Ok, this is ridiculous.

piexcore

Alright kids, here is my deal.

I have been on a "diet" (not a strict one- more of a watch what you eat, try not to eat much over 1200-1300 calories and get a decent amount of exercise lifestyle.) for about five years now. It wasn't very difficult for me, and I maintained a sized 8/6 (I'm 5'7"). I joined this site months ago because I was tired of being a Rubens yearning for the long lean lines of a Klimt. (Ok, really a shciele)

And so, I stepped up my game. I do (intense) Zumba 4 to 7 times a week, resistance weights 2 or three times a week, I eat within my 1200 calories a day sometimes spilling over into my exercise calories and I very rarely go over. My jobs pretty sedentary, but I get up and move almost every hour. I only drink alcohol about once a month, and I'm such a lightweight its never much more than a beer and a shot.

And somehow in four-five months of stepping it up...I've lost 4 pounds. 3 of which I gain back every month for a week or so. I have put on muscle, and my body may be a little smaller- but not enough to lose a pants size. I admit, I've always had the metabolism of an obese snail...but shouldn't I see more results by now?

So...what am I doing wrong? Should I do two hours of cardio a day instead of of one? Most of my calories are from sugar and fat- could that be the problem? Should I just be more patient? The fat I want to lose is on my stomach and my upper arms- does that take longer to burn than say the slim layer of flesh everywhere else? Should I jump-start my diet with a fad juice fast? Try an ECA stack? Just suck it up? lol.

Thanks for your help guys

dls06

open your diary so people can make suggestions.

piexcore

Lol, somehow the idea of people looking at what I eat is really embarrassing. But, its open.

tlynnweb

probably not eating enough! sounds strange but true! Open up the diary!

LozFearn

I think you are not eating enough - I'd try eating at least half of your exercise calories.

If you don't eat enough - your body will hang onto it as much as it can, as it thinks you are starving. Try it for a month and see what happens.

rmsrws

The majority of my calories comes from lean protien and protien supplements!

pawprint_net

I'm currently trying the eat more approach too - also based on the advice of others, while it hasn't been long enough to see an effect I'm not gaining either - so I'd through in my vote for trying it too.

morganadk2_deleted

I think you are not eating enough - I'd try eating at least half of your exercise calories.

If you don't eat enough - your body will hang onto it as much as it can, as it thinks you are starving. Try it for a month and see what happens.

Me too!

dls06

The answer is in your diary. You need to eat better. Less processed high fat, high sodium foods. Until you change to a healthy diet you will be stuck When you enter foods you have to make sure all the goals are met not just calories.

ksmittens

Maybe start to track your sodium and see what your levels are. I know we all run into our runts so dont get discouraged! Keep up the good work and although the results maybe slow they will certainly come!

stormieweather

You're 5'7". How much do you weigh? And how old are you? I would say your activity level is lightly -moderately active, including workouts.

You've been eating 1200-1300 calories for 5 years and now, even less, unless you eat back your exercise calories.

Let me use some guesstimates:

A 5'7" woman, age 25, who weighs about 145 pounds and is lightly-moderately active should be burning between 1900-2200 calories a day. If you are at a healthy weight and trying to lose vanity pounds, it won't work with a huge 1000 calorie deficit. You need to be eating about 250 calories less than you are burning before your body will let loose of any excess fat. So you should be eating between 1700-2000 calories a day (including exercise calories). *IF* the stats I guesstimated are correct....

tl;dr - Eat more.

piexcore

Yeah, lately I've been eating allot more lately on the off chance that was it. I have to be careful about when I eat animal proteins though, because they make me really tired.

Oh. I'm 23 and I weigh 155 pounds.

tlynnweb

Yes, you definitely eat a lot of sugar and fat--maybe cut that back for a few weeks or cut it out altogether. I know diets higher in protein, less carbs tend to work fastest on the belly so maybe try doing more of that. Eating more protein also keeps you fuller, longer so you may not have the cravings for the cookies, cakes, ice creams?? Who knows girl, I've been working out harder than ever and gaining weight so I'm hating life myself!

rmsrws

You have a "sweet tooth"....LOL....I notice you didn't log your water intake, are you drinking at least 8 glasses a day!

funfitfoodie

I'd say more protein and less carbs. Try and stay under your sugar as well (I know it's soooo hard!)

Lima_India_Zulu

You do probably need to eat more. Whatever your net calories if you don't EAT 1200 or more a day your body might go into starvation mode and hold onto everything it's got. Try eating around 1500 or more and then working it off back down to a sensible net level.

hyde1977

Water? are you drinking it? are you drinking enough of it? They say 8 glasses a day at minimum.
Take your weight/2 and then divide by 8. that is how many glasses at minimum you should get.

Seems you are working out so make sure you are getting lots of water in those work outs. You should be putting 8ozs for every 20-30 minutes of work outs

Weight loss is 80% diet and 20% activity- so many experts say.... I am not an expert but I have to agree with all the personal trainers have told me.....the more I eat the more I seem to lose!

You need the minimum of 1200 but if you are working out that much you might want to try to eat more during the day (I do find it hard to eat so much after a work out

How are you getting the calorie burn? I have an HRM so I know its my burn and that has really helped! You could be over or under estimating what you are truly burning!

:happy:

binary_jester

Take measurements. You may not see the results since you look at yourself every day.

Also...stop worrying about weight. It is the worse measurement of progress.

guppygirl322

You do eat a lot of sweets. Those are just empty calories that do nothing for you. If you want sweet, try some grapes, or berries, or something. Drink a lot of water. Get some lean protein. I'm a vegetarian and I still manage to get enough on 1200 a day.

JDMPWR

First and foremost, cut carbs down. Way too high, then up your protein.

To do this just go to goals, click custom and then change the percentages to something like Protein-40, Carbs-35, Fat-25 or if you must 40/40/20.

Simple thing to digest is this. For every 1 oz of carbs you take in you will hold 3oz of water. Just in that you are holding water. I can't see your sodium intake, start recording it. Do your best to stay under 2500mg a day. Make sure to take in at least 8 8oz glasses of water a day. Cut out the processed high fat foods.

Secondly how are you monitoring your hr and cals burned?

freerange

Animals proteins make you tired because you’re not used to eating them. You need way more protein in your diet. Here is my advice, cut back on the junk food, add more protein, eat a better breakfast. Eat cleaner too, cut back on processed foods, sugars, refined carbs, hydrogenated oils, and did I mention you need more protein in your diet?

dlaplume2

HI
I don't think you are too far off. I think what you might want to do is lower your goals to .5lbs a week and see what is gives you for a sedentary lifestyle. You are not doing too bad calorie wise, but I see you trowing in a few prepared treats that might be sabotaging you. A cookie here a donut there. When you get closer to your goal weight there is less room for error. If you have been exercising for a bit, you might be over estimating your calorie burn too. I use a HRM monitor and I have noticed, that I need to increase the intensity to hit the same HR I did a month ago. If you are doing the same routine, you might want to kick it up a bit or alternate days, so you work different muscle groups. You said you were doing Zumba 4-7 days a week, maybe you should try a diffent class a couple of days instead.


Best wishes to you.

registers

You're eating a ton of carbs, they spike insulin causing your body to store the carbs in the muscle or turn it in to fat. If your muscles are full it will turn in to fat.

I don't know why people keep on talking about "eating more." does anyone know what a caloric deficit is? It means you consume LESS than what you burn. 1500 + 250 = 1750 (250 is eating) this is not eating 1500 + 0 = 1500 (greater caloric deficit).

I know people will say that stuff about "it speeds up your metabolism." truth of the matter yes eating does burn calories, here are the facts.

97% of fat can be used for energy.
89% of carbs can be used for energy
80% of protein can be used for energy.

So if you eat 100 calories of protein, you will burn 20 calories. You would be better off not eating the 100 calories in the first place.

The issue is not necessarily the calories you consume that prevent/halt weight loss, it's the "TYPE" of calories you consume. I already talked about how carbs effect your body and can cause a halt in fat loss or even increase fat gain. Does this mean go on a "high protein low carb diet?" NO. It means, have "balanced" meals. A little bit lower on the carbs,and you should be fine and of course exercise, can't take that out of the equation.

piexcore

Ahhhh, I do have a sweet tooth. I had kind of hoped that as long I ate the right amount of calories it wouldn't matter where they came from. When I was in high school I ate nothing but diet coke and cake for two weeks and lost 10 pounds so I guess... I was hoping...lol. I'm such a fat-kid at heart.

I do drink allot of water- so much more than eight glasses that I don't even bother writing it down. Although I eat so much salt its probably negated.

I don't have a body bug or anything- but I'm a really energetic dancer ( lots of sweat- I like to compete with the instructor) and I record about 200 calories and fifteen minuets less than I think I burned so I don't think eating more than I burn is the problem. I probably should switch up the type of exercise though.

Thanks for the advice guys- I'll definitely up the protein and try to slash the sugar and fat.

coloradocami

I think you really need to be sure you are eating enough. For me enough protein was key to my weight loss. I have a Muscle Milk Light every morning (20g protein in 100cal)
You may also want to check with your doctor on what “your” ideal weight should be. We all come in different sizes and what is healthy for your body could be a size 2 or a size 10…good luck girl!
Cami

registers

Ahhhh, I do have a sweet tooth. I had kind of hoped that as long I ate the right amount of calories it wouldn't matter where they came from. When I was in high school I ate nothing but diet coke and cake for two weeks and lost 10 pounds so I guess... I was hoping...lol. I'm such a fat-kid at heart.

I do drink allot of water- so much more than eight glasses that I don't even bother writing it down. Although I eat so much salt its probably negated.

I don't have a body bug or anything- but I'm a really energetic dancer ( lots of sweat- I like to compete with the instructor) and I record about 200 calories and fifteen minuets less than I think I burned so I don't think eating more than I burn is the problem. I probably should switch up the type of exercise though.

Thanks for the advice guys- I'll definitely up the protein and try to slash the sugar and fat.

hold your horses girl. You need so many calories a day. If you lower your carbs, you have to compensate with protein AND fats. If you just increase protein, it will be hard to hit the calories you need, this is where fat comes in. Of course healthy fats, unsaturated fats. Such as olive oil, avocado's, nuts... things of that sort.

1gram of protein = 4 calories
1gram of carbs = 4 calories
1gram of fat = 9 calories.

Fat also releases CCK(Cholecystokinin) which suppresses appetite.

I just saw someone post about watching your sugar. This is a "Yes" and "No" type of deal. Carbs are sugar. The more complex the carb the longer the chain of simple sugars. So the longer it takes to break down. The "sugar" on myfitnesspal. Doesn't know the difference if the sugar came from a complex carb such as whole wheat, or if it came from a simple sugar such as a candy bar.

So the thing here is if you eat healthy carbs, don't worry about what it says about sugar. People don't fully understand fruit. Yes fruit is a simple sugar, it's made up of fructose and sucrose, but to convert this to glucose is a long process, so fruits act as a complex carb.

droppin_lbs

I'm sure that you are burning way more than 200 cals, probably closer to 400-450, if you are competing with the instructor. This would put your net calories even lower than you originally thought.

I suggest you purchase a HRM - try for a Polar (name of brand) that has a chest strap. You will feel good knowing what your burning during your workouts.

Ahhhh, I do have a sweet tooth. I had kind of hoped that as long I ate the right amount of calories it wouldn't matter where they came from. When I was in high school I ate nothing but diet coke and cake for two weeks and lost 10 pounds so I guess... I was hoping...lol. I'm such a fat-kid at heart.

I do drink allot of water- so much more than eight glasses that I don't even bother writing it down. Although I eat so much salt its probably negated.

I don't have a body bug or anything- but I'm a really energetic dancer ( lots of sweat- I like to compete with the instructor) and I record about 200 calories and fifteen minuets less than I think I burned so I don't think eating more than I burn is the problem. I probably should switch up the type of exercise though.

Thanks for the advice guys- I'll definitely up the protein and try to slash the sugar and fat.

CassieLEO

You are def. eating too high a amount of fats, salt and I would bet you #1 offender is Sodium. You eat a lot of processed foods, and that isnt good either, filled with preservatives which doesn thelp you in the long run.

Also, try addign a protein shake to the mix. Im up to three shakes a day to increase my protein!

DizzieLittleLifter

You can workout until your blue in the face and your limbs fall off, but if your not fueling your body with the proper foods you will never see results. Imagine a full bucket of sand, if you continually pour sand into the the bucket it over flows. If you take a scoop out and put it right back in the sand level stays the same. You need to eliminate bad fats and sugar from your diet and eat more lean proteins and fibrous carbs. I know it sounds strange, but you also need to eat back at least 1/2 if not all of your exercise calories. HTH

bununu

I hardly see any vegetables in your food diary! Try getting 50% of your calories from fruits and vegetables.

JDMPWR

So if you eat 100 calories of protein, you will burn 20 calories. You would be better off not eating the 100 calories in the first place.

Someone failed math....

100-80%=20. That's 80, NOT 20. Secondly If you eat `1500 and your body burns or uses 1500 to maintain it's current weight you gained 0 weight.