stuck in a rut!

ULgirl2010

hey, so since the middle of January ive been trying to lose weight, and up to the last few weeks ive been quite happy with the results ( im a stone and 11 pounds down ), the problem is in the last 2-3 weeks ive really not been seeing any results on the scales despite my continous efforts.

im female, just under 5"8 and currently exactly 11 1/2 stone. my aim is to drop at best another stone and at worst half a stone in the next 2 months ish, but no matter what i do, i cant seem to shift the last few pounds.

my diet is pretty consistant:

breakfast-porridge sometimes with berrys and tea/coffee

lunch - either homemade veg soup (at weekends) or during the week, a WW pitta bread with tuna, turkey etc, or some variation of

dinner - usually veg and turkey stir fry with half a tin of chopped tomatoes, or a chicken salad, or fish with steamed veg etc

i try my best not to snack but sometimes it gets the better of me, and could range from 2-3 pieces of fruit spread over the day, or a WW youghurt

i currently go to the gym 3-5 times a week, doing an hour of cardio -15 mins running and 45 on crosstrainer, and i try to push myself a little harder each week and i also do a few weights (granted im probably doing them wrong). at weekends i walk 4.5 miles (fast) on both sat and sun morning

so, basically if anyone can offer me any advice on how to shift the last few pounds i would really appreciate it as seein no change in the scales over the last 2 weeks is getting very frustrating and with not much time left in the college sem, the gym is going to be gone in a few weeks !

sorry about the long post ..!

ragg

If thats your diet, and your portions aren't crazy, maybe all you need is a little patience.

Some weighttraining will be beneficial, nothing crazy and its not that hard to find exercises to do with minimal instruction required. A fullbody weights program of things like

Dumbell Squats
reverse lunge
Pushups
seated row
Lat pull down
Wood chops
Planks
Bicep curls
Tricep push downs

has no learning curve with them what so ever. you could do them all after watching the youtube videos.
Also, It would be no harm to do them in a circuit of 4 exercises together.

chuck101

well done so far ulgirl with the weight loss.. imo now would be a good time to not check the scales for a while and think about involving more weight training into your sessions . also i would ease back on the cardio a little , maybe reduce the hour sessions to once or twice a week and put in some interval training on the other 2/3 days.
this might help to begin with.
http://gubernatrix.co.uk/2008/02/why-lift-weights/.
re. diet if i'm honest i'd drop the weight watchers stuff and just eat a bit more each day. ie maybe up the fruit a little, add in more nuts( most nuts apart from peanuts are good to go snackwise), maybe some more protein at breakfast ..

ULgirl2010

thanks for the replies,

so if i focus more on weights and a little less on cardio, i should expect to see reults again?
could you suggest how many reps or what i should be lifting as im really clueless about weights.

im not looking to lose the last stone overnight as i realise the closer to your target, the harder it gets etc, its more for a motivation thing, not seeing any results makes it hard to keep going, so even a pound a week or less would keep me going till i get there, just somethin to keep me motivated!

re diet, im usually very good at breakfast and dinner, but lunch is whatever i can just make quick in the morning and bring with me hence the pitta bread with tuna or whatever, the odd day if i was at home for lunch i would have 2 eggs scrambled. could you suggest something which i could bring with me which would be better than the WW stuff??

many thanks again

ragg

I'm not sure how much number of reps etc really matters, but here is how I worked that stuff out when i was starting out and losing the lard.

I had a 3 day structure

Heavy day
Medium day
Light day

Heavy day - I used to lift as much as i could manage for 5 sets of 5 reps.

Medium day - I used to lift 90% of the above weight but i used to pair the exercises up.
Example - I would do 1 set of 8 reps pushups, then i'd go straight on to seated rows for one set of 8 reps, i would do each pair four times, if you have 8 exercises you make up 4 pairs- simple as that

Light day - 80% of heavy day and i would do a circuit of all the exercises with little to no rest between each for 12 reps, do each circuit 3 times.

I think the circuits and supersets burn more calories, but the heavy day gives a better training effect, the difference might be negligible in reality, but it worked for me...

Keep doing your cardio after each of the weight sessions, don't worry about interval training or anything, just push yourself as best you can each time...

Keep at it, consistency will be the key. its not what you do once, but what you do most...

chuck101

I agree for the most part with your advice ragg but i would still recommend some interval training in there somewhere .. plus probably wouldnt spend a full hour doing cardio unless you really enjoy it.. you could get alot more done in a half hour of smart intervals which might just free up some time to stretch out or head off early!