Stuck when I shouldn' be stuck. Please help!

[dubsessed]

Stuck when I shouldn't be stuck. Please help!

Hi everyone. Long time lurker, first time poster here.

Let me give you a short run-down of where I'm currently at:

Started at around 440 lbs. Lost 110 lbs until now, in about 12-13 months, just eating right, counting calories, and almost no exercise (did some cardio in the beginning, but then stopped).
On 1st of January I made a decision, as I was (actually AM) very motivated, to start working out and generally do it by the book and lose at least another 110 by year's end. So I bought a stationary bike to work out on, started eating even more controlled and started drinking lots of water. I made a short term goal of 44 lbs in 3 months (by 1st of April).

It's been 2 weeks of this and I've had NO results. Still at 330 lbs. I've been working out 40-45 minutes every day, 7 days a week. Some days I walk. This weekend I've painted a room in my house, lots of exercise. I think I'm working out correctly on the bike as I get really really sweaty and try to keep my heart rate up.
I drink around 3l of water each day. This is what I eat:

- Morning: oatmeal made with soy milk and a few raisins and brown sugar. Maybe 1 whole wheat sandwich. Drink water.
- Lunch: cabbage salad with chicken breast, around 150g of chicken breast. Drink some more water.
- Snack: recently added since there was a long time between lunch and dinner and this was not good for several reasons: 1 whole wheat sandwich with...something. Drink more water.
- Dinner: either more cabbage and chicken breast (150-200-250g) or some veggies with chicken breast or 1-2 potatoes and chicken breast. Drink more water.
- Don't eat ~3 hours before going to sleep.

Don't know my daily calorie intake, but in the past I've eaten more, didn't exercise and lost up to 3 lbs in some weeks, and I'm not talking about the beginning when you lose weight like crazy the first few weeks.

What the hell is going on? It is really disheartening when you're motivated like hell, try to force water in you, eat right, exercise every day and see no results...

I would say that my (current, LOL, went through so many pants until now) pants have gotten looser, but I can't tell for sure because I'm freaking paranoid about this.

Just can't explain what's happening. I've been stuck at this weight for 3 weeks and can't budge. I need advice, so please help.

EDIT: Should mention that I weigh myself each week, on Sunday morning. The weight has been the same each week past these 3 weeks. Also, I messed up the title, so can a mod please correct it? Thank you.

 

[Monster2]

Um... is your scale stuck?
If not, do a search for PLATEAU, because it's been discussed quite a bit.
Sorry I can't be of any more help, because I don't really know much more than that.
...
Oh.. and
WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!

 

[JanetJ]

Hey Dubsessed,

Sounds like you're headed in the right direction. But a few things stand out.

I agree with Monster that you should look for information on plateaus. There are many, many reasons why our weight loss efforts can stall. It's not always a simple calories-in calories-out formula.

Diet: You may not be eating enough! You're a large person. We have to eat a certain number of calories every day just to survive. This is called our Basal Metabolic Rate. This doesn't include any movement at all.

Your body needs more energy just to exist than mine does.

If you're eating less than your body needs to stay alive, and you throw a lot of activity on top of that, your body may get to a point where it's wondering when it will be fed enough. So, it slips into a starvation mode where it lowers your metabolism, which prevents wasted energy, and here's the kicker, your body holds on to fat to save energy for later.

So no matter what you try to do to lose the fat, your body says, "no way! Not until you feed me!"

There's a ton of information out there about calculating the right caloric intake so that you don't starve your body and you continue to lose fat.

A popular way to look at it is to set your caloric intake now as though you're already at your goal weight. Include your basal metabolic rate (the amount of calories needed to stay alive), plus your normal daily activities (do you sit at a desk all day, or have an active job), and, finally, the amount of exercise you do daily, weekly. This is how you will eat for life! So chose foods that are healthy, but that you love!

I can't go into too much detail here, but the information's out there.

Exercise: Are you lifting weights? You should be. There is no better way to burn fat than intense exercise. Weight lifting should be part of everyone's routine, especially if you are trying to lose fat and burn a lot of calories all day long.

It also helps to maintain muscle loss during a fat loss program. If I could only chose one method of exercise it would be weight training.

Cardio: Steady state cardio (say half and hour at the same pace) will not help you lose fat. Your body quickly adapts to this type of exercise and if you do the same thing day in and day out, you end up burning half the calories during the exercise that you did in the beginning. (This only takes about 4 weeks.) You need to up the intensity and change up your workouts every month.

Incorporate Interval training into your workouts. Check these out online as well. They are essential for fat loss. You only need 20 min. twice a week along with weight training sessions.

I hope this helps. Do some research. There is good information out there.

Google: High Intensity Interval Training
And calculating Basal Metabolic Rate and caloric intake for fat loss.

The only other thing I can add is that whatever you do, make sure you can do it for life. Make sure that your whole eating, exercise program is something that will, eventually, fit with YOUR life. Make it part of who you are and what makes you feel good. This is the only way to get out of the cycle.

Good Luck!

Cheers!

Janet

 

[dubsessed]

Janet, thank you for your detailed reply.

I am currently looking into HIIT. Can I do HIIT on my stationary bike? Pedal as fast as I can for 30 seconds, then resume to a normal pace for 1 minute, than go all-out again, repeat this for 30 minutes? I guess it's not nearly as intensive as doing an all-out sprint, but I don't want to run just yet, still have a lot of weight on my joints.

Should I up my calorie intake for a few days (2-3) and do HIIT at the same time?

I'm treating this as if it is a plateau, but I've done a bit of research and found out it could be muscle mass weight gain. Is this plausible, considering I did no exercise before these 2 weeks?

Please offer your input regarding ways to break this plateau.

 

[core_elements]

Hey dubsessed

Couple of suggestions:

Nutrition:

You are not eating enough. At 330lbs you should be consuming more calories than you are, and this is apparent considering you haven't lost any weight with exercise.

My suggestion would be to get on a calorie tracking website (I use fitnesspal.com with my clients) and track what you're currently eating. Give me a breakdown of both the calories and macronutrients (carbs, protein, fat) that you are currently intaking and we can go from there.

With that being said - you can lose weight and it not be fat - if you've been too deep in a calorie deficit for too long you could actually be burning muscle.

Exercise:

You are not in a plateau. Plateauing happens at different stages for different people but you're new to exercise. And unless you've been doing weight bearing activities you also haven't put on any muscle. You are simply not eating enough to support the calories being burned throughout your day.

As far as the HIIT is concerned you can use a stationary. 30 seconds hard and fast, 60 seconds active rest. Keep total duration to about 15 minutes and perform maximum 3 times per week. I would suggest 1 long duration (30) and 2 HIIT coupled with weight training.

You need to start some weight conditioning exercises to either maintain or increase muscle (relevant to your basal metabolic rate). If you go to my profile page the link to my website is there and I've posted a couple of workouts that do not require equipment.

Good job so far