Totally stuck. Help!

Othos

I need help.

At the beginning of this year I weighed 232 pounds. I started counting calories and working out, and lost 20 pounds over a few months. Then I just stopped losing weight. At all.

THE GOAL: 180 pounds, with some sleek but noticeable musculature.

STATS
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 212 pounds
Age: 37
Calories per day: 1400-1800

DIET
My daily calories have been around 1400 a day, until about a week ago when I changed to 1800 a day with a lot more protein (100 grams or more a day), in an attempt to get something going again. I drink a ton of water, and get adequate fiber.

SUPPLEMENTS
I take the following supplements daily:
- Clif bar for breakfast
- multivitamin with iron
- 1000mg calcium
- 5g fiber
- 1200mg fish oil
- 50mg zinc
- Whey protein shake (54g protein)
- 5000mg creatine on workout days

EXERCISE
My workouts are three times a week, and consist of the following routine, alternating between workouts A and B:

Workout A
- 7 minutes on exercise bike
- Shoulder Press: 5 sets of 5 reps (current average weight = 70 lb)
- Dead Lift: 5 sets of 5 reps (current average weight = 130 lb)
- Bent-Over Row: 5 sets of 5 reps (current average weight = 130 lb)

Workout B
- 7 minutes on exercise bike
- Bench Press: 5 sets of 5 reps (current average weight = 115 lb)
- Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps (current average weight = 135 lb)
- Bent-Over Row: 2 sets of 5 reps (current average weight = 135 lb)

I've tried to be consistent about working out, but the honest truth is that I usually miss one day a week on average. I've been "eating the workout": if my caloric goal for the day is 1800, and I burn 200 calories working out, I'll eat 2000 calories for the day.

So what should I do? Should I eat less, or more? Should I switch to a different workout plan? Should I skip the weightlifting and just do cardio and eat crackers and lose weight until I hit 170, and then start lifting at that point? Help!

kr3851

It's just my opinion... but you aren't doing very much cardio AT ALL. I'd try to fit in at least 30 minutes every other day - whilst strength training is crucial to weight loss, you don't burn much. The muscles are more efficient at burning that fat once you get going doing your cardio. It'd be different if you only had a couple of pounds to lose, but you're after 20 or so so you need to up your cardio ALONG with keeping up the weights.

fastbelly

7 minutes of cardio (your effective cardio) 3 times a week is nowhere near enough exercise to increase your metabolism. If you can't do longer periods, try to increase is slowly, say next week do 8 minutes and the week after that try 10 minutes, do 10 minutes for 2 weeks.

If you skip a workout day, do it the next day instead.

Good Luck

beccau_20

Agreed about the cardio. My suggestion is to start with 10 mins of something inbetween each of your strength training sets (elliptical, stair climber, treadmill...). Also, on the bike, is it recumbent or upright? If it's upright, try a program and climb those hills! Increase your resistance slowly.

Good luck!

abutterflyemerges

First of all good for you! Looks like you have a plan of action. I had the same problem and what worked for me was tricking my body in amount of food and type of exercise. My body adjusted to the same amount of calories and the types of workouts I was doing. So I either increased my workout and or increased/decrease my calories to throw off my body. I also was told to keep my protein no more than 85 grams as I ate around the same as you and saw no weight change. I was told the body adjust to your eating and exercise plan then it seems like you plateaued. Do this for a month as it takes time for you body to adjust again. The go back to your routine and see if this helps.

Good luck!

taso42_DELETED

I tend to agree that you can stand to do more cardio. HIIT is definitely something to look into. But I kind of doubt that is the crux of the issue. I think increasing calories was probably the right move. It's only been a week so far; let's see what happens after another couple of weeks or so. You might even consider implementing a "free day" aka "spike day" aka "splurge day" and just eat literally whatever you want, once a week.

Finally, if all else fails, you might consider investing in one of those BodyMedia Fit devices, which should give you a closer idea of your true daily energy expenditure, and you can set a very realistic calorie target based on that data.

robin52077

you might consider investing in one of those BodyMedia Fit devices, which should give you a closer idea of your true daily energy expenditure, and you can set a very realistic calorie target based on that data.

^ I LOVE mine. My TDEE is varying from 1600 (sick in bed all day) to 2600 (12 hour shift on my feet running around).

Seriously, I eat more than you on a daily basis and I'm a 5'2" 109 lb girl. You probably need to be eating more. Lifting weights isn't going to build muscle in such a calorie deficit. You need fuel. Your protein should be almost 200g a day, and yes, add a little more cardio to burn the fat, but you've got the right idea as far as strength training is concerned, way more important than cardio.

Also, I don't see anything for your core in there. (other than the deadlift, which is lower back and can be considered core, but what about the front?) Where's the ab work? do 10-20 minutes of abs at the end of each of those workouts.