not losing weight!!

[shelley]

Hi everyone im new here and was hoping for some advise. I am 5ft4 woman, aged 28 and 139 lbs. Ive been working out for 5 weeks now, 40 minutes, 4-5 days a week doing a mixture of cardio, resistance and interval training but I have only lost 1 meesly pound! diet doesnt contain anything like butter, sugar, biscuits, crisps or cake etc so I am totally dumbstruck as to what i could be doing wrong. Any advise for a very frustrated, rapidly losing motivation woman??? Thanks.

[Boss Man]

Diet Times, Meal specs?

[shelley]

meals are very simple really.

7am slice of wholemeal toast, no butter or marg with marmite
10am piece of fruit
1pm slice of wholemeal toast with ham, tomato, cucumber (no butter)
3pm fruit or a few cherry tomatoes
6.30pm a meal such as baked salmon, potatoes and brocolli or chicken with something.

Added to this I probably drink about 3 cups of coffee with skimmed milk, about 6 cups of tea with skimmed milk and probably 3-5 pints of water.

I used to have nothing at all all day until meal in the evening until 5 weeks ago when i started regime so i assumed that by starting to eat breakfast and during the day metabolism would be boosted.

[Boss Man]

(Right it's simple some of your choices are too low calorie.)

7am slice of wholemeal toast, no butter or marg with marmite (This has about 58 calories in it, you need more protein and more Carbs)

10am piece of fruit (This is no good. Fruit yes, but where's the Protein? If you ate something like an Orange here that's about 40 calories. If it's something like an Apple or small Banana, that's something like 80-90 calories.)

1pm slice of wholemeal toast with ham, tomato, cucumber (no butter) (Nice Carbs, need more Protein, and keep Ham lean, no Deli stuff. I estimate about 150 cals, which is too low, you need at least another 100, preferably double.)

3pm fruit or a few cherry tomatoes (Again no good. Where's the Protein? Same problem with the Fruit, except most understanding now leans towards the belief, you don't need Fruit in the afternoon, when you've got options like Pulses, Legumes, Veggies, Grains, etc etc for Carbs, Tomatos being an obvious exception, but a Few Cherry Tomatos?

One small Tomato has about 3.9g Carbs in it, very low Fat and Protein, so cals are about 16 calories in one. a few Cherry Tomatos, I estimate one to be about half the cals, means you're getting 8 calories per Tomato, so a few Tomatos could be about 40-64 calories, or around 9.5-15.2g Carbs, which is too low, and Protein and Fats virtually non-existant.

You need to bulk this up. Keep the Toms, but you need more calories, (especially from Protein, but also from Carbs), you're eating less than 60 cals for a snack, and that could and should be 4-5 x that realistically.)

6.30pm a meal such as baked salmon, potatoes and brocolli or chicken with something. (Fine. This might contain about 300 calories)

Add something else in here about 8:30PM.

Added to this I probably drink about 3 cups of coffee with skimmed milk, about 6 cups of tea with skimmed milk and probably 3-5 pints of water.

(Cut this down immediately. Tannic Acid and Caffeine interfere with Iron absorption. You need about 14-15mg a day, around 6mg more than Men, mostly because it can be lost during Menstruation. Perferably I'd like you to cut it out completely if I had way, but you would get pretty difficult withdrawal symptoms for many days, cutting out a Methylxanthine like Caffeine. So you would be advised to limit yourself, to 3 cups of either one or the other,or a combo of both, but NO MORE than 3 cups of Caffeine a day.

No adding Sugar. You messing your Iron absorption around like this, with Tea and Coffee could make you Anaemic, which isn't too good.)

I used to have nothing at all all day until meal in the evening until 5 weeks ago when i started regime so i assumed that by starting to eat breakfast and during the day metabolism would be boosted.

(You did right to change, but due to many peoples lack of understanding, you fell into the same traps of Healthy food should also mean small portions. It doesn't. Right now, some of your meals are low Fat, but you'd actually probably benefit more from eating 1 Mc Donalds Hamburger than a few Tomatos, especially with the Ketchup on, as that's your Lycopene right there, plus more calories, potentially more Carbs, more Protein, Iron, Zinc, and other Minerals, but that's not a realistic switch, a piece of Fruit for one Mc D Hamburger.)

The one thing you have done which is notworthy is got good meal spaces, none of this 3-4 meals a day rubbish, with 5 hour spaces that means 2 hours of Muscle Catabolism, and bad Fat stripping every day between meals, but you're eating around 600-700 calories a day, you NEED BARE MINIMUM 1,500, and more like 1,800-2,000.

You're causing Starvation Mode from the body not relinquishing calories to burn, and with your low Protein intake, you may be barely getting your RNI, (Reccomended Nutritional Intake) for Women, about 45g Protein a day.

So what I want you to do, is rejig your plan, and get back to me, with a revised version. I will help you, but I think you need to learn more about your diet, rather than have me give you more valid options, and you following it, without really understanding why to any great degree.

GOOD LUCK .

[swanso5]

how about your wts/cardio plan

[SarahPT]

Try not too worry yet. If you were undereating in the past chances are your metabolism is in a poor state. When we undereat it actually makes it harder for our bodies to burn fat. It takes time for your metabolism to go back to normal once you are eating right again. I know it's hard to be patient.

That being said, I think you could work on balancing your meals better. It's best to have your meals contain a carb, a protein and a small portion of good fats.

[shelley]

training routine is interval training 4-5 days a week which includes resistance lasting 40-50 minutes and 3 days a week i do some weights.

I thought that maybe it was a case like you say that body was just adjusting because i had almost trained it into only eating once a day for over a year, now i guess its thinking "store it before she starves herself again!"

[shelley]

thanks everyone! one more thing, I do quite a lot of squats and lunges, no.1 will they make thighs bigger or just toned? because they have always been quite muscular anyway and no.2 why is it whenever i put jeans on after a workout do they feel tighter than normal for a while? is this just me or does anyone else find that??

[gracie]

Hi Shelly i was actually wondering same thing .I have quite muscular thighs anyway and a nice layer of fat on them now too .Doing plenty of squats, lunges etc to boost metabolism but i dont want tham any bigger!
I also am trying to boost metabolism and im not winning at the moment!!
Cheers
Gracie

[shelley]

hi Gracie, not a good thing is it, trying your best to be a "petite" woman when genes are hell set against it for you, i was even told i wasnt allowed to do ballet at junior school because thighs were too big!! we cant help being muscley but id like to think that if we exercised they wouldnt get too much bigger! good luck love, maybe well be chatting in six months saying our thighs are the best!!

[swanso5]

leg training induces the best hormonal response for fat loss (growth hormaone, testosterone etc) so you always need to do it...if looking to lose fat then you should be in a calorie deficit meaning they can't grow bigger so there's nothing to worry about

best metabolism boosters:

sprints
deadlifts / squats
6 meals a day
solid protein
chewy veggies
combination lifts

[SarahPT]

The squats and lunges won't make your legs big. To get your legs big you would really have to be pushing yourself on the weight you lift and eating excessive calories.
It's not unusual for your pants to feel tight after a workout. Just a little swelling in your muscles.

[kimmi]

Only Exercise is not important diet is also a important.Control your diet and do exercise daily and drink water at least 6-8 glasses.Avoid fast food and oily things.After that see your result.

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