Frustrated and well, confused. Seemed to have hit a wall.

Hello All,

Firstly I want to say hi to all the members here, I stumbled upon this website using google because well I'm feeling a tad lost at the moment. Firstly let me tell you my story.

Around October last year (2007) I decided to casually go to the gym. At this time I weighed around 18stone, I am around 5'11 and have a more stocky build. As a child I used to swim competitively and quit when I was around 15. Out of this I had the hunger of a swimmer, and broad shoulders was a frontcrawl butterfly swimmer.

As of that point it went down hill for me, Gradually put on weight, Worked at macdonalds to get me through college which didnt help and generally ate crap.

Fast forward to last year and im 27 now something clicked in my head and I was fed up with my unfit fatty life. I am a IT Network Technician, so most of my day im on my *kitten*...so I joined a gym and it didnt as such go anywhere, I think i lost a pound. After Xmas, I looked at my diet and made tons of changes. I stopped buying lunch at work, started taking my own, stopped eating crisps and started eating fruit and veg. Hell i went all out and tried to get a regular breakfast in me.

My weight started to drop and by April I was 17 stone. On top of this, I was able to run. I've never really been able to run. weird as it sounds to some more than a 2 min jog would kill me. Now i was running for a whole 10 minutes, to me this was a great fitness achievement. By end of May I was 16.2 Stone.

I even cut caffeine completely out my life, I only drink decaf now in both coffee and tea. Im not a fizzy drinker really so I may have a bottle of coke a month.

My diet changed again in June , No more sandwiches for me during lunch, I have a sandwich box of mixed salad, no dressing, and a small tub of Brown rice and a piece of fruit normally a Banana

I changed my workout, to which i do atleast 3 times a week, not normally more than 5 times though.

My work out is done after work, around 5:15pm till 7pm
Firstly I do cardio,
20min run on no gradiant @ 7mph / 10-15min run on a 4% gradiant @6 mph
10min Bike Machine, level 6, Hill profile Aiming for atleast a 6km distance
10min X trainer, level 6, Hill Profile I aim to get my rpm about 80 throughout this workout.

Then I go to my Toning/weight training. I have a stocky build anyway so not really looking to build mass, more just tone what i already got.
Here I have 3 circuits. 1 for tri/bi. 1 for chest and back and finally a leg/shoulders workout.

I do my Circuits and add a 5 min run around the middle of this to keep my heartrate and blood flowing.

I try to keep to a regular food plan too...

7am - A bowl of muesli with 2 desert spoons of low fat natural yoghurt
10/11am - Box of salad, Normally a portion of lettuce, a few baby tomatoes, slices of cucumber, couple of carrots, a stick of celery and a few slices of a pepper.
2pm - Small tub of brown rice with a couple of teaspoons of soy sauce to give it flavour
3pm - Banana
Around 7pm after the gym I will have my dinner. this obviously varies but I try to keep out of fatty foods or carbs such as chips.

I drink approx 5-6 cups of tea/coffee a day to which is decaf and using semi skimmed milk. I regulary drink water, probably covering that 2L a day thing.

My Shopping bill has increase (great) because im making EVERYTHING these days, no more cooking sauces I make the lot. Food tastes great.

A few things thou. Since this diet I can no longer eat apples. they give me incredible stomach pains that can last days.

After my salad, I am always REALLY hungry, hungrier than before i ate the salad....I eat my banana or rice to see if that helps and I'm still hungry, drinking water doesnt seem to change much either. I've sometime brought a sandwich, which makes me feel bloated and sick.

My weight floats at the moment between 15.8 and 16.4 stone week to week, but my belly just isnt shifting. what else can I do?

Many thanks