What is wrong with me?

[VicksburgStudio]

I am about to lose it. I took about 3 years off from the gym to focus on my profession. Not a good excuse not to keep healthy but it is what it is...

To make a long story short, I have been back in the gym and on diet for 5 months now... And I am making very very little progress.

I'm 25, 5"10, 200lbs 12% bodyfat. Like I said, I started back on my diet and exercise program 5 months ago. 5 months ago I was 212lbs unknown body fat.

My exercise program consists of 30-40minutes of cardio... Either on the bike trail, elliptical machine, or indoor bike. It is never less than 30 minutes and never more than 40 minutes... It just depends on my mood. I do cardio 7 days a week. I also lift 3 time per week.

Here is what my typical diet consists of:

Breakfast: Either 40g protein powder w/ oats... 20g protein power w/ oats plus an egg white omlette with a little sprinke of 2% cheese, or just a 40g protein shake

Lunch: Tunafish, Chicken breast, or sometimes a turkey sandwhich on real whole weat bread. Sometimes I will have a snack food with lunch.

Dinner: Usually chicken, fish, and the occasional steak... I usually have some kind of green vegetable and sometimes a sweet potato.

Snacks: I usually have 2-4 snacks a day. My snack foods are rice cakes w/ all natural peanut butter, edamame, a little 2% cheese, cottage cheese, protein shake 40g, low sugar yogurt, sometimes sugar free pudding made with soy milk with protein powder added. Occasionally I will have some baked organic chips.

I try to get 2-3 tbpns of flax oil per day. My water consumption has been low lately.. around 1/2-3/4 gallon/day. I am going to try to get back to 1 gallon. I do drink the occasional diet tea or diet coke. No more than 2 per day though.

My alcohol consumption has been pretty low. I haven't had any in a month... And when I do drink, it's no more than 3 drinks per week.

I've been taking lipoflame/amplify 02 for about a week now... Absolutely no change in body weight.

I'm all out of ideas guys. I am beginning to think that there is something wrong with me... Is there anything I am missing? I mean i've lost 12lbs in 5 months. Perhaps I have gained maybe 5 lbs in muscle... But an average of 3.4lbs per month is nothing. I haven't lost any lbs. in over 3 weeks. I did a 2 week ckd before my last plateau... And i lost 5lbs over the 2week ckd. So, if you account for that, I've only lost an average of 2.4lbs per month over the lat 5 months.

I remember a day where I could do 2.5lbs per week on this same program... Allbeit that was when I was 22, but I can't believe my body would have changed that much in 3 years. 3 years ago, I literally went from 200lbs at 12% down to about 185lbs at 6% in the matter of 6 weeks on this same diet(of course that was back in the days when I still had af NYC stack)

What could be wrong with me? Is there something I am missing? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Vicksburg

 

[OUfan]

I am about to lose it. I took about 3 years off from the gym to focus on my profession. Not a good excuse not to keep healthy but it is what it is...

To make a long story short, I have been back in the gym and on diet for 5 months now... And I am making very very little progress.

I'm 25, 5"10, 200lbs 12% bodyfat. Like I said, I started back on my diet and exercise program 5 months ago. 5 months ago I was 212lbs unknown body fat.

My exercise program consists of 30-40minutes of cardio... Either on the bike trail, elliptical machine, or indoor bike. It is never less than 30 minutes and never more than 40 minutes... It just depends on my mood. I do cardio 7 days a week. I also lift 3 time per week.

Here is what my typical diet consists of:

Breakfast: Either 40g protein powder w/ oats... 20g protein power w/ oats plus an egg white omlette with a little sprinke of 2% cheese, or just a 40g protein shake

Lunch: Tunafish, Chicken breast, or sometimes a turkey sandwhich on real whole weat bread. Sometimes I will have a snack food with lunch.

Dinner: Usually chicken, fish, and the occasional steak... I usually have some kind of green vegetable and sometimes a sweet potato.

Snacks: I usually have 2-4 snacks a day. My snack foods are rice cakes w/ all natural peanut butter, edamame, a little 2% cheese, cottage cheese, protein shake 40g, low sugar yogurt, sometimes sugar free pudding made with soy milk with protein powder added. Occasionally I will have some baked organic chips.

I try to get 2-3 tbpns of flax oil per day. My water consumption has been low lately.. around 1/2-3/4 gallon/day. I am going to try to get back to 1 gallon. I do drink the occasional diet tea or diet coke. No more than 2 per day though.

My alcohol consumption has been pretty low. I haven't had any in a month... And when I do drink, it's no more than 3 drinks per week.

I've been taking lipoflame/amplify 02 for about a week now... Absolutely no change in body weight.

I'm all out of ideas guys. I am beginning to think that there is something wrong with me... Is there anything I am missing? I mean i've lost 12lbs in 5 months. Perhaps I have gained maybe 5 lbs in muscle... But an average of 3.4lbs per month is nothing. I haven't lost any lbs. in over 3 weeks. I did a 2 week ckd before my last plateau... And i lost 5lbs over the 2week ckd. So, if you account for that, I've only lost an average of 2.4lbs per month over the lat 5 months.

I remember a day where I could do 2.5lbs per week on this same program... Allbeit that was when I was 22, but I can't believe my body would have changed that much in 3 years. 3 years ago, I literally went from 200lbs at 12% down to about 185lbs at 6% in the matter of 6 weeks on this same diet(of course that was back in the days when I still had af NYC stack)

What could be wrong with me? Is there something I am missing? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Vicksburg

Your diet isn't perfect but I think there must be another issue here if your progress is as slow as you have stated.

What is your lifting routine?

How would you describe the intensity of your cardo workouts? If your doing the same steady-state 30-40 minute workout month after month, your body has fully adapted to it and you won't have much progress. If this is the case, you should definately consider interval training that brings you out of your "comfort zone", or do some HIIT 3x/week.

 

[VicksburgStudio]

while I know my diet isn't 100% perfect, I am not going for perfection. I'm not trying to get crazy... I'm not trying to get down to 6% or below. I don't care about being super shredded anymore.

My goal is to get back down to 185lbs or so and be around 8% bodyfat. Just purely for my own satisfaction.

Could it be that I think my diet is good for that, and it's really not?

I forgot to add that my calorie intake ranges from 1200-1600kcal... The breakdown is typically 40/30/30.

I go between high and low intensity cardio. I don't challenge myself to the max... Then again I am not looking for the max. Perhaps I should change my cardio routine.

As for my workouts. Day 1 is shoulders and legs... 3-4 exercises per muscle group, 12-10-8 reps. Day 2 is chest/tri's same as above. Day 3 is back/bi's same as above. Day 4 sometimes is cruches, situps, pullups, pushups... I do that every now and then as a day 4.

Sometimes every few workouts, I change my workouts to 3 sets of 15 reps per exercise.


Maybe I should set my goals higher, or be more strict on myself as far as diet and workout goes. I just see it as diminishing results to push myself harder than I am right now.

My only goal is to be back in shape, that's it... I feel like I am doing 90% of everything right... But perhaps I am just delusional???

 

[Tatyana]

A couple of things

1. Your calories are too low for a person your weight, and you have probably have slowed down your metabolism (search for BMR on this site and the forumulas). I weigh 136 lbs and I eat more calories than you, and I have been losing bodyfat.......

2. Celebrate the weight that you have lost

3. Don't be a slave to the scale, track your progress on bodymeasurements, bodyfat, how your clothing fits, how much your lifts have improved, how you look in the mirror

4. Make sure you have a cheat meal once a week so your metabolism doesn't slow down

5. Vary your diet to include a wide range of whole natural foods

 

[OUfan]

while I know my diet isn't 100% perfect, I am not going for perfection. I'm not trying to get crazy... I'm not trying to get down to 6% or below. I don't care about being super shredded anymore.

My goal is to get back down to 185lbs or so and be around 8% bodyfat. Just purely for my own satisfaction.

Could it be that I think my diet is good for that, and it's really not?

I forgot to add that my calorie intake ranges from 1200-1600kcal... The breakdown is typically 40/30/30.

I go between high and low intensity cardio. I don't challenge myself to the max... Then again I am not looking for the max. Perhaps I should change my cardio routine.

As for my workouts. Day 1 is shoulders and legs... 3-4 exercises per muscle group, 12-10-8 reps. Day 2 is chest/tri's same as above. Day 3 is back/bi's same as above. Day 4 sometimes is cruches, situps, pullups, pushups... I do that every now and then as a day 4.

Sometimes every few workouts, I change my workouts to 3 sets of 15 reps per exercise.


Maybe I should set my goals higher, or be more strict on myself as far as diet and workout goes. I just see it as diminishing results to push myself harder than I am right now.

My only goal is to be back in shape, that's it... I feel like I am doing 90% of everything right... But perhaps I am just delusional???

I agree that your calories are too low. You should bump it up to at least 2100-2200. Do that and throw in a cheat meal once a week, and I wouldn't be surprised if you start making progress.