EXPERTS: I NEED HELP WITH FAT LOSS

vashley84

Ok, so I need some insight on what I can do for fat loss. I'm no beginner to exercise or eating clean so feel free to go into detail, pros.

Right now I go to the gym 6 or 7 days a week, burning close to 1000 calories per visit. My visits consist of weight training in high intensity circuits (usually 45-60 mins 6 days/week), or TRX + cardio (either usually about 30 mins of high intensity interval sprints and/or steady state cardio 45-60 mins). I work my butt off so hard each visit that I'm drenched in sweat so bad I have to do a full blowdry of my head before I leave and then have to wring out my clothes when I get home. I put in 110% effort each gym visit and am completely spent, so it's not intensity that's lacking.
My diet is mostly low carb, high protein, lots of water, lots of veg, always clean (ie. no processed or fast food, no soda pop, no sugar or white flour, etc.), I supplement with proteins as well and am all up on my vitamins (i come from a medical family).

I'm 5'9 and a half and haven't budged between 168-172lbs for the past year, trying many different routines, desperate to push past this plateau (i'm going way more intensely right now which hasn't seemed to make much of a difference so far). I know I'm not supposed to be too focused on the scale especially because I've always been muscular being an athlete my whole life so the whole BMI scale crap really can't apply to me. So, I measure my stats with a body composition scale once a week and am ALWAYS around 24-28% body fat on the athletic setting. I go up and down in muscle mass all the time while my fat % also goes up and down, but never really lower than 24%-ish unless I don't eat or exercise (don't worry, I don't do this). I also apparently hide this fat well, so it must be just spread evenly across my body? I don't get it.

WHAT AM I MISSING?

soehlerking

Just a thought--people will probably want to look at your diary to see how many calories you're eating. And it's rare to burn 1000 cal/workout (weight training doesn't burn nearly as much as MFP likes to think it does), but it definitely sounds like you're very active! If it were me, I'd say tone it down. Take a week off. Seriously. At that pace, you shouldn't be working out more than 5 days/week; your body will be exhausted. And I don't know how much you're eating, but I'm 5'4" 128lb, and I work out 6 hours/week (including cardio and strength), and I'm eating 1800/day to lose. I'm hoping you're eating enough to keep up with your workouts!

Just my thoughts. Definitely not one of the "experts." Good work so far, and good luck!!

Edited to add: From your pics, it doesn't look like you need to lose anything--you look fantastic! Be sure you're enjoying yourself somewhere in there.

twinmom01

I'm no expert but have you had your body fat tested by a Dr vs a scale...I am assuming you are talking about one of the scales you stand on and it supposedly gives you your fat %...yeah I have one of those...I had my body fat calulated by a Dr and it came out to be 30% - according to my scale it says 42% - umm yeah...

and if that is your picture doesn't look like you have fat to lose...with the amount of muscle it looks like you have and the workouts you do I woudn't expect your weight to come down very much at all

vashley84

Thanks!
Unfortunately I don't have the patience to input my food diary every day so I really only just keep track of my exercise on mFP so I don't forget what I've been doing. I wear a HR monitor when I work out so I know exactly how much I burn and adjust the mfp amounts all the time. I tried to give a little gist of what I eat and I don't count calories but i'd say it can be anywhere between 1300 and 2500 cals, eating every few hrs. I do take a week off sometimes (without a choice) and do see a difference in clothing fit but unless I work out every day, I gain weight (fat). So frustrating!

And yes, I use a medical-grade body composition scale (a Tanita TBF-300A).