Gutted

tariqfilms

So I weigh the same as I did back in May, still training 3 times a week, my calories are always under 2000, eating as clean as I can. I am thinking about going down to 1800 calories now as I am absolutely fed up.

I am going to try and walk 2 hours a day to burn 3500 calories a week, on top of my 3 gym sessions where I hit the weights doing compound moments. Although my strength and endurance has increased my weight has remained the same. I do not snack, I do not like chocolates, sweets or ice cream, my carbs are always quite low. It's annoying the hell out of me.

quiksylver296

You can't see the difference in your body composition?!?

Based on all your threads, I think what you should do differently is see a therapist.

kommodevaran

You're not maintaing that body/weight on 2000 calories. Tighten up your logging. If you find it difficult, free up some mental energy by ditching "clean eating".

auzziecawth

kommodevaran wrote: »

You're not maintaing that body/weight on 2000 calories. Tighten up your logging. If you find it difficult, free up some mental energy by ditching "clean eating".

This, but I also agree with the first poster. Your weight may not have changed but I notice a significant difference in your body composition.

mom23mangos

Your lats have grown, your pecs have grown, your biceps have grown. Congrats on a successful recomp!

Linkero

Looks to me as if you lost fat and gained muscle. The scale might read the same, but your body surely doesn't. I say keep up the great work!

dsboohead

Definate visual difference!

TavistockToad

quiksylver296 wrote: »

You can't see the difference in your body composition?!?

Based on all your threads, I think what you should do differently is see a therapist.

This

sardelsa

You look great! Is your goal to maintain and recomp? It can be a very slow process so visual changes can be more difficult to recognize. If not, as mentioned, tighten up your logging.

manowarrule2003

I will keep this short. Basically you look better. You have made obvious progress. Be proud, celebrate the achievement and carry on doing what you are doing

sarahlucindac

I see a huge difference! Bravo!

jemhh

You've made a big improvement. But you're not eating 2000 calories. You might be netting it but not eating it. Cut back by 250/day and see how that goes.

tariqfilms

Hi all, thanks for the encouragement, I guess seeing this 12 week transformations on instagram has made me a little insane. I just want to get down to around 15% body fat and maintain as much muscle as I can. I am 37 with 2 young children so balancing it all with a lack of sleep due can sometimes takes it toll.


How I worked it out was my macro split and my TDEE was;

My maintenance is 2348 calories according to from https://www.freedieting.com/calorie-calculator (Based on exercising 3/4 times a week ( the definition of exercise on this site is 15-30 mins elevated heart rate).

Then I deducted 500 which gave me 1851 calories which I have now rounded up to 1800.

Protein = 200g
1.2/lb of protein per body weight
168 lb x 1.2 = 201.6 g of protein, which I have rounded off to 200g
and 200g x 4 calories = 800 calories

Fats = 40g
20% of my overall daily calories
20% of 1800 = 360 calories / 9 (1g fat = 9 calories) = 40g

Carbs = 160g
Protein Calories (800) + Fat Calories (360) = 1160 Calories
Daily Goal (1800) - 1160 (Protein + Fat) = 640 Calories / 4 (1g of carb = 4 calories) = 160g

TavistockToad

so why the mad rush, you'll retain more muscle if you cut slowly than crash dieting?

stop obsessing with scale weight. i personally wouldn't change anything, what you're doing is obviously working

h1udd

dude .. thats a massive difference ... keep on at that rate and the pics in November you will look awsome

you are packing some decent muscle under the extra wrapping

Millicent3015

It concerns me that you're not getting enough sleep and that you're concentrating too hard on getting your weight down. You're only 37, so what are your long term goals? Are you going to keep up this regime for the next twenty years? For the rest of your life? Why are you in such a rush to change everything as soon as you can? You may not appreciate how your body is changing because you see your body every day, so may miss the incremental changes. You may be putting on muscle, which is denser than fat, so the scales will give you the same reading even if you're carrying less fat. I don't know what 'clean' eating is, but honestly, there's no such thing as 'clean' or 'dirty' food, there's just food that's more nutritious and food that's less nutritious. Whatever food choices you're making, just make sure you enjoy it and don't put unnecessary restrictions on your overall diet. My main worry is that you're becoming a bit intense and that might not bode well for the future. If you remain consistently dissatisfied with how your body looks, and genuinely don't see any improvement, then it might be an idea, as other posters have suggested, that you talk to a therapist, as you may have some body issues going on. If that's the case, even if you ended up looking like a Greek god you'd still think there was something wrong. I would avoid comparing yourself to other people doing these kind of 'transformation' programs, as different people have different lifestyles, different responsibilities and different end results. Different bodies do different things. So give yourself a break. You're doing well, and if there's no rush, why put unnecessary pressure on yourself?

jemhh

Ignore any 12 week transformation you see. Honestly, at this point that should be common knowledge. The majority of such transformations are made possible via changes in lighting, photo editing, and the person not being as out of shape as they claim at the start. I've known very fit people who have purposely put on a lot of water weight in order to game the system by starting out super bloated and then dropping it all so that they win whatever prizes their gyms have up for grabs.

tariqfilms

Pretty much back where I started. My waist measurements are also back to where I started. No fast food, eating under my maintenance and never over. Weight train 3 times a week with a personal trainer who pushes me to the max. Had thyroids tested and they were fine. My gym instructor has told me that I need to up my cardio but what I don’t get is, why my weight has gone back to where it was. Its so gutting.

quiksylver296

Check out this video of "before and after" pics. It's more real than anything you'll see on IG.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M957dACQyfU

TheSemideus

Ok. You’ve hit a point in your life where no results have become apparent. The first thing I would tell you to do is invest in a Fitbit preferably blaze or better. It will be the best bloody investment you can make. People can argue and chat shiz about how accurate they are but if you leave the device to what’s its had millions in investment to do it genuinely IS ACCURATE and it works. Using this device you can adjust your overall calorie intake based on a daily reading of calories burnt per day. You’ll be surprised how little you may actually be burning per day.
Next switch up your training. Periodisation is key meaning every 3-4 weeks training variables should be changed. Hypertrophy training and volume for fat loss is actually better in my opinion. If your training heavy. Stop. Train slightly lighter and aim to execute each exercise with absolute accuracy and full contraction of muscle.
Question? Are you aiming to hit macronutrient targets or just eating overall calories without paying attention to proteins, carbs, fats?

TheSemideus

And no offence to your trainer but what a cop out. Do more cardio?. That’s the laziest way out a pt can take. If I was you genuinely I’d take your money elsewhere. Have you vetted his credentials? Where did he qualify? Has he any nutritional qualification? Did he take a 6 week intensive online course? Basically pal it’s VERY EASY to become a PT these days genuinely £400 and you can get papers.

TavistockToad

tariqfilms wrote: »

Pretty much back where I started. My waist measurements are also back to where I started. No fast food, eating under my maintenance and never over. Weight train 3 times a week with a personal trainer who pushes me to the max. Had thyroids tested and they were fine. My gym instructor has told me that I need to up my cardio but what I don’t get is, why my weight has gone back to where it was. Its so gutting.

Do you weigh your food?

Millicent3015

tariqfilms wrote: »

Pretty much back where I started. My waist measurements are also back to where I started. No fast food, eating under my maintenance and never over. Weight train 3 times a week with a personal trainer who pushes me to the max. Had thyroids tested and they were fine. My gym instructor has told me that I need to up my cardio but what I don’t get is, why my weight has gone back to where it was. Its so gutting.

You might be putting on muscle, which is denser than fat. Weight training 3x/week will do that. Your scales will only show weight, not your body composition. The after pictures in your first post differ quite a bit from your before pictures, and it's obvious you've put on muscle. Honestly, if you don't think there are any changes to your body, and you're fixated on your weight, only seeing stagnation, not muscle replacing fat, even though your body is showing that, the issue might be with how you perceive yourself, especially as people here are seeing a body that's changing except you. One of the previous posters suggested therapy. I think that is a good suggestion. It doesn't sound like you will be satisfied with your body until you change how you see it.

IHaveMyActTogether

tariqfilms wrote: »

Pretty much back where I started. My waist measurements are also back to where I started. No fast food, eating under my maintenance and never over. Weight train 3 times a week with a personal trainer who pushes me to the max. Had thyroids tested and they were fine. My gym instructor has told me that I need to up my cardio but what I don’t get is, why my weight has gone back to where it was. Its so gutting.

You do realize that when bodybuilders what to build muscle, they think in terms of....GAINING WEIGHT??

You CLEARLY look amazing, had great changes in your pics. Your waist looks a lot trimmer, your lats are much bigger, your chest has much more muscle and much less fat.

I'm thinking you need to do what I did - say bye bye to the scale. If you are lifting heavy, the scale is not friendly.

HollaDeckGirl

Real talk: Body dysmorphia is a real d***. Without going as far as arm-chair psychiatrist-ing you, just know that how you are perceiving yourself is not what others see. To me, it appears you have accomplished a very difficult thing, which is body recomp. Who cares what you weigh when you look that much better?

If the number on the scale is your biggest concern at the moment, there are a few things you can probably do to tighten up your tracking.
- Weigh your food. measuring cups suck.
- You're probably burning way fewer calories lifting (assuming you do) than you would think.
- Track your cardio burn with a heart rate monitor. Again, estimates from anything else are always really wonky.

As annoying as this is to say, it absolutely does come down to calories in vs calories out. There appears to be an error in your math happening either in the caloric burn, or intake.

Also worth noting, your PT sounds really lazy. They should be combing through your food diaries with you as a first step.

IHaveMyActTogether

IHaveMyActTogether wrote: »

tariqfilms wrote: »

Pretty much back where I started. My waist measurements are also back to where I started. No fast food, eating under my maintenance and never over. Weight train 3 times a week with a personal trainer who pushes me to the max. Had thyroids tested and they were fine. My gym instructor has told me that I need to up my cardio but what I don’t get is, why my weight has gone back to where it was. Its so gutting.

You do realize that when bodybuilders what to build muscle, they think in terms of....GAINING WEIGHT??

You CLEARLY look amazing, had great changes in your pics. Your waist looks a lot trimmer, your lats are much bigger, your chest has much more muscle and much less fat.

I'm thinking you need to do what I did - say bye bye to the scale. If you are lifting heavy, the scale is not friendly.

(FYI, that's not me in the pic, just decided to give that as an example).

tariqfilms

TheSemideus wrote: »

Ok. You’ve hit a point in your life where no results have become apparent. The first thing I would tell you to do is invest in a Fitbit preferably blaze or better. It will be the best bloody investment you can make. People can argue and chat shiz about how accurate they are but if you leave the device to what’s its had millions in investment to do it genuinely IS ACCURATE and it works. Using this device you can adjust your overall calorie intake based on a daily reading of calories burnt per day. You’ll be surprised how little you may actually be burning per day.
Next switch up your training. Periodisation is key meaning every 3-4 weeks training variables should be changed. Hypertrophy training and volume for fat loss is actually better in my opinion. If your training heavy. Stop. Train slightly lighter and aim to execute each exercise with absolute accuracy and full contraction of muscle.
Question? Are you aiming to hit macronutrient targets or just eating overall calories without paying attention to proteins, carbs, fats?

Hi, so my trainer specialties in Hypertrophy training, and to hit my macronutrient targets, which are 166 P, 66 F and 140 C which add up to 1818 calories a day.

Apart from the 3 x 1 hour sessions a week I find it incredibly hard to find time to move as I work from home. My daily routine is up at 5:30am with the kids, have them changed, fed and dropped off to school by 8am. I am back home for 8:30am and start work at 10 to 6pm. At 6pm my laptop closes and I spend time with the children, get them both off to bed at 8pm and then go to bed myself around 9pm.

My PT pushes me hard and the only reason I have him is because he pushes me to my absolute limit in the gym. He has basically asked me to burn 300-500 calories a day by walking for an hour and incorporate that in as my body seems to have adapted and the results have slowed down. I am worried that If I keep lowering my calories I will end up eating 1 meal a day and my body will once again adapt. I have never been a big eater, I just don't move enough so I am going to incorporate a 500 calories walk/light run 3-5 times a week on top of my training and see if that helps. It would mean I would have to go to the gym at 9pm but I really can't see any other way.

countcurt

If weight loss is your goal, I can boil this down to two words:


Eat. Less.



You can do all the calculating you want. You can add 2 hours per day of walking (with two little kids and not enough sleep how do you take another two hours out of the day?). You can do strength training. And so on. But this is a simple problem. If you're not losing weight, you're ingesting too many calories.

But I caution, simple does not mean easy.

tariqfilms

countcurt wrote: »

If weight loss is your goal, I can boil this down to two words:


Eat. Less.



You can do all the calculating you want. You can add 2 hours per day of walking (with two little kids and not enough sleep how do you take another two hours out of the day?). You can do strength training. And so on. But this is a simple problem. If you're not losing weight, you're ingesting too many calories.

But I caution, simple does not mean easy.

I used to eat 1000 calories a day for about 6 months and lost no weight.

countcurt

tariqfilms wrote: »

I used to eat 1000 calories a day for about 6 months and lost no weight.

OK. It's possible you are one of that teensy percentage of the population that has a significant metabolic disorder causing you to be unable to lose weight even when caloric intake is drastically cut. So for that, I suggest a medical workup.


But here's the thing I don't get: If you maintained your weight at 1000 calories per day how could you also have maintained your weight at 2000 calories per day? Something doesn't add up here. Literally.

elsie6hickman

I can see a definite difference. Take a moment to enjoy your achievement. Make sure you are logging your food consistently and diligently.