Why am I not losing weight?

[support_bae]

I'm 5'10 and weighed 80kg 3 months ago. My goal is to be around 70kg. After 2 months I've lost 5kg but I've seemed to have stopped losing weight. I've been 75kg for around 4 weeks.

I go to the gym 3 times a week, run 10km + cycle 10km each time losing aprox around 1000 calories. I also do strength training for an hour each visit.

I do intermittent fasting and follow the IIFYM diet plan so I eat anything as long as I don't exceed my calories. I alternate between 1200 calories and 1600 calories i.e.

Sunday - 1200
Monday - 1600
Tuesday - 1200
Wednesday - 1600 etc. etc.

I seem to be in a plateau. Do I need to do less cardio and more strength training?

Any tips are appreciated.

 

[esoteric]

You could just be swapping fat for muscle with all the exercise you're doing. You probably already know muscle weighs more than fat?

Do you look leaner since you've been doing this?

 

[FrenchTart]

You're eating more than you think and/or burning less than you think.

Do you keep a food diary? If so, can you share it?

I'd guess you're burning closer to 500 kcal with the gym routine you've highlighted too.

 

[Kris_90]

You're eating more than you think and/or burning less than you think.

Do you keep a food diary? If so, can you share it?

I'd guess you're burning closer to 500 kcal with the gym routine you've highlighted too.

This.

Are you weighing your food? 1,200 cals is hardly any food at all, it would easy to overestimate.

 

[support_bae]

You could just be swapping fat for muscle with all the exercise you're doing. You probably already know muscle weighs more than fat?

Do you look leaner since you've been doing this?

I look leaner but I still have a lot of fat around my belly and thighs.

You're eating more than you think and/or burning less than you think.

Do you keep a food diary? If so, can you share it?

I'd guess you're burning closer to 500 kcal with the gym routine you've highlighted too.

I know the cardio machines can be inaccurate but the machines read 1200 calories, while my HRM outputs 1300 calories. I go to the gym for 3 hours each visit so I should be losing around 1000 calories.
Plus I walk 5km to and from work everyday.

I don't have a food diary because I eat the same thing everyday.

On my 1200 calories days I would have:
- 3 black coffees no sugar (minimal calories?)
- 2 protein shakes (300 calories)
- 200g of salmon - no skin (400 calories)
- 100g frozen vegetables - no dressing (100 calories)
- 1 banana (100 calories)
- 1 protein bar (250 calories)

On my 1600 days I have the same plus a chicken breast:
- 3 black coffees no sugar (minimal calories?)
- 2 protein shakes (300 calories)
- 200g of salmon - no skin (400 calories)
- 200g of chicken breast - (350 calories)
- 100g frozen vegetables - no dressing (100 calories)
- 1 banana (100 calories)
- 1 protein bar (250 calories)

This.

Are you weighing your food? 1,200 cals is hardly any food at all, it would easy to overestimate.

Yes, I meal prep so I weigh everything before I cook.

 

[Kris_90]

I doubt it's the food then it's the estimated calories used while exercising. It's also worth mentioned the more weight you lose the bigger deficit you'll need to eat at.

Could you increase your cardio to 4/5 times a week? When my weight started to plateau, I had to drop my calories by an extra 100 and did cardio on the days I wasn't lifting weights.

It's also worth mentioned you can get leaner chicken breasts than what you are currently eating. I get my chicken breasts from musclefood and they are 204 calories per 200g. Change to them and that's your extra 150 cals to get the weight loss started again

 

[D.P.]

I doubt you are burning 1000 calories when exercising. Estimate about 100 a mile when running at a moderate pace but as you get fitter this can drop to about 80. Not sure about cycling but 10km is nothing for a bike. You just need t do much more.

I went form 80kg down to 64kg in 1 year mostly just running. I eat much more calories a day than I did before running, and pretty much eat as much as I want, of whatever I want, whenever I want.


3 days a week cardio is pretty minimal, as kris_90 suggest, try going 4 or 5 days a week. I like to aim for 7 days a week, that way it is just part of your daily routine and always ends up on the schedule with other things being worked around your exercise. If you go for fewer days a week it is much easier to end up skipping a day and that has far bigger consequences compared to skipping a day doing 7 days a week.

 

[tom_e]

Ignoring the amount of kcals burnt as it's total guesswork you should still be losing weight on that amount of kcals and regular exercise, if you are indeed sticking to your kcal allowance rigidly then you're only other option is to up your exercise as you don't really want to drop below what you're eating now.

Also as an aside that's the most boring IIFYM diet I have ever seen, I think it's safe to say you're just following a diet plan rather than IIFYM style eating.

After another look at your diet how are you feeling generally? What are your energy levels and mood like? I ask because apart from the salmon you're getting nothing in the way of fats which are monumentally important in general body function and hormone production.

 

[chroniclard]

Your body is dying inside due to eating a tediously dull diet of crap.

 

[mrthingyx]

Thermodynamics would suggest you are (as FrenchTart suggests) either underestimating calories in or calories out.

Also, depending on your physiology/morphology at the moment, you might also be getting into that phase whee it gers HARD to lose weight. However, I suspect you are simply eating more than you think: depending on your training history, if your definition is getting better, your body will be adapting to losing weight and storing more glycogen (and holding more water)... I.e. putting weight on.

Personally, I would eat more because your diet sounds "challenging."

 

[Dave M]

That really all you eat in a day? I don't know what's in those protein shakes/bars but it looks very low carb.

I'd suggest more carbs, you should be able to get 150g of carb in the 1200kcal day diet , certainly above 120g. Aim to maintain over 100g protein though.

Also 1600 is a high day? Hmm, still seems very low - do you not have pig out days? I'd feel happier in myself eating 1200-1400 every day with one day a week over 3500, you're really not stimulating growth at 1600, are you?

And I'd always mix a little strength training in, just to keep things ticking over.

 

[D.P.]

I doubt you are burning 1000 calories when exercising. Estimate about 100 a mile when running at a moderate pace but as you get fitter this can drop to about 80. Not sure about cycling but 10km is nothing for a bike. You just need t do much more.

I went form 80kg down to 64kg in 1 year mostly just running. I eat much more calories a day than I did before running, and pretty much eat as much as I want, of whatever I want, whenever I want.


3 days a week cardio is pretty minimal, as kris_90 suggest, try going 4 or 5 days a week. I like to aim for 7 days a week, that way it is just part of your daily routine and always ends up on the schedule with other things being worked around your exercise. If you go for fewer days a week it is much easier to end up skipping a day and that has far bigger consequences compared to skipping a day doing 7 days a week.

On second thoughts even 100 calories a mile is optimistic. i just came in form my run, 13.1 miles with 6 miles at lactate threshold and the last mile at marathon pace. Average pace was a hair under 6:59 a mile for a 1:32 half marathon time. To put that in perspective that is the top 2-6% of most races, and as running friend just said, i could find some small local races that with that time would see me on the podium. So it was a had effort, but not crazy, 6 miles of it was at a slightly faster than easy pace.

I use a Garmin heart rate monitor and this is known to have very accurate calorie estimation without being in a lab and hooked up to blood sensor and CO2 monitors. Garmin reports 1200 Calories, so about 90 calories a mile for hard running. I weigh 64Kg for reference. In contrast Strava reports soemthign like 1800 calories but that is a massive over estimate.


I don't know what pace your 10K is done but at but you are probably overestimating, especially if you are using a treadmill. Treadmills that report high calorie burn are more popular for some reason....


On the flipside, I ran fast because I have a very efficient running gait through training. If you aren't a good runner you will burn more calories per mile but I wouldn't trust a treadmill or most online apps in the slightest.

 

[Somnambulist]

Given your stats and calories and assuming you're tracking accurately and not forgetting weekend splurges or liquid calories/dressings etc.

Another factor is what you do outside the gym, aka NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis) aka general movement/fidgeting etc. The energy you expend moving about between waking and sleeping far outweighs the energy you expend exercising, unless you're a full-time athlete...

The body likes homeostasis and doesn't know the difference between dieting to look good and starving to death, so when you've been in a caloric deficit for a while it will look for ways to reduce that deficit which can translate into little things like being more lethargic and covering less steps per day, taking the lift rather than the stairs. This can really add up and easily wipe out any deficit. Two people with identical stats can find they have to diet on vastly different calories just because one either has a more active lifestyle or is consciously more active.

 

[D.P.]

Given your stats and calories and assuming you're tracking accurately and not forgetting weekend splurges or liquid calories/dressings etc.

Another factor is what you do outside the gym, aka NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis) aka general movement/fidgeting etc. The energy you expend moving about between waking and sleeping far outweighs the energy you expend exercising, unless you're a full-time athlete...

The body likes homeostasis and doesn't know the difference between dieting to look good and starving to death, so when you've been in a caloric deficit for a while it will look for ways to reduce that deficit which can translate into little things like being more lethargic and covering less steps per day, taking the lift rather than the stairs. This can really add up and easily wipe out any deficit. Two people with identical stats can find they have to diet on vastly different calories just because one either has a more active lifestyle or is consciously more active.

The best solution is just not to have such a calorie deficit in the first place. Eat good healthy nutritious meals and aim for a very slight negative calorie balance.

 

[Begbie]

Are you female?

 

[Ayahuasca]

The best solution is just not to have such a calorie deficit in the first place. Eat good healthy nutritious meals and aim for a very slight negative calorie balance.

This is what I do.

I feel and look awful whenever I've tried massive calorie deficits.

I don't think I could even strength train efficiently on 1200 or 1600.

 

[ttaskmaster]

- 3 black coffees no sugar (minimal calories?)

Depends where you get the coffee... Our machine coffee here quotes 75cal per 150ml of black, sugar-less coffee.
I also wouldn't trust figures from anywhere like Costa or Starbucks as far as I can spit.

if your definition is getting better, your body will be adapting to losing weight and storing more glycogen (and holding more water)... I.e. putting weight on.

I recall a long thread where the forum experts lamb-basted me over such a concept. Cal in vs cal out is the only possible rule, apparently...

 

[mrthingyx]

In vs. Out still applies.

 

[support_bae]

Thanks for the advice guys. I don't really want to spend more time in the gym than I already do (9 hours/week) so I can't increase my cardio. I have football training on Tuesday evenings and play 11s on Saturdays so I'm already doing cardio 5 times a week.

Maybe because I'm taking creatine I have more water retention thus body weight? Anyway I'll try cutting my calories to 1000/1400 to increase my deficit.

 

[Ayahuasca]

lol, good luck on your slenderman goals of 2016