What am i doing wrong??

MyCoffeePal

Hey friends!

About 1.5 years ago i started on Power 90, however instead of cardio at home, mostly i would do spinning or swimming, and i would do the weightlifting routine at the gym.
I did lose weight but at the time i didn't really weight myself as i didn't own a scale, and only used my clothes/pictures to measure.
Then life happened and i fell off the wagon for a long long long time.

I spent this winter eating my heart out on the fact i had not only gotten out of shape totally and completely, but by now i had moved away and there was no gym where i would feel comfortable in sight. The old gym was really nice and they all knew me, i felt comfortable.

So a month ago i told myself i'd run out of exuses and it's time to unpack the videos and at least do something here at home.

I have a pair of dumbells and the bands, and well, day 1 was horrible. I cried A LOT. I used to do the push ups no problem,and now i couldn't even do ONE!!!!!!!!!! (On the knees!).

A long side with starting working out again, (basically going from sofa and not moving to doing the routines), i also began eating very healthy again, lean meat, salads, cut out all soda, sugar, breads, a lot of carb food like rice, potatoes etc. and mainly eat veggetables, fish, 10-14 almonds per day, avocado, eggs, some dairy in the morning / with coffee, 1-2 fruit per day (apple).

My calorie intake is around 1400 cal per day.
I weigh now 94 kilos and for an entire month - truly- i've not had any crazy eating of nasty food or high cal food, i eat several times a day, feel very good about it and in a weird way when i'm hungry i crave stuff like salad with grilled chicken breast instead of lets say a pasta dish. Am totally off the diet soda cravings and only drink water with lemons at home. If i go out i allow myself a diet coke , i'm not fanatic about anything.

I didn't lose one single kilo for a month, sometimes the scale went up to 95 kg even.

The last 4 days was one of those times of the month where i'm extra tired so i admit i didn't push myself exersize wise too hard and only managed to work out 3 times. I did however keep my food as usual, had a few extra almonds the other day as i was really craving something.
But other than that, just ate healthy , less grandiose portions, drink water, get my sleep, etc.
I have tracked my food in a journal and also my fitness routine.
I can now do about 15 pushups straight and during the routine i do a total of over 45 pushups. I can see my strength has increased due to the increased reps i can take as well.

But i'm very frustrated. I know sometimes there can be water weight but the first 2 weeks i ran to the bathroom all the time, i don't eat a lot of salty food and i do drink water. I don't want to cut calories any further as i KNOW if i feel very deprived it will..and i mean it WILL end in a binge.

It's "only" been 1 whole month, however in all my diets through the years, i ALWAYS lost faster and more in the beginning, so this is very strange to me not to drop one single kilo!

Today i'm starting next level of Power 90, 3-4, it's a new week and i'm officially into 2nd month.

I would love to be able to drop from 94 kilos to 89 kilos by mid August, something i feel is attainable (5 kilos in 3 months)

PLEASE if you have any advice for me, somethng that isn't "muscle weighs more than fat" because it does weigh the same, and sure muscle might be more dense, however when i'm such a big deficit of calories shouldn't i have seen at least SOME movement on the scale in negative direction?


Thank you and sorry for the long post!

allopathicJ

I'll be honest, I almost didn't read your post because it was quite long, but I ended up doing so anyway. To answer your question, I'd really need to know more about you. Are you male or female, how old are you? what does your typical diet consist of? what types of foods do you eat regularly?

Besides those things, I've noticed several issues with your approach to weight loss. For some reason, a lot of people think that you have to cut your calories significantly to lose weight. That is a fallacy; Why? Because our bodies are designed to adjust to severe caloric restriction. The best way to lose weight is to find your basal metabolic rate, and total daily energy expenditure and use that as a baseline. Since you weight 94 kilos (~207 lbs), there is NO WAY you should be eating 1400 calories a day. Even my little brother who is 96 kilos, eats about 2300+ calories a day and can still lose weight. It sounds like you have done some metabolic damage, and you really have to work hard to bring your metabolism to life. If you could answer the questions from the first paragraph, i can help you more, and give you detailed examples of what numbers to aim for.

Also, I think part of your problem is water intake. You should be taking at least 2.5L of water per day. If you can drink a gallon, even better. This helps to reduce salt retention, and also makes you appear leaner. You'll also flush out the bad stuff out of your system. In addition, I suggest that you increase your fiber (fibre) intake to about 25 grams a day (start at 20 grams and work your way up slowly bc some people complain of bloating).

Feel free to add me as a friend, and I can give you all the help you need to get down to your goal weight.

MyCoffeePal

Ok, thank you ill try to make it short this time then!
I'm female, 34.
My typical diet:

Morning: 1 serving of Greek yoghurt with 10 almonds, half an apple, sometimes also half a banana or a Kiwi
Coffee with splash of milk

Around 2 hours later:
Salad with cherry tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, bell pepper, 1/2 avocado, 2-3 dried tomatoes, onion, 1 table spoon of tahini sauce
Sometimes with a hardboiled egg, or with tuna in water

Lunch: 1/2 slice of rye bread, with either a piece of smoked salmon or with some cottage cheese, a few cherry tomatoes/salad
Or i'll have an omelet if i didnt have egg earlier.

Snack: Home made protein muffin (batter made from : egg whites , cocoa powder, some oats, shreded banana, apple, coconut, no sugar) . One muffin is about 60 cal.

Dinner:
Chicken breast with big salad, with maybe some tzatziki (greek cucumber sauce)
Small fruit salad for desert with 4-6 almonds.


Typical foods are very clean and my meals are freshly prepared. No processed food.
Thing is i feel very full and alrady feel i am eating a lot.
Sometimes i will add shredded cheese to my omelet for some added fat, or i'll toast the rye bread and spread a little butter on it and eat it with half a banana on it (very tasty). Sometimes i have some olives , or i add olive oil to the salad (1 tbl spoon).

I also eat fish, i don't eat a lot of red meat but sometimes i will make a healthy burger with red meat. In the last month i ate red meat 4 times.

I think you are right about the water, i don't drink enough at all, i get about 1.5 liters per day. I will up it from today.

You're also right that maybe it's flawed about eating less calories to lose weight, but i'm not sure how to get more calories and not move into the more unhealthy patterns i used to have.

For severe overweight people like me it's just always been the message: cut calories, exersize more, create a deficit, and then i'd lose weight.

Thank you for your answer!