Exercise and food

[Exercisejunkieforlife]

Can someone help me please because I am rally struggling with this.

I do between 10-13 hrs of exercise a week but I just don't know what to eat, my body changed when I first started about 18 months ago, now it seems I've stalled. I have excess tummy and back fat so want to get leaner, I need to change my diet because exercise is not doing it.

An example of a day's food is yesterday

I had a Herbalife shake for breakfast with some frozen fruit and milk.
Nothing for lunch (rarely hungry)
I had a superfood salad with prawns and chicken breast
A banana for snack and some strawberries, blueberries raspberries with 0% Greek yogurt for 'pudding' and a fine bar.
About 1300 calories.

Today I had the same for breakfast and some prawns and a banana for lunch.
I'm working tonight which involves exercise so won't be able to eat until 9 so another salad with salmon and some fruit for afters.

My diet as been better the last few days as I'm trying to eat better before I was eating far too many empty calories.

has anyone followed a particular diet that has worked for them and helped them get leaner.
I really dislike my body and the way it looks and I want to change that by changing what I see.

Thank you in advance

Where you carry fat is partly genetic. Something you can't change either.

That sounds a very low number of calories before factoring in exercise.

I'm 5ft 2 and size 8-10 so below average calorie burn. My survival level of calories about 1400. On a sedentary day I'll use about 1600. A lightly active day 18-1900 and an hour's run or circuits class will bring me to about 2200. (According to my sports watch anyway!)

You've got protein and veg, but the body needs some fats to support the metabolism and absorption of vitamins. Carbs are contentious at the moment, personally I don't see anything wrong with complex carbs. Heavily refined carbs aren't great for anyone.

Eating 2-300 less calories than your body requires rather than the minimum to survive is better for sustained fat loss, so oddly you may need to add a few hundred calories.

What exercise do you do?

Mrsmook - this is my schedule

Monday - a dance class Zumba type thing followed by insanity
Tuesday - I run about 3k on the treadmill to warm up before body pump
Wednesday - Zumba type class followed by body conditioning
Thursday - 3k run again followed by Combat and in the evening a Zumba toning which is done with weights and then kettle bells
Fri - run anything between 5-10k
Saturday - rest
Sunday - body pump and body combat.

I'm trying really hard not to have 'crap' in my diet, over the last few months I keep putting on 7lb and then losing it again 😬. It's driving me crazy,. I am a sugar addict I love chocolate but I need to stop because I can't just have a little bit I have to have more 😄.

Yesterday I had 1500 calories, my fitness watch tells me I burn 2600 a day but I'm not sure how accurate that is, and I do 20000 steps a day.
I feel like o should look better then I do considering the amount of exercise I do but know it's the diet letting me down. I just need ideas on things to eat.

I am 5ft 7 and weigh about 10 st 7 I would like to be under 10 st but not sure that's obtainable. I'm a size 10 in clothes.

I suspect you're eating a lot more calories than you think you are or you're binging (not judging, I had an ED).

I'm not an expert. Just looked at some youtube vids.
Bodypump: looks like it would build muscle rather than burn fat.
Ditto for Kettle bells.

. Would build muscle. ? more weight & resistance work = strength not fat burning.

running burns fat (aerobic)

. Regular zumba does look fat burning (aerobic).

Are you sure you're carrying so much fat? With all those strength exercises, what you take for fat might be a lot more muscle than you realise it is. Have you had a body fat caliper test to see what's there?

I have to get my BMI below 19 before my legs become svelte. (bra cup also has to drop 2 cup sizes). Else I have rugby player legs in normal life. There are worse things to put up with.

(ooh, did not know the videos would come up like that!)

It sounds like you're not eating enough to sustain that level of exercise and I would try and increase both your fat and protein levels. I typically burn around 2500 cals a day on an active day (according to a possibly inaccurate fitness tracker mind you) and would aim to eat no less than 2000 cals. This is just me though so you'd probably want to increase the amount you eat slowly to see where your sweet spot is in terms of maintaining or dropping your weight.

You might also want to think about changing your exercise routine a little. Just from my personal experience I found when I was doing lots of cardio and body pump classes at the gym my body didn't really change much in terms of composition. I've only seen a real change since I started lifting heavier weights with low reps and introducing some high intensity workouts. Even then it's taken about two years for me to notice a change so you might just have to give it more time!

Haha, Insanity isn't Billy Blanks.

OP, you sound as if you are over-exercising. It increases cortisol- enemy if weight loss.

Can you halve what you're doing?
Zumba is worthless calorie burn-wise compared with Insanity! I'd drop Zumba, for instance, and try to get more sleep.

Dunno what Herbalife is but anything chemical /supplemental / non-food should be omitted.

Disclaimer: I myself am not my ideal weight (though BMI of 23 and decently muscular, so not huge either), but that's 'cause I eat at maintenance level and can't be arsed starving myself.

I do PLENTY of cardio- too much, but I love it. It does not lead to weight loss really as it stimulates the appetite accordingly, IME.

Will also say: I hate my fat on my arms (ham hocks) and thunder thighs. Definitely, we can have very warped images of our own bodies, And perceive flaws that aren't there. This is common in exercise junkies.

Not sure where I'm going with this, but chances are, you are healthy and beautiful already, and needlessly torturing yourself.

That seems to be a lot of sugar in the amount of fruit too, you may need to swap out some of the fruit for less sugary snacks - carrots, peppers humous?

Herbalife is absolute shit. Stop replacing breakfast with it! Swap to a real food protein based breakfast- scrambled egg on toast, omelette, Greek yogurt.

I'd also look at the sugar levels; fruit, fat free yogurt and fine bar is probably a huge amount of sugar.

And Google IIFYM (if it fits your macros). It's a way to calculate how many calories you need and in what form (protein, carbs and fat).

It's definitely he Herbalife shake. Eat real food. Honestly!

Secondly, the Zumba needs to go! That's not training that's just glorified cardio. It'll only serve to make you cling on to fat, you're doing way too much. 3 hrs per week of heavy weight training is way better for fat loss than sweaty gym classes which put your body under so much stress it'll just hold on for survival.

Eat lo carb it will transform your weight loss and eating habits. It's brilliant

Read points 3 & 4 in this link. Then do some more research, you need to challenge the body with weights and resistance to cause adaptation and change. Zumba is the same all the time, right? Same as body pump etc? If you do the same all the time, you'll stay the same.

www.bodybuilding.com/fun/fat-loss-fouls-4-cardio-mistakes.html

Body weight in lb x 10 for maintainable fat loss is the best calculation.

I'm always pushing this diet, but only because it works like magic: try the Scarsdale Diet. It's an old, low-carb diet from the 70s and it's seriously brilliant.

A few years ago, I was 10st 4 (I'm 5' 7" like you) and then met a really hot man (now DH :) ) and wanted to look amazing.

I joined a gym. I'd row for an hour, 3-4x a week. I'd do about 10,000m. I'd also do classes, but mainly rowing. The weight MELTED away, and my back was really toned. My legs went all cellulite-free and my saddlebags vanished. I got down to 9st 7. Could you try rowing? Get someone to show you the proper technique and load your iPod up with great songs. Then just do LOADS.

WhatsGoingOnEh

are you still that weight? Did you maintain 9st 7lb?