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????

Have you any friends who have seen a PT and done well? Book in with theirs and see difference-

My gym is amazing, lots of good PTs so I'll ask around.

Thank you for all your thoughts. I'm going to give myself a few days off the diet. Think about the what next.

Gym classes and PT is booked for the next 7 days and will still be happening though.

I’m 49 and lost 3.5s last year. I’ve been doing a similar amount of exercise but I found what worked best for me was to do 16:8. It means eating over an 8 hour period during the day and I do 11-7. The first few days were hard as I always used to have breakfast but now it feels completely normal.

16:8 sounds interesting.

I do long hours, by 10am I've usually done 6000 steps. Then the rest of the day is sitting. I'm not sure if I could get to 11am.

Is it just food? Can I have herbal tea outside those hours?

Have a look at Team RH on face book. Great support and advice with exercise and fat loss

If I ate rice cakes I don’t lose anything no matter how much exercise I do

Yes, with 16:8 you can have tea, coffee and water, outwith your 8 hour eating window - just no milk or sugar with them. I usually have 3-4 cups of herbal tea a day.

Could it be a Christmas hangover - have seen it mentioned on these threads that weightloss isn't linear, so sometimes people have a weekend off diet and the scale doesn't show a gain so they think they got away with it but then the scale goes up a week or two later. Exercise can also cause a little water retention at first so maybe your losses at an earlier stage were hidden and that's why you have maintained rather than lost weight. Maintaining weight, exercise and diet over Christmas is a fantastic achievement.

If you are going to ditch the diet and eat normally maybe weigh and log everything in MFP and weigh yourself each morning so you can keep track of calories and the effect. It might turn out you were eating less than you thought when you weren't dieting and also more then you realised on the healthy diet.

Def look into 16:8 or maybe a more gentle 14:10. I find eating late in the evening makes me gain weight (prob just because of the extra cals but it seems to help me a lot to eat earlier and avoid evening eating)

Have a look at RH fitness on Facebook you will understand once you read this page

Youve probably gained muscle and lost fat.

I do 16:8 most days with a decent breakfast, small lunch and normal dinner. If I stick to my MFP calories I lose a pound a week. I don't exercise much as I have mobility issues. Problem is sticking to it!

So eg
breakfast ff Greek yoghurt, berries, sprinkle of granola, tea
Lunch: lots of variety here - home made veg and lentil soup (no bread, maybe an oatcake or two); or avocado and cottage cheese with a few rice thins; homemade hummus with veg and half a pita bread
Dinner: usually a variation on meat/fish and veg including potatoes or rice
Snacks: fruit, the odd oat biscuit, couple of squares of chocolate

I still take sugar in my tea and avocados have never impeded my weight loss! I don't drink due to meds and rarely eat bread as I'm gluten free and gf bread is not worth the calories. It may not be the most healthy diet ever but I don't care as I'm losing weight on it. I plan to add exercise when I've lost a bit and am hopefully in less pain.

Maybe watch the nuts, they are very high in calories.

Carrying on doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of madness!

It sounds like the exercise side of things is working for you, so it must be the diet.

When you say that you’re weighing and counting, to what end? What are you counting? If it’s just calories, then this might be your problem. A calorie is not a calorie is not a calorie!

If you’re eating a high carb diet, then those calories will be spiking an insulin release, which will be laying down fat (very simplistically). If you’re eating a diet high in fat, medium protein and low in carbs, you won’t. Those calories will be much less likely to result in weight gain.

The latest low carb Bootcamp has just started - why not join them?

On another thread the 8 week blood sugar diet was recommended. I would never have believed I could eat 800 calories a day without collapsing, but I have lost 10lb and a dress size since 4 December. I was very sceptical at low carb but I would rather have a short sharp diet to get my weight down and it has been effective so far.

Why sceptical about low carb? The science behind it is solid.

Well I agree with you now BIWI, because I have read up on it and tried it. It just took me a while to get the low fat complex carb "official" diet advice out of my head. To be honest I am enough of a scientist to know that science is far from solid, it's evidence vs evidence, funding, vested interests, politics etc. And government advice is often generated by people who haven't a clue. Anyway Dr Moseley convinced me to give it a try.

👍

Cannot recommend team rh on fb enough you can follow Richie Howie and team rh fitness. I don't think you are eating enough calories for the amount you are working out, what height and weight are you if you don't mind saying.

I'd say you're not eating enough calories. I'm 48, 15 stone and doing 10k steps and I'm eating 1700 calories a day.

I've lost 3lb this week, I'll probably get shot for this but google TeamRH and listen to what Richie and Rachel say. They talk sense!

I'm 39, 5ft 0 and 150 pounds

How are clothes fitting? Any looser? If so you may be missing something blindingly obvious - scales are bust?

EXTREMELY unusual for weight to NEVER VARY at all.

How often have you tried the gym scales?

Cut out the avocado they are high in sugar and carbs. That's not so

I'm a bit surprised at people advocating high protein, low/no carb when you have a kidney issue. Could the weight be fluid? Is something amiss with the amount of protein you are eating and your kidney function? Might be a good idea to go back to the GP.

You guys are all so kind. Scales do go up and down but as of today I'm 10st 10.

I was 5 weeks ago

I go to 10,9 10,8 then back to 10,10.

I wish my scales were bust

I'm at gym tomorrow will weigh again. It'll make me cry.

I burned 619 calories today working out according to my tracker. Does that mean anything? Is that what I'm aiming for every time I go?

I have PT on Monday and Spin tomorrow.

Cut out the avocado they are high in sugar and carbs

They’re a valuable source of nutrition.

Absolutely Fionne, and definitely not high in 'sugar and carbs'.

I do think box should return to the GP just in case there is fluid retention due to a kidney problem.

Box, I think you’ll find you’re not eating enough. Try working out your TDEE with this and do the maths.

tdeecalculator.net/