What am I doing wrong?

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kyushusho

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ok, so background info first. I am a 155 lbs 19 year old male. all of that seems pretty average and it is, but after losing a lot of weight a couple years ago i still have a belly/ flab that i used to be able to live with but now is frustrating me. this summer while im home from college, aside from working an 11 hour a day on weekday job i decided i would try to rid myself of the flab once and for all. I went back to dieting like i had a couple years before and now breakfast is one bowl of raisin bran, lunch is plain lunch meat chicken sandwich with a 100 calorie thing of yogurt, and dinner is the same as lunch. around 7 or 8 in the evening i do a run a block/ walk a block thing for a few miles around my neighborhood, its been about a month and a half and I have seen no progress at all, any suggestions on more things i should do or eat? remember i work 11 hours every weekday so time for things is limited and i do not have a membership to any gyms because i will be going back to college in about another month and a half.


Thanks! :0)
 
Do you have any way of doing some strength training? Even body weight training? Even if you can only do it on your days off, it will be much more beneficial than doing only cardio for exercise. If you can build up some muscle mass, then you will help your body be better at burning calories throughout the day.
 
yea i have a weight bench in the garage and some dumbbells, did you have any specific strength training or body weight exercises in mind?
 
Sometimes the task is difficult due to time restraints, obligations etc. If this is the case for you, no need to stress. Making use of supplements in your quest to loosing few more pounds of fat shouldn’t be an afterthought; rather you should make it a staple in your daily routine.

If you are not gaining muscle or loosing fat, you are not eating right! Plain and simple. Calories in must less calories out and if you keep up with this protocol you will shift your weight. I’m going to take a look at putting on size in an intelligent manner. Remember, you can’t flex fat so why add it to your physique. Let’s take a look at some great ways to put on mass without blurring the effects of your training by adding unwanted and useless fat.


To ensure your mass gaining program is on point with keeping to a fitness lifestyle, there are some foods you want to include in your diet and foods you should probably stay away from. In the past, we would try to gain as much bodyweight as possible with no real concern for added fat. The idea was as long as they were in caloric surplus, then muscle was being added and they’d get rid of the fat when the time came. History proved to show us was that adding all of that bodyweight ended up being counterproductive when it came time to lose the fat.

Food Choices[/b]

The three macronutrient groups fitness people concern themselves with are: Proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Here are my top three choices for mass gaining foods in each group along with my reasoning behind the choice

Proteins:[/b]


Lean red meat – has a high calorie to serving ratio due in part to the higher fat content. It contains many of the amino acids you need and at 27-35 grams of protein per 100 gram serving, it’s a great way to up your protein intake without adding too much quantity in one meal.
 
Breakfast: some type of cereal or a 100 calorie Yoplait fat free yogurt


Lunch: deli meat chicken (3 slices) sandwich either plain or with mustard and a Yoplait fat free yogurt


Dinner: deli meat chicken (3 slices) sandwich either plain or with mustard and a Yoplait fat free yogurt


with all meals I drink water and dont have snacks in between


when counting calories this total for the day comes to around 700-900 calories
 
Calories seem very low. I would start by researching BMR and figuring out how many calories you should be eating to maintain weight and then scale that number back slightly. The fat2fitradio website has some decent information and a BMR Calculator. If you dip too far below your BMR calories requirements your body could be starting to hold onto the pounds.
 
Originally Posted by kyushusho


yea i have a weight bench in the garage and some dumbbells, did you have any specific strength training or body weight exercises in mind?


If you look here: http://www.fitness.com/exercises/ you should be able to find exercises that will work for you. You want to make sure that your exercises cover all of the major muscle groups. People tend to focus on the front of their upper body and neglect the legs and back. As a very basic starting point, try to find 8-10 exercises and do 2 or 3 sets of 10-15 repetitions. This is just a basic program to get your body used to lifting weights.
 
You definitely need to eat more calories! You are starving yourself and your body is going into starvation mode. When you crash diet and don't work out, the fat will go away but you will be left with lots of extra skin. Your body needs nutrition to sustain itself and work properly, even when you want to loose weight.


Your BMR is 1817? If you want to loose weight, you need to subtract 500 calories from that. I've found the best way to do that is cut 200 calories from your diet, and burn 300 calories through exercise. Takes me 30 minutes to burn that with a combo of the elliptical and running.


You MUST add strength training! You have a weight bench and dumbbells? Great. Before you run that mile (and make yourself go at least a mile! Don't forget, you must burn 200-300 calories), work out different muscle groups. Legs can be squats and walking lunges. You can hold weights to increase the intensity. Arms can be biceps, triceps, push ups, dips...there are a lot of exercises, look them up. Shoulders and chest can be flys, more push ups, etc. And abs can be done every day. There are hundreds of ab exercises you can do! Work to keep good form, not just do as many as you can. Keep your lower back to the ground as much as possible. You can do crunches, planks, twists...there are SO many ab exercises out there!


Do a combo of cardio and strength training, eat right (don't starve yourself!) and you should see resuls.
 
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