too Impatient to see results???

Duckee

Hi guys,

could any of you shed some light on my fitness/diet regime and why I don't seem to be seeing results (or am i just being too impatient). Basically I had my body fat analysed last month and was shocked to be told it was 30% which means I have a serious case of skinny fat. I really like running and have a series of races coming up during the next few months starting with the womens mini marathon and culminating in the DCM. However, I've set myself a goal to get my body fat down to around 22%. I've been following the below regime for the past 28 days and reducing my calorie intake to 500 below daily maintenance (measuring my food and keeping track on fitday.com). However, I've not lost a pound or so much as a cm off my measurements. My clothes don't fit any better and the only difference I've noticed is that I've been 'feeling' my muscles more. my details are below:

Measurements:
weight: 116lbs
height: 5ft
waist: 28inches
hips: 38inches
chest: 32inches
neck: 12inches

Weekly workout routine:
Day 1: Rest
Day 2: Cross training - 50 mins of Zumba,Cycling, Swimming or Elliptical Trainer.
Day 3: Circuit Training, 3 sets of dumbell squat press (20reps), lunges (20reps each leg), modified pushups (25reps), bicep curls (20reps), tricep kickbacks (20reps each arm), donkey kicks(20 reps each arm), single leg bridge (15 reps each leg), bicycle crunches(15reps), squat thrusts (10reps), side leg lifts (20 reps each leg), plank and side plank (30secs each). Where dumbells are used I'm currently using 6lb weights which is about all I can manage but I'm keen to increase this in time.
Day 4: 5 mile run (takes about 48minutes)
Day 5: Cross Training (same as day 2)
Day 6: interval training on treadmill, 3.5miles comprising 2mins slow jog and 3mins 10% above race pace. Also 2sets of circuit training as in day 3.
Day 7: long slow run. This was 6miles last week but mileage increases week on week to prep for DCM.

Daily Food Intake:
Breakfast - usually one of the following
two slices of mccambridges bread, peanut butter and medium banana
2 eggs, with spinach and tomato and grated cheese (garnish)
muesli with semi skimmed milk

Lunch - usually one of the following
Tuna salad
Green salad with cheese and maybe some more bread
Homemade soup (usually has some pasta or beans added)
last nights left-overs.

Dinner - varies widely but usually contains one of 125g beef/pork/chicken and some carbs in pasta,rice,potato,bread form and plenty of varied veg.

About twice a week I would follow dinner with a dessert but it is always homemade such as a brownie made with 70-80% cocoa chocolate of frozen yogurt made with berries, yogurt, honey and nothing else.

I'm not much of a snacker but when I do, it tends to be a drink - sometimes a good one (OJ, milk) and sometimes a bad one (beer, wine, coke).

The only thing I can see here is that my food might be a bit carb heavy, but as I tend to run a lot I'm reluctant to cut carbs out of my diet. Could this be the problem though? I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks guys.

G86

Stick with it, it's only been a month; sometimes it can take a few weeks before you see any changes at all. I'd definitely cut down on the bread if I were you, and there are loads of hidden carbs there too - aka the OJ, maybe try a diluted orange instead.

Also, 6lb is about 2kg. That's about the weight of the water bottle I have here, and lifting it to my mouth 10 times a day isn't doing anything for my biceps. You can lift more than that, do a bit of research and search around on here for ideas on weight programs.

Zamboni

Calorie requirement calculations are not an exact science.
If you haven't seen any change in a month, you could try reducing them further.

Reggy

Hi there,

Looking at your diet, my advice is to dramatically cut the carbs at dinner time. If you eat your dinner after 6pm, there is little reason for you to ingest large amounts of carbohydrate late in the day.

If you train late in the evening, counter this by eating your carbs in the morning/afternoon and you should still have enough fuel for your workouts. but if you are taking bread/potatoes and other starchy foods late in the evening, you are not giving yourself enough time to burn that energy up.

a couple of things absent from your diet that you could implement:

Nuts - (unsalted): cashews, brazil nuts etc - nuts are high in omega 3,6 and these act as natural fat burners.

fish oils - taking a fish oil supplement will fortify all over health as well as contributing to fat burning

green tea - great for detox, as well as contributing to the thermogenic/fat burning effect

oats - again high in fiber and great to take early morning on days where you intend to exercise: excellent sustained energy release.

here is a link for other foods that can contribute to an increase in metabolism:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/198798-thermogenic-foods-list/

Duckee

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the tips and advice. I'll try to cut out the evening time carbs and also up the weights to see what happens. I guess with the weights I was concerned about adding weight too quickly in case I did more damage than good but I'm probably being a bit too precious about it. Thanks again!