Struggling with the last 5 kilos...
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lvarbrew
Posts: 9
Hello all! I am having some difficulties with my most recent weight loss stint, and am in need of some advice.
Across the past 2 years, I have lost 20kg (44lbs), and have been wanting to get rid of the last 5kg (11lbs) for some time. The original 20kg I had lost was done with basically no exercise, and it has been the past 6 months that I have begun introducing regular exercise into my lifestyle (which I can honestly say I absolutely love now). Around 6 weeks ago, I decided to seriously increase my exercise and continue to improve my (generally fairly healthy) diet in order to knock of the last 5kg...the problem I'm now running into, despite all of my hard work, is that hardly anything is happening!!
I began (6 weeks ago) at around 69kg (152lbs), and managed to get down to 65kg (143lbs). At this point, I stepped up my exercise to 2 hour sessions, 3 times a week, a combination of cardio and strength training (BodyPump classes). A couple of weeks later, and BAM...I've put on 1kg (2lbs) but lost half an inch everywhere. This has not gone anywhere ever since.
Before I carry on any further, here are my stats:
Age: 22
Height: 157cm / 5'2
Current weight: 66kg / 145lbs
TDEE: 2275
Calorie goal per day: 1500
Exercise (as per HRM):
1 hour run @ 160bmp = 532 calories
55 minute BodyPump class @ 150bmp = 513 calories
3 x 2 hour sessions per week (1 hour cardio, 1 hour BodyPump in succession)
Upon scrutinising my diet closer, I believe I may be running into trouble with my workout days and in turn on my non-workout days--I am finding it incredibly difficult to meet 1500 on a workout day (as I am burning, most of the time, around 800-1000 calories in exercise), winding up around the 700 calorie mark instead (net), and struggling not to go over the 1500 on my non-workout days, winding up around 1700 calories. Now, perhaps I am wrong, but my overall calorie intake and in turn deficit for the week is still well under where it needs to be...but felt it wise to get a few opinions on whether this could be halting my progress.
Aside from this, I'm not sure why I'm running into trouble losing this last 5kg. Initially, when I gained the extra kilo but lost half an inch, I suspected extra water weight due to the increased exercise, but I would imagine that too much time has now passed (and my body is fairly well adjusted) for this to still be the issue. If it is in fact a gain in muscle, that's great, but I am concerned that I'm going to struggle to see a reduction in kilos if this is the way my body is going to respond. Despite my height, I am quite a muscular build, with a fairly low body fat percentage (I think it fell around the 25% mark last time I checked), and a medium bone structure.
Sorry for boring you all with my weight troubles, but it would be fantastic to get some feedback from those who have experienced similar issues, or are in the know...and please, be kind! Thank you.
Across the past 2 years, I have lost 20kg (44lbs), and have been wanting to get rid of the last 5kg (11lbs) for some time. The original 20kg I had lost was done with basically no exercise, and it has been the past 6 months that I have begun introducing regular exercise into my lifestyle (which I can honestly say I absolutely love now). Around 6 weeks ago, I decided to seriously increase my exercise and continue to improve my (generally fairly healthy) diet in order to knock of the last 5kg...the problem I'm now running into, despite all of my hard work, is that hardly anything is happening!!
I began (6 weeks ago) at around 69kg (152lbs), and managed to get down to 65kg (143lbs). At this point, I stepped up my exercise to 2 hour sessions, 3 times a week, a combination of cardio and strength training (BodyPump classes). A couple of weeks later, and BAM...I've put on 1kg (2lbs) but lost half an inch everywhere. This has not gone anywhere ever since.
Before I carry on any further, here are my stats:
Age: 22
Height: 157cm / 5'2
Current weight: 66kg / 145lbs
TDEE: 2275
Calorie goal per day: 1500
Exercise (as per HRM):
1 hour run @ 160bmp = 532 calories
55 minute BodyPump class @ 150bmp = 513 calories
3 x 2 hour sessions per week (1 hour cardio, 1 hour BodyPump in succession)
Upon scrutinising my diet closer, I believe I may be running into trouble with my workout days and in turn on my non-workout days--I am finding it incredibly difficult to meet 1500 on a workout day (as I am burning, most of the time, around 800-1000 calories in exercise), winding up around the 700 calorie mark instead (net), and struggling not to go over the 1500 on my non-workout days, winding up around 1700 calories. Now, perhaps I am wrong, but my overall calorie intake and in turn deficit for the week is still well under where it needs to be...but felt it wise to get a few opinions on whether this could be halting my progress.
Aside from this, I'm not sure why I'm running into trouble losing this last 5kg. Initially, when I gained the extra kilo but lost half an inch, I suspected extra water weight due to the increased exercise, but I would imagine that too much time has now passed (and my body is fairly well adjusted) for this to still be the issue. If it is in fact a gain in muscle, that's great, but I am concerned that I'm going to struggle to see a reduction in kilos if this is the way my body is going to respond. Despite my height, I am quite a muscular build, with a fairly low body fat percentage (I think it fell around the 25% mark last time I checked), and a medium bone structure.
Sorry for boring you all with my weight troubles, but it would be fantastic to get some feedback from those who have experienced similar issues, or are in the know...and please, be kind! Thank you.
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Replies
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Thanks for your response. I am already doing 90% of what you have suggested, aside from completely cutting sugar from my diet and weighing myself daily. They're all fantastic suggestions, so thanks again.
If anyone has any other, more specific advice I would love to hear from you.0 -
Wow - that's a lot of arbitrary rules.Don't worry so much about calories. Do this and you *will* lose weight:
1) Eat mostly to get the nutrition your body needs, and less for enjoyment. Establish a healthful diet and find pleasure in other things.
2) Three meals a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That's it. No snacks, and no "in between" meals.
3) Give up sugar. No sugar in coffee, soda, or on cereal. Give up fruit juice -- it's mainly just another form of sugar. Water is the only liquid you need.
4) In the beginning, establish a very regulated moderate calorie diet. Don't follow any sort of fad. Just pick a selection of foods that add up to a normal balanced diet -- whole grains, veggies, fruit, dairy, a little meat, etc. But start out by having exactly the same three meals each day -- the same foods and the same amounts. Weigh the portions on a scale. Consider frozen dinners. Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine, Kashi, Smart Ones, and probably other brands have several that are low in calories and saturated fat, 25% daily value or less of sodium, and high in fiber.
5) Weigh yourself every day on a 0.1 kg accuracy scale. Your weight should go down over every two or three days. If it doesn't, eliminate items from your diet or reduce the size of portions until your weight does go down. (If you don't have a 0.1 kg accuracy scale, I'd recommend the EatSmart Precision Plus Digital Scale, which is sold on Amazon.) Don't obsess over the scale — let it be your friend and point the way to a weight losing diet.
6) When you have achieved a weight losing diet, then you can start making adjustments to add variety, but make sure that you keep losing weight.
7) Maintain your exercise program.
OP - The fact that you are losing inches is a good sign. Starting new exercise programmes can make you retain water, which can mask fat loss on the scale, but if you are decreasing in size, then you are obviously losing fat.
As you get closer to your goal, it will go a lot more slowly. From what you're saying, it sounds like you're regularly netting 800 calories below your goal on workout days, and only 200 over your goal on non-workout days. It's ok to eat different amounts on different days, but pay attention to what your weekly deficit is looking like. Although making your calorie deficit as large as possible can seem like a good idea, it can actually be counter-productive when you are already a healthy weight, or close to it. Your body just can't let go of fat as quickly as someone who is obese, so smaller calorie deficits are more advisable, so that you don't risk losing too much lean mass. (I'm assuming you want to lose mostly fat, not muscle). How much weight have you told MFP you want to lose? If you're at 2 lbs a week, then that's worth changing. I would recommend aiming for 0.5 lbs a week, and eating back at least half of your exercise calories.
Speaking of which, how are you measuring your calorie burn? Are you using a heart rate monitor or going by the MFP exercise database? MFP can be inaccurate on that (which is why you might not want to eat back all your exercise calories), so investing in a HRM is worth considering.
Other than that, are you weighing, measuring, logging all your food as accurately as you can?
It may be that what you're doing is working, it's just going slower than you would like (which is normal) and some water weight is interfering with what you're seeing on the scale. I would definitely recommend looking at increasing your calories though.0 -
OP, here's my take on all that (which I've posted elsewhere) :grumble:Do this and you *will* lose weight:
1) Eat mostly to get the nutrition your body needs, and less for enjoyment. Establish a healthful diet and find pleasure in other things.
No. Is eating more healthfully wise? Sure. But cut out enjoyable foods, or view enjoying food as a bad thing? No. Not sustainable in the long run. Learn now how to incorporate them into your usual eating.
2) Three meals a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That's it. No snacks, and no "in between" meals.
No. Eat however many meals you want. Eat snacks if that works for you. The number of meals and their timing makes no difference. What matters is how many calories you take in over the course of the day, or week. Determine how many calories you need to consume to maintain a reasonable, moderate deficit, weigh and measure your food, and you're good to go.
3) Give up sugar. No sugar in coffee, soda, or on cereal. Give up fruit juice -- it's mainly just another form of sugar. Water is the only liquid you need.
No. Do you mean white sugar? No need to give it up, but you might want to reduce it if only because it'll eat up your calorie alottment pretty quickly, making it more difficult to hit your other more important macro targets (proteins, fats). But there's tons of sugar in other "healthy" food, including fruits. "Giving up" sugar is silly.
4) In the beginning, establish a very regulated moderate calorie diet. Don't follow any sort of fad. Just pick a selection of foods that add up to a normal balanced diet -- whole grains, veggies, fruit, dairy, a little meat, etc. But start out by having exactly the same three meals each day -- the same foods and the same amounts. Weigh the portions on a scale. Consider frozen dinners. Healthy Choice, Lean Cuisine, Kashi, Smart Ones, and probably other brands have several that are low in calories and saturated fat, 25% daily value or less of sodium, and high in fiber.
No. Exactly the same meals every single day? Are you kidding me? Snoozefest. Variety is the spice of life! Enjoy your food, be creative, make delicious things! Frozen dinners? No. Just...no. Eat real food.
5) Weigh yourself every day on a 0.2 lb. accuracy scale. Your weight should go down over every two or three days. If it doesn't, eliminate items from your diet or reduce the size of portions until your weight does go down. (If you don't have a 0.2 lb. accuracy scale, I'd recommend the EatSmart Precision Plus Digital Scale, which is sold on Amazon.) Don't obsess over the scale — let it be your friend and point the way to a weight losing diet.
No. Weight loss is not linear. You cannot reasonably expect a predictable pattern of loss. It will go up and down, fluctuate wildly from day to day and week to week. Weigh in once a week, or once a day if you like. Track it, and look for a long term pattern of loss over weeks or months. Also, any old scale will do. Yeesh.
6) When you have achieved a weight losing diet, then you can start making adjustments to add variety, but make sure that you keep losing weight.
No. Enjoy variety NOW. Learn how to do it NOW. Do it NOW, so you're set up for success LATER.
7) Maintain your exercise program.
Ok, yeah, I can get behind that. Exercise is good for you. It also lets you eat more. Yay.0 -
The last bit is so difficult, I know myself I was at the last few lbs a few weeks ago but I just tweaked my calories and cycled between higher and lower. I just had laparoscopy this week and for it I had to go on liquid diet, then I cheated and felt sick, put on 3lb and when I weighed myself this morning I have gone down 6lb. I don't want to lose anymore now.
The ideal thing to do is completely clean eat. I try it sometimes but I fail miserably where the sugar is concerned. I would rather have sweet treats and eat smaller main meals but I have still lost weight. It is the looking skinny and not enough muscle that I have an issue with. If you want to have a lean body with less cellulite and a bit of muscle, clean eating is important.
Perhaps try calorie cycling- if you google it there are calculators that will give you exactly how many per day- so you may eat 1200 one day then 2000 another and its mixed up all week to confuse the body(which doesn't want you to lose weight so you don't starve).
You will get there- I never thought I would. Best of luck! 0 -
Wow - that's a lot of arbitrary rules.
OP - The fact that you are losing inches is a good sign. Starting new exercise programmes can make you retain water, which can mask fat loss on the scale, but if you are decreasing in size, then you are obviously losing fat.
As you get closer to your goal, it will go a lot more slowly. From what you're saying, it sounds like you're regularly netting 800 calories below your goal on workout days, and only 200 over your goal on non-workout days. It's ok to eat different amounts on different days, but pay attention to what your weekly deficit is looking like. Although making your calorie deficit as large as possible can seem like a good idea, it can actually be counter-productive when you are already a healthy weight, or close to it. Your body just can't let go of fat as quickly as someone who is obese, so smaller calorie deficits are more advisable, so that you don't risk losing too much lean mass. (I'm assuming you want to lose mostly fat, not muscle). How much weight have you told MFP you want to lose? If you're at 2 lbs a week, then that's worth changing. I would recommend aiming for 0.5 lbs a week, and eating back at least half of your exercise calories.
Speaking of which, how are you measuring your calorie burn? Are you using a heart rate monitor or going by the MFP exercise database? MFP can be inaccurate on that (which is why you might not want to eat back all your exercise calories), so investing in a HRM is worth considering.
Other than that, are you weighing, measuring, logging all your food as accurately as you can?
It may be that what you're doing is working, it's just going slower than you would like (which is normal) and some water weight is interfering with what you're seeing on the scale. I would definitely recommend looking at increasing your calories though.
Yeah, the water retention was my first guess, and I'm definitely glad to be seeing a decline in inches...otherwise it would be a little disconcerting.
My weekly deficit sits around the 3500 mark, my daily 'average' is around 1200...I agree with you, I think this may just be too low, and--given how close I am to goal--my body is freaking out. I have told MFP I want to lose 1lbs per week, perhaps going back to 0.5lbs will be what I need to do!
I am measuring my calorie burn using my heart rate monitor, I never use MFP's exercise database. I also double check my heart rate every so often by taking my pulse. I do love my HRM...makes things so much easier!!
I have tightened up on the logging of my calories over the past couple of weeks, and have taken to properly measuring everything in grams, rather than by 'cups' and 'spoons' and 'units'. I think you may be right (along with others who have said the same)--it's just going to take a while.The last bit is so difficult, I know myself I was at the last few lbs a few weeks ago but I just tweaked my calories and cycled between higher and lower. I just had laparoscopy this week and for it I had to go on liquid diet, then I cheated and felt sick, put on 3lb and when I weighed myself this morning I have gone down 6lb. I don't want to lose anymore now.
The ideal thing to do is completely clean eat. I try it sometimes but I fail miserably where the sugar is concerned. I would rather have sweet treats and eat smaller main meals but I have still lost weight. It is the looking skinny and not enough muscle that I have an issue with. If you want to have a lean body with less cellulite and a bit of muscle, clean eating is important.
Perhaps try calorie cycling- if you google it there are calculators that will give you exactly how many per day- so you may eat 1200 one day then 2000 another and its mixed up all week to confuse the body(which doesn't want you to lose weight so you don't starve).
You will get there- I never thought I would. Best of luck!
I have had two laparoscopies this year--one in January, and one in April...so I can relate!! I have been trying very hard to eat as cleanly as possible, however am not one for completely cutting out all processed foods. Sugar is a tough one as well.
I think I may essentially be calorie cycling each day--when I look at it, I am netting 700 or 800 calories one day, and 1500-1800 the next. That being said, I am technically 'eating' around 1500 every day--it's the large amounts of exercise that negate around 1000 calories on my workout days (which I simply cannot add in...eating that much food to me is really hard, I'm not a big eater).
I shall keep trying! It's tough when you're close to goal, and even tougher when your body is doing all kinds of odd things.0 -
u r gaining muscle n losing fat because of the strengthening workouts. thats why the inch loss.
it is actually very good. ur body is becoming fit n healthy. give it sometime n dont give up hopes u ll loss the last 5 in some months. Tip: try to have less proteins in ur diet.0 -
I have the exact same problem, and if I ever resolve it, I promise I'll share the secret.
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It has taken me three months to lose 2lbs to finally reach my goal weight.
I ate within my calorie allowance and workout three times per week. The last few lbs were painfully difficult to lose. There were weeks where I did not lose a fraction of a lb. keep going and stay determined.. That's all I've got 0 -
My guess is your body is going into survival mode since you're doing all that cardio and not getting enough calories to support it.0
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This is quite an old post so may not be helpful now.
From the exercise program you put in it involves toning- so although you would be losing fat (hence length off waist) you would be building muscle and muscle weighs more than fat so it's unsurprising your putting weight on.
My advice is to now concentrate on how you feel you look. If your within your BMI and your happy with appearance then the weight side isn't as important as before (very difficult as you set a target and try to aim for that I know!) I was the same- I lost 22kg and the last 5 were excruciating. But I was well within my goal and when I got down to my goal and introduced toning I put on 2-3kg but it was good weight oppose to fat. Hope you reach your goal- good luck!!0
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