Hit my first plateau. need support/ information.

[thatdog]

So I finally got my act together and started dieting and actually taking it seriously. This week I've hit my first big plateau and getting a little discouraged and not sure what to do next.

 

History:

I started this year 6'2 and 273 pounds. January was a bit halfhearted but since Feb I have been sticking pretty strictly to my diet and exercise regime and at last Friday was down to 243lb.

 

My diet has been to cut out almost all junk food, takeaway and soda (except some dietsoda), eat mostly protein and veggies and little carbs and reduced my daily calorie intake from about 3600c to 1200-1500.

typical daily diet

breakfast = coffee with skim milk 1 sugar, 1 serve untoasted meusli with 50ml skim milk and some cinnamon.

lunch = ham and salad sandwich on whole grain bread

dinner = 200g steak or chicken + 3 serves of veggies and a diet soda

I allow myself 2 breaks a week. one day i can go out to dinner/drink with friends, one day i can have 1 treat (2 light beers/1 real beer/1bag of chips/etc).

Exercise - walked 4-5km 3-4 times a week at first but now the weather is bad i do about 30 minutes on a exercise bike at home along with a little free weights. before i started this i had a completely sedentary lifestyle and am a heavy smoker which makes it extra hard for me to much in the way of cardio but I am trying and I plan on quitting again once my exams are over.

 

 

NOW:

Friday was my 'night off' but i didn't go too overboard (just a few drinks and dinner out with friends) but Saturday was back up to 246. I've been back on my diet since then but have actually put ON and extra pound. idk what's going on here. I'm worried that because i started my diet with such a drastic change it's going to be reallly hard for me to make much more improvement without starving myself. I also don't understand how I could be gaining weight when I am obviously consuming much less calories than i should be burning for someone my size with my exercise.

 

Can anyone suggest what I am doing wrong or why this is happening? Am I freaking out too soon? Will the weight start dropping again or have i backed myself into a corner by being overzealous (since i started I have had a couple of people tell me that you aren't supposed to drop you daily intake by more than 500calories at a time).

[betterdeal]

Don't worry - weight fluctuates due to fluid retention. You may also just have a big sh*t inside waiting to drop and that can add weight. At your height, you should be aiming for about 2000 calories a day. Trying to eat less than that is unsustainable. It's a marathon not a sprint.

 

You've done extremely well so far. Now to do some fine tuning. Here's some tips:

 

1. Chew every mouthful at least 20 times

2. Eat both soluble and insoluble fibre

3. Reduce meat to about 2oz / 50g a day

4. Reduce / eliminate processed foods (anything with two or more ingredients excluding water)

5. Reduce / eliminate the diet soda. This still causes blood sugar level rises and that can make you unsteady, which can induce comfort eating

6. More fruit and veg

7. Even more veg

8. Pay attention to your bowel movements. Foods like hard cheese can cause constipation. A happy bowel is a happy gut.

9. Brown rice and wholegrain pasta

 

As I said, you're doing fantastic. Keep on improving your dietary habits and you'll keep on doing well.

[thatdog]

Thanks for the kudos BetterDeal. I'll try and work on those things. Just a couple qs though.

 

The diet I'm on (CSIRO) said to avoid excess carbs and therefore avoid rice/pasta especially in the evenings and also to keep up a high protein intake hence the meat for lunch and dinner. shouldn't I be keeping up with this? If I cut back to 50g meat where should I be getting the protein from or should I not be worrying about that?

 

re calorie count. I'm a bit worried about increasing my intake as I'm stuck at the moment and also I've been on the 1500 limit for about 8 weeks now and haven't had much trouble with it. Is it unhealthy to be at this level? or is it just considered better to have a bit more because most people can't get used to such a low intake and then blow their diet completely?

[betterdeal]

I looked at CSIRO a while ago and I think it's only suitable for women who are pretty thin to start with. I am assuming you're a man, and as you were morbidly obese, you don't fit that category. Good for my yoga teacher; not so good for me or you.

 

Most recent advice suggests 50g meat / protein a day so that would include pulses, dairy and meat. I think the whole anti-carb thing was overblown after Atkins. Wholegrain carbs provide fibre and vitamins as well as long term release of energy, which helps to reduce the blood sugar level variances which induces comfort eating.

 

My opinion is that if what you eat is enjoyable and makes you feel good in a long term, stable way, you'll be more likely to stick to it. Your relationship with food is just like any other relationship, be that with your job, lover, friends, family, dog. Developing a healthy relationship with food and your body means one that includes fun, variation, liking, as well as surety and stability.

 

Imagine dating Kate Moss. She's a low carb, low cal diet. It isn't going to last. Now imagine dating Kate Winslett. She's a more balanced diet.

 

Have a look for the book "Less Meat More Veg" which I think it one of the best cookbooks available. Lots of tasty recipes and a wide variety of things to try.

[thatdog]

yeah guess that makes a bit of sense. My gf started me on the diet so we could do it together. But besides being female she only wants to lose about 10 pounds whereas I'm looking at about 70-80 pounds. So in retrospect it makes sense that we should probably be doing different things. It's a shame though since I've already gone through so much getting used to skipping the pasta and rice but got myself happy looking forward to a tasty slab of meat each night .

I'll definitely start looking around online for a more suitable meal plan.

[betterdeal]

It's whatever works for you that matters. I do like meat and am slowly cutting it down, and increasing fresh vegetables, and a result am reducing overall intake (smaller portions, fewer snacks, fewer extras). Part of over-eating can be down to malnutrition, as processed food tends to lack variety so we end up lacking some nutrients. Hence a diet with a wider variety of fresh food can reduce our hunger because we get the nutrients our hunger is designed to get us to get.

 

I mean, don't eat carbs if you don't want to, but a pasta salad with fillet steak sliced into medallions mixed in is delicious!

[thatdog]

Ok so now this is ****ing me off. I have stuck to the same kind of diet for 3 months now. I plan out my meals for the week. Eat healthy all but 2 meals and allow myself 2 indulgences over the weekend so I don't go crazy. My gf and I like to eat out so we do that once a week and I allow myself a couple of beers or a cheaty snack once a week. This ahs been working for me the whole time. I stepped on the scales this morning and the exact same thing as last week happened. + 2 kilos. It's not like i even go nuts when we go out. Last night we had mexican and I had fajitas, a little guacamole and a light beer. Saturday I had 2 slices of pizza and a light beer for lunch. by my count both days combined totaled about +750calories over my maintenance intake not counting exercise which I still do over the weekend. How can I suddenly be getting these massive weight gains over such indiscretions? After dropping 13kg i'm now stuck yo-yoing between 110-112 for almost 3 weeks now. It's so hard to remain focused when I'm not seeing any dividends. Also I thought cheat days were meant to be good for diets cos they trick your body into changing its metabolism. or am I wrong here?

[Kelemort]

Thatdog - how many calories a day are you eating now?

 

A 25-year-old, sedentary, 6'2", 240 lb. male should be eating about 2500 calories a day to maintain his weight, so you should for sure be eating about 2000 calories a day. It could be that after several months of eating so far below maintenance, your metabolism has slowed down. It may take some time for it to get back in sync, during which it's possible you might see some weight gain (as you currently are).

 

My advice to anyone losing weight is to burn off as much of it as they can through exercise to keep your metabolism hummin' along, and eat as many calories as they can while doing it. In the past, I've exclusively eaten at my daily maintenance level and depended only on the exercise for the weight loss, just so I'd keep my metabolism strong.

 

You say you do some light free weights - how often and how much? Developing a more serious weight program (depending on what you're doing now) could help with what you're going through.

 

Do you drink a lot of water? You're drinking a beer and diet pop, both of which are diuretics - so your body's going to be holding onto the water stores that it has. Increase your water intake, especially if you're also drinking diuretics. I believe the going rate is 8 8 ounce glasses a day, plus an extra 8 ounces or so for every extra 25 pounds you're carrying. That obviously increases even more, depending on how active you are...

 

How far apart are you eating your meals? It may help to eat smaller meals more frequently throughout the day to boost your metabolism back up.

 

It sounds like your exercise routine has been predominantly the same since you started, with some slight changes here and there. You were walking about 9 - 12 miles a week (depending on your speed - I'll assume 3/4 MPH - that's probably only about 120 calories burned per mile). Depending on the speed and the resistance of your stationary, that could be decent exercise.

 

Every 6 - 8 weeks, it's a good idea to change workouts completely, or vary the duration or intensity of your work out to avoid hitting plateaus.

 

Try these out and see if they help you.

[GrayClouds]

Dieting is stressful for the body after while Leptin levels increase in gets win the way of fat loss. I suggest taking some time off your diet, take a couple of weeks at maintenance calorie level. It will reset hormones back to normal and then get back to your program.

[GrayClouds]

1. Chew every mouthful at least 20 times

2. Eat both soluble and insoluble fibre

3. Reduce meat to about 2oz / 50g a day

4. Reduce / eliminate processed foods (anything with two or more ingredients excluding water)

5. Reduce / eliminate the diet soda. This still causes blood sugar level rises and that can make you unsteady, which can induce comfort eating

6. More fruit and veg

7. Even more veg

8. Pay attention to your bowel movements. Foods like hard cheese can cause constipation. A happy bowel is a happy gut.

9. Brown rice and wholegrain pasta

.

 

1 What will this burn extra calories by chewing?

2 Ok

3 Silly

4 a bit arbitrary, NO?

5 is this based on science

6 agree

7 agree

8 it this were the expression of being a bit "anal" comes from?

9 eating only brown rice is a bit racist.

[orangelady]

I'd think you need a 'plan' for your workout and a more challenging one. How much do you sweat and how fast does your heart rate go when you exercise?

[orangelady]

1

8 it this were the expression of being a bit "anal" comes from?

9 eating only brown rice is a bit racist.

 

LOL you got me laughing there.

[thatdog]

Hey guys, thanks for the extra advice. Yesterday I finally dipped below the 110kg mark!

I try and exercise every day and generally mix it up a bit.I exercise for 30-60 min and do a random mix of walking/pushups/free weights/strectching/ cycling generally just based on how I feel and if any bits of me are sore from the day before. I also sometimes get to go to the local gym when i can borrow my friends membership so I don't really have a set regimen. Just push myself til it hurts then push just a little more.

 

I took about a week off the diet and went back to my maintainence level. I still have trouble (feeling guilty) eating anything close to 2500c on a daily basis though, but i'm up to about 1600-1800 which is at least better than before. Also noticed that although I've only lost a kilo in the last 3 weeks i've actually dropped over an inch from my waist .

 

Kelemort - I drink a lot of water though i don't keep count of how much. when I study I'd say I drink about 10-12 glasses a day.

 

Orange Lady - I'm terrible at checking my pulse but when I'm at the gym the machines usually put m at about 140bpm and I guess I work out at home just as hard.

[thebody]

Do you have a trainer and nutritional guidance? If not, they will help you get over whatever hump you're on. They are WORTH it.

[orangelady]

Do you have a trainer and nutritional guidance? If not, they will help you get over whatever hump you're on. They are WORTH it.

 

BeginAgain, what is with you........

[thebody]

BeginAgain, what is with you........

 

omfg i'm not this dude!! stop it!

 

Look... I was googling about what to do about a best friend's wife and I stumbled on this message board. I haven't boarded in a long time so I thought what the hell, why not. Now I'm friggin addicted to the damn thing. I'd rather not get irritated at some people saying i'm someone else. I'm NOT.

[orangelady]

omfg i'm not this dude!! stop it!

 

Look... I was googling about what to do about a best friend's wife and I stumbled on this message board. I haven't boarded in a long time so I thought what the hell, why not. Now I'm friggin addicted to the damn thing. I'd rather not get irritated at some people saying i'm someone else. I'm NOT.

 

Hmmm okay then. It just seems weird that you say you are the person in the picture. It looks like a photo taken off the website. Hey I need your help. How do I have toned arms. I currently do bodyweight workouts plus circuit and interval training. I have pretty much lost quite a bit but arms don't seem to go down. I am not a fan of lifting weights as I did that (like really heavy ones) but no result. I prefer bodyweight exercises. Help?

[betterdeal]

1 What will this burn extra calories by chewing?

 

It will slow down your eating. Our ability to register feeling full lags behind actually being full. Ergo, eat slower and you will feel satiated having eaten less food.

 

3 Silly

 

No, wise. Reducing the amount of meat you eat to about 2oz a day encourages you to find protein in other sources, such as beans, eggs and nuts. You're looking for about 6oz of protein a day. That's according to most health departments in the developed world. These non-meat sources of protein also pack a load of other nutrients as well, which will make your diet more satisfying.

 

4 a bit arbitrary, NO?

 

These are rules of thumb. By using less processed food, you are encouraged to use more basic ingredients e.g. frozen peas instead of tinned peas, and so better regulate the added bits. Fats, sugars and salt are was commonly added to processed foods, and we commonly have too much of each.

 

5 is this based on science

 

A correlation between diet soda, weight problems and elevated blood sugar levels has been found in scientific studies, yes. The cause is, as far as I have read, unclear. Some scientists postulate that caffeine in fizzy pop leads to high blood sugar levels. Another possible explanation is that diet sodas help maintain an expectation for unnaturally high sweetness in food, and so we still like foods with lots of added sugar, making us prone to eating too many calories.

 

I suspect there are multiple possible causal links and each individual may be subject to one or more of them.

 

8 it this were the expression of being a bit "anal" comes from?

9 eating only brown rice is a bit racist.

 

Be still my aching sides.

[thehead]

omfg i'm not this dude!! stop it!

 

Look... I was googling about what to do about a best friend's wife and I stumbled on this message board. I haven't boarded in a long time so I thought what the hell, why not. Now I'm friggin addicted to the damn thing. I'd rather not get irritated at some people saying i'm someone else. I'm NOT.

 

Hmmm okay then. It just seems weird that you say you are the person in the picture. It looks like a photo taken off the website. Hey I need your help. How do I have toned arms. I currently do bodyweight workouts plus circuit and interval training. I have pretty much lost quite a bit but arms don't seem to go down. I am not a fan of lifting weights as I did that (like really heavy ones) but no result. I prefer bodyweight exercises. Help?

 

 

Dude. We should stop this.

[thebody]

Hmmm okay then. It just seems weird that you say you are the person in the picture. It looks like a photo taken off the website. Hey I need your help. How do I have toned arms. I currently do bodyweight workouts plus circuit and interval training. I have pretty much lost quite a bit but arms don't seem to go down. I am not a fan of lifting weights as I did that (like really heavy ones) but no result. I prefer bodyweight exercises. Help?

 

Yeah I took it off my facebook... wtf. Me and a girlfriend at the time did some photos because I was trying to start stripping in a club. I lost interest in the matter because I didn't feel like I could make it. I mean seriously with this? Now I'm divulging more than I ever wanted to about my personal life just to try and prove to random internet people that I'm my own person?

 

Now that you've sort of insulted me, I'm a bit less inclined to answer you without attitude. So.. I will continue WITH attitude. I hate the word "toned". When somebody says it I cringe every time. What you WANT to say is you want to lose body fat in a particular body part or area and define the musculature. Usually the body will release fat stores when needed from the outside, in. That means your extremities get it first. Now, if your arms are not responding to normal fat loss (which is normal in women due to some hormone differences) no amount of exercise to that particular body part will change a thing. This is like a fat guy doing craploads of sit ups thinking he will get a six pack. What you may have is visceral fat and won't respond easily to diet and training, or the fat is just one of the last places to go for YOU. Some women it's the saddle bags, some women its the arms. For me it's always been my love handles... every winter I agonize over them because I gain fat to build more muscle, so the love handles are the first to come.

 

ANYway... If your arms do not respond to diet and training then surgery may be a last resort. I have heard of some soft tissue massages that will help release the fats. I think the idea is to remind the body that the fat is stored there by creating trauma to the area.

 

I could go further into the explanation of fat cells, but... I don't think it's necessary and wouldn't hold much of a point. The only thing I could mention is that fat cells never disappear (save lipo) and no manner of fat burning pills, or training will make them go away. You can shrink them, but the cell remains. The idea is to not get them in the first place.

[orangelady]

 

Now that you've sort of insulted me, I'm a bit less inclined to answer you without attitude.

 

No, I was just clarifying some things with you.

 

The idea is to not get them in the first place.

 

WHAT?

Nevermind............

[thebody]

Dude. We should stop this.

 

See at first, I thought your clever play on my screen name was funny. Now I'm not so sure. I wonder now what your motive is. I mean... i'm sure you're thinking its funny or something and you don't care who's on the other end of the terminal, but... I mean really what does it get you? I'll get so irritated that I never come back here after what... TWO effing days of being on here? Does this really matter that much to you? I mean you got on here pretty much the same time I did. Who are you to start spouting off names of this person and that person like I know who the hell you're talking about. Have a mod check the IP's if you're so concerned about sock puppets.

 

You sir, are an antagonist, and I don't appreciate your ruse.

[thebody]

No, I was just clarifying some things with you.

 

 

 

WHAT?

Nevermind............

 

Was all that to hard? Simply put, the fat cell won't go away. You can make new ones... but they won't go away either. So don't make new ones.

 

If you're having trouble with your arm fat, then I would suggest to try increasing your training and be stricter with your diet and see if your arms respond. If they do not, then you may need to seek outside intervention, be it tissue massage, or lipo.

[orangelady]

Was all that to hard? Simply put, the fat cell won't go away. You can make new ones... but they won't go away either. So don't make new ones.

 

If you're having trouble with your arm fat, then I would suggest to try increasing your training and be stricter with your diet and see if your arms respond. If they do not, then you may need to seek outside intervention, be it tissue massage, or lipo.

 

You really do sound like Begin Again. Only he would give answers like this.

[thatdog]

You really do sound like Begin Again. Only he would give answers like this.

 

Well tbh in the limited amount of online research I've done on the matter I've found the same thing. Lipo is not meant to be for fatties trying to cheat their way out of dieting, it's supposed to be a cosmetic thing to remove fat cells and concentrations from 'difficult areas' which sounds like your arms for you.

 

 

TheBody - no I don't have trainer or nutritionist. I'm a full time student atm so I can't even afford to join a gym let alone hire someone to help me lose weight. My birthday's coming up though so I was considering checking with my family if they could get me a few months with one of those online personal trainer sites. That *might* be affordable, though I'm still a little skeptical as to whether that kind of service would really work. you have any thoughts on that?

 

BetterDeal - re: diet soda. I looked at some stuff about this and it seemed very inconclusive. One argument also seemed to be that 'fat people drink more soda' therefore most of the people drinking diet soda would usually be fatties in diets, and we all know how rare it is for people to diet and actually stick to it. So the results may be significantly skewed by the fact that a lot of the people tested were either yo-yo dieters or people with generally unhealthy eating practices that just switched to diet soda without changing anything else in their already terrible diet.