I'm working out properly but not losing weight

HonkyTonks

Burning fat is 99% diet. You need to count calories accurately or there's no way to know if your diet is off the rails for sure. You're building muscle, which indicates that you are actually eating a surplus. Luckily, you are doing enough strength training to offset the surplus and turn it into muscle instead of fat, and the more LBM you build, the higher your BMR goes, so that's helping you work TOWARDS a deficit. However, you won't start really shredding fat until you start really paying attention to the calorie intake vs. output over time.

You may want to look into an intermittent fasting program along the lines of Leangains, since you are already skipping breakfast. It has a lot of adherents, and I've been on it for a couple of months. Seems to make my weight fluctuate less if I go over on calories for a day or so, and I regained less on a bad week than I used to, but I haven't been too concerned about my deficit lately so it's hard for me to tell how well it really works for fat shredding. The science behind it makes sense to me, from what I've read.

Agree with this - research leangains or Eat Stop Eat, intermittent fasting methods. You will need to make sure you're in a reasonable deficit in order to lose weight.

meerkat70

Make your diary private that we we can see your macros and so on... Also I would be finding out your BMR and eating only 20% less.. You need to eat food to fuel the body, and obviously nice healthy foods

Public, I suspect. :-)

mikeyrp

Sorry tehswinstead - I wrote that before you replied.

I stand by my 'more CV' comment. Other than that - if you are logging accurately you should loose weight! you could try playing with your target calories - sometimes a small increase or decrease will kick start the weight loss.

LTGPSA

As has been said in various posts...Open Your Diary, Take Your Measurements, Eat Routinely / fuel your body, Eat Your Exercise Calories, and Drink Plenty of Water. I believe I read your profile to say that you don't have a lot to lose. The closer you are to your goal - the harder it is to take off that last few lbs. However, if you follow the concepts of this site, you will lose it. Sounds like you're not eating enough... Good luck! :flowerforyou:

david_swinstead

Ok I made my diary public now. I havent been logging much recently (I log in my head but dont put it on MFP) but I have done for the last couple of days, and for so far today.

Thanks for all the responses guys I'm gonna go through a little later when I've got a spare half hour and make some notes on all the combined knowledge.

Nikki582

Are you drinking water? You haven't logged it (I often don't either) That CAN help as there's often retention from muscles rebuilding themselves (or something like that, I'm not a scientist don't jump on me if that's wrong info) and also from sodium etc.

david_swinstead

I don't bother logging it but yea I drink water.

Usually 2 large glasses (guessing about 500ml glasses) during the day at work, then at least a litre while at the gym, and probably another pint when I get home.

BerryH

Ok I made my diary public now. I havent been logging much recently (I log in my head but dont put it on MFP) but I have done for the last couple of days, and for so far today.

I think I've found your problem without even reading your diary! You may simply be eating too much. Log everything the minute it goes in your mouth. If you're unsure of portion sizes, weigh and measure every single thing until you get a feel for it. This is why MFP works!

Like many people here, I got overweight thinking I was eating healthy food until I started tracking properly. The other day I found out my lunch standard of a jacket potato (no butter) with tuna mayo was over 1,000 calories! Same with pasta carbonara!

GrahamBarwick

eat breakfast, no matter how early mate. Your body will store your first meal at lunch as fat if not because its been starved from the night before.

I didnt eat breakfast for 12 years, i couldn't do that now, it kick starts your body and metabolism, best way to burn fat and add muscle is by having your body working to its best, which you need to be eating breakie to do achieve

crux

If you have gained 17 lb in 4 month you have not been in calorie deficit. If you gained that weight in muscle and maintained your BF % then all power to you, that's great work!

Next, if you want to shift the fat then you will need to work as hard at accurately controlling your calorie intake as you do at working out.

It's just a cut cycle, keep lifting, maybe add some more cardio, but account for all you're calories and run a deficit until you lower the fat %.

GrahamBarwick

Building muscle is a good starting point for loosing fat because it raises the amount of calories your body burns for any activity (including doing nothing) - lets say for a simple example, before your built muscle your body would burn 2000 calories if you just went to work then came home and sat on the sofa. Now if you do the same it burns 5% more, so you burn 2100 calories doing the same. Generally weight lifting does not, in its own right, burn many calories - An hour of weights ~250 Calories and 15 minutes of CV will be 200 Calories = 450 Cals - even with the extra 5% you earned its going to be closer to 500 Calories. (5% was a randomly chosen number - you have to check this out for yourself)

Fat loss is a simple question of Calories in - Calories out. if you do all the above daily, your calories out is going to be around 2500. If your calories in is the same, you keep the fat. If its less, you loose it. 500 Calories per day will give you about 1lb per week weight (fat) loss. You will not put on muscle at anything like this rate!

You can dramatically increase your calories out by doing more CV work - I suggest you do at least 10 minutes as a warm up (this is good practice regardless of your targets) and 30 minutes after you do your 1hr weights - this will make your gym session closer to 700 Calories.

If you want to loose quicker, throw in a couple of CV days where you only do CV work - an hour and a half of dedicated work will get you +1200 Calories... Personally I burn 450 Cals per half hour on CV pretty consistently - I think you will be similar.

well said

monkeymouse74

I agree with you by this stage you should be dropping weight. If you eat the calories appointed here on mfp, you wont lose the weight because the exercise calories are very exaggerated! get a heart rate monitor to get a more realistic view of burned calories. I also know a number of people who train using the pyramid way to cut down and it's very effective. So starting with a low weight even if it's the lowest one, do a set of 12, then step up to the next weight and do 10, then up again and do 8, then up again and do 6, then drop to lowest or second lowest weight and finnish with 12. Do upper body one day and lower the next (so your muscle had a chance to repair, and cardio on the tird day. And do abbs everyday. Cardio is very important for weightloss and to work on the pyramid way, start on low intensity stepping the intensity up every 5 min and last 10 min bring it back to your start intensity but give it all you've got! It should burn like hell!!! So the idea is to ulternate with upper body, lower body then cardio. Not on the same day except for abbs which is everyday. Do 6 days a week and give it a break on the 7th day. Your workouts wont be as long, but they will be more effective.

Be carefull with your diet for the six days and have a cheat day on the 7th day. A good idea is to eat 5 to 6 small meals a day (protien is important). If breakfast is difficult, try boiling eggs and keeping them in the fridge, it's easy to grab a few on your way out the door. some fruit at mid morning. eat half your lunch at lunchtime and the other half mid afternoon and then a small healthy meal for dinner.

Please dont feel I'm preaching at you, I have a long way to go, I've just seen the most amaizing results on this plan, and I'm going to follow it to get to my goal

MaximalLife

Also, take some physical measurments if you aren't doing so already. Chest, Waist, Biceps, Thighs etc.
I was working out like a demon in September, only dropped 2lbs in 20 days, but lost 5cm around the waist.

I use this site to track body fat through certain body measurements.

Body Fat
http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/diet.html

engineman312

compare before an after pictures.

BerryH

get a heart rate monitor to get a more realistic view of burned calories. he most amaizing results on this plan, and I'm going to follow it to get to my goal

Sorry to step in here, but if weight-lifting is your main form of exercise, an HRM won't give you an accurate burn.

But as often gets quoted here "abs are made in the kitchen" so check your diet first and foremost.

david_swinstead

I don't really have any before photos, maybe it's time I started taking some now so I can compare again in a few weeks/months... I can describe what the before/after pictures would look like though.

My body shape has changed, because my shoulders and chest are a *lot* bigger from the muscle mass. Shirts don't fit me round the shoulders anymore. Arms are gradually growing too, and my legs (quads especially) are getting really, really big.

But my belly fat isn't going anywhere, nor are my love handles.

I'll take a current photo when I get in tonight. Just don't tell my gym friends I've been taking shirtless photos in the mirror - I'll never live it down!

vanessaclarkgbr

I'd definitely log religiously for the next two weeks. Use cups, scales whatever - I think you may be surprised. If I go through a few 'guess' days and then weigh out the portions I had later, I always underestimate what I've had.

I'm not saying live life obsessively - we all go over sometimes, but be honest by measuring and tracking and see what you find out there.

Good luck!

monkeymouse74

get a heart rate monitor to get a more realistic view of burned calories. he most amaizing results on this plan, and I'm going to follow it to get to my goal

Sorry to step in here, but if weight-lifting is your main form of exercise, an HRM won't give you an accurate burn.

But as often gets quoted here "abs are made in the kitchen" so check your diet first and foremost.

Sorry, I meant for your cv days:blushing:

david_swinstead

Also, take some physical measurments if you aren't doing so already. Chest, Waist, Biceps, Thighs etc.
I was working out like a demon in September, only dropped 2lbs in 20 days, but lost 5cm around the waist.

I use this site to track body fat through certain body measurements.

Body Fat
http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/diet.html

Wow, I just used that link with some rough measurements and it put my body fat down to 19% instead of 28%. Maybe the earlier poster was right and my weight watchers scales are wildly inaccurate.

When I get in tonight I'll be doing it properly with accurate measurements. Thanks!

conniehv40

My husband worked out for more than 4 months like crazy. He even got a personal trainer with weights etc.

He then lost 30 pounds when he also put that energy into watching what he ate. He cut cream to non-fat, he ate apples and blueberries, he ate cereal for dinner if he got home really late--yogurt and salad. It was crazy, but he ended up losing almost 30 pounds while working out AND dieting.