Why have a lost nothing? 5 weeks and counting.

[boxoftoads]

So I've been hitting the gym for 5 weeks now and tracking food on my fitness pal. Mainly reducing white processed carbs and sugar. I'm nearly 40 and anaemic.

Each week I've done at least HIIT spin twice, an hour with a PT, a further 30 minutes with another PT and a session or two of weights and light cardio by myself.

I wear a heart rate monitor and try to hit 10,000 steps every day. Water coming out my ears.

I took 3 days off at Christmas but I was in the gym doing spin Christmas Eve and Boxing Day.

Not a single pound has come off and stayed off.

Any ideas? Fat ratio remains almost exactly the same. BMI is 28

What am I doing wrong????

Yes, but you should see your body change shape with exercise. Either leaner or more muscular, not stay the same

Op, when you exercise do you really put the effort in when not with thr trainer, we all know we can exercise but do it as lightly as possible.

In addition looking at your diary, how big is the portion of porridge, did you have any sauces or condiments with the steak or salad, how big was the portion of curry, how many nuts, how big was the spoonful of peanut butter.

Then of course the bad days count, do you graze, eat something off plan, drink.,,it all counts.

For me to lose weight my only carbs should be vegetables, and mostly green ones. I would not lose weight no matter how I trained if I ate quinoa or rice cakes (or any grains/rice etc, whole meal or not) unless a few rice cakes was virtually all I ate so I had a big calorie deficit. Also, for dinner I need protein, so veg currry would stop weight loss for me. I’m much better with chicken or salmon and a portion of broccoli or some scrambled eggs.

You should be seeing longer leaner muscle. Given that you've told your trainer that your goal is weight loss and your arms are getting bigger he's not doing what you want him to do. I think that eating plan is actually really really hard to stick to so are you absolutely sticking to its 7 days a week 31 days of the month the full 5 weeks? Or is it so hard to stick to that the corset it is too tight and you're blowing out having the odd day or evening binge that means actually you're not following it at all. it's almost impossible to stick long-term to a plan that low in calories AND exercise the amount you're exercising without losing weight. Ditch the trainer keep up the exercise and join somewhere with support to a healthy eating plan. If you don't like SW/WW there's tons of FB groups/ Apps/threads on here and you'll save a fortune.

Sorry, just had to correct a pp stating that avocados are 'high in sugar and carbohydrate'. Dh is on a low carb diet and avocados are recommended as they are less than 1% sugar and less than 10% carb.
(He has lost two stone eating high fat/low carb foods)

People like to overcomplicate things on this subject I find, but the simple fact is that if you are genuinely eating only 1200 calories per day and this is genuinely a significant amount less than you were eating before, plus you have started exercising which you weren't before and you are not eating all your exercise calories then you should be losing weight and/or getting smaller.

Whether it's a wholemeal rice cake is a bit irrelevant if those things are true, although nutritionally the wholemeal one will be better.

Also, to those saying you can't lose weight via exercise, that's not strictly true. It depends on a lot of things but if you are exercising you will build muscle which burns more calories than fat. Over time your body becomes more efficient at burning calories etc. This takes a lot longer than 5 weeks though.

I'm guessing it's portion sizes or you're not sticking to the diet as rigidly as you think you are.

If your bmi is 28 do you need to lose as much as 21 lbs. I'd say more like 10-14 lbs. As for SW it's up to you. I found it a complete waste of time. Try cutting out bread and not eating after 6 pm that worked for me to an extent. And agree you seem to be building muscle. I'd cut down the muscle building workouts and go for the more aerobic stuff.

Are you eating your exercise calories as well as the 1200? I find I lose better if I don’t.

3 days I've had booze, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve. Even then it was a few glasses and I felt rotten the next day. On Boxing Day I was working but eat a full Christmas dinner again as we did it twice for the relatives.

Typical week, wearing a myzone heart rate monitor making sure I'm seeing my effort. 2 x 30 minutes of spin and I'm peaking over 90% within minutes and staying there for the duration. 30 minutes weight lifting, hour with the PT can be anything, sometimes boxing, sometimes weights, sled push/pulls etc. Heart rate monitor again showing huge effort and calories burned.

I'll go on my own too if I can.

I don't count those calories as extra and available to eat.

I'm sticking to simple eating as much as I can. I brought all of my Christmas rubbish into the office for my team.

I'd kill for 2 slices of white warburtons bread, smothered in lurpak and jam with a can of Coke on the side.

I have two massively special holidays this year with DH, a long weekend with my mum and 5 days in Ibiza in July with the girls- bikini fear is keeping me away from crisps.

I'd ditch the trainer. I don't think the diet they've given you is especially good.

Also if you are working out this much and eating only 1200 calories per day you SHOULD have lost weight. Something's definitely not right here?

The PT should have given you a set workout routine. Have you not had that? It's not great that your hour with them 'could be anything'. They should have given you a set routine.

Check out M10 (Mark Coles) on YouTube and his website. He has amazing information and a lot of it geared specifically to women.

1200 cals with all that exercise seems very low to me. I know I would not lose on this. I lose best closer to 1800 calories.

Something's definitely not right here?

I agree. Something isn't right op. So there are two options.

You need to see a gp and have some blood tests run to see if you're pre diabetic or have thyroid issues or something else that causes Weight issues,

Secondly you're maybe lying to yourself about how much you eat. Either you graze without realising it, or your portions are too big. Nuts and peanut butter for example are hugely calorie high.

I think my guess would be you're consuming a lot more calories than you think you are.

I have 3 set workouts from PT that I rotate.

I have seen a GP (it's what kicked this whole thing off) I am anaemic, currently on iron and I have poor kidney function (hereditary)

I don't have pre-diabetes, diabetes, early onset menopause and I'm not pregnant. GP found nothing else in bloods or urine.

I'm 10 stone 10, I was 8 stone prior to getting pregnant. Had been that weight until I hit 30.

GP advised I lose weight to help with the chronic tiredness I had. The gym now makes me feel great, I'm much more awake and have lots of energy but I'm doing this to shed weight and it's the only thing not happening

That sounds like an extremely low calorie count Come on over to 5:2.

Those protein balls sound very heavy on calories. How many calories in the ones your eating? Sounds like you are having more than 1200 calories altogether in a day. And nuts really high in calories although good for you.

Hmm. I just can't see how you're not losing weight if you are doing that much exercise and sticking to 1200. I am the same age as you and would lose weight on that regime but obviously we are different people!

You have been slimmer before so I don't think a genetic or metabolic issue can be happening here, not a medic though...

What I would say is that I am involved in running (coaching too) and personally run 3-4 times a week, I eat whatever I want, chocolate, crisps etc most days and still maintain a healthy weight. I haven't come across anyone who doesn't lose weight if they run but you do have to put the miles in. I'm not saying running is the be all and end all, but if you are exercising purely to lose weight then this is what I have seen work

Those protein balls are about 200 calories and you had those with nuts as a snack suggests you're probably consuming more calories than you think.

Running kills me, I need low impact or I get terrible back pain

Protein ball things are tiny and home made, nuts are only 5/6 and that's only ever after I Work out.

Lots of amazing advice and you are all right, either I'm not counting the calories (but everything is weighed and measured) but I need to change up the diet to see what's going on.

I think you know if nothing is wrong with you and you're eating less and moving more, then you'd lose weight, it's basic biology.

However the fact you're not, you're body isn't changing and in fact parts of you are getting bigger says you're misjudging something.

As diet is 80 percent of weight loss on average, the odds are it's your diet. On an average week you consume much more than uou think uou do. You know how the body works. So logically the answer is in what you eat. If your weight has remained stable, then logically you need a lot more calories to maintain at 10.10. So you're probably in reality eating approx 2000 calories per day.

It might not be on a daily basis, but it could be the extra spoonful of peanut butter, or the mindless thing you put in your mouth and think it doesn't count, or even w little treat at the weekend.

But the fact remains if you're confirmed as healthy to be maintaining at 10.10, you're averaging way more than 1200 a day.

But that's like an extra pizza landing in my mouth, there have been no sneaky biscuits. I guess that's why I'm so gutted. It's now just getting embarrassing (and internally upsetting) when DH who is extremely supportive tries to ask how it's going. He can see the gym work and constant meal prep having no effect.

I'm very tempted to ditch the diet for a week and see what happens

This might sound daft but have you weighed in more than one set of scales?

Are you measuring as well as weighing? Do you have before and after photos? Maybe you are getting smaller but just weigh the same?

Maybe just give it more time? I can understand why you'd be gutted. There are loads of low impact videos on youtube

If you are eating less and exercising, but not losing anything at all then you are eating more than you think and not creating a calorie deficit. It's horrid, I know, but it is that simple. You can't eat less than your daily requirement plus up your exercise (thus actually increasing your requirement) and not lose any weight at all in 5 weeks. If you create a deficit (either by controlling intake, or by upping exercise) you will lose - the speed will depend on the size of that deficit. It's incredibly easy to underestimate what (quantity) you are eating, devilishly so, so I would look at that first. I say all this from painful experience, not as a criticism.

Belly is a bit flatter, arms bigger.

Gym scales weigh me 4 pounds heavier than home - is that too much for time of day?

The other thing to consider is menstrual cycle. I'm noticeably heavier at certain points than others, but it's a cyclical up and down thing.