No progress

missjm

Thanks to working full-time and studying part-time I put on a substantial amount of weight over the past few years. By substantial I mean 2 stone. It seems to be a bit of a vicious circle, I pile it on in winter and drop it in summer but have never gotten the entire 2 stone back off. I normally shoot up to almost 3 stone more in winter.

Since I finished my exams the end of May I got back to exercising heavily. I will exercise 5 days a week. It's a combination of gym, 2 boxercise classes a week, yoga and I just started circuit classes too. I don't eat much rubbish, I normally stick to salad and try to avoid a lot of carbs. I rarely eat bread and while I don't calorie count to the last, I eat three basic meals a day (IMO).

Since early June (almost 2 months ago) - I have lost hardly any weight. I am totally despondent. I could honestly say I've lost about 2kg which feels like nothing given how much hard work I'm putting in. I do notice more toning in my upper body as a result of the boxing but I'm still carrying a ridiculous amount of weight on my stomach and bum.

Just for comparison - I'm 5ft 4 and weigh 79kg at the moment which also indicates an obese BMI.

Can anybody advise. I'm on the verge of giving up!

TimeToShine

Post an average day's diet.

missjm

Okay

Average day's diet would be:

Breakfast
Fruit and Cappucinno (I make my own with those Aldi low fat ones)

Lunch
Salad - lettuce, tomato, chopped peppers, a few olives, chicken or ham or tuna
my own salad dressing of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Dinner
Normally salad again or Spanish Omelette. This would normally be a bulkier salad to lunch.

Evening Snack
Glass of wine.

snacking during the day is normally fruit.

TimeToShine

Lunch and dinner look fine, although you should note that olive oil is very calorie dense so use as little as you can get away with.

Can you specify exactly what fruit you eat during the day? Contrary to popular belief it's actually not great, very sugary and full of calories. Vegetables are a far better option - broccoli, cauliflower etc. I'm not saying fruit is bad or anything but it certainly needs to be counted if you want to lose weight.

If the glass of wine really is just one glass then it seems like your diet is reasonable and you shouldn't be putting weight on. It seems like portion control might be a bit of an issue, you need to remember that weight loss is mostly about what you eat - exercise can be used to offset any slip ups to some extent but you cannot out train a bad diet full stop.

I think your best bet is to download an app like myfitnesspal or alternatively write down exactly what you eat for a few days. If you put up more specific quantities here I could estimate the calories for you or you could use the app/look it up. The bottom line is you'd be surprised how much you eat without thinking about it, I remember when I was cutting down I used to eat fruit absent mindedly as well, but at the end of the day I'd find I had eaten 3 bananas, 2 apples, an orange and a pear or something. That's nearly a quarter of what my intake for the day should have been and I was completely writing it off because "it's fruit".

missjm

Thanks TimeToShine

I don't eat bananas because they don't really agree with me and I read somewhere before that they aren't the best to eat. I'd eat a few satsumas and an apple.
I'm not gaining weight, I'm just not losing it in any hurry.
I graze a lot out of my lunch box (which is supposed to be good) but I do tend to eat a larger meal in the evening.
I will admit that the glass of wine can be two some evenings! Or I will have a beer shandy made with diet 7-up.

I do have my fitness pal on my phone but don't manage to track everything on it. I find it a bit rubbish for tracking the exercise to be honest. I prob do need to do a few days of decent tracking. When I do I normally don't go over my calorie count and the exercise adds more. The base calorie is set at 1,200 a day - maybe I need to reduce this?

TimeToShine

I wouldn't bother tracking the exercise if I were you, just the food intake. To be honest if your lunches and dinners are just meat + salad then I can't see why you're not losing weight. Even gorging on these would make it quite tough unless you were eating ridiculous amounts.

All that's left is the alcohol intake really - maybe try cut it down to three times a week or the weekends and see how that goes. 1200 calories is fine, in fact it might even be too low but it's better to over-estimate in these things so I think you should leave it as it is.

If it's worked for you before then keep doing what you're doing. Try and be honest with yourself and identify if there's something you've been doing the last few months than might be hindering your progress. Your diet, as far as I can see from your posts, is perfectly fine so rest assured that if you stick to it you'll see results. Try and weigh things out tomorrow visually and bang them into the app to get a half decent idea of how many calories you're taking in. After a while you get very good as estimating off the top of your head and you can do away with it.

Best of luck, remember patience is a virtue!

Alf Veedersane

Don't use MFP to count what your calorie requirements or the calories burned for exercise.

Just add up what you're getting on board first. If you use it to factor in exercise etc then you're at risk of overestimation and overcompensation.

missjm

Yeah I'm kind of hoping if I just persevere for another few months I'll suddenly drop about 10kg.

Unfortunately I had hoped to see that already. I can't understand these people on 'Obese, a year to save my life' who can drop a few stone in a month. I understand they're a hell of a lot heavier but given my excess exercise over my food intake, it's just not making sense I haven't lost at least half a stone.

MrFrisp

missjm wrote: »

Okay

Average day's diet would be:

Breakfast
Fruit and Cappucinno (I make my own with those Aldi low fat ones).

Always remember, "Low Fat" can be far from actually being low fat.

It usually means more sugar, and that won't help.

Also check if the products may contain Aspartame.

That is seriously un-healthy stuff.

As pointed out already, fruit contains a lot of sugar, although natural sugars.

Combined with the odd glass of wine, and/or the beer shandy, your sugar intake is probably a little on the high side.
.

fret_wimp2

Exercising and not losing weight means your not in a calorie defecit, i.e. your eating more than you burn. It is as simple as that. Only after you know what your eating can you make changes to lower calorie or healthier options.

MyFitnessPal is your friend, but as mentioned, you need to be brutally honest and log EVERYTHING! Tiny scrape of butter on your toast, that teaspoon of ketchup with your meal, that small amount of balsamic vinegar on your salad, splash of milk in your tea, these all add up, and are usually where people dont see the calories going on.

I lost a significant amount of fat a while back by doing a few simple things:

1. Track everything, know exactly what im eating. EVERYTHING!
2. Examine my intake after a week of normal eating. Identify foods of no benefit and remove them completely or replace with healthier option.
3. Increase protein quantities by a lot. Humans seem to be designed to live well on a lot of protein and fewer carbs, but the balance is not right in the modern world ( look at the carb/protein ratio in a ham sandwich). Protein will make you fuller for longer also.
3. Ensure the quantities of the new healthier foods im eating are within my calorie allowance.
4. keep recording and monitoring. if its not working after a month, reassess the situation and start over.

And two general points:
- Cut out alchol if you can. it does no good for your body at all, and just encourages you to eat crap and lots of it.
- take the stairs. every little counts. if you take the stairs 5-6 times a day, thats 30 times a working week, thats going to add up.

LuckyLloyd

I'd also suggest that the scale doesn't matter and it will lie to you. If you are exercising hard and with intensity you could well be adding enough muscle to obfuscate fat loss to some extent on the scales. For the first few months there are other metrics that you can use to verify you are going in the right direction:

- take pictures with your clothes off (don't worry, no one other than yourself needs to see them!) and retake once every few weeks. This is the simple marker that you yourself will be the last to gain awareness of. We sometimes don't realise how different we are looking because we see ourselves in the mirror everyday;
- measure your performance. Can you do a little more work in a little less time?;
- how do you feel? Not in a vague philosophical way mind, but have you less reflux, less indigestion, feel less sluggish, sleeping better, etc?;

If those things are going in the right direction who gives a **** what the scales say? Conversely, if those things weren't improving what use would 5kgs less on the scale be to you?

Edsonbarboza

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I'd also suggest that the scale doesn't matter and it will lie to you. If you are exercising hard and with intensity you could well be adding enough muscle to obfuscate fat loss to some extent on the scales. For the first few months there are other metrics that you can use to verify you are going in the right direction:

- take pictures with your clothes off (don't worry, no one other than yourself needs to see them!) and retake once every few weeks. This is the simple marker that you yourself will be the last to gain awareness of. We sometimes don't realise how different we are looking because we see ourselves in the mirror everyday;
- measure your performance. Can you do a little more work in a little less time?;
- how do you feel? Not in a vague philosophical way mind, but have you less reflux, less indigestion, feel less sluggish, sleeping better, etc?;

If those things are going in the right direction who gives a **** what the scales say? Conversely, if those things weren't improving what use would 5kgs less on the scale be to you?

Have to agree with all of the above,the best measurement for weight loss is the fitting of your clothes,if they start becoming too big keep doing what your doing forget the scales the things would drive ya mad.

CeannRua

missjm wrote: »

Thanks TimeToShine

I don't eat bananas because they don't really agree with me and I read somewhere before that they aren't the best to eat. I'd eat a few satsumas and an apple.
I'm not gaining weight, I'm just not losing it in any hurry.
I graze a lot out of my lunch box (which is supposed to be good) but I do tend to eat a larger meal in the evening.
I will admit that the glass of wine can be two some evenings! Or I will have a beer shandy made with diet 7-up.

I do have my fitness pal on my phone but don't manage to track everything on it. I find it a bit rubbish for tracking the exercise to be honest. I prob do need to do a few days of decent tracking. When I do I normally don't go over my calorie count and the exercise adds more. The base calorie is set at 1,200 a day - maybe I need to reduce this?

Are you only eating 1,200 calories a day? This is too little. Your diet is carb heavy as well and you could eat more protein.

missjm

CeannRua wrote: »

Are you only eating 1,200 calories a day? This is too little. Your diet is carb heavy as well and you could eat more protein.

I try to keep to under that each day. I don't get how my diet is carb heavy though, I avoid carbs as much as possible. Am I missing something in my diet. I thought the chicken etc was protein.

CeannRua

missjm wrote: »

I try to keep to under that each day. I don't get how my diet is carb heavy though, I avoid carbs as much as possible. Am I missing something in my diet. I thought the chicken etc was protein.

Overall you're definitely eating way too little. You can work out your BMR using an online calculator. Fruit, veg and wine are all basically carbs. There is protein in chicken but proportionately, you're eating a lot of carbs. You would make dieting easier on yourself if you ate more fat and protein. I'd be starving and grumpy if I ate the sample day you posted. Instead of fruit, or with a piece of fruit for snacks, you could try a cracker or some kind with nut butter or hummus, boiled eggs, tinned fish like sardines or tuna, some nuts etc. Are you eating cooked veg? This might be a personal thing but I think it's more satiating than salad veg. I don't think fruit is a great breakfast...

Edsonbarboza

There is no way your eating only 1200 calories working out 5 days a week and not losing serious weight,im no expert but thats pretty impossible.