Need advice! Did I hit my plateau?!

[Liquid Sky]

Hello all,

My name is Mark. I am new to this site/forum. I just started working out Nov. 26th 2011. I have never worked out in the past at all. I am 31 and before I started working out I weighed 303lbs. 2 weeks later (today) I am 289.4lbs. Let me explain a little about my topic. I got a personal trainer (2 sessions) and a membership to my local XSport Fitness. They evaluated me to have 34.8% body fat. My body uses 3500 calories a day just sitting around. My trainer wants me to strength train and cardio. I bought a polar fitness watch and started to monitor my heart rate.

Zone 1 is from 125-132
Zone 2 is from 133-150
Zone 3 is from 151-169

and my max HR is 189. My trainer is awesome. He insists that I keep my HR at 151 and above as much as I can. That's all fine and dandy but I read on here Zone 2 is fat burning. My watch also tells me what % of calories are from fat. When my HR is above 151 only 10% of calories are from fat. When I keep my HR from 133-150 it goes up to 15-20% calories from fat.

Now for my diet. My diet has changed dramatically. I used to eat whatever I wanted till I was stuffed maybe once or twice a day. Now I eat every 3 hours. Here is the strict schedule:

9am - coffee w/creamer and a multivitamin
11am - 2 egg whites, slice of American cheese (for fats), and 2 carrot sticks (or celery sticks) about the size of my middle finger
2pm - protein shake
2:30pm - Work out
5pm - 1 Italian seasoned chicken breast (baked w/no oil), small side of blanched veggies (assorted w/no butter)
8pm - Protein bar
11pm - handful of raw almonds
1pm - bed

I have quadrupled my water intake as well. This diet I was told (by my trainer) will make my metabolism streamlined and effective. I am never hungry and I feel like a million bucks when energy is a factor. Now for my work out.

I am at the gym 5 days a week for 1hr to 1 1/2hr depending how drained I am. During this time I do:

- 30 min of the bike keeping my HR in Zone 2
I then use the free motion weights to strength train
- dead lift (30lbs 10 reps)
- ab machine (the one where you bend over holding the straps at 60-70lbs usually 20-30 reps)
- lats (30lbs 10 reps)
- curl (30lbs 10 reps)
- legs (2 machines - lifting up and down 60 up 70 down at 15-20 reps)

I strength train until I am worn out which is usually 30 min. Then I head back to the bike for another 30 min of Zone 2 HR.

My preexisting injuries:
- Left knee (arthroscopic surgery to fix my kneecap)
- Back (pinched nerves)
- Smoker (1/2 pack a day reduced from more than a pack a day)
- Heart (family history of heart disease)



I have kept this up for 2 weeks now and I have lost 14lbs!! Everyone tells me its water weight but I am ok with that. I feel amazing!! So here is my issue/questions. I made this really cool fitness tracker in excel and have a neat graph displaying my weight loss. This is mainly for a visual way for me to notice a plateau. I weigh myself daily before my workout. Each day I was dropping anywhere from 1 to 2lbs!! These past 2 days I have stayed the same at 289.4lbs. My questions are:

1.) Is this the beginning of my plateau? If so what do I do to get over this?
2.) Is eating all this protein the way to go? I am ok with it but am I on overload?
3.) Was the 14lbs I lost really water weight?
4.) Is Zone 2 where I want to be to lose fat or should I work for Zone 3 all the time?
5.) Is there anything else I can do to lose weight as fast as possible?
6.) Is there any other supplements I can use to aid in my weight loss?

I have searched around the forum as much as possible but nothing really pertained to my issue. I cant pay for a trainer like I would love to because he is expensive and I am not rich. I would greatly appreciate ANY advice you can give me on this. I really appreciate you taking the time to read this as well. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

 

[PLB_old]

In my honest opinion, you should ease off of taking your weight every day because it sounds like it's causing you to become stressed and that is not going to help your weight loss. 2 days is not a plateau, but your weight loss will often slow down after the initial phase of weight loss. Take a deep breath, back away from the scale, keep going to the gym and following your diet (although your diet could be improved somewhat - this article might help Nutrition 101 – www.body-improvements.com.... Give yourself at least a few more weeks before worrying about a plateau

 

[jkjk8991]

I'd just like to say a couple things before answering your questions. Firstly, it seems you're diet is almost nil, haha, that is an intensely low amount of calories, if you think you can sustain this for multiple months then more power to you, but also remember your body will start burning lean tissue if your deficit is so great. At your weight I'd say you could definitely be losing around 4 or 5 pounds a week safely, but as the weight drops it should slow down, remember, the slower the weight comes off the more "fat" it is and not lean muscle or water. Couple things i would suggest would be taking your multivitamin with a meal, maybe wait until 11, my vitamins at least say on them to take with food, this helps them to be absorbed/function properly. Another thing is watch out for the protein bars, alot of them have unnecessary amounts of sugars and other bad stuff, maybe look into a simple tub of casein or whey protein and make shakes.

Now the reason your trainer wants to keep your heart up over 150 is to work out your cardio more, get your heart and lungs healthier especially if you have a history of heart disease and smoke. Even though you burn less percentage from fat you will be burning more overall calories, therefore, more fat calories simply because the amount. Now to get to your questions.

1) I severly doubt it is, my bet is this "plateau" is simply that the first couple weeks you lost a ton of food//water weight on top of the fat. Most people aim for around 1-2 pounds a week, so if you're hitting even 4 or 5 pounds a week you're doing well. I'd suggest not weighing in every day but rather once a week, people get too caught up on what the scales say, listen and watch your body and you'll be fine.
2) No, i doubt you're overloading, I myself consume near 150 grams of protein a day and I weight around 200 pounds. You're body is looking for amino acids to sustain your muscle/lifestyle so the protein will help with that.
3) It wasn't all water weight, just some. You'll know for sure once your losses begin to level out and being consistent, in any case dont let that discourage you! And be sure to drink plenty of water, burning fat, you need water.
4) Zone 3 will give you results quicker for you'll be burning more calories in general and from fat, but I'd suggest not going too crazy as you'll be tearing up your muscle for fuel as well. A healthy mixture of the two would be optimal.
5) There's not much else you can do I'm afraid, the key is being consistent, losing weight sucks because it does take time. Get prepared for the long haul. If you really want to lose more weight you could take some sort of "cleanse" or buy some acai juice, heavy antioxidants that'll basically make you lose a but of toxins/water weight, but probably won't aid much in actual fat loss.
6) Supplements, again maybe and antioxidant like acai berry or juice but it really won't be that helpful. I wouldn't recommend a thermogenic for someone with a history of heart disease, I tried em once and it threw my blood pressure through the roof, hypertension at age 19! If you find your appetite is a big problem and want to spend the money you could find some sort of appetite suppressant or a green tea extract but again, only if you really want to spend the money, the results in my opinion aren't worth the money or discomfort. A good multivitamin is all I'd suggest really, keep your proteins up especially on a low carb diet, you'll be tearing up muscle apart.

Best of luck man, commitment is key!

 

[Liquid Sky]

Thanks for the great replies! I had a cheat day and man do I feel guilty haha. I will keep it up...7 months to get down to 225 is logical....I am 6 foot 2 inches and now 290.