Advice for a Beginner?

[endofleg]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum and have came here seeking advice.

First I guess a little background. I'm a 35 year old 5'10" male who has piled a lot of weight on since I settled down and had a family about 8 years ago. Now even when I was fairly thin and in shape I never weighed less than 200lbs (14 stone-ish) as I've got fairly heavy bones it seems... but still several months ago I checked my weight and I was up to almost 280lbs (about 20 stone) and had a body fat % of 56% - coupled with not recognising myself in a photo I decided it was time to do something about it.

I changed my diet and started working out at the gym wherever possible, doing a mixture of cardio and weights. Shortly after I hired a Personal trainer for some advice who did a fitness test and was surprised how fit I was scoring "excellent" in several of the criteria (in other words, I could move for a fat lad), I took some advice on varying routines and whatnot and went on my merry way - hitting the gym 5 days a week for 1 hour plus squash (playing hard and keeping my hart rate around 80% of my MHR)

I've managed to get my weight down from 280lbs (20 stone) to 236lbs (16stone 12lbs) and my BF% down from 56% to 38% - pretty happy with that so far, still have a bit of a belly on me but can finally start to see a difference.

My problem is, I have been stuck at this weight and BF% for a couple of weeks now. My diet is pretty good - been using the myfitnesspal calorie counter to track my calories, protein and fat intake and I sometimes struggle to get over 1000 net calories in a given day after exercise so I know I'm not taking in too many calories (not feeling tired or under performing at the gym so I'm not running on empty) and I'm pretty obsessive about adding every single thing into it. Food mostly made up of salads, tuna, soups, chicken, sunflower seeds and boiled eggs. Rarely eat bread. and if I can get to the gym early enough I will go before I eat breakfast in an attempt to burn fat.

On average I'll take in about 900 - 1200 calories of food and (according to my HRM less about 10% to be safe) burn about 800-1000 calories 6 days a week via exercise.

Why am I stuck at this point? Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated as there must be something I'm missing but just can't see it.

Cheers

 

[endofleg]

In addition - I thought I'd best give a brief idea of my workout routine

Treadmill for 20-30 mins - running at 10.5 km/h (6.5 MPH) keeping heart rate at around 80-85% of MHR, slowing to a fast walk for 30 to 60 seconds occasionally (usually about 3 or 4 times in the 30 min session) and occasionally sprinting at 14.5 km/h (9 MPH) for 60 seconds (usually 2 times per session)

I move on to the weights, usually upper body and core, rotating and resting (my right knee is a bit dodgy and gets worse bending with weights so I avoid it but try to regularly do some squats or use the machines with lighter weights)

After about 20 mins on weights I'll usually finish with another 10 minutes on the treadmill at 10 km/h but taking more regular rests (walking at 6 km/h) and finishing with one last sprint at 14 km/h (8.6 MPH)

I do vary it occasionally but cross trainers, rowing machines and bikes all seem to cause problems with my knee but the treadmill doesn't so I usually favour that with a slight incline (0.5 - 1%)

Hope this helps a little. Thanks in advance for any advice

 

[AthalaRanger]

Hello there! Welcome to the forum.

You may have hit a plateau because you are eating too few calories. You are also using most of them for exercise. If I remember correctly, males shouldn't go below below 1800 calories per day.

In theory, if you lower your calories too much (and too fast), your body "panics" and lowers your metabolic rate. I would give you a link to a more reliable source, but I've never been able to find a convincing article on this subject.

I can't really think of anything else right now, All I could suggest is increasing your calories a bit and see what happens. But maybe other members can serve you better.

Good luck.

 

[Fatboy Slim]

I had the same problem. I took a couple of days off exercising, then changed my entire work out and was back on track. The body gets used to the same things day in day out.