Tips on what I am doing wrong :(

marisamarisa248

I am going to try and be as accurate as I can with my daily routine and issues!

Currently I weigh 225 pounds and this time last year I weighed around 280. I am an 18 year old 5'5 female.

In march my weight was 262 and since then I have lost a majority of my weight by clean eating and excising but In may I started plateauing at 231 as now I have only reached 225

I have personal trainer sessions around 3 times a week where I do 30 minutes of weight training and then 20 minutes of cardio I also go to the YMCA and use the elliptical for around 40 minutes 4 times a week and Also recently started taking a zumba class which I plan to attend 3 times a week, for most of june my exercise was irregular and I only exercised around 2-3 times a week but changed that. (still no change)

I don't eat any "bad food" (pastas,breads,high carb,processed) but because of my busy schedule I often eat irregularly, i eat 2 eggs with a low carb wrap and a mango/fruit almost every morning and then eat a mixture Of chicken/steak/turkey burger and vegetables for dinner and lunch I also drink around 1-2 protein powder drinks a day. Sometimes I go without lunch because I am on my feet all day at work ( I work as an associate at old navy) so my calorie intake is anywhere between 900-1500 and I also drink A LOT of water, around 1.5-2 gallons a day. I eat around 120 carbs a day and 120 grams of protein. I have a lot of good habits but still only average around 6 pounds a month... What am I doing wrong? I feel like at the weight I am at it shouldn't be this incredibly hard to lose around 12 pounds a month which i can never achieve no matter how carefully I eat and exercise

ggxx100

So...on a given day you're constantly on your feet, and now have established a regular workout routine of weights, cardio, plus more cardio. And you do that on only 900-1500 calories a day?Unlike the myth floating around on mfp, you won't stop losing weight if you cut back too much, or go into the dreaded starvation mode. You will, however, make it needlessly difficult and in the long run detract from your end results. However, you should really check your calorie tracking to get an accurate intake. People usually underestimate their calorie intake and overestimate their energy expenditure, hence the confusion. If you really are burning of that much at a low intake, the weight should be coming off at a faster, perhaps even too fast of a rate.

For me, 2 hours of cardio a day left me hungry and made no visible changes. In fact, I'm 50 pounds lighter today and I don't do cardio at all. Maybe focusing more on weights would help kickstart your weight loss. Edit: Don't give up! You are already making progress

RaggedyPond

You are doing fine.

ostrichagain

Sounds to me like you're doing great! I know it's SO hard to be patient, you're working so hard and you want the fat gone yesterday. But honestly, I don't think you're dong anything wrong.

SherryTeach

Only 6 pounds a month? That's great! I lost 4.5 pounds a month and eventually reached my goal. Be patient. Slower is better.

wideeyedla

You are doing great. If you are working out that much, what does the rest of the picture look like? Measurements changing? Clothes fitting differently? I tell myself, that sometimes the scale lies, in the sense that it is only part of the bigger picture.

leebesstoad

My only concern would be not getting enough calories. Plugging your stats into Scooby Workshop's TDEE calculator you get a TDEE of at least 3200+ calories/day. TDEE-20% (which is about as low as you should go) is about 2600 calories/day. I would be worried that at some point, if it hasn't already, your metabolism will start to slow down tremendously and you will stop losing weight entirely. Even with weight training, you will be losing lean muscle mass. Your BMR is at 1800 You are on your feet all day. You work out with a trainer 3 times a week. You do elliptical 40 minutes 4 times a week, and you are starting zumba? And your calorie intake is between 900-1500 calories/day? I think with all that exercise and all that calorie deficit and you are only losing 6 pounds a month, it is saying that your metabolism is slowing down tremendously because it is being underfed.

If you haven't looked at it, here's Scooby's calorie calculator: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

There is also a wonderful book that I'm reading right now getting ready to go on the diet. The diet isn't for you and I'm not suggesting it at all. But the book is very thorough and useful, and is a scientifically fact based review of how to set your calorie targets. The book is The Ketogenic Diet by Lyle McDonald. For your purposes, you are only concerned with what is talked about in Chapter 8 (pages 86-100), in particular Section 3 (sections 1 and 2 are interesting to read to give a bit of background but may be a bit confusing). You can find it here: http://membres.multimania.fr/robody3/Ebooks/The_Ketogenic_Diet.pdf. Ignore everything else in the book. It isn't for you. But the 2 key things Mr. McDonald says that applies to you are the following:

"The primary question to be addressed is how large of a deficit to use when setting up a fat loss diet. As mentioned in the introduction, most dieters tend to drop calories extremely low based on the idea that the greater the deficit, the more weight that will be lost. Up to a point this appears to be true, in that greater caloric restriction yields greater fat loss. However this ignores the potential effects of extreme caloric restriction on metabolic rate, muscle loss, etc. A recent review of twenty-two studies found that extremely low calorie levels, below 1000 calories/day, caused a much greater drop in metabolic rate than even 1200 calories/day (10). So, there appears to be a threshold level of caloric intake where metabolic rate is more greatly affected."

"In general, the studies support the idea that there is a threshold deficit where maximum fat loss will occur with minimal changes in metabolic rate. This threshold occurs at approximately 1000 calories per day below maintenance and represents the maximum allowed deficit. As a general rule, the total daily deficit, created through caloric restriction and exercise,
should be no greater than 1000 calories total per day. This should yield an average fat loss of 2 pounds per week."

Just things for you to think about.