Need insight into what I may be doing wrong

[dbletl]

I'm a 45 year old female, 5'4" and have weighed between 110-115 throughout my 30's and early 40's. I quit smoking two years ago and gained 30 pounds! My weight is now 142. I joined a gym six weeks ago and also joined My Food Diary which allows me to track everything I eat. In six weeks I have lost next to nothing (2 measly pounds) and I've only lost minimal inches - mostly in the chest (which I would have been happy to keep there!)

I eat a very balanced, healthy diet. I generally eat plain oatmeal every morning with a piece of whole grain toast and some type of fresh fruit; a salad with a very low calorie dressing and some form of protein for lunch such as tuna or chicken. My dinner generally consists of a small portion of meat and lots of veggies. I drink lots of water (about 90 ounces a day) and eat almost zero sugar or refined flour. My snack usually consists of almonds or other nuts. I know for a while I was eating too few calories which probably put my body into starvation mode so now I make a real effort to eat enough calories. I'm probably up to 1300 calories per day now.

I go to the gym six days a week without fail. I usually spend about an hour and half on strength training and that includes my 10 minute cardio warm-up. I've been increasing my reps and weight as needed. An example of my workout schedule is as follows:

Monday - Abs and lower body
Tuesday - An hour of cardio (stationary bike)
Wednesday - Abs and upper body
Thursday - An hour of cardio (treadmill)
Friday - Abs and lower body
Saturday - An hour of cario (elliptical)

It's so disheartening because I've been working so hard. I honestly thought I would see some kind of results by now. It's very discouraging. I thought I was doing everything right but it's just not working. I know it's not a thyroid issue because I had a full physical prior to joining the gym.

I would appreciate any insight anyone might have on why I'm not shedding this extra weight.

 

[steve99]

Can you give any more details on what your hour of cardio consists of?

 

[dbletl]

I'm currently doing cardio three times per week for an hour. On the treadmill I generally will go at 4 mph with a 5% incline. Every ten minutes or so, I will jog at 4.8 mph for about 2 minutes and then drop back down to 3.8 or 4. On the stationary bike, I generally run a varied program at level 8 (there are 30 levels on this particular bike.) On the elliptical I'm at a 2% incline. This machine is toughest for me.

 

[Alibran]

I'm not an expert, but I've read a lot of what the experts have to say on this site, and I've also got some personal experience to work from. So, please feel free to either take or disregard my advice as it suits you

My first thought is that 1300 calories still looks very low. At your weight, maintenance should be 2130. This is calculated by 142(yourweight)x15=maintenance cals. You should be able to eat around 1600 calories a day and still lose 1lb a week, and that doesn't take into account calories burned through exercise. At a very rough guess, looking at the amount of exercise you're doing, and knowing the amount of energy I use in my workouts, you're probably burning 500+ calories a day through exercise.

So, are you recording your food intake accurately?

Assuming you are, when you increased your calories, how long a period did you do this over? What size increments did you increase by? (Ideally, when trying to "reset" your metabolism, you should increase by 50 - 100 calories a week, and you may see some weight gain.)

Did you increase to more than 1300 calories at any stage?

This is important because, to reset your metabolism, you need to increase your daily intake to the number of calories you want your new maintenance level to be. (In your case, this should be around 2100.) Then stay at that level for around 5 - 6 weeks to give your body time to adjust to the new maintenance level. Once you have done all that, you can then decrease your calories again and start losing weight.

It sounds like a very slow process, and I guess it is. But 6 months of not losing weight must be pretty frustrating.

Regarding your workouts, I'm no expert at all, but it's possible that you might be overcomplicating your strength training. Steve (not steve99 who has already posted in your thread, but the other Steve who is very active and well respected on this forum) generally recommends 2 - 3 full body workouts per week, using high weight/low reps, and keeping it to a few exercises that use large muscle groups for people who are trying to lose weight. (High weight is obviously relative to your own strength.) I'm not suggesting that you're making things worse with that you're doing, but there might be a more efficient way of going about it.

Also, you could try mixing up your cardio a bit. Try doing interval training on the treadmill using the incline rather than the speed to change the intervals. (I do this with 2.5 minute intervals, and it's really hard work.) Vary your speed on the elliptical. Maybe increase the incline, but cut down the amount of time you spend on it - spend the rest of the time on something else.

If you think you're up to it, you could try HIIT. If you're not familiar with it, there's a thread explaining exactly how it works. Guide to HIIT

You could try a totally different form of exercise, like swimming, for example. After you've been doing the same types of exercise for a while, your body becomes more efficient at them, so you don't expend so much energy.

You could give yourself a whole week away from diet and exercise, which if you're anything like me might be the hardest thing to do. Give your body time to totally recharge, so you're fully refreshed and energised when you come back to it.

I hope this helps. Like I said, I'm not one of the most knowledgeable people on the forum, but most of this is stuff I've picked up from people who know much more about health and fitness than I do.

 

[Guest]

I'm not an expert either, but between having had a gym trainer once and doing distance running a few years ago, it looks like you may be doing too much at once.

It's good to let your body rest at least two days a week (preferably 3 or 4 when you are just starting out). When you workout you are creating tiny fissures and tears in your muscle tissue. When you sleep (particularly during REM) hormones are released to make your body repair those tears--which also builds up the muscle (and sometimes bone tissue too). Your body needs a break every once in a while or it wears down. You may want to try hitting the gym every other day (4 days a week), and doing 20-40 minutes each time at first. You can gradually add on time later, but definitely give your body a little time to rest each week.

Also, it's a good idea to get good sleep and eat enough calories to account for the extra activity, or your body may kick into starvation mode and you may experience fatigue and injury.

Hope this helps!