Fit & Well Informed but NOT seeing Results. Why?

S

Spartacus

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I'm 27, Female, 5'0, 102lb~105lb. Pre-workout weight 92lbs~96lbs.

Measurements:
24,20,27

Background:
Have always been considered petite and athletic. Ran long distance since I was in 4th grade. Gym rat on and off since I was 18. Resumed my gym routine January 1st 2010 after taking 8 months off.

Goal:
Get lean, defined abs.

The workout:

Frequency: 5 days a week. 1 to 2 hours per day total including stretching pre and post workout

I switch my workout constantly to avoid hitting plateaus and getting bored. But the basics are always the same- high intensity, interval training. One example, Men's Health Spartacus workout ( ).

For cardio: Swimming laps for 30 minutes or 45 spin classes. I avoid running on the treadmill due to a weak knee.

Sometimes I'll take a spin class and add an hour of weights afterwards.

I maintain my heart rate between 135~ 185. Usually working in the +165 zone.

Diet:
6 meals a day
avg. between 150~300 calories each
drink only water
I keep a food journal to keep track of every bite I consume.

Sample day's menu:
9:00 am breakfast:
1 cup cereal and 1/2 cup whole milk

11:15 am snack:
2 cups of blackberries

12:40 pre-workout lunch:
2 cups total of mixed corn, peas, black beans, chick peas, scallions, red onions, crushed organic blue corn tortilla chips, 2 dollops of goat cheese

mid-day snack:
1 piece of Hershey's dark chocolates

3:40 pre-workout dinner:
1.5 cups total of roasted chicken, squash and asparagus

7:30 post-workout dinner:
.5 cup total of roasted chicken, squash and asparagus

9:00 dinner at home:
1 small bowl of whole wheat pasta w/ 3/4 cup of beef broth and 1.5 Tsp of sacha sauce
1 pkg of seaweed

sleep at 11pm. I get 8 hours of sleep every night.


So why am I not seeing results as fast as I would like?

It's hard for me to measure results since I don't have a body fat scale (I hear they are not always accurate). My regular scale won't tell me if my weight gain is muscle or fat.

Another question:
If my RMR is 1700, does this take into account the calories I burn during my workouts? Meaning if my heart rate monitor says I burned 500 calories- is that 500 calories in addition to the 1700? or does the RMR already factor in calorie burn from the activity level that you enter in e.g. moderate activity?

Also, could I possibly be under eating? I try to keep my caloric intake around 1000 to 1200 calories a day. But this is not completely accurate as it is hard to measure calories for everything I eat.
 
I'm small and petite but I certainly don't look like a fitness model- hence the reason for my posting.

It seems all my fat cells gravitate towards my middle. I have lean arms, legs, and upper body. Yet, I have these folds of fat on my abs that I've contemplated liposuction if I can't get rid of them through diet and exercise.
 
A couple of things to consider:

1. long duration workouts (more than 40-50 minutes per day) are necessarily lower intensity and in some individuals tend to bring on CNS (central nervous system) fatigue which tends to increase the hormone cortisol which signals the body to store fat (in wherever your body tends to store fat (which sounds like your abdomen)). You might try reducing the duration of your workouts and increasing the intensity (like using Tabata to reduce your cardio/HIIT to 10 minutes duration), lifting heavier weights, etc.

2. starchy/high glycemic index carbs tend to increase body fat levels in some individuals and higher protein tends to reduce body fat levels in some individuals, so try a couple of eggs for breakfast instead of cereal and steak or fish and vegetables instead of pasta, etc.

3. Everybody is different, you have to find what works for your body, which may be different than others and may change as you age, or with the other stuff going on in your life (outside of exercise, diet and sleep) change, like stress, work, family, relationships, etc.
 
Thanks dswithers!

I've never heard of Tabata before. After reading up on it I realized it is very similar to the Men's Health Spartacus workout I mentioned earlier. Basically 10 exercises. Do as many reps as you can in 1 min. rest 15 sec. rinse and repeat for 3 circuits total with 2 min. rest in between each circuit.

According to Tabata you shouldn't be able to do this routine everyday. It's been two days and I'm still extremely sore from the Spartacus workout. So how often should I do Tabata style workouts? Resume as soon as the soreness dissipates? Once a week/month?

I tend to think my workouts are pretty intense. My heart rate stays in the 80%~90% range and I'm using 8lb to 15lb weights with my Spartacus workout or other similar intensity boot camp style workout. I would like to get a gauge of what is considered intense? I plan on doing the Killer 550 Workout on BodyRock.tv next. What level of intensity would you consider this?

2. Do I have to cut out even complex carbs such as whole wheat pasta, brown rice, oatmeal, bran cereal, multi grain bread? I read that for women during PMS- consuming complex carbs help to control the cravings. Also, I plan on training for a biathlon and my research says endurance athlete needs complex carbs to fuel their workouts. So what principle should I follow? Absolutely no carbs unless it's from veggies and fruits or can I have small portions of complex carbs?
 
Some other thoughts:
1. Originally (and argueably the only true) Tabata used sprint intervals with very short rest intervals to condense the normal 20 minute HIIT (sprint 20 rest 100 repeat 8 times) into 4 minutes (sprint 20 rest 10 repeat 8 times). A lot of people have come up with training regimes with other movements trying to mimic Tabata, which have varied effectiveness, but may or may not achieve the same fat burning results as Tabata (or properly performed HIIT). Sprinting is the most effective movement for stimulating the hormonal changes that maximize fat burning after you finish it. Remember a lot more fat is burned during the post exercise period (called EPOC - excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) than you could ever burn during exercise. Most experts advise not performing more than 2 Tabata/HIIT sessions per week.

2. By intensity I was referring to how close to failure you come during anerobic movements. When you perform cycles of exercises like you are with moderate weights you are basically only performing aerobic exercise. True weight training is anerobic. So assuming your respiration rate and heart rate have completely recovered from the previous set or exercise, if you use a weight that you can just do 12 reps with then your intensity level is near 100%. If stop 1 rep short of failure (11 reps with the weight you could have done 12 reps with) then your intensity level is somewhat less (say 90%), or if you stop 2 reps short your intensity level is less (say 70%). If you are really pushing yourself to near 100% intensity level then you should not be able to do more 2 or 3 sets of that exercise with that weight until you start to fail at fewer reps, and you should not be able to keep up that intensity level for more than 40-60 minutes before you can not get as many reps on any movement with the same weight as you could have at the beginning of your exercise session and it is time to stop.

3. If your goal is to maximize fat loss, I would try consuming little or no starchy carbs (grains, bread, pasta, rice, white potatoes, etc.), only fruits and vegetables and then even avoiding high glycemic index fruits and vegetables. Some individuals find cycling carb intake useful (ie no complex or high glycemic index carbs for 1-12 days followed by 1-2 days of higher carb intake). Most distance runners, although they are small, carry a relatively high body fat level, compared to a sprinter, because they need fat stores to fuel long periods of exercise.

4. You may need to choose one goal or the other: either maximizing fat loss and definition or maximizing endurance and train and diet for that for some period of time until you achieve some level of success and then try the other. Unless you are genetically gifted, which most of us aren't, you probably can't have it all at once!
 
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Derwyddon said:
Removing complex carbs but still keeping simple carbs? never in my life heard this suggested.
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Oops, I think we misused the term "complex" instead of "starchy" carbs to refer to grains (bread, pasta), rice, white potatoes, etc. I'll edit my post to correct that.
 
Spartacus said:
Is oatmeal considered a starchy carb?
Click to expand...

Yes. Any grain or grain product or anything that is not a fruit or vegetable is a starchy carb, as well as white potatoes. They all have relatively high glycemic indexes and the more processed they are the higher the glycemic index and the lower the fiber and vitamin content. Obviously, if you are going to consume starchy carbs, whole grains and brown rice are better than white flour and white rice which have had most of the fiber and vitamins processed out of them (and then some artificial vitamins added back in, in the case of "enriched" flour).

One theory is that before agriculture was invented about 2000 years ago the human body evolved over a couple of hundred thousand years to consume a hunter/gatherer diet of meat, nuts, fruits and berries and therefore those are best assimilated by humans.
 
I've been reading a lot about whey protein. What are your thoughts on whey protein as a supplement? Is it a necessity? Superfluous? If necessary- which brand is best? best method for consumption?

I'm debating about getting a blender but a friend of mine on a raw diet swears by it. He blends lots of veggies and fruits to create shakes. Is this something that would help with my fat loss efforts?
 
Spartacus said:
I'm small and petite but I certainly don't look like a fitness model- hence the reason for my posting.

It seems all my fat cells gravitate towards my middle. I have lean arms, legs, and upper body. Yet, I have these folds of fat on my abs that I've contemplated liposuction if I can't get rid of them through diet and exercise.
Click to expand...

So would you be considered skinny-fat? You weight is too low to lose any more weight and your body might be in starvation mode.
 
Spartacus said:
I've been reading a lot about whey protein. What are your thoughts on whey protein as a supplement? Is it a necessity? Superfluous? If necessary- which brand is best? best method for consumption?

I'm debating about getting a blender but a friend of mine on a raw diet swears by it. He blends lots of veggies and fruits to create shakes. Is this something that would help with my fat loss efforts?
Click to expand...

Any suplement is just that, a suplement to a good, balanced diet to perhaps simplify or insure getting enough of so,me nutrient. If you can't get enough protien from eating real food, then some sort of spplement might help. Whey powder is generally considered the easiest to assimilate and most balanced protien supplement. I usually drink a whey protien shake before my morning workouts since it digests quickly and then you know your body will have some protien available after the workout. I like the low carb stuff BioLabs () sells because it tastes good and mixes easily.

Remember, a good diet of real food is 98% of what you need to concentrate on. Supplements are the last 2% to worry about after you have everything else dialed in. I'm not sure why your friend doesn't just eat his fruits and vegetables intead to pureeing them. The salvia you mix in while chewing is the first step of the digestive process. Also, a lot of juicers seperate out the pulp and leave you without the fiber content that you also need.
 
No. I wouldn't say I'm skinny fat. I work out 1~2 hours 5-6 days a week. 80% strength training with free weights and 20% cardio- a combination of cycling classes & swimming. I kayak 6 hours on the weekend (now that the season has begun). Which leads me to another question- is it worthwhile to purchase a body composition scale so I can see my body fat percentage? Last time I checked (over a year ago) I was at 12%. And 10% of that is probably all in my stomach :SaiyanSmilie_anim:

I'm certainly not afraid of muscle. I'm just more focused on getting more defined vs. just getting bigger. That said for someone my size how much should I be lifting? I use 8lb to 10lb dumbbells for arms (15~20 reps), dead lift 30lbs (12 reps), chest press 45 lbs (15 reps), leg press (30 reps)- I use the men's machine with 20lbs added (the kind where you sit almost vertically on the ground). If anyone cares to see I can send them my exercise routines.


So what is everyone's thoughts on the below:

1. whey protein as a supplement- are these really that effective?

2. body composition scale- is the technology accurate?

3. how much weight should someone my size should be lifting?


Thanks for everyone help!
 
Last edited:
Derwyddon said:
I stated something simular, that she probably needs to gain a little muscle first, but she says otherwise. And truthfully, we haven't seen pictures, we don't know. So we have to go based on the assumptions she has given us.

To the OP- I do believe hun you might not have the required muscle to do what you'r ehoping to do. I know muscle can sound scary, but the right amount for a woman will make you look "toned" not bulky.
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If you look at my original post I've gained about 10lbs since I started weight training. I would guess with confidence that those 10lbs are all muscle gains since my weight have held steady at 92~96lbs for years until I started training with a trainer. Now I'm lifting more aggressively.
 
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