Need Some Help- Nothing is Happening!

danimalkeys

I'm 12 weeks in on EMTWL and I'm still in the same weight range as when I started. I've been this weight since last November, when I was only eating 1700+ exercise cals a day. In Feb I realized I was starving myself and getting nowhere. I lost an initial 50lbs between Feb '12 to Sept '12, when I got down to my 1st goal of 225lbs. I then put 5lbs back on, and now I'm fluctuating between 229 and 233 which I attribute to water weight.

I calculated my numbers off of the spreadsheet and have been following these:
BMR- 2070
TDEE -3269
TDEG- 2611

edit to add- I'm male, 50yrs old, 6'1" tall and was 232lbs this morning.

I'm coming within 100 cals of my eating goal every day. Some days I go over, some days under. Last week I ended up being 1700 under the weekly goal which was a bigger deficit than usual. Over the last month I've had 1 week where I went over (vacation) and the rest were between 30 and 300 of my weekly goal of 18200 cals. I figure as long as I'm below TDEE and above BMR, and getting as close as I can to TDEG, then I should be OK.

I'm exercising 4-5x a week. 2 or 3 days of cardio for 30-40 mins on an elliptical, and 2 days of weights where I'm going pretty heavy with a 5x5 program (currently squats and deads in the upper 300's, bench 200, press 140, row 180) The weight training is definitely making some improvements, but overall, my measurements have stayed the same the last 12 weeks.

My diet isn't super great but it isn't that bad. I do end up with a higher fat content than I'd like. A lot of that is from nuts, avocados, oils, etc. I do enjoy my meat and my beers. The beers are probably my biggest problem. I usually have a bunch on the weekend and then some during the week, more than I should. My log is open so anyone can see it.

Even though I'm frustrated, I'd rather be frustrated eating 2600 a day than the 1700 I was eating before. I feel better, I'm getting stronger again (I lifted weights for years and took 3 years off until I started 5x5 in Feb). So overall my quality of life is better, but I really want to get these last 30lbs off to hit my goal of 200.

Just looking for some help, I'm frustrated and not getting anywhere. Even 5lbs would be a victory.

aliciab307

Do u have a hrm? Maybe you are burning more than you think you are? Is your activity level incorrect or your deficit to big?

heybales

So when you start getting to that level of lifting, the rests are probably longer than the lifting line in the activity calculator is expecting, so you are actually burning less on the lifting than accounted for. But don't start doing cardio between, it'll ruin your lift weights!

The only problem here is, when you back off the minutes, you get less deficit amount too, so it'll probably have you eating more actually.
But might test that out.
Because I'm thinking between some of those heavy lifts, rest time can be 3-5 minutes, not normal 1 min. Perhaps take 1/2 the normal time lifting estimate.

Are you getting up and dancing more during the piano playing perhaps? ;-)

Also, the basis of it all, bodyfat figure. Were the 2 calc's within 5% of each other, or more spread out?
Normally you'd have some inch movement that would start auto-correcting that, but if you don't measure well in general for that to be good estimate, it may not work well. You may really be at one end or the other of the extreme.
If there is a spread, do you think you could be at the higher end of the BF%?

What happens if you remove the bodyfat stat, in which case it uses Mifflin?

Beyond that is just the general inaccuracy of logging food.
The level of beers, though they fit the goal, may be too much stress on the system.

Probably would hurt as first test to back off those somehow, either less on weekends, or cut out weekday drinks.

Because if the above adjustments for lowering the calories wasn't really it, there'd just be more stress from diet, with same stress from beers, and it wouldn't be better. Though, as you showed, 1700 wasn't cutting it either, but metabolism may be doing better now.

danimalkeys

So when you start getting to that level of lifting, the rests are probably longer than the lifting line in the activity calculator is expecting, so you are actually burning less on the lifting than accounted for. But don't start doing cardio between, it'll ruin your lift weights!

The only problem here is, when you back off the minutes, you get less deficit amount too, so it'll probably have you eating more actually.
But might test that out.
Because I'm thinking between some of those heavy lifts, rest time can be 3-5 minutes, not normal 1 min. Perhaps take 1/2 the normal time lifting estimate.

Are you getting up and dancing more during the piano playing perhaps? ;-)

Also, the basis of it all, bodyfat figure. Were the 2 calc's within 5% of each other, or more spread out?
Normally you'd have some inch movement that would start auto-correcting that, but if you don't measure well in general for that to be good estimate, it may not work well. You may really be at one end or the other of the extreme.
If there is a spread, do you think you could be at the higher end of the BF%?

What happens if you remove the bodyfat stat, in which case it uses Mifflin?

Beyond that is just the general inaccuracy of logging food.
The level of beers, though they fit the goal, may be too much stress on the system.

Probably would hurt as first test to back off those somehow, either less on weekends, or cut out weekday drinks.

Because if the above adjustments for lowering the calories wasn't really it, there'd just be more stress from diet, with same stress from beers, and it wouldn't be better. Though, as you showed, 1700 wasn't cutting it either, but metabolism may be doing better now.

My rest times right now are 2 minutes, but you are right, the actual set time is a lot less than the rest time. Typically I'll wait for my HR and BP to drop down some before the next set but 2 mins is the timer setting I use as a guideline. If I need a few more seconds, I take it, if I don't, I start the set.

I'm a sit down keyboard player, but that doesn't keep me from wiggling in my seat. There is the load in/load out of all the gear, but to me, that's the same as tracking cutting the grass- a normal activity for me.

I'm not using any of the values my cardio or lifting calories give me to add to my daily eating total, I'm doing the "built in' method where my activity level is calculated by the spreadsheet. I estimated 10hrs a week standing/moving around, 1 hour a week of physical lifting/moving (which would be the band gear stuff. 60 mins a week of yardwork/walking/low cardio, though that will go up now that it's warm and I'll be active in the yard. 180 mins of high cardio- this is probably off now since I cut back from 5 days a week to 3. I just knocked 60 mins off of that number and it took my TDEE down to 2459. 120 mins of weight training (which the spreadsheet says to include rest time). 5 hours of exercise a week.

BF%- all 3 calcs were very close. Less than 1% difference. If I remove BF, my BMR is 1950, TDEE 3091, TDEG 2451. Only about 150 cals less than what I'm targeting now.

I am pretty accurate with my food tracking. I weigh everything (ask my wife- I'm OCD according to her!) About the only thing I can't track accurately is when we eat out, which is maybe 1 or 2 times a week, and if I search a food that I have at a restaurant, I always pick the highest cal total out of all of the choices.

Looking back at my diary when I made my 1st post, I was shocked by how often my "one beer with dinner" turned into 3-4 of them on more than one weeknight during the week. That will be my 1st correction, no more weekday beers.

I'm guessing my metabolism is doing better. I really do feel better eating more, not more dizziness, more energy, etc.

Alicia, I don't have a HRM, but I'm not really calculating and eating those calories back. I've been doing TDEE -20%, figuring that was a good number to start with.

danimalkeys

I readjusted my settings in the spreadsheet to reflect a little less weight lifting time, 90 minutes per week, since my day 2 session is pretty fast. I cut down the cardio total number to 90 minutes since I'm really only doing 3 30-40 minute sessions a week and not doing 5-6 days like before. This dropped my TDEE down to 3025 from 3269, and TDEG down from 2611 to 2363.

Regardless, even if I was at 2611 with lower activity, that is still 400 or so under the adjusted TDEE, so I think I should be losing, maybe not as fast, but still should see some progress, and that's the part I don't get.

heybales

I readjusted my settings in the spreadsheet to reflect a little less weight lifting time, 90 minutes per week, since my day 2 session is pretty fast. I cut down the cardio total number to 90 minutes since I'm really only doing 3 30-40 minute sessions a week and not doing 5-6 days like before. This dropped my TDEE down to 3025 from 3269, and TDEG down from 2611 to 2363.

Regardless, even if I was at 2611 with lower activity, that is still 400 or so under the adjusted TDEE, so I think I should be losing, maybe not as fast, but still should see some progress, and that's the part I don't get.

Very true. Since you are at least approaching this from the high side, that does give you the option of dropping calories to account for slower metabolism, but at least not because it's suppressed. Which will just chase it down usually.

But I agree give it a few more weeks now, especially if you can have beer-change.