What am I doing wrong?

johnpheseltine

OK, so I know this question has been asked lots of times before but I have tried everything I can think of and nothing works. Three years ago I found myself aged 54, at 91.5 kg which is borderline obese and rising blood pressure. I decided to take myself in hand and through a combination of careful eating and exercise my weight has dropped to 75/76 kg and my blood pressure has dropped to 108/78.

So far so good. My problem is that it doesn't seem to make any difference what I do I can't get to loose that last few kg. I have tried everything I can think of, I don't eat very much and I get a lot of exercise, according to the numbers the fat should be falling off but it doesn't. I have been at a steady 75/76 kg for the last 18 months and I can't see where it is coming from.

Just to make sure I was not going mad, last week I decided to take a typical day and measure and weigh everything very precisely.

breakfast, fruit salad and a slice of toast
mid morning snack, small portion of nuts and an apple
lunch, bean salad and a soup
dinner green salad, cauliflower rice and a low fat venison burger
portion of frozen yoghurt

I weighed everything and calculated the calories at 1439, I would say this was a fairly typical day.

In addition, I do 40 minutes of cycling as part of my commute to work, at an average of 15mph, and I go out three times a week and do steady 20mph laps around the park on my bicycle for 40 minutes. According to the calculators online, my commute burns about 600 calories and the blast around the park burns about 800 calories. Thats a total of 1400 calories. In addition to this I do weights once or twice a week and I do a 2 hour cardio session at my local gym on a saturday.

So on my example day I ate 39 calories more than I expended in exercise.

I am guessing from my appearance that I am currently about 25% body fat, I want to start competing in time trails but to do this I really need to loose about another 10kg of fat which would take me down to 65 and about 15% body fat, but it seems it doesn't make any difference what I do I can't shift any more weight.

I have tried high protien and low carbs, eating eggs, salad and fish for lunch and a salad and maybe chicken for dinner. That made no difference. I went vegan for three months, no change. I tried starving myself by only eating spinach and nuts and I got down to 71 kg but I felt faint all the time and couldn't exercise. I tried the 5:2 thing, and my weight drops in the two days I don't eat and goes straight back up when I do. I don't drink much alcohol and I can't remember the last time I ate pasta or potatoes. I have tried eating more and I have tried eating less. It makes no difference. If I do eat anything like a normal meal my weight goes straight up. My diary is mostly out of date, I stopped bothering with it when the numbers going in don't relate to what I can see in front of me.

The only thing I have left is to start cutting out whole meals and replacing them with powder, but that is going to put me on about 1000 calories a day which just seems extreme.

Basic data, height 174cm, weight 75/76kg, blood pressure 108/78, resting heart rate 50, water consumption 2-3 litres a day, typical days food 1500 calories, average daily calories burned in exercise from cycling 771,

So folks, what am I doing wrong and how can I possibly stay at a steady weight when I eat so little and exercise so much?

Muffie22

i'd say eating too little. If you eat 1500 a day, and exercise 771 then you're only netting 729... you really need to be netting at least 1200 (your body needs a certain amount of calories a day just to function, ie. not to do any exercise or move much at all, called your BMR, most people's are at least 1200). Your body may well be burning off fat slower because of this, because it's getting so few calories it needs to hang on to them all to function properly...

I also definitely wouldn't recommend cutting out meals. That's just plain not healthy.

Use this site to calculate how much you need to be eating : http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

you didn't say whether you're male or female but from your username i'm guessing male, which, when i put your details in this site tells me your BMR is 1987, and you'd need to eat 2384 calories to maintain your weight if you did no exercise whatsoever (which obviously you do). Therefore you're drastically undereating and this is probably why you have stopped losing weight...

_Zardoz_

Without seeing your diary it's difficult to give specific help. Normally though people are eating more than they think. Are you weighing and measuring all your food accurately? That's weighing solids and measuring liquids. Cups and spoons are not accurate for solids as they are a measure of volume

Have a look at this link its a good guide to get the most accurate logging

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide

paulperryman

i was the same for 3 months, stuck at 78Kg after 15months of going from 112Kgs with critical blood pressure.
i think the sercret to plateaus is get out of the rut and do something different. If you are stuck change up your calories or your exercise, in my case i started doing less cardio, more weights and cutting back to 4 days at most and eating more, i gained weight initially then started losing again now down to 74.5-75kgs which btw i wasnt trying to drop below 75 but my job on most days is moderately active with alot of walking and then if i go to the gym i can average 10cals a minute excluding going to the gym and i can't eat enough calories to compensate atm hehe complete opposite problem i had for almost the last 2 years.

you can befriend me and see my diary tho you dont need to do that my diary is open
i cycle 3 different breakfasts, Egg Frittata, Oats or Weetbix. I have 3 600ml protein shakes + health bar a day
I also pre-prepare my work meals for atleast 2 days at a time and weigh 90% of what goes in my mouth.

Green Tea replaces caffeine.

My exercise regime, excluding work which i avg 13K steps a day bout 8km's or so.
I love the static bike, we have a computerised ones at the gym that give you a track to ride on and goals etc to compete against makes it far more enjoyable i average atleast 10miles a session on that atleast once a week, use to do more but it burns the most calories of any exercise for me so i'm trying to be more conservative

i do 20-30 mins of core/resistance training atleast 3 days a week, should do more but i find it boring. BUT since i do it even the little amount seems to be aiding the overal weight loss rate during the week.

you should be eating like 2600 i'd say atleast for all that exercise, eating less is not necessarily gonna lose weight, you need to eat to keep the furnace going. 5 meals a day, space them about 3hrs apart (not proven science but it works for me and countless others)

i'm 41yrs old, 175cm and around 75Kgs and need to eat 2400-3000+ calories on a normal day to maintain. you are doing far more exercise then me.

Soups are high in sodium unless they are homemade

I'd add in mixed nuts, protein shakes as your liquids, more protein in meat form. maybe more fats (not sat. fats)

what's your Macro ratio's? Mines 40/30/30 Carbs/Proteins/Fats. I pretty much always go under the fats, and depending on the day go under carbs or proteins.

Ideas for breakfasts
2-3 jumbo eggs, 30g capsicum, 30-40g of mushrooms, lite milk mix together and in the microwave for 3.5mins and add 2 slice of grain bread. + a protein shake thats my breaky every 2-3 days.

Oats i have with fruit and milk and the weetbix i usually have 4 bix with milk. bother with a protein shake.

have another protein shake around morning break or lunch time and another one around 3pm + a nut bar, mixed nuts or some fruit.

paulperryman

so see what your actuall TDEE on an average day is and eat 500 below that, or eat at it and dont eat exercise calories.
2000 should be adequate with all that exercise to still lose weight rapidly

AdaVanderlyle

Dude, you are under-eating, can't you see that? There are women on MFP who eat around 2000 kcal, lift heavy and look ridiculously lean, fit and awesome. Men eat even more and still lose. Do some research on the forums, there's plenty of info there.