Plateau?

M

mwhcrew

New member
I'm a lifelong athlete, I've always been very active and played multiple sports. I took 3-4 months off from September - January due to a foot injury in which time I gained some weight (fat) and lost a lot of muscle. I started getting back in shape in mid-Januray and have been training pretty intensely for about a month now. A typical week consists of:

Monday - Lifting (mostly squats, lunges and plyos incorporating arms and upper body), total of about 90 min usually
Tuesday - Cardio, usually about 90 min, usually interval workouts
Wed - Lifting (same as Mon)
Thursday - Cardio (same as Tues)
Fri - Lifting (Same as Mon)
Sat - Cardio

In addition, I have gaelic football practice usually about once a week and I've been doing a lot of hiking.

Since January I've definitely gotten much fitter, better aerobic capacity, much stronger, but I haven't lost much fat. Which is to say that I'm in better shape but my clothes aren't fitting any better and I don't physically look much better though you can see the difference around my face.

I typically eat about 2000 calories a day, with a good amount of fruits and vegetables and carbs, with the occasional sweets mixed in (I'm not a fan of completely cutting sweets out of a diet, it only makes me crave them and then binge). I'm a 29 year old female.

So my question is, what am I doing wrong? My caloric deficit over the past week has been roughly 700 calories/day, so I should be losing fat. Any thoughts?
 
Are you counting correctly?

If you are being truthful about your calories the weight loss will come. It's inevitable. What you may find is you plateau for 2-3 weeks and one day you are 2-3lbs lighter on the scale. At a deficit of 700 calories/day you will lose 1lbs per week. Most home scales have an error of a couple of lbs anyway unless you have a really good digital scale.

Also, weigh yourself at the same time of day. I get up at 5am and shower/shave/etc and then step on the scale buck naked. If I weigh myself again before I go to bed I will be 2lbs heavier.
 
Maybe try lowering your calories a bit? I shouldn't say that without first asking how much you currently weigh? Are you drinking lots of water every day? Getting enough sleep? Stressed out about anything? Does your diet include a lot of sodium? Things to think about.
 
Right now I'm at about 155. I'd like to lose only about 10 lbs, but like I said for me it's more about inches than weight. I'd really just like my clothes to fit again. I drink about 2L of water a day, plus about a liter while I workout.

Yesterday my food breakdown was:

2137 Calories
72.3g fat (most of it from peanuts, edamame and olive oil spread)
307.6g carbs
74.7g protein
2626.7g sodium

Anything else I should be looking at? Thanks.
 
I would maybe try lowering the calories for a bit and see if that helps. Aim for 1500 and see if that makes any difference. On higher days try to get a good work out in.
 
How sure are you on the 2000 calories? Do you track your food in something like fitday or are you just estimating? I ask because it is really really easy to underestimate your calories and end up with an extra 10-15% which ends up with you losing much slower than you expect.

That would be my first guess as to why you're not seeing much in the way of results. The second guess would be water retention - if you're eating high sodium foods, but if you're not really certain on your calories I'd start there.

Also - how sure are you that you burn 2700 calories in a day? I don't know your weight so it's hard to say for sure, but overestimating calories burned through exercise is also pretty easy to do.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top