Plateau

[fitnesschic]

I hope I'm not boring anyone with this question. I did do a keyword search before submitting my thread to see if anyone is asking the same question.

I can't seem to break through this plateau!!
My diet consist of 40 (P), 40 (C) low glycemic, and 30 (F) sometimes a little low on the fat though.

I had been eating about 1400-1500 cals a day and have cut it back to 1200-1300 hoping the deficit would help. (Nothing as changed). I have a clean diet.

I am doing 5-7 days of cardio a week. Twice a week 30 min, 3x's 45 and one or twice an hour. I am training 3-4x's a week. I do take Diet Fuel before workouts too. My best estimate on how many calories I am buring is between 400-800 a day from working out.

I am 5'2, 115-116 lbs and 20% fat and want to be lower. I feel I am working out as much as I can in a day and I not overeating or binging. So what the hell is the problem!? My triceps and a little on the thighs are my areas where I carry more fat than I want to live with.

So ladies please tell what is working for you.

 

[fitnesschic]

For Breakfast I eat 1/2 cup oats, 4 egg whites, fiber tortilla with 8 P, 3 F, 6 Cho and 15 Fiber.

Lunch 3-4 oz grilled chicken breast, 1/2 cup rice, broccoli.

Dinner same or meal with chicken veggie (salad maybe) lowfat 100% whole wheat crackes

Two snacks: metabolift bar, 1/3 of Pure Protien bar, or sprouted wheat bread with pb

Those are the basics. Very little fruit.

Am I getting too many carbs? Am I eating too little? I try to keep the sugar out as much as possible (maybe 5-10 grams a day)

 

[fitnesschic]

I use a Diet and Exercise Assistant application on my Palm and it says my BMR is between 1550-1650 depending my my activity level for the day.

I record everything I eat and the exercise I do. I thought I should eat 300 cals less than my BMR and burn as much as I can to lose fat. It is obvious that it is not that simple since it is not working.

Please explain the concept of eating more and losing bf. I have trouble with that one.

 

[new@gettinbig]

3-4 oz of meat??? That is not enough for a small bird!! I eat at least 6-8 oz of meat w/ each meal. You need more food sista! Eat 5-6 meals a day...more protein is your missing link. Spatts hit it right on...you need more real food..shakes and bars ok once in while but real food is BEST. It takes your body longer to break down. I would get into hittin the weights heavy....and focus on that aspect of your training...Your diet is what is holding you back. You need to take in some flax, olive oil, natty pb etc. Your body NEEDS fat to LOSE fat. Tons of water....cardio is ok..but you are runnin into the wall w/ your lack of food...quit worrying about your calorie ratios and eat some food...give it 4-6 weeks of consistency and you will see....WELCOME to the boards

 

[fitnesschic]

I appreciate all the imput.

My diet consist of more real food than bars or drinks.

I am 5'2 with a BMR of 1500-1600, I think. So what would you suggest on grams of protien, carbs and fats per meal? I keep my meals at about 300 cals, 350 at the high end. It is hard to comprehend eating 1700-1800 cals a day. That is higher than my BMR and I might only get to burn off 400 cals in day.

Still confused

 

[wyst]

If your body thinks it's starving, it won't let go of what it has, as Spatts said. My biggest jumpstarts to losing weight were, strangely enough, adding some natural peanut butter into my diet, adding in some flax oil, and adding in more protein. Somewhere deep in my heart I didn't believe it either, but I've seen the pictures of the women on here and I thought, well, if it works for them...I reckon I lost about 20 lbs of fat over the past year, without starving off the muscle. In fact, I've gained a fair amount of muscle, at a net loss of weight.

Give it a try...

xoxo

Wyst

 

[TheProject]

Okay, I'm not a woman, but since Spatts is my trainer, I'll chime in here.

Before I started training, I was eating maybe 2 meals a day, and a lot of crap cals from soda and beer. As soon as I made the commitment to working out, my diet changed to 6 meals a day, at about 1800 cals. My weight dropped from the 176 lbs I started at to 163 lbs, and from 19.5% b/f to around 14-15%.

I dropped so much weight that we had to up my cals because I didn't want to be 150lbs.

 

[makedah]

I appreciate all the imput.

My diet consist of more real food than bars or drinks.

I am 5'2 with a BMR of 1500-1600, I think. So what would you suggest on grams of protien, carbs and fats per meal? I keep my meals at about 300 cals, 350 at the high end. It is hard to comprehend eating 1700-1800 cals a day. That is higher than my BMR and I might only get to burn off 400 cals in day.

Still confused

fitness --

These ladies are absolutely right. It sounds like your body is in starvation mode -- it thinks you're starving (which, you kind of are!), so it's holding on, quite literally for dear life, to your fat stores to keep you alive until you start to get more calories.
When I first started trying to lose weight, I had your mentality. (If a small calorie deficit is good, then a bigger one must be better, right?) I would work out for 3 hours a day and eat 1100 cals. I'm 5'8" and at the time I weighed 200-206 lbs! I too, hit a plateau, which I didn't overcome until I started to eat MORE and exercise less.
(I've been on another plateau for a year, but that's because of my compulsive eating and wasting my time with workouts that I outgrew -- oh, right around the time I stopped losing weight!)

I'm a compulsive eater, but when I'm not doing that, I tend to undereat. When I saw that I wasn't eating enough but didn't think I could eat "all that food!" I started out by eating one high-calorie meal per day and adding more fruit and legumes to my diet in general. Growing up indoctrinated with the whole low-fat thing, it can be difficult to break out of that and put some fat on your plate! Adding 200 cals per day is quite easy. Put 1 TB of olive oil on your broccoli (120 cals) or in your salad (instead of fat-free dressing) and for a snack, eat a big navel orange or a banana (80 cals). An additional 6 oz of skinless chicken breast (size of 2 decks of cards), which you could split between lunch and dinner, would add 280 calories to your daily total. Legumes are calorie-dense. A cup of beans or bean soup would add 150-200 cals or so to your daily total and LOTS of nutrients and fiber.

 

[FitFossil]

fitnesschic,

I agree with the suggestions made regarding diet. It's hard to believe when you're told to eat more to lose fat, but IT WORKS because you need that fuel to train at your peak. Give us some more details about your training.

How long have you been training?
What are your physique goals?
What rep range are you training in and do you train to failure?
What kind of split are you doing - what bodyparts on what days?
How often do you change your routine?
When do you do weights in relation to your cardio - Is before cardio, after cardio, or some other time?
What intensity is your cardio?
Have you ever tried high intensity interval cardio?

Welcome to the boards!

 

[fitnesschic]

Spatt, are you sure I need that much more protien? You are 6 inches taller and out weigh me by 25lbs or so?

Another question I have is, are you sure you burn 400 in a leg workout? I am using a program that tells our how much you are burning per activity (yes is in general) but it isn't anywhere near 400. Are you including the after burn? or do you know something I don't?

And....are you sure your BMR is 1200? You are tall (to someone 5'2 ) and weigh 170lbs, it seems your BMR should be higher. How did you come up with your BMR? Maybe your calculations are more acurate than mine.

I am still confused on how many carbs to eat in a day. Some things I read and am told say low-low and others say moderate....

You any of you eat grains like whole wheat pasta, brown rice etc. or just veggies?

I appreciate the input so far