Weight not budging...fat loss is excruciatingly slow
I have copied the questions from the other thread that you guys said you wanted answered when starting a thread like this. So here's the Q&A:
--Provide your stats (height/weight/age/bodyfat% if you know it/etc)
5'5" tall, 140 pounds, 23ish% body fat (Navy method this week said 23.3%, 3 site caliper test gave same results back in January when my profile picture was taken, so I assume 22-23% is correct)
--What's your current gross intake of calories, on average?
My daily goal is currently set to 1650 calories, and I pre-log. I allow myself +/- 50 calories so as to not cause anuerysms while planning food.
This was my goal from November through January which netted about a 2 pound loss that whole time. I asked "experts" for assistance who said I should try cycling. I switched in January to eat 5 days a week at 1500 calories and 2 days a week at 2000 calories. I have not noticed any difference in weight/fat loss doing that, so I changed back to 1650 calories as a goal this week since having a steady goal makes more sense to me psychologically.
--What's your current average intake of protein, carbs, and fats, in grams? (GRAMS, not percent!)
Currently, I get around 40g of fat on average, some days more, others less. My goal is set for closer to 50 grams, but oftentimes this is difficult for me to achieve without getting too many calories overall. Protein stays around 140ish or more grams.
My food diary is open, and much of it is recipes that I have personally entered. I can post specific recipes if you want to see them. You will notice that I have cheesecake everyday of my life, but it is not anything high calorie like from Cheesecake Factory. I make it with fat free cream cheese, Greek yogurt, and Splenda so it's fairly low calorie and lower sugar while reasonably high in protein for a dessert. I make a cheesecake every week and have a piece around 3-4 am every morning as a meal, and it's logged as "pre workout meal" only because it is the last thing I eat before I workout. I have read the article about meal timing, but I will continue to have my shake after a workout anyway, perhaps for CYA, but mostly because after a workout, my stomach begs for calories and I don't want to chew anything.
--Do you use a food scale and measure everything?
I have a digital food scale and have recently started measuring everything. I discovered that I could have been eating MORE shredded cheese and that other things such as potatoes I was eating too much. The amounts of overages and underages came pretty durn close to cancelling each other out. I was shocked that to get the 28g of shredded cheese, I had to literally pack that shiz down into the 1/4 cup measuring cup, so I was eating only like 1/8 of a cup and not knowing it, lol.
--Do you track all of your intake, daily? (Everything?)
I prelog my food. I plan a week's worth of intake over the weekend, make a grocery list from the plan, and buy only those items I need for the week. If I make changes on some days, I go back and change the log to reflect the changes.
--Do you take cheat days or days off?
No. There are times when I go out to eat at a restaurant, though. That happens like twice a month and I don't see how 2 meals a month can derail the rest of the 28 days of meeting my goals.
--How much weight have you lost so far and over what time period?
I have been losing and regaining and relosing and so on the same 5 damn pounds since last October. I started out around 144, have gotten down to 138, and then the next week will see the scale creep its *kitten* back up to 141. I weigh myself every Monday after waking up. In fact, last week I weighed 139. This week I weigh 141. It's like my body just freakin' adores 140...grumble grumble grumble...
--Describe your activity (exercise and non exercise) and did you change that activity withing the last couple of months?
Non-exercise: I am a police officer that works third shift (9pm to 7am) 4 days a week. While at work, I sit in a car and drive around aimlessly waiting for someone to call 911. When they do, I get out of my car and walk and talk...cop shows on TV are BS. I go to certain areas in my beat such as schools and churches and get out of my car to walk around for at least 30-60 minutes per night. I have a Fitbit, so I want to keep my step count over 10,000 for each 24 hour period, and the only way I can accomplish this is to walk around at work when work is slow. On days off (much to the annoyance of my husband) I will pace around the house for the same amount of time to keep that step count up. Otherwise at home, I watch TV, play video games, and do other sedentary things.
Exercise: 3 days of weight training and 3 days of cardio each week, alternating days. M/W/F I am at the gym doing heavy lifting. This is normally done at 7:30 in the morning when I get off work. I do a 3 day body part split, so Mondays I do chest & back, Wednesdays is legs and calves, and Fridays is shoulders and abs. Cardio is usually via exercise DVDs at home, typically Turbo Jam (or Turbo Kick since I am an instructor) or some sort of dance video like from Rockin' Body or Hip Hop Abs. I also like to use interval training DVDs such as the ones from Chalean Extreme where you do a cardio move for 2 minutes and then light weights for endurance for about 2 minutes, alternating back and forth. Sometimes I do cardio in the gym, and that's usually 45 minutes on the step mill. Sometimes I do PiYo which is a cardio class combining pilates and yoga...I like this class because you get a good cardio workout, but it also helps me with flexibility. Sundays I tend to do no exercise at all.
Between Valentine's Day and a week after Easter, I am in a fat loss challenge where you gets points for doing things such as exercise sessions. You can get a maximum of 7 points per week for cardio, so I have actually been doing cardio everyday during the challenge. Of course, I haven't been doing workout videos everyday. I have simply been counting my walks at work as exercise for the challenge on work days even though I typically don't count that as a workout session.
I guess one of my questions overall would be exactly how much cardio should I be doing to reach my goals? I want to get down to about 16% body fat, the high end of female athletes and competitors. Some sources tell me to do more cardio, some say cut it out completely, some say just do the walking...and these are all reputable sources which is causing me confusion!
--How long have you been stalled and if it is not a complete stall please be very specific as to how much you have lost over the stalled period.
I don't know if it truly is a "complete" stall since I have lost some, just not nearly as much as expected. I had surgery in early September and wasn't allowed to exercise at all for 6 weeks, and then I started to ease my way back into weight training and more intense cardio after that. When I got back into the swing of things, I weighed about 145. That was mid-October. I've crept down to 142 which seems to be my high point that I fluctuate back to. I've been going back and forth from 138-142 since mid-October until now. I was 141 Monday when I woke up.
The frustratingly annoying thing is I feel like I am making some kind of progress anyway. My clothes are looser and I recently bought some new clothes which are smaller than the ones that I had. But, it isn't as much progress as I would hope for or even expect with as much exercise as I do. I don't expect to lose more than half a pound a week, but considering I was 142 around Christmas, that would mean that I should be around 135 or so today, but I am only at 141. I refuse to believe that I am still getting those newbie gains from weight lifting since I have been lifting for years. I started heavy lifting with P90X back in 2008, and back then I was able to get down to 128 pounds. (I rebounded because of life stresses that caused me to slack in the exercise department and stop giving a damn about calorie counting...so I made my way back to 150 in 2009, down to 140 in 2010, and then back and forth with those 5 stupid pounds for a long time now). I joined the gym back in 2011 and have been lifting a minimum of 3 days per week since then starting with full body routines and then going into upper/lower splits, and finally into the 3 day split that I am doing now. Newbie gains should have been over with a long time ago.
I have been trying to lose inches so that my waist is 26" or so and my hips are around 36" or so. Still not there, lol. I don't want to be eating a deficit for the rest of my life and never see those numbers. I've tried cutting calories down to the 1400 level which left me cranky and tired, so I don't think that I should be doing any calorie cutting like that. I've been doing that 1500/2000 cycle the past 6 weeks which didn't seem to be doing much more for me than the straight 1650 which is why I've gone back to that since it is easier to plan out anyway.
Sorry I wrote a disseration. What do you suggest, nutrition-wise and cardio-wise? I'd really like to keep my lifting schedule as-is since I am making decent strength progress, but I suppose I could be persuaded to change it if I need to. I just don't like full body workouts like I used to, and I'm not interested in stronglifts or the new rules of lifting book right now.
