Exercise and weight loss help. A plea for help.

[Andtheworldwentwhite]

I have spent the last year loosing nearly three stone. About three months ago I decided to join a gym. And I am loving it. But it has stalled my weight loss and I don’t know how to move forward. I’m wondering if anyone here can help me. as I haven’t lost anything for weeks now.

I train 6 days a week. For 45 mins each morning. I do weight training and cardio. Nothing too hard. I’m on 5kg weights. Then when k get to work I walk the dogs for about an hour.

I weigh 10 stone and want to reach at least 9 stone.
I have a bad gallbladder so cannot eat more than 3% fat. I have ibs so no dairy gluten and I have a set range of veggies I can eat.

breakfast - vegetable and chicken omelette. Banana / toast. I added on toast as only have the egg whites and I needed to up my calories for my breakfast.

lunch. Normally something like chicken and potatoes. I have either then fruit or some popcorn.

dinner always veggies and some type of meat with potatoes. I have low blood pressure so add on a pack of salted crisps to try and get my salt in. Or some more fruit.

I am on 1350 calories.

I would struggle to change my food mainly because of the low fat percentage I have to have. And my fruit and veg is limited because off my ibs. So not sure how I can change that without being in pain daily. I have done the special fodmap diet.

i sleep really well. I am however having peri menopause symptoms.

I tried adding on more calories as I thought maybe I wasn’t eating enough. But that didn’t work either. Anyone got any ideas?
edited to add. That I re stood on the special machine at work. And I have yet to build on my muscle. As I really have just started.

I'm the same as you, I don't lose whilst exercising so I'm not doing it till I hit goal weight and then I'll start to tone up

You are building muscle which can increase your weight, but not in a bad way. Focus on measurements and tone - maybe a weekly photo?

@minipie thsts what I though. But the machine actually showed I had lost muscle in one of my legs. And I hadn’t added on any

Should I measuring weekly? What sort of things should I measure

Well done on your weight loss, 3st is impressive.

There could be two things happening here - 1st is that as you are doing cardio it’s making you hungry? And you are eating and not logging.
2nd is that you are moving from fat to muscle, although this is less likely as the weights you are using are too light to be really building any muscle.

Its very impressive that not only have you lost such a lot of weight but you are now focusing on health.

How important is that last stone?

Depends on your body shape. I would probably measure waist as all that exercise will hopefully slim you there even if you put on muscle elsewhere

What machine do you mean?

I would also say it’s common for weight loss to plateau at this stage. It’s harder to lose weight the less overweight you are. So may not really be exercise related.

3 stone is fantastic. Do you need to lose any more?

The more muscle you have the more calories you burn. Could you try upping the weights?

I agree with taking measurements too. I'm not sure how reliable the machines are when it comes to measuring muscle.

Yes, I agree with this. Personally I get so much out of regular exercise that I'd always choose it over losing more - as long as I'm a healthy weight that is.

Hi OP, I'm not sure which machine you're referring to but my understanding is that almost all machines which claim to measure body fat/muscle percentage etc are unreliable at best. So if that is contributing to how you feel then maybe disregard it for now. I would echo the PP who said that weights will build muscle and that might be why you're not seeing a loss but this is in fact healthy and would agree that measurements/photos might be the best way to track progress at this point. Wishing you all the best with it.

It's honestly true that you need to focus on measurements and not the scales when exercising lots. Well done on your success thus far!

Your exercise accounts for two hours out of 24, it’s pointless as a weight loss tool. Tour de France cyclists cycle on a hard day for hours and hours and still eat very little. You move less after gym exercise as you think you deserve a rest! Your body is really clever it does not want you to be thin as if there’s a famine you won’t survive. That’s not to say you can’t lose weight but I’d suggest it’s food.

and ignore the muscle heavier than fat malarkey suggestions you aren’t lifting enough! Your exercise is for health and to future proof old age, the muscles you use to do a squat are the ones that will get you on and off the loo unaided when you are 90!

@Doggojumpsdoggo i am religious in my calorie counting. Everything I eat is counted. It was the way I lost three stone. I never cheated once. I suppose it isn’t necessary for me to loose the last stone. But that was my goal weight and I am a fairly determined person. So would love to finish this.

@TorroFerney if it is the food. Any suggestions of what to change.

@MrsSchnickelfritz i have just moved up to the five kg. So will be a while I think before I can move on as they are heavy for me. I don’t have strong hands after an operation. So I am going slowly. I think I may start adding in measurements

I wonder if you would benefit from some sort of advice at the gym - a session or 2 with a personal trainer or someone putting a plan together for you? There are lots of ways to add weight in without necessarily having to hold weights.

5kg doing what though? Squats? Leg press? Bench press? Shoulder press? Bicep curls? You should be on different weights for each of these depending on current strength?
My best guess is you're eating more than before because exercising makes you hungry.

@MrsSchnickelfritz thats what I have. Keeping the weights lower. But slower and more reps.

Im very similar to you OP with where I am with weight and exercise too.
I find that if I cut my calories too much I stall my weight loss. If you are very active then eating too little is counter productive.
Maybe work out roughly how many calories you need and give yourself a deficit of no more then 200-400cals (and give it at least a month to see if it works!).

What lower body weights are you doing? Leg press squatting with weights etc?

How is 8000 calories a day eating very little? I run 100km per week on average and I’m on 2500 a day so I wouldn't call exercising pointless

I cycled 747 miles in 3 week/18 days in April, I dropped half a stone. I was averaging 3 hours a day

i could do with completing g 3 hours a day until Christmas, but the weather isn’t great!

moving with purpose, but not sure if your dog walks are enough to be replicating your heart rate or long enough.

have you thought about jogging with the dogs instead?

Yea agree not sure you can ever say a tour rider doesn't eat much. A lot of the time is they struggle to eat enough.

I'm a amateur cyclist (about 12-17h a week training) which is far less than they do and similar to @broccolienthusiast I'm on about 2500 kcal a day despite being quite short.

The important part for this discussion is it takes a HUGE amount of exercise to really change calorie requirements.

One thing for the OP to consider is when you eat. I really struggle with fasted workouts. I might get through them but I tend to end up ravenous after which leads to over eating, compared to if I fuelled the session properly. This is quite personal as I know some people preferred the fasted approach, but playing with when you eat and exercise might help.

1350 calories a day is only around what your base metabolic rate will be, you need to eat more!