Hi all,
Some background on me: I'm a 24 year old male, who's 5'5". I've managed to lose about 45 pounds over the last year, coming down from 185 to about 140 where I am now.
My goal is to reach 130. However, I've been stuck on 140 for quite a while now. Up until that point, I had been doing solely dieting and cardio, but increasing the amount of cardio and reducing my calorie intake just didn't result in any more weight loss.
I decided to add some strength training in the hope to build some muscle and hopefully kick start my metabolism and get me back to losing weight. For two weeks this seemed to work wonders and I (seemingly) started losing a few pounds. (I say seemingly because my weight seems to fluctuate greatly over a day and weeks, making it sometimes hard to tell if I've actually lost a pound or two.)
However, for the last week and a half, that trend seems to be reversing itself. The few pounds I thought I had lost have come back, and a few more. I thought that this might be due to increased muscle mass, but from looking in the mirror, my muscles don't seem to have increased at all.
Moreover, my exercise progress seems to be going backwards. I can't do as many push-ups as I could before, and the speed on my stationary bike when I do cardio isn't as high as it used to be. I would think if I was gaining muscle these would be improving instead of regressing.
My current exercise regime is as follows:
On "Even" days:
3 Reps of 25 crunches
3 Reps of push-ups until exhaustion
50 minutes on my stationary bike going roughly 17.4 MPH
On "Odd" days:
2 Reps of 25 crunches
2 Reps of push-ups until exhaustion
2 Reps of dumb-bell arm curls until exhaustion
1 Rep of "shrugs" until exhaustion
1 Rep of flat chest presses until exhaustion
50 minutes on my stationary bike going roughtly 17.4 MPH
I do these all in one block, with no breaks in between. I use 10 pound dumb-bells.
Fridays is my rest day. I don't do any exercise at all on that day.
As for my diet, I maintain a very strict 1600 calorie a day limit, and try to avoid going over 40 grams of fat a day (which I succeed at roughly 95% of the time).
Any strength training I do right now is limited to dumb-bell exercises since thats all I currently own.
Anyone have any suggestions about what I could be doing wrong? My primary goals is to lose 10 more pounds (and hopefully in the process burn enough fat to get rid of my gut!).
Some background on me: I'm a 24 year old male, who's 5'5". I've managed to lose about 45 pounds over the last year, coming down from 185 to about 140 where I am now.
My goal is to reach 130. However, I've been stuck on 140 for quite a while now. Up until that point, I had been doing solely dieting and cardio, but increasing the amount of cardio and reducing my calorie intake just didn't result in any more weight loss.
I decided to add some strength training in the hope to build some muscle and hopefully kick start my metabolism and get me back to losing weight. For two weeks this seemed to work wonders and I (seemingly) started losing a few pounds. (I say seemingly because my weight seems to fluctuate greatly over a day and weeks, making it sometimes hard to tell if I've actually lost a pound or two.)
However, for the last week and a half, that trend seems to be reversing itself. The few pounds I thought I had lost have come back, and a few more. I thought that this might be due to increased muscle mass, but from looking in the mirror, my muscles don't seem to have increased at all.
Moreover, my exercise progress seems to be going backwards. I can't do as many push-ups as I could before, and the speed on my stationary bike when I do cardio isn't as high as it used to be. I would think if I was gaining muscle these would be improving instead of regressing.
My current exercise regime is as follows:
On "Even" days:
3 Reps of 25 crunches
3 Reps of push-ups until exhaustion
50 minutes on my stationary bike going roughly 17.4 MPH
On "Odd" days:
2 Reps of 25 crunches
2 Reps of push-ups until exhaustion
2 Reps of dumb-bell arm curls until exhaustion
1 Rep of "shrugs" until exhaustion
1 Rep of flat chest presses until exhaustion
50 minutes on my stationary bike going roughtly 17.4 MPH
I do these all in one block, with no breaks in between. I use 10 pound dumb-bells.
Fridays is my rest day. I don't do any exercise at all on that day.
As for my diet, I maintain a very strict 1600 calorie a day limit, and try to avoid going over 40 grams of fat a day (which I succeed at roughly 95% of the time).
Any strength training I do right now is limited to dumb-bell exercises since thats all I currently own.
Anyone have any suggestions about what I could be doing wrong? My primary goals is to lose 10 more pounds (and hopefully in the process burn enough fat to get rid of my gut!).
Last edited: