Stupid weight grrrr

[figurechamp]

Hi ladies!!

I need help. I'm 11 weeks out and I am not dropping weight. I think that I look leaner but I've stated at 170 for over three weeks. I've tried to implement small changes and still, the weight will not drop.

Now I understand that I'm going for a "look," not a specific weight. But I can't understand how I could look better but not have a weight that sorta corresponds to that.

I started prep on jan 2. Dropped the initial 8 lbs in about 3 or 4 weeks. I was on pace with last year's prep. Not now. I'm 6 lbs above where I was last year on prep.

It's pissing me off, as you can imagine.

Currently, I'm 170. Doing 3-45 minute SS cardio sessions per week, 1 metabolic workout per week, and 4 days of my usual heavy lifting.

Diet:
Meal one
4 egg whites
1 whole egg
1/3 c oats
4 strawberries
SF maple syrup

Meal two
Protein shake

Meal three
Ground turkey/egg white mixture
1/2 c Brown rice
Meager amounts of turkey bacon and a few cashews. I'm talking reallllyyyy meager

Meal four (pwo)
Protein shake or Greek yogurt mixed with protein
A "fun" carb, something with a Lil bit of sugar

Meal five
Tilapia
Green beans

Meal six
Egg whites or chicken
Sometimes celery with tbsp npb.

Lots of water. Bcaa's and glutamine. Fish oil caps and some other regular vitamins. Started a var cycle at the beginning of feb-- 20mg coz I've done var a million and one times.

This is pretty close to the same diet as last time. Calories are around 1740-1800.

And I feel great. Lots of energy. Feel healthy. Just pissed coz that scale hasn't dropped.

Help please!!!

 

[figurechamp]

I should add that this current diet is reflective of some play with carbs and fats. On meal two, I used to eat almonds. Dropped those. At meal five, I've dropped carbs except on deadlift days and leg days. And I do have a cheat meal on Sunday.

 

[goin on 4T]

Maybe you need a big clean carb up day to get your body going again, maybe throw in some fruits. That is what my nutrition guy tells me if I ever get stuck.
Good luck hope that helps.

 

[RickRock13]

You may want to increase that cardio some, and drop more carbs and overall cals. I would keep out all nuts (too calorie dense), fruits, sugars, and dairy.

Psizzle is also in contest prep right now and is around 7 weeks out. She may be able to help you out in tweaking some things to get things moved in the right direction. I'm sure she will chime in soon

 

[psizzle_8]

I understand the frustration, girl. I lost 20lbs the first month, now the loss is maybe 1lb/week. It really messes with your head and emotions, especially being females.

I have some ideas, gonna look over your diet you've listed when I get home. Be on the lookout for a PM from me here in a bit.

We just became best friends btw lol...no but really, Rick is one of the people I vent to when I go through my mood swings...it's good having other fellow preppers to talk to and vent your frustrations to.

 

[caligirl85]

Hey girl!!

Has your body comp changed in the last year?? Could be possible that you have a bit more muscle? You said you look leaner but are 6 lbs behind from last year. Could be some of those fun mind games going on too!!

Also a thought is the var.. First time at 20?

At 11 weeks out I'd be tempted to do a carb up day. Maintenance for a day, keep the fat intake low and standard protein. The other option is to do a day or two with just protein/ fat but those are brutal!!

I agree on possibly increasing cardio too. Add another day in maybe.

Congrats on prepping again!! I'm proud of ya!

 

[figurechamp]

I've been thinking more about what could be causing this, based on some of these responses. Tell me what you think...

It could be total body recomp. I def increased my leg size during the off season so maybe that's part of it.

It could be the var. I usually taper up to 20, usually starting at 10 and building to 20, but this time I just went for it.

I also realized that I'm lifting differently at this point in prep than I did last prep. I'm still training heavily, trying for 5x5s on the major compound movements. My strength has been pretty high so far compared to last year when I was already doing lighter weight/higher rep shit coz I was always so tired during that prep.

It could be salt. So maybe water retention. I salt the shit out of everything and I didn't last year.

So for this week, I made some small changes. First is the salt. Decreasing its use. Dropped the meager amounts of cashews from meal 2.

Also realized that my last meal of the day was portioned incorrectly. Whoops. I was eating less protein than I was supposed to. So I upped that portion for this week.

At the end of the week, I'll see what happened. I'm not ready to add more work just yet-- I'd prefer to drop calories than increase cardio.

How does that sound?

 

[figurechamp]

And I'm leaning towards that refeed. That shit sounds like fun! Lol

 

[psizzle_8]

I think you made some good changes here. You know your body better than anyone else. Keep notes and let us know how you do

 

[figurechamp]

Tried the refeed today since today's workouts included 45 minute LISS in the morning and a heavy leg workout followed by some plyo in the afternoon.

It was hard to find carbs in the house coz all that's here is oatmeal and fucking brown rice. I'm already sick of that shit, so I couldn't possibly have more of that. Plus I've been following some diet philosophies that are a bit different than traditional BB dieting, so that afforded my some play during this refeed.

I kept my protein the same and fat really low. But carbs??? Mmmmm. Carbs. So far, I've had a Kashi Pumpkin Spice bar, 2 slices of Ezekiel bread, brown rice (of course!!! Blahhhhh!), an apple, 2 low fat graham crackers, and 2 skinny cow ice cream sandwiches. Now THAT'S fun!!! I get another round of carbs yet in my 5th meal; it will just be some potatoes. The 6th meal won't include carbs. By the time it's all said and done, I'll have taken in around 200g of carbs today. Normal intake is around 90-110.

How do I feel? Eh. Just eh. I haven't noticed much difference other than bloating. Naturally. I'm usually pretty vascular, but I can't see shit right now. Lower abs are also fluffy. Maybe I'll notice more tomorrow, after my body has had some time to absorb the carbs.

We'll see. I hope this works. When I got up this morning and checked the scale, I did drop six-tenths of a pound, so I'm down to 169 now. So at least that fucking scale moved!!! And I do notice that my power belt can be hooked on the 4th hole-- normal is the 3rd; so I'd assume that my body is changing, in spite of it not being reflected on the scale.

So, we'll see. Trial and error.