AIBU to ask you to critique my excercise and daily calories and explain why I'm not losing weight?!

[Canttasteanything]

I do weights and strength training twice a week for 60 minutes each time. I also do 5k once to twice a week.

I eat approx 1400 cals per day, and once a week about 2000 cals on a cheat day.

Why havent I lost weight in 8 weeks?!?! Do I need to loose the cheat day?

5k running that should say

Options:

1. You're already at ideal weight, very close to ideal weight

1. You're building muscle (yay!)

I do pretty much the same as you and I'm 3 stone overweight- some weeks I lose 2 pounds, other weeks I lose fuck all and 'build muscle'

If you are weigh training you might be adding lean muscle mass and changing shape without actually changing weight. Try going by measurements as well.

Do you weigh food and count all your calories in MyFitnessPal? If not perhaps you are underestimating your calories?

If you are lighter and gaining muscle, you require fewer calories over time as calories is usually based on weight. Recalculate your calories needed with the BMR calculator and go from there.

Ok, well for starters you need to be eating less than 1400 calories a day, so bring it down to 1100 or 1200 . weight loss is 80% diet and only 20% exercise . Wha sort of food are you eating? If you take your calories down for 6 days of the week then keep the cheat day but don't go mad, maybe just have 1400 on the cheat day.

It depends on what you weigh, your height and your activity (general)level. Someone sedentary weighing 8 stone might not lose on 1400 calories, someone very active weighing 17 stone would!

What are you eating?
How much do you weigh now?

and once a week about 2000 cals on a cheat day.

^

But is it 2000 cals? Or is burger and fries for lunch, massive Chinese blowout at night with dessert afterwards? If so, it could be more like 3000, making your average calories intake per day more that 1400. Then you won't lose

How active are you the rest of the time? If you are very sedentary then I guess 2 runs a week isn’t that much. What do you do in your strength sessions - are they in a class or just pootling about on your own?

ok, well for starters you need to be eating less than 1400 calories a day, so bring it down to 1100 or 1200

How on earth can you make that assertion from the OP when she doesn't include her height, current weight or general activity levels?

My TDEE with little formal exercise is over 2000 calories a day, so weight would drop off me at 1400 calories or more.

Are you sure that is how much you are eating. No unregistered snacks/drinks etc. Do you eat a balanced diet? Getting enough of everything? Not putting your body into a mode where it's looking to keep all nutrition in?

Have you done the same exercise routine for a long while? If so maybe mix it up to force change from your body rather than stasis. How much do you currently weigh?

Also, are you moving outside of your exercise or at a desk all day?

I'm not sure I agree with eating 1200 kcal to increase weight loss. It depends what you currently weight but if you are active then that would put you in massive calorie deficit which is neither healthy nor sustainable.

Did you take body measurements first? What are your macros like? Your balance should be, IME, 40% protein, and 30% each of days and carbs.

Calculate your calorie needs by your bodyweight and activity level.

Your weight in pounds X 10 (training once per week), 11 (training twice per week), 12 (training 3 times per week), 13 (4 times a week) etc etc

e.g I'm 140lbs, I train 5 days a week: 140 x 14 = 1960 calories a day is what I need to maintain this weight. If I need to lose I take 10% only off. I use MyFitnessPal to calculate my macros as per the % above, you have to go into settings to amend this. The protein levels are high but your body will benefit in recovery for it, especially after weightlifting. 2 scoops in a protein shake within 30 minutes of training is a good one. Egg white omelettes are also great.

Make sure what you're eating is clean. The Paleo diet is good to follow and not too restrictive. There's a good book called Fuelling the Functional Athlete which goes into a bit more on how to fuel given the training you're doing too.

Follow this for 6 weeks, curb the treat nights (also think about how you catagorise food into good and bad and come away from that thinking) and I bet you'll lose weight.

I would never be able to lose weight eating 1400 cals, would have to be 1200 max. Definitely depends on your current height and weight.

When I used to do more weight training I couldn't get to as low weight as I was previously but my measurements were much less.

Again, only in my experience and my type of metabolism but eat less, move more did not work for me. I was training light originally and restricting my calories to 800 a day and did not lose weight for 6 months. When I started thinking of food as fuel and started eating more and eating correctly did I see the weight fly off. I dropped 6% body fat and 12lbs in 6 weeks.

That's useful kitty. What weight loss would you expect 10% off that to bring. People are so different. Anything under 2k kcals I'll lose weight but I still struggle to get to that!

@runlift the 10% deficit would see me lose 1-2 lbs a week but I've only every used it in anger 3 times! I need all my calories otherwise my performance is shit.

Everyone is different and depending on how far a person is in their fitness / wellbeing journey will account for some of those differences in needs.

The more muscle you have the better your metabolism will work. Muscles require energy to move and in order to move bigger muscles you must store more energy in them which allows your body to send energy to muscle cells instead of fat cells. So depending on where your baseline is e.g if you are like me and started a zero, the loss gains and performance gains were easy to start with but now I'm leaner and my body is expending all the energy to my built muscles, I find it harder to lose weight and body fat - especially those pesky bingo wings

It's highly possible that you're losing fat but gaining muscle, which will mean your weight will stay the same even though you are slimmer and leaner. If your weight was rapidly plummeting, you'd probably be losing muscle rather than fat (I know this from my own experience!).

It's also possible you actually need to eat a little bit more. If you add up your calories over the week, it works out as 1485 per day on average, which is very low for someone who is exercising as much as you are, unless you are already incredibly tiny (in which case you absolutely should not be trying to lose any more weight). For perspective, I exercise about as much as you do, and I am losing weight on an average of 1,800 calories a day at the moment. Maybe up your calories a bit with some extra protein, especially if you're weight training.

Women really don't gain as much muscle weight as people suggest they do - even people watching their macros and weight training HARD can usually put on a maximum of one pound a month in muscle. Women just aren't built that way. A lot of strength 'gains' are not muscle building but neuromuscular adaptation - your nerves learn to work better with the muscle you have.

What weight training DOES do is make you retain water in your muscles to heal them - that might be making you keep weight on. Weight training is best for overall metabolism and getting that lean look, but try switching it up every now and then - do some longer runs one week, for example. Try out some HIIT training. If you do the same exercise all the time your body gets used to it and adapts so it's less effective, ie fewer cals burned.

Depending on how often you weight yourself, a big cheat day with lots of salt can affect the scale for days afterwards.

Without knowing your stats, 1400 cals if you are mostly sedentary will for a lot of women not create much of a deficit - if I don't do a workout one day, 1400 would put me in a 100 cal deficit, and that's with an hour or two of walking around.

Also, think about how you track those calories. Are you eyeballing and estimating? If so you are probably eating more than you think you are.

It is hard to say when you don't include your height and weight.

It may be that you are not particularly overweight so there is nothing to lose.

It might be that your weight training is resulting in more muscle and muscle is heavier than fat.

It might be that your diet is crap so although you're only eating 1400 calories they are not particularly healthy calories.

Personally for me, I would up the running and make sure I'm eating more healthy.

Cheat days should be once a month.

What weight training DOES do is make you retain water in your muscles to heal them - that might be making you keep weight on.

Ha - was just about it say that. If you are weight training, then you actually don't want too much (if any) of a calorie deficit, as it will prevent you from building muscle. I think your calories look fine, and if you are doing weights and running as you say, then your strength and fitness are increasing, which is more important than weight loss (IMHO). Once I started focussing on fuelling for building strength, maintaining my weight became relatively easy. Weight loss purely through decreasing calories is far harder to maintain. You've been keeping this up for nearly 2 months - that's really good work! I would stick with it - and keep your cheat day.

Pedant alert : Muscle is not heavier than fat, it's more dense but a pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat.

Sorry I forgot to put in height etc!

In 5ft6 and 9 stone 3lbs. I'm also breast feeding but shes 15 months so not a newborn.

I eat really clean, lots of veg and salad and protein. On my cheat day I eat absolute crap

I'm wanting to be strong and toned, not thin, but before kids my normal weight was 8 stone

You have no weight to lose. Becoming strong and toned will happen with your workouts.

You're only doing aerobic exercise twice a week and probably then are doing it quite slowly. 1 hour of "weights and strength" training is realistically how much of engaged movement and how much moving around, setting up weights, etc?

Being outdoors and going for a cycle and doing something outdoors every day might work better, as well as reducing your calories intake more (going to be crucified on here for saying this!)

As for the muscle weighing more than fat thing, if you are really building that much muscle on the training you are doing, you must be some kind of weightlifter elite talent and should be on the Olympic potential squad! Running also builds plenty of muscle so why not run more?