Need help, where am I going wrong?

kearnsey11

I am a 25 yr old male, 5’11”, average build, weigh approx 87kg, bodyfat 20%. I have been training solidly since January 1st with the goal of reducing my body fat to 12% or less and hence my weight to about 76kg over the coming months.

I started on January 1st at 93kg and am now approx 87kg…now I lost this weight in the first 2 weeks and haven’t lost anymore since. I was taking some Fatburners (2 tabs twice daily during the first two weeks and have not purchased anymore when I ran out).

I was also taking a Protein shake immediately after each training session (I have since been advised [by Personal Trainer in my gym during a quick chat] not to take the Protein after a Cardio session, instead not to eat anything for about 45mins and then eat. I will instead only take Protein shake after a weights session, which I’m going to start doing in the evenings instead of mornings.

Training:

• To date I have been training 6 days a week every morning (Mon – Sat), before breakfast.
• 3 x Cardio sessions (varied between bike, treadmill, rowing machine, Stairmaster) – doing interval programs, high intensity for 45mins – 60mins, with 5 mins stretching and 10-15mins abs work.
• 3 x Weights sessions (varied every second week e.g. WK1 – 2 days upper body, 1 day lower body,WK2 - 1 day upper body, 2 days lower body)
• About twice a week I will go to the gym in the evening (as well as that morning) for more Cardio, varied between, 20 min high intensity treadmill programme and 20 lengths of the swimming pool.
• Note – Always take Sundays off, unless I go for a walk or relaxing swim

Sample daily diet:

• Breakfast – weetabix and spoon of honey
• Snack – apple / kiwi
• Lunch – bowl of soup with slice of brown bread or brown bread sandwich with chicken/turkey (no mayo / coleslaw etc)
• Snack – apple / kiwi
• Dinner – Turkey or chicken stirfry with peppers, onions, and some sweet and sour sauce (not too much), or spaghetti bolagnese (not much pasta) or salad with grilled turkey / chicken and balsamic dressing etc.
• Snack – low fat natural yougurt
• Drinks - Lots of water throughout the day, 1 or 2 cups of coffee with low fat milk and splenda.
• Alcohol - I will also have a few alcoholic drinks on Friday or Saturday night 4/5 pint bottle bulmers or 5/6 bottle of miller / corona etc.
• Note – Once a week usually Saturday or Sunday I will take a ‘day off’ and eat whatever I want so I won’t crave these things for the rest of the week, chocolate, chips, sauces, Sunday roast etc..etc..

My problem is that my weight loss seems to have stalled...even though I have been doing much more intensive training and kept to my diet.

Please help, what am I doing wrong?!

rubadub

Jan1 93kg and 4 weeks on 87kg. That is 6kg! 13.2lb, almost a stone in 4 weeks. I would be worrying about losing weight too fast, you should aim for 2lb a week MAX, I personally would recommend 0.5lb per week, esp. as you are lifting too. But you said you lost it in 2 weeks! That is not fat you lost, there was water/fluids lost too. And scales are not a great way to gauge progress. I can vary my weight by 7lb over 24hrs. On Jan1 you probably were bloated from christmas indulgence, the 2 weeks later you could have been dehydrated. You should weigh yourself at the same time, same clothes, same scale, same hydration levels etc.

Take photos, measure your waist, bicep etc, get your body fat measured in the gym. You want to lose FAT not particularly weight. You are lifting so are putting on muscle. I am your height and went very slowly from 13stone to 12 stone. I stayed 12stone +/-3lb for well over a year, getting thinner all the time- i.e. putting on muscle and losing fat at the same rate.

Get a scales for food too, and calculate your actual calorie intake, no guessing. A cheat day is allowable, but do not go overboard, it all adds up.

Forget that 87kg reading happened, you are 87kg now, and that is a hell of a lot of weight lost, too much IMO. If you are 87kg in another month that is still very good going. 13lb in 8 weeks is about the limit you want to be going for. It drops off first as fuilds, your weight loss will slow now that is gone, and so it should. Slower it comes off, the more likely it will stay off. Dropping fat too fast will screw your metabolism.

Starting out I would be doing full body weight workouts, splits usually come later, if at all. You should stick to free weights too, no machines. Squats, deadlifts, standing military press, dips, bench press, pullups, chinups, should all be in there.

kearnsey11

Thanks rubadub, that makes sense, I have been feeling much thinner lately even if my weight seems to be about the same.

I'll definitely start taking pictures and measuring, as I know I have been losing fat even if the scales says otherwise. Suppose it's just a matter of sticking with it and killing the fat slowly. Ideally I'll get to your situation where I'm "putting on muscle and losing fat at the same rate".

dv6

"You should stick to free weights too, no machines."....................why? Is there that much of a difference in the benefit?

Colm_OReilly

dv6 wrote: »

"You should stick to free weights too, no machines."....................why? Is there that much of a difference in the benefit?

Yes!

Briefly, machines force your body to move along a particular path, and generally is an unnatural movement. Your body responds best to natural movements.

Also, machines tend to isolate specific body parts. Your body does not work as segmented body parts, but as a unit. When you are working on a machine, you are cutting off vital (but usually smaller) muscles from doing there job as stabilising/balancing you.

A smith machine will allow to 'squat' in the most peculiar ways that you simply cannot get away with the barbell. Again training your body the wrong way.

Kearnsey11,

You are obviously dedicated, so this advice is helping you optimise your training. Since you have the motivation I'll be as critical as possible. You are doing good work, so the advice is intended to get you working smarter and seeing better gains.

If you are on a threadmill for 45-60 minutes this is not high intensity I'm afraid. Unless you are trying consistently to break your 10k time. In which case doing this 3x/week would wreck your body.

If you can go for that length of time you have the aerobic capacity. Sprint intervals, or varying the distance/time will work better. Try a 5K on the rowing machine, note your time, try beat it next week. In the interim do some 500m intervals (the Concept IIs in the gym have this set up) or maybe a 2K row at a faster pace than the 5K. (I'm more experienced in rowing, so that's why the advice is centred around this machine, a similar methodology can be applied to the other machines.

Weights - as a novice, you don't need to do a split routine. You haven't posted your routine either so I'll just ask are you including deadlifting, pressing, squatting (not on a smith machine), benching, chins, and dips?

www.startingstrength.net/workouts shows a way to combine the lifts I named above. There's a more detailed link somewhere so hopefully someone else will post it.

And now, the last bit. You don't need to separate "cardio" and "weights", and if you'd like a challenge that's constantly varied and fun, try CrossFit. They operate on a 3 on, 1 off cycle, and considering you have the time and enthusiasm I believe you'd enjoy it and get the results from it. BrandX post daily scaled versions of the workout as well.

Sometimes there can be difficulties performing all the workouts in a commercial gym but you should be fine for the most part.

Colm

rubadub

dv6 wrote: »

"You should stick to free weights too, no machines."....................why? Is there that much of a difference in the benefit?

Basically using free weights is real world lifting, gives you real functional strength. You have to use stabilising muscles lifting free wieghts, that may go unused on machines. When using machines the movement of weight is usually restricted to be up & down in one fixed direction. It can cause an imbalance in your muscles. I was able to do 8-9dips on static bars, then I got gymnastic rings which were free to move. Holding myself up steady was hard enough, I could only do 1 dip. All new muscles were being used, I got used to them and was doing 12 dip rings a few weeks on. Using free weights to do compound lifts is an efficent use of time to work a whole array of muscles which should be working together. Deadlifts, squats, military press, dips will all give proper functional strength. Some lad might do bicep curls, have big arms and go to pick up a child and put their back out- imbalanced muscles.

A €10 chinning bar can give you a better workout than some €10,000 machines in gyms, with their fancy LCD readouts and calorie burn estimates etc. Some people join gyms and veer towards expensive machines to feel they are getting value for money for the membership fee. People presume this new technology must be an improvement.

Last night I was house-sitting with no equpiment, I did dips on chairs, I found a tow rope and slung it over the stairs railings and did pull/chinups by just gripping and holding the rope(fantastic for grip strength too), I did wide fingertip pullups on a doorframe.

An Citeog

Colm_OReilly wrote: »

www.startingstrength.net/workouts shows a way to combine the lifts I named above. There's a more detailed link somewhere so hopefully someone else will post it.

That link is in the FAQ section in the link you provided.