training w/ no change STILL
 

I don't get it. I spend a lot of time Kung Fu training. I spend a minimum of 1.5 hours three days a week, mostly 4 days a week. The calculation says that 1.5 hours is somewhere around 800 calories. I don't even count that in my food calorie counting. I keep my calories below 1500, with only the ocassional slip up and even when that happens, I don't go above 1800. I SHOULD be dropping the weight. But I remain the same.

The training is very diverse, one day is simply calisthenics building strength, the rest is literally kicking, punching, moving across the floor at good clips. HARD workouts. I SHOULD be losing. I've never worked out this hard in my life, the time I lost the baby weight b4, I was doing Denise Austin's workouts that were on tv. NOT EVEN CLOSE to what I do now. And I lossed more weight then and a lot faster. What in the world!!! I'm not talking just weight either. I know I have more muscle content than b4, but my waist line is still about 2 inches bigger than where I was b4 my last child. !!!!!! Getting soooo frustrated. Is this just my body from now on!!!

My wife was the same as you without the massive workout though. She started to eat healthy and it took almost two months before the scale moved any.... then she lost steady for 50 lbs over the next 6 months.

How long have you been doing this? Can you give an example of your food intake for a typical day?

If you've been doing this for more than a month, I would say you're miscalculating your calories in some way. (unless you're taking medication, or you eat a lot of salt in your diet.) Start drinking close to a gallon of water a day and make sure your calorie calculations are spot on. I've never witnessed someone to eat so few calories and workout but not lose weight.

A list of foods would be hard because I watch my calories, but don't stick to the same thing all the time. I don't watch my salt and their are some days that it could be considered high. I will start watching that, thanks. I have about 8 oz of coffee every morning (fill my mug) w/ 1 oz of creamer and 1.5 TBS of sugar. Can coffee effect it?
Most mornings I finish half, some all. I don't usually eat until 10 a.m. or so. PB&J is staple on Kung fu days b/c it gives best energy w/o making me sick. Otherwise ham sandwich (cld be sodium problem there)
No meds.
I drink water only (besides coffee) and have diet soda once or twice a week, usually weekends. My snacks are cherries now, otherwise chobani or stoneyfield yogurt. Dinner is a regular meal. I've always thought I have calculated accurately, using scale for the last month.

Length of time at Kung fu is 1 year 2mos, watching very carefully calories about 3 months. I lost 5 lbs, then the last 4 weeks, completely stable.

Will watch salt and be extremely careful on weekends, which is where I might be slipping up. I'm messing up somewhere.

You say, you know you're building muscle and not losing fat in your belly. I am not sure things aren't as they should be. You'll have to be patient. Have your body fat measured and measure it again in one month. If overall fat content is lowering, then it's just a matter of time before the belly sheds away. Good luck.

good point, i also have the same problem, exercising, and watching very carefully what i eat somehow using zone diet, but for the last few wekks, i have been stuck at the same weight as well. but my BF% has dropped from 38% to 34.5% during this same time. i know it's supposed to be a good thing, but don't understand what exactly it means. could anyone please translate this for me? TIA.

What does it mean when your weight stays the same, but your body fat percentage drops? I believe it means your body is burning fat for energy to make up for your calarie in/out deficet. At the same time, your body is building muscle to keep up with the effort /energy spent in the gym. So the loss of fat and the gain of muscle (weight-wise) is a wash.

When you list off the foods you are eating, it sounds like it's mostly carbs, low-cal, low-fat, healthy carbs, but carbs all the same. You might need to up your protein intake and keep the calorie intake about the same and see if that doesn't make a difference. I hit a plateau eating 1,300/day with about 50-50% carbs, but when I boost my protein to 30-40% I can eat 1,600 and still keep the scale dropping. But it's a little different for everyone.

Yes, my carbs are at about 50 to 55%, always. My protein on a high day can reach 23, but mostly hovers around 14 or so, sometimes less. I tried for one week to increase the protein, but it was pure torture ;). I didn't see a difference after one week, but I guess I can try harder. Ugh. I bought some soy protein powder (supposed to be good for building, I think, while whey is supposed to be great for repairing) I might have it backwards. I figure my diet contains mostly milk and animal protein and lack in the vegetable based protein. I also tried to add lentils as a natural way of introducing it. Anyway, protein powder, yuck. But when I do make myself take it I have no problem getting my protein up around 25%. Now lowering the carbs, that will be difficult.

I was really hoping that just exercising the way I do now and keeping the general calories down would do it for me. Manipulating my diet is harder for me than just working harder.

I really appreciate all of your help, here. The ideas keep me thinking and give me something to try.

How long do you guys think that it should take to fully test out a diet tweak? Two weeks (one ;).