Will This Approach Work (Good or Bad)...
 

I am male, 35 (almost), 5 ft 9 in. weigh 240 now. I just checked my maintenance calories and it said 2,949. To lose weight it recommended 1,900-2,300. I am thinking about sticking to the low end of that. I do weights 3 times a week and cardio three times a week, sometimes after weights. I need to see results as I am getting very discouraged. I know many preach about losing muscle if not meeting calories each day, etc.

Any ideas???

How intensely are you lifting? It may be that instead of your body just shedding fat in the form of weight loss, you're ALSO gaining muscle at a similar rate.

One thing that has worked for me is follow the caloric zig-zag "diet" found @ Calorie Calculator - Daily Caloric Needs I've found this to be exceedingly helpful when combined with lifting because then not only is my body constantly repairing different areas (upper vs lower body) but it is also kept guessing as to just how much fuel it will be burning!

Also, you're weight loss may be slower than others if you have medical conditions such as insulin resistance since that affects your body's ability to properly breakdown, store, and use the fuel that you are providing it.

My final bit of advice: I recommend that you cross-post this in the Men's Only forum, since you are male, there are probably some other men in there who have gone through what you're describing!

Good luck!

NOTE: I am female

How long have you been at it? As, in a caloric defecit and integrating weight training + cardio into your daily/weekly routine?

How strict with your calories have you been? Are you counting/weighing everything? I ask just to make sure you are accurately hitting your target calories and not "guesstimating".

If you are trying to shed body fat but don't want to lose muscle, just make sure that you are getting adequate protein and getting quality resistance training and consistently to stimulate your muscles. The caloric defecit is what's going to burn body fat.

I know you're on here pretty regularly, you are tracking your Food Log, and from your Signature a 5 lb. loss over the course of a month isn't bad. The only thing I can think of is to make sure you are being insanely honest with your calories.

My weight lifting workouts are pretty intense, but not crazy intense. I am doing my best at counting everything I consume. I had my wife's homemade pizza last night. How do you find the macros for that on fitday (probably can't)? It had regular crust and mozzarella cheese, but everything else came from the garden. Tomatoes, peppers, etc.

This is going to sound dumb. I have been at this for almost three weeks, but every time I look in the mirror, I see my gut. It is like no progress is being made.

Hey there,

I hope you don't mind another female responding, but I thought about a few things while reading this thread...

- Losing 5 lbs is awesome! Instead of thinking about how far you have to go, look at how far you've already come! You didn't put the weight on overnight and you won't lose it overnight, either. Weight loss that happens too fast is usually water weight (which will come right back) and muscle (which you don't want to lose!). Fat loss takes time. It's an unfortunate fact of life. =)

- You might want to think about upping your cardio to 5-7 days per week instead of 3. It's awesome that you're strength training and getting some cardio in, a couple extra walks or jogs a week might help. Cardio torches calories like none other!

- Make sure you're tracking everything you eat. For your wife's pizza (yum!) you can enter each ingredient separately (crust, cheese, tomatoes, etc.) or you can just enter generic "pizza." Either one will be better than not tracking it at all! While you're tracking, check out your percentages of carbs, protein, and fat. Change it up a little bit and find a combination that works for you.

Keep up the good work. You can do it!

I can tell you what has worked for me is to keep doing just like you're doing, BUT on the weights, lower the weight and increase the reps with 20-30 seconds in between reps. I know a lot of folks have had success with lifting heavy and I hope to get back to that after I get to my goal weight. I have been starting with a 15 minute walk/jog. Then 45 minute circuit weights, trying to do 12-15 reps of 3 sets of 8-9 different exercises with little rest in between then follow-up with 30 minutes on either bike, stepper or elliptical. I have been doing this 4 - 5 times per week then one day I just do an hour jog.
I have done this over the past 8 months and about 1 week a month I will lift heavy and found I may even be a little stronger.
I have tried to watch what I eat and stay at 2000- 2600 calories a day and journal my calories and activities on fitday. I know a lot of folks on here disagree with this and lord knows I'm not an expert so I will not argue on if this is best or not but it has helped me drop 68 pounds since Thanksgiving.
Good luck.

Make sure you're getting at least 190-200g of protein a day and I see no reason why you can't eat extremely low calories.

I'm going to second the protein thing. Make sure that your calorie pie chart has at least 30% proteins, if not a little higher. Everyone is a little different but I'm have fairly decent results with 40-40-20 (carbs, proteins, fats). If you're not losing steadily it might not be your calories so much as what those calories are made of. I might also recommend that you lift weights after cardio, that might help you increase the benefits of the calorie after burn you get with a good hard cardio session. You didn't mention how long you're cardio workout is, but you might want to increase it to at least an hour, or maybe a bit more. I do cardio 5 days a week for about 75 minutes each, with a goal of 700-800 calories of burn. I was at an hour, but increased it after I dropped 75 pounds and hit a hard plateau. Because of course the less you weigh, the fewer calories your workout burns - which is soooo not fair.

Thanks for the replies and all the ideas. Some I have tried, and some I have thought about trying. I know that I haven't given the change enough time. How in the world do you guys get in 180-190 grams of protein? I would love to and just can't seem to do it. Money wise especially. I know my cardio sessions need to be longer.

Thanks again.

I did a quick skim of your thread and noticed that you had a pizza with the homemade crust. It is great that all of the toppings were from the garden, but flour (wheat) and anything that causes a spike in your insulin level will ensure that you will be fighting a losing battle.

Eliminate grains, eat high protein, keep your carb count to under 100 gms per day and if you really want to have the weight drop off, reduce that number to 50 or less and eat a high % of 'good fats'. Olive oil, uncured bacon, butter, beef fat, avocado, fats from nuts, etc are some good sources.

Check out Mark's Daily Apple for some real success stories and use fitday.com to track your %'s and you will find things start to change for you.

RE: exercise: Lift heavy things, sprint, incorporate a short, but intense workout or three in your week (crossfit is great) and combine with the elimination of grains and you will see results, fast. Your cardio sessions optimally should be long and slow (heart rate at between 55-75% of max). Go for a long easy to moderate hike once or twice a week and combined with the others (again, I highly recommend crossfit) and you will be dropping weight like crazy.

Good luck.

Tuna is a great way to get protein into your diet, 26 grams in a small can and it costs less than a dollar (well at my grocery store it does). Other good sources are Greek yogurt (15g), ff cottage cheese (13g in 1/2 cup), rf cheese (varies), eggs, protein bars (10-24g depending on variety), whey protein powder (11-24g depending on the brand), almonds, milk, chicken and fish are also pretty high in protein.

I would try to eat 1500 calories a day for a week and see if you see results (I'm sure you will). I'm a fan of low calorie diets the first 2-3 weeks until you see a result and therefore get motivated to continue. Good luck!

Started: July 19, 2010
Starting weight: 187
Current weight: 180
Total lb lost: 7
Total Days: 15
Goal Weight #1: 144
Goal Date: December 19, 2010
Total lb left: 36

MyFitDay Log: http://www.fitday.com/fitness/Public...a_User=vsabino