High Cardio/ Eating Clean/ No Weight Loss

veganbabe89
veganbabe89 Posts: 13
in Health and Weight Loss
Hiya Everyone!!

I just started Insanity about three weeks ago. I have been eating very VERY VERY clean. I also layer yoga and Belly dance over Insanity. I'm beginning to get a little frustrated since I have lost NOTHING! My inches have remained the same as has my weight. I have noticed my clothes fit better and I feel a little more tone. But for the amount of hard work i'm putting into my body i'm not really seeing any changes. I just bumped up my calories from 1200 to 1600-1800 after feeling very fatigued, and getting headaches.

I'm just trying to loose that last 15 pounds. Any advice would be so very greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope that you are all having a fantastic day

Sample Meal Plan:
Breakfast: Kashi Go Lean Cereal with 1/2 cup of Almond Milk / one orange orange
Snack: Chobani Yogurt
Lunch: Salad with cucumbers and tomatoes with Annie's Organic Goddess Dressing ( Recommended serving.)
Snack: Banana
Post Work out Meal: Ezekiel bread with 1 tbsp of peanut butter or protein shake made with water.
Dinner: Spaghetti Squash with 1/4 cup of Newman's Own Marinara sauce and salsa.

If I feel like I have a headache or i'm very tired i'll eat some peanuts or a piece of fruit like an apple or a pear.

Replies

  • mkdanhoff
    mkdanhoff Posts: 16 Member
    Your user id would indicate you are vegan? Is that a good assumption?
  • Skip2mylou
    Skip2mylou Posts: 7 Member
    By the look of your meal plan you have a pretty high amount of carbs in your diet. Maybe you should cut back on the carbs and increase the proteins, it will keep you more satisfied and fuller because they are slower to digest. Carb does also hold water and glykogen in the body for a long time. Another tips is not to go all out in the beginning. I know that you wants to loose fat right away, but fat loss is all about pacing yourself. When you reach a plateau then the body has adopted to its current intake. The idea would be to lower calories or increase activity, so its a good idea to start slow and then keep a steady progress.
  • veganbabe89
    veganbabe89 Posts: 13
    I was vegan, but switched to Vegetarian due to frequent headaches and nausea.
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
    Add some more fat to that meal plan and perhaps some more protein. Your diet looks rather carb heavy.
  • juliekaiser1988
    juliekaiser1988 Posts: 604 Member
    Have you heard of this thing called "protein"?
  • MrsNgounda
    MrsNgounda Posts: 49
    To an untrained eye, the sample of her meal plan looks good. Help me out, what part of the sample is Carb Heavy? I could use a little on help on this one as well.
  • MrsNgounda
    MrsNgounda Posts: 49
    Add some more fat to that meal plan and perhaps some more protein. Your diet looks rather carb heavy.



    To an untrained eye, the sample of her meal plan looks good. Help me out, what part of the sample is Carb Heavy? I could use a little on help on this one as well.
  • ggxx100
    ggxx100 Posts: 520 Member
    Your diet definitely is lacking in protein. Instead of just salad and just spagetti squash for your meals, try adding lentils and beans. In terms of eating less carbs from processed foods, maybe swap the cereal for yoghurt or a protein based smoothie. I'd also incorporate healthy fats like avocado and nuts along with your main meals.

    Have you tried vegan based protein powder? I get a good amount of protein from Sunwarrior or Plantfusion protein.
  • Crochetluvr
    Crochetluvr Posts: 3,339 Member
    Have you heard of this thing called "protein"?

    Yep.... my thoughts exactly.
  • veganbaum
    veganbaum Posts: 1,865 Member
    1. Where did you get your calorie goal from? If you're solely using MFP's tools, enter in .5lb/wk loss - with only 15 pounds to lose you're not going to lose more than that and you are likely not going to lose that per week anyway. Those last pounds are always the hardest.

    2. Eat at the goal MFP tells you to. Enter your exercise. Eat your exercise calories (or at least a percentage (50-75%) of them if you are concerned that MFP's numbers may be inaccurate.

    3. The sample menu you provided doesn't look like it comes close to 1200 calories, let alone 1600. Are you sure you are logging correctly? You have some good advice, up the protein and fats.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    15 Lbs to lose is cosmetic and we're really talking about body composition at this point. Body composition is tedious, detail work...it is very slow. A month is nothing. Oddly enough, it's a lot easier to lose Lbs off the scale every week when you have a lot to lose...it is much more difficult when you don't have a lot to lose, especially if you're at a healthy BF% already...your body will be very reluctant to give up those minimal fat stores.

    Also, good job upping the calories...working out like that with only 1200 calories and only needing to lose 15 Lbs is pretty much a recipe for metabolic stall.

    Just keep on keepin' on.

    P.S. intense workouts also cause your body to retain water which will show up on the scale. In the past two months I've lost maybe 1 Lb on the actual scale (though I am trying to maintain) but I've lost 2% BF. At this point, that is more important than the number on the scale. The scale doesn't tell the whole story, particularly at this point of the journey.
  • cmeiron
    cmeiron Posts: 1,599 Member
    You need to seriously increase your protein, and probably fats. Aim for 1g protein/lb lean body mass, and .35g fat/lb body mass. And, are you SURE that what you're listing there actually gets you up to 1600+/day? I'm dubious. (Are you weighing everything out?)
    Protein sources for vegetarians, assuming you eat milk and eggs: eggs, cheese, cottage cheese, greek yogurt, milk, lentils, beans, tempeh, tofu and other soy products, soy or whey protein powder, many dark green veggies.
  • veganbabe89
    veganbabe89 Posts: 13
    @veganbaum..

    I used the Insanity BMR calculator to calculate my goal. Sometimes It's around 1,200.00 so when I need more I'll have some matcha green tea with almond milk or a spoon full of peanut butter. Thank you for taking the time to answer. :blushing:
  • h9dlb
    h9dlb Posts: 243 Member
    there is no protein or good fat in your diet - its terrible!
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
    Add some more fat to that meal plan and perhaps some more protein. Your diet looks rather carb heavy.



    To an untrained eye, the sample of her meal plan looks good. Help me out, what part of the sample is Carb Heavy? I could use a little on help on this one as well.

    Breakfast: Kashi Go Lean Cereal with 1/2 cup of Almond Milk / one orange orange (MOSTLY CARBS WITH A BIT OF PROTEIN FROM THE KASHI. No fat).

    Snack: Chobani Yogurt (BIGGEST SOURCE OF PROTEIN BUT NO FAT--assuming 0% yogurt)

    Lunch: Salad with cucumbers and tomatoes with Annie's Organic Goddess Dressing ( Recommended serving.) (NOT MUCH OF A "lunch" CALORICALLY--basically all carbs)

    Snack: Banana (CARBS)

    Post Work out Meal: Ezekiel bread with 1 tbsp of peanut butter or protein shake made with water. (CARBS FROM BREAD AND FAT/PROTEIN IN PB AND SHAKE-decent)

    Dinner: Spaghetti Squash with 1/4 cup of Newman's Own Marinara sauce and salsa. (CARBS--no fat/protein)

    If I feel like I have a headache or i'm very tired i'll eat some peanuts or a piece of fruit like an apple or a pear. (FRUIT=carbs, peanuts = fat...peanuts a better choice)

    I'm on my iPhone so excuse typos. Hope that helps
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
    Glad to see you've bumped up cals from 1200 - with all the exercise you do, 1200 is definitely not enough.

    Without being able to see your diary, my advice would be to bump up your protein as others have said, and maybe back off the cardio a bit and try adding some weights to your workouts? Unless the Insanity is giving you good body weight exercises.

    The "high cardio" in your thread title was the red flag for me - personally, I've found much better results with fat loss by cutting back on the cardio, adding more weight training, and making sure I'm eating well - meaning eating enough calories to fuel my body well, and hitting the macros (carbs/fat/protien) as close as possible.
  • loriepaulin
    loriepaulin Posts: 88 Member
    I agree here with alot of what has already been said. Do some research online, there are tons of protein recipe sites and even on Pinterest alone for recipes. I also have to agree with Amy. Insanity has no weight training along with the yoga or belly dancing.

    I noticed I drop alot of weight when I mix strength training with cardio. Bodybuilding.com has great printable programs to get lean with weight exercises ending with cardio. I started out that way as well.

    Feel free to add friends and ask us more question if you need to. By the way, for GMO labeling, I recently saw Kashi was not the best. I personally like oatmeal with flax seed in the morning along with some apples and cinnamon to get me going and stay fuller longer.

    Here are some websites for the vegan protein assistance:
    http://vegetarian.about.com/od/healthnutrition/tp/high-protein-recipes.htm
    http://www.vegangela.com/tag/high-protein/
    http://www.nomeatathlete.com/high-protein-vegetarian-food/

    Hope this helps! :)
  • ZeroTX
    ZeroTX Posts: 179 Member
    Breakfast should be at least 50% protein every day to get the body/metabolism on the right track. After that, you should have a strong protein component to EVERY meal and snack. Lower the carbs, increase the protein, weightloss will happen, as the body needs to feed off fat stores to replace the lacking carbs.
  • JoanB5
    JoanB5 Posts: 610 Member
    Prevention Magazine often lists articles for vegetarians to help balance diets. I am not one, but like their MUFA diet recommendation. It's simple: each meal needs one lean protein, healthy carb, and a monounsaturated fatty acid: dark chocolate, olive oil, beans, nuts, for examples. This makes it easier to manage macros for me and I've seen that my carbs are often the thing left at the end of the day. Hope it helps! And, I agree, this diet sample listed seems close to 1200 calories.

    I lost 16 pounds in four months, if that gives you an idea. Seven fast (water), the other 7 slow, and the last two come and go and come and go.

    Now, the next phase of getting to a lower BF...that's tough.

    I celebrate with any change at all: tape measure, clothes fitting better, or scale...otherwise, it's depressing. Keep in mind that all of sudden, you may see 3-4 pounds drop...I did. Just keep being consistent, adjust your plan as it seems wise, and you'll see results. Make sure you do cross train. One day cardio based, one day circuit training based, one day HIIT, repeat. One day off a week. Sleep full night's rest, and start adding some weights as you can to your circuit training or DVD days...keep building them. You'll thank everyone later.
  • JoanB5
    JoanB5 Posts: 610 Member
    15 Lbs to lose is cosmetic and we're really talking about body composition at this point. Body composition is tedious, detail work...it is very slow. A month is nothing. Oddly enough, it's a lot easier to lose Lbs off the scale every week when you have a lot to lose...it is much more difficult when you don't have a lot to lose, especially if you're at a healthy BF% already...your body will be very reluctant to give up those minimal fat stores.

    Also, good job upping the calories...working out like that with only 1200 calories and only needing to lose 15 Lbs is pretty much a recipe for metabolic stall.

    Just keep on keepin' on.

    P.S. intense workouts also cause your body to retain water which will show up on the scale. In the past two months I've lost maybe 1 Lb on the actual scale (though I am trying to maintain) but I've lost 2% BF. At this point, that is more important than the number on the scale. The scale doesn't tell the whole story, particularly at this point of the journey.

    I just really appreciated this post and needed it myself. Thanks!
  • ladymiseryali
    ladymiseryali Posts: 2,555 Member
    I'm not sure if vegetarians are allowed to eat whole eggs or not. If so, add an omelette to your breakfast. If not, try egg whites instead. Protein is a good thing. Eat a tablespoon or two of peanut butter, or have it on toast or add it to brown rice. It's really good. There are little things you can add to your meals to give them some extra protein and up your calories if you need it.

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