lack of progress-could use some advice
ellie78
Posts: 375
Okay, I am in need of some help. I first increased by calories and started lifting in March. The basic calculations give me a BMR of around 1500 and a TDEE of around 2400. I have moved my calorie goal around a bit, but to sum it up generally aiming for a gross of 2100 and not exceeding 2400. I started out with a Jamie Eason lifting program and then switched to NROL4W, cardio levels have varied depending on muscle soreness but I have been doing more cardio in the last month. Currently its basically 2 lifting sessions and three cardio sessions a week.
So here it is 3 months later and I have been gaining and loosing the same two pounds, no inches have been lost (my hips are actually bigger which i attributed to gaining muscle), my body fat is going up and down the same 1% and my clothes do not fit any better. As my last hope today I took progress pics and I look exactly the same as I did when with I took my before pics if not worse! Embarrassing as it is to say I think the cellulite on my my hips and backside actually looks more prominent now than it did to start. Yes, I have gained muscle but that is the only progress.
I re-did my stats using the fat2fit site and it says I should eat 2100 a day, I think their site already includes a cut? So that was more or less what I was going for. Every calculator I use gives me basically the same numbers I have been using. Now I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I'm a perfect angel with hitting my calorie goals but over 3 months I think I have been good enough that I should have lost something. Or is it possible that I just don't have enough discipline to eat more and perhaps I have inadvertently been eating the amount that would be for a bulk? Maybe heavy lifting isn't for me? I jut don't know. I had a lot of success doing yoga for strength about 8 months ago. I was thinking maybe I should go back to that, but I was also eating around 1500 then. Should I just break down and shell out the cash to have metabolic testing done? I just can't believe that all of these calculators could be that off.
So here's what I have done. I've reset my goal to 2100 and will aim for 1800 and not to exceed 2100 and I will give stage 3 of NROL a shot (on a 1 week break between stages right now) to see if there is progress with the lifting. Does this sound good or should I be trying something else? My diary is open, although I often don't track everything on the weekends (like I said not perfect) and I know my sodium is out of control. Last monday through today are fully tracked and probably a good representation of how I eat on a normal week. Any advice is appreciated, I'm not giving up I just need help figuring out the right way to do this!
Oh and my current stats 5'7, 159-161 lbs, age 33, using moderate activity level for calculations. Thank you! :flowerforyou:
So here it is 3 months later and I have been gaining and loosing the same two pounds, no inches have been lost (my hips are actually bigger which i attributed to gaining muscle), my body fat is going up and down the same 1% and my clothes do not fit any better. As my last hope today I took progress pics and I look exactly the same as I did when with I took my before pics if not worse! Embarrassing as it is to say I think the cellulite on my my hips and backside actually looks more prominent now than it did to start. Yes, I have gained muscle but that is the only progress.
I re-did my stats using the fat2fit site and it says I should eat 2100 a day, I think their site already includes a cut? So that was more or less what I was going for. Every calculator I use gives me basically the same numbers I have been using. Now I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I'm a perfect angel with hitting my calorie goals but over 3 months I think I have been good enough that I should have lost something. Or is it possible that I just don't have enough discipline to eat more and perhaps I have inadvertently been eating the amount that would be for a bulk? Maybe heavy lifting isn't for me? I jut don't know. I had a lot of success doing yoga for strength about 8 months ago. I was thinking maybe I should go back to that, but I was also eating around 1500 then. Should I just break down and shell out the cash to have metabolic testing done? I just can't believe that all of these calculators could be that off.
So here's what I have done. I've reset my goal to 2100 and will aim for 1800 and not to exceed 2100 and I will give stage 3 of NROL a shot (on a 1 week break between stages right now) to see if there is progress with the lifting. Does this sound good or should I be trying something else? My diary is open, although I often don't track everything on the weekends (like I said not perfect) and I know my sodium is out of control. Last monday through today are fully tracked and probably a good representation of how I eat on a normal week. Any advice is appreciated, I'm not giving up I just need help figuring out the right way to do this!
Oh and my current stats 5'7, 159-161 lbs, age 33, using moderate activity level for calculations. Thank you! :flowerforyou:
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Sounds like you've been eating @maintenance, which would explain, why it seems like you're just staying the same.
If your TDEE is 2400, then that's the amount that you would eat to *maintain* your current weight. To "lose" weight you would deduct 15% from that number which would put you at about 2000 cals/day. So you would eat that amount *only* each day, regardless of activity (which is already factored in).
So that would just mean that you've been pretty much doing a metabolism reset this whole time which is fine, and actually recommended. :happy: So dropping into your "cut" number would be a great idea to get things moving. When I punch your stats into the scooby calculator it gives 1988 as your cut number, which sounds just right to me. Eat that # daily, and be as consistent as possible.
Don't give up on the strength training, it will continue to reshape you as you cut. But feel free to incorporate your yoga still if you enjoy it
And don't fret, you've still been on the right track this whole time :flowerforyou:
~Kiki0 -
Yes, the consistency is probably my problem. Some days I'm low and some days I'm high. I guess it must just be balancing out to maintenance. Thanks for the advice!
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