the results/ lack of results,

my exercise regime is pretty busy,

Mon 07:00 Gym- upper body 1hr- 12-1230 cardio
tuesday 07:00 Gym- legs 1hr- 12-1230 cardio 1700-1800 5aside football, 1930-2100 rugby training
wednesday 07:00 Gym- upper body 1hr 12-1230 cardio 19:00-20:00 in2touch rugby
thursday 07:00 Gym- legs 1 hr 12-1230 cardio 1930-2100 rugby training
friday 07:00 gym upper body 1 hr 12-1230 cardio
saturday - REST or rugby match during the season
Sunday - Rest or ride/run/hike during the rugby off season

my diary is open for your perusal but following this program in the last four weeks i lost 2lbs in the first week, since then ive gained a stone and a half

stats: 23, male, 6ft, 106kg or 16st 10lbs waist 40, navel 38, hips 44, shoulders 46, neck 17,
BF (using body pod) 22%
lean mass 89kg

Goal weight, 92Kg

any tips on why my body wont lose weight would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

trudijoy

you're probably not eating enough. what is your BMR? Your TDEE?

tbrain1989

i knew someone would say not eating enough,

logic doesnt allow me to gain weight at a calorie deficit surely?

you cant even build muscle if your not eating more calories then you burn.

id have to eat about 4500 calories if i ate back my exercise,

AssassinJames2

Hey tbrain,

With the amount of the cardio you are doing you should be dropping weight like no tomorrow..

Are you tracking your calories? Have you calculated your maintenance and what you need to eat to be in a calorie deficit?

tbrain1989

i know, it doesnt make any sense,

unless im some kind of secret eater.

ive been sticking between 1400 and 1800 calories,

missybct

It's pretty hard to gauge your calorie/macro intake as there are days not filled in, and what I assume are days that are not entirely filled in. If they ARE fully completed, then you are eating WAY too little calories for the exercise you are doing.

You do know that MFP puts your "intake" calories at the start of the day as a deficit? Therefore, the assumption is that you could eat the calories (1300 or whatever) and do NOTHING and you'd lose weight. When you place exercise into the mix, and a crap load of it like you are doing, you NEED to be eating some of those back. Generally speaking, your NET calories (as in calories taken in minus exercise = net) needs to be at least 1200 calories a day.

This is open for tweaking - some people eat ALL the exercise calories back. Some eat half. Some eat none - but although the psychology of eating more calories after working out is a bizarre one, your body needs that fuel to carry on. You may notice that your gym workouts are slacking slightly too - or you are more tired. You have to find what works for you, but I can see that you are burning pretty much the same amount of calories a day in exercise as you are eating.

There isn't a lot of consistency in your diary, but I know not everyone uses it as OCD like as me But genuinely, it will help so you can track back to a week where you may have lost more/lost less/lost nothing/gained/felt tired and you can see what may have caused it.

Hope that helps.

trudijoy

i knew someone would say not eating enough,

logic doesnt allow me to gain weight at a calorie deficit surely?

you cant even build muscle if your not eating more calories then you burn.

id have to eat about 4500 calories if i ate back my exercise,

I've gained at deficit before. if you're not putting enough cals in your body CAN cling to everything you DO eat...

tbrain1989

thanks,

im hoping i can use it 7 days a week soon when i get an iphone and down load the app as its hard to be near my computer at the weekend.

what i dont understand about eating back exercise calories, if i dont, then i would still lose weight.

i understand starvation mode, in terms of your body retaining more fat etc due to being unsure of the next meal, but im eating regularly.

AssassinJames2

1800 seems very low to me due to the amount of exercise you are doing.

Working out your maintenance based on doing exercise is 2500, with the amount of exercise you do I would probably put your calories up to around that, if not more.

I think you are eating too little and it has damaged your metabolism.

I would go on a week refeed of calories and try to stick with 2500 calories with a good amount of protein and fats in your diets.

If this doesn't work try intermittent fasting.

Cheers,

James

onesmallcupcake

Hi TBrain. I find that planning is the key. Sit down on the weekend and plan your meals for the week. Weigh everything ..... and I mean everything, so you are getting an appropriate calorie count. It's amazing how small amounts can add up. Decide how many calories you want to expend on your main meals (for example 400 calories at brekkie, lunch and dinner and then have 600 calories left over for your snacks). Plan it out meticulously, then weigh everything before you eat it.

Apart from that, I can't suggest anything else. Good luck

noexcuses84

looking at ur diary, u def need to eat more! MFP allows for a deficit anyway so if u still have days where u have 1000 or more cals left ( and u do) than ur body is going to cling to anything it can (starvation mode). This is a natural, normal thing. having said that u can still leave calories left, I generally average about 300-500. I would try eating more and if u don't see an improvement in weight loss u may want to visit a doc.

tbrain1989

as skeptical as i am of the eat more philosophy,

i do see a lot of it about on MFP, it seems to work for a lot of people

i will try it for a month, ive got quite a big appetite normally so i can easily eat 2500-3000 calories quite cleanly,

i will try it for 4 weeks and report back,

seeing as the general consensus is to eat more, i will try that.

then its a trip to GP i think, tired of being slightly over weight

ngressman

I am at a loss. My son plays rugby and it is a tough workout. Maybe that weight gain was some muscle? Have you done measurements to see if you are losing inches?

mlb929

Have you thought outside of the box - thyroid testing, hormone imbalances, parasites, all of these things can cause weight to stay on. It's more of a naturopathic approach, but sometimes you have to switch things up when not working. I recently was struggling with exhaustion and muscle pains, turned out my DHEA levels were extremely low and my thyroid testing came back worse than ever. It's not always diet and exercise for some peole. Consult your dr about other reasons why.

trudijoy

Have you thought outside of the box - thyroid testing, hormone imbalances, parasites, all of these things can cause weight to stay on. It's more of a naturopathic approach, but sometimes you have to switch things up when not working. I recently was struggling with exhaustion and muscle pains, turned out my DHEA levels were extremely low and my thyroid testing came back worse than ever. It's not always diet and exercise for some peole. Consult your dr about other reasons why.

underactive thyroid, untreated, would probably not allow him to workout like he is. I think if it's genuinely 'eating right, working out lots, not losing' then it could well be medical, but from reading his diary i really think he is undereating.

stephm112

I too think you need to eat a little more. You can even up your cardio intensity. My fiance is a Royal Marine and finds it very hard to gain (which he's trying to do at the moment). Yes he works out a LOT but he eats like a horse and still loses! The only time he gains is when he's home on holiday and does no phys and carries on eating lol.

Try eating a little more I say, give your body more fuel, up the intensity of your cardio, see what happens. If what your doing isn't working then make a small change until it starts working .

Good luck

EmmaKarney

i knew someone would say not eating enough,

logic doesnt allow me to gain weight at a calorie deficit surely?

you cant even build muscle if your not eating more calories then you burn.

id have to eat about 4500 calories if i ate back my exercise,

I've gained at deficit before. if you're not putting enough cals in your body CAN cling to everything you DO eat...

You can't gain wait in a deficit.

If you gained you weren't in a deficit - either due to over estimation of calories burned or under estimation of calories eaten.

Elegra2006

Honestly, if you eat more and get in lots of protein then you will start to lose fat and gain muscle.

You must be burning about 1500-2500 calories some days with all that exercise!

I'm a teeny 5'2", do one hour's exercise a day (heavy weights or cardio), eat a minimum of 1400 plus and at the weekends when I exercise more, I make sure I eat back everyone of my cals and I'm steadily losing and gaining a load of muscle.

Have you looked online at the training and eating regimes of some pro footballers/rugby players as seems you do about the same amount of exercise as them. Think you'll get a shock at how much they eat.

Good luck and EAT!

trudijoy

i knew someone would say not eating enough,

logic doesnt allow me to gain weight at a calorie deficit surely?

you cant even build muscle if your not eating more calories then you burn.

id have to eat about 4500 calories if i ate back my exercise,

I've gained at deficit before. if you're not putting enough cals in your body CAN cling to everything you DO eat...

You can't gain wait in a deficit.

If you gained you weren't in a deficit - either due to over estimation of calories burned or under estimation of calories eaten.

common misconception. I have hypothyroid disorder. untreated i could eat carrot sticks for a week and put on a couple of kg. my metabolism doesn't work when i'm not on meds.

Lupercalia

Spend some time accurately logging everything you eat/drink....including alcoholic beverages, if you indulge. Beer and spirits add lots of calories, fast.

Use a kitchen scale so that you're not eyeballing or guessing at the weights/sizes of the stuff you're eating.

It seems highly unlikely that you'd gain anything--muscle OR fat--on that super low calorie intake. My first thought is that there's a discrepancy between the number of calories you think you've consumed and what the reality is.

That calorie level is incredibly low for a guy your age/height/weight playing rugby and working out daily. You'll want to rethink that number. But whatever you do, you'll definitely need to be logging everything consistently and accurately.

FromHereOnOut

as skeptical as i am of the eat more philosophy,

i do see a lot of it about on MFP, it seems to work for a lot of people

i will try it for a month, ive got quite a big appetite normally so i can easily eat 2500-3000 calories quite cleanly,

i will try it for 4 weeks and report back,

seeing as the general consensus is to eat more, i will try that.

then its a trip to GP i think, tired of being slightly over weight

I'm glad to hear that you will give it a try. You are 6' male, 23yo, who works out like a fiend. I am a 5'8.5", 40yo, female who works out "meh" and I am losing weight (slowly) on a weekly average of 2000 calories per day. A person has to be willing to entertain the idea that they can lose weight by eating much more food than they are currently eating first and foremost. When people show an unwillingness to even entertain the idea, it reflects a poor relationship with food (food=enemy) and until that is corrected, a true, lasting change cannot be made. You are moving in the right direction. But please be certain to log, log, LOG everything. That "oops" little handful of Pringles or extra salad dressing can all add up and it needs to be in your log or you'll never know where you're going wrong later if it doesn't start to move.

Good luck! Please PLEASE remember to report back your results!

nikilis

are you secretly sinking a *kitten* bunch of pints?

youre not tracking all the time, which seems like you are slack with tracking your food/cals. if you do that, how do you know what you have eaten.

tighten up the areas that are muddying the waters.

tbrain1989

i defintley take on bored all the advice presented,

i really appreciate all the time you guys and girls have taken to think and advise,

i think i will find a pro-rugby equivalent to myself, see if i can find how much they eat and the exercise regime they follow,

Just for further information as some have questioned it, i do weigh my food, all of it, my meals are planned usually at least a week in advance,

i do need to log at the weekends, i dont drink very often so it cant be that, this weekend for example i cycled 116 miles on sunday,

about 5 years ago i was completely lean, about 6% body fat, then all of a sudden, with out a change in my lifestyle my weight slowly picked up, before i knew it i was 21stone and just felt ridiculous. Even if i was still able to run 8 minute miles (which i think is amazing to see at 120kg)

if any of you want to add me as friends, i can always do with more and hopefully my next rant will be in the success stories with all of you too thank

much love MFP'ers have a good day

mazdauk

1. Log everything. If you don't, how can you know if you are eating enough?

2. MFP builds in the deficit, so you don't need to be leaving so many calories over at the end of the day. I know sometimes we want to "save" a few for the weekend, but honestly that shouldn't be over 1,000 - even over 200 is really too little.

3. Make sure you are eating enough - sandwichy-stuff is not enough to fuel your body properly (especially with lots of exercise), you need plenty of meat, fresh vegetables and complex carbs so you have the energy to exercise.

But logging is the real key - you can't keep track of what is going in and out without it!

Lupercalia

Perhaps someone is injecting you with liquefied pies!

tbrain1989

Perhaps someone is injecting you with liquefied pies!

i know it, god damn sneaky syringes... there so sly and they just pump me full of calories

myofibril

Log consistently.

Eat much more or exercise less (whilst you cannot see a net gain of actual fat - as opposed to weight which can rise - in a calorie deficit the rate of loss can be so painfully slow due to a poor programme to be almost worthless.)

Ensure you keep daily activity other than planned exercise high.

Take photos / measurements.

Log consistently.

Did I mention log consistently?

myofibril

Incidentally, if you want to make life simpler then don't worry about eating exercise calories back.

If you keep the level of exercise you mentioned in your OP constant then eat about 3,200 calories per day as a starting point which factors in exercise.

If you see no change after 2 weeks then drop calories by 10% and so on. You'll find your sweet spot eventually.

wffolkes

I can only wish someone gave me this advice early on when losing weight was easy.

Find out your TDEE - 20% and eat that amount. I am sure your eating way too far under what you need so your body is holding on to the food you are fueling yourself with.

You're under eating and it can damage your metabolism which is what help you burn fat and lose weight. The amount of activity you are doing means your body needs feuling sufficiently. I found it hard to eat more and still am finding it hard but it works.

I used the fat2fit calculator to work out my TDEE
http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

Hope that helps, do some research on here with regards to it.

xidia

i know, it doesnt make any sense,

unless im some kind of secret eater.

ive been sticking between 1400 and 1800 calories,

Right. I'm a 5'4" woman, I'm sedentary apart from 3x heavy lifting a week and I eat more than that (1700-2000) to maintain/lose about 1lb a month. Eat, man, eat!

binsylad

Up your calories - As in Eating back your calories (As many have said on here)

Why dont you Jolt the system, with a cheeky 5:2 Fast or 16:8 fast built in to your current routine? The second one is easy - you just eat all of your food between 11.30 and 19.30 (NO snacks outside)

Drink plenty of water...

BTW, Are you losinig inches but gaining muscle mass?

Mike / UK/ 40