Can't lose weight and trying hard

[doutri2]

I had Zumba class Thursday, Hula Hooping class Friday, rode my bike on Saturday, climbed stairs for 30 minutes on Sunday, counted calories all week and still can't lose weight.  

I'm so frustrated.  

[SunsetRunner]

I really recommend you read John Kiefer's "Carb Nite Solution" as to how and when you want to eat carbs and what kind. For athletes who require more carbs during the week, he also has a book called "Carb Back Loading."

I lift weights briefly, but intensely twice a week (~20 minutes per session) as per Doug McGuff's "Body By Science" protocol...another very eye opening read about how conventional exercise is wrecking peoples' bodies and metabolisms, but I digress...

What sort of carbs to eat really depends on your current physiology and activity levels. People who carry larger amounts of body fat require a different protocol than leaner people and what I mean by that is leaner people will be able to handle larger amounts of carbs on their carb nights than higher body fat percentage individuals.

For me, I eat very high fat and moderate protein throughout the day (not uncommon for me to eat 10+ tbsp of butter daily, 4 oz of heavy whipping cream daily, 3+ tbsp of coconut oil daily, 2 avocados daily, 1+ lb of grass-fed beef daily and/or sockeye salmon and/or sardines...I do eat fresh farmers market veggies almost every lunch and dinner, but their fiber content prevents me from counting their carb contribution from being usable carbs) and only introduce large carb spikes to my dinner on the nights I lift weights as well as a monster carb refeed on Sunday nights. The weekday refeeds are large amounts of white rice, starchy potatoes and other insulin spiking glucose foods rather than fructose smearing foods (fruits and such). On my big Sunday carb refeed night, the sky is the limit...French fries, mcflurries, key lime pies, ice cream, donuts...whatever I want really. You want a glucose spike so you'll be ketogenic (fat burning) and reap the benefits of this hormonal resetting of sorts when you wake up the next morning.

Again, it's important to keep in mind that you need to set your carb load frequency and volume based on your current physiology and activity level. If you're struggling to lose lots of weight and not an athlete, you'll probably want to go the one carb night route and not get too too crazy with the volume of carbs you consume at first until your body becomes better at mobilizing and metabolizing body fat. Again, you do this by staying high in dietary saturated lipids (fat makes you skinny and strong, not fat), moderate protein and low carb (30-50 grams of carbs per day depending on your current situation) a majority of the time. Just don't fear fat...it's actually incredibly healthy for you 🙂

Check out a cool documentary called Cereal Killers online if possible.

Some cool blogs to check out:

Body.io (body.io fm podcast) - John Kiefer

Bodybyscience.net (some good Doug McGuff videos on YouTube)

Bulletproofexec.com (bulletproof radio podcast) - Dave Aspery

[elegantspirit]

EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH CEREAL KILLERS! It is the best piece of information and will shift your consciousness on how you perceive nutrition and carbs especially.  Totski you hit the nail on the head so many times.  We go to the gym and see so many people wasting their time with a workout that does not help them at all.  I am sure you know about the H.I.T. intervala training which it appears is what you are doing.  We have to re-set the metabolic clock and I loved what you wrote.  Hopefully many people will read and heed your words!

[English-David]

Hello, without “being the expert” but been training for the last 30+ years military and civil, my “old boy” experience would suggest you are over training to some degree. If you would Google “aerobic and anabolic” and have a read up, it does cover the issues you are writing about I feel.

In essence when you go pass your burn state, your body enters survival mode and depending who you listen to, stops burning fat and uses muscle fuel for the balance of your workout as a safety mechanism!

I use the Polar website for the formula which is a heart rate of 220 minus your age = your maximum burn rate. 70% of this is your peak figure for burning fat no matter what you are doing, you just need a heart rate monitor or use your gym equipment to measure, most people over train! Fact…

Most of all enjoy and Intelligent training.

Best Regards

David

[SunsetRunner]

Hi David,

Great point and I completely agree with you. Have you also looked into HRV
or Heart Rate Variability to help track your level of recovery so you avoid
training while your body is still in a recovery state?

I find this much more useful than just simple heart rate tracking as it's a
more holistic approach to understanding all of the stresses your body is
trying to recover from (lack of sleep, emotional and work stress, a
nutrient poor diet, [over]-exercise stress) and quantifies this level of
stress based on the heart rhythm. Heart rhythms with higher variabilities
are more characteristic of calm unstressed animals, and heart rhythms with
little to no variability are characteristic of stressed animals (like an
animal in a fight or flight state).

Going further, chronic cardio exercise such as long duration, low intensity
running tends to produce low variability heart rhythms in animals.
Conversely, resistance training produces higher variability heart rhythms,
especially when the training sessions are brief and of high-intensity.
Simple stressors like your mobile phone text, e-mail, and Facebook alerts
can cause fight or flight like heart rate rhythm responses and can increase
your overall heart stress in this way as well (an e-mail just came in on my
phone as I write this and I feel suddenly stressed...when you become aware
of these simple stresses, you start to learn some techniques on how to shut
that fight or flight response down [slow, deep breathing exercises] and can
come up with strategies on how to avoid these stressors [eliminating
Facebook push notifications on your phone]). I recently heard that the
human heart has a pretty consistent working shelf-life of about 2 billion
beats in a lifetime so the better you can manage your heart rate (i.e. pump
more blood per heart beat), the more years you'll get to spread those 2
billion beats over. This is another reason why long duration, high heart
rate cardio exercise is actually being understood as very unhealthy for
people...especially when they're using it to destress from already
stressful lives and jobs!

I recommend incorporating this simple metric into your tracking and see how
it works for you. All you need is a heart rate monitor like the polar you
mentioned and there is a great free app called Elite HRV you can download
off of the Apple App store that can track this for you.

Cheers,

Matt

[Heybales]

Gluconeogenesis - is the conversion of amino acids (protein) to glucose for the body to use as fuel.

It is slow and inefficient.

It is the wall that recreational marathoners hit when they go out too fast, and it is very evident when it hits there at 3-4 hrs, because you are forced to slow WAY down, since the ratio of carbs for fuel is now so low because it's so slow, fat needs to become the predominate fuel source again, and that only happens at slower pace.

Even pro marathoners with 5% body fat have enough fat to do several marathons in a row. The carbs is the limiting factor. Well, and joint pounding if honest, though the documentary Running the Saraha proves otherwise.

That point ONLY happens when you run out of carbs in the muscles where they are needed.

You get a slightly earlier point where blood sugar drops because liver stores are getting low, this happens at 60-90 min depending on intensity, and the amount of glucose for blood sugar levels to be kept up isn't that great at all, but it can effect your thinking, even though your muscles have plenty of energy to go.

So no - your body doesn't start burning muscle as a survival mechanism during exercise - unless you are truly starving for weeks, and you ain't going to be exercising to any degree getting no food in.

I'll mention too that 220-age is very rough, very wide bell curve. More chance of being 10 bpm outside that figure than close to it.

And you actually keep burning fat right up to the anaerobic threshold, hence the name, without oxygen, which means total carb burn at that point.

The % of fat you burn keeps decreasing because the amount of calories in general keeps going up, but the actual grams of fat being burned remains about the same up to that point.

You are kind of referring to the myth of the fat-burning zone as best workout spot, with no consideration for the reason for the workout.

That is indeed best for recovery level workouts. Not best for burning the most calories and fat ultimately.

I'll agree lots of people do overtrain for their fitness level when they get gung-ho, but the body has a way to adapt.

They rarely get a good recovery from their workout, so they don't get stronger. So eventually they just have mediocre workout after mediocre workout, unable to push nearly as hard as they could, because they just have plain tired muscles. And while that is a stress on the body, it kind of prevents overtraining because they are just too tired to push hard correctly.

[Larracroft]

As a little insentive muscle is heavier than fat so thats why when you are trying to lose weight take your measurements chest, waist, hips, upper arm and thigh and see if you notice a change in measurements after each week. I am struggling to see any change in my weight also though I have lost an inch round my waist. Hope this helps. I am not giving up but understand how you feel.

[Heybales]

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@Larracroft wrote:

As a little insentive muscle is heavier than fat so thats why when you are trying to lose weight take your measurements chest, waist, hips, upper arm and thigh and see if you notice a change in measurements after each week. I am struggling to see any change in my weight also though I have lost an inch round my waist. Hope this helps. I am not giving up but understand how you feel.

---

And since it takes a long time to build muscle, water even takes up less space when spread out, and first improvements body makes to exerise is to take on more water with more stored glycogen.

So while fat takes up more space and a 1 lb loss can be very evident with inches in 1 spot, water spread throughout the muscles being worked may never show up.

[Larracroft]

So what is the solution when you work hard each day and the weight will not
come off. I am not over weight but would like to be 10 stone again. I eat
healthy. I have read that the body can store fat when going through
menopause but don't know if that's the reason or not. Just have to keep
trying.

[tibtif91]

i neva did zumba but worked out hard , i found it helped alot to drink the 2ltres of water but thats just me , another thing remember sometimes your turning the fat to muscle so u think that your not getting any were but your tonning up , keep strong , go hard or go home. 🙂 good luck

[Heybales]

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@tibtif91 wrote:

another thing remember sometimes your turning the fat to muscle so u think that your not getting any were but your tonning up , keep strong , go hard or go home. 🙂 good luck

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Just to correct a myth and misunderstanding.

You can NEVER turn fat in to muscle.

At the most you could hope to lose fat while gaining muscle (which is not the same as gaining strength, which you can do without gaining any muscle).

But that is a very SLOW process if strength training and existing muscle is already tapped out for strength, 1 lb gain muscle in 6-8 weeks if eating at maintenance, slower yet if eating in diet.

Sorry, but you can lose fat a whole lot easier than you can gain muscle.

[LewWagner]

Another myth to not fall for is that you can spot reduce (and therefore lose weight).  I've had pesky soft fat around my abdomen even though I achieved my target weight.  I'm just making sure I do enough walking and running and calisthenics to hopefully chip away at that fat.  It's going to come off all over my body, though.  Not just because I do a lot of side leg lifts, crunches, and situps.

[Smallersizeme]

I had a similar problem, and met with a nutritionist who told me that WHAT I was eating was the problem, because my calorie range was within guidelines. Since then I've changed up some of my food choices on her advice. Seems to help.

[divedragon]

There is more than one aspect to exercise.  I posted her a few times about not over restricting your calories that cause the body to go to 'starvation mode' and to loose excessive amounts of lean muscle.  Another aspect is not that you exercise but how you exercise.  There are two categories of exercise: Aerobic and Anaerobic.

Aerobic uses air, of course.  This is your cardio type, get your heart and respiration up.  There are two ways to do, high intensity and low intensity.  Example of high intensity is interval training where you give it all you got for 2 minutes, then rest for 30 sec and go again all out for 2 mins.  With this form, you'll exhaust your muscles, glucose levels, etc.  You don't burn as much fat DURING the exercise, but fat burning will continue after you've stopped.  Low intensity would be like walking or jogging at a slow steady pace over a long time period.  This will burn a lot of fat WHILE DOING the work, but fat burns drops pretty quickly afterwards.

Anerobic includes things like resistance training and here again, intensity can vary.  Heavy weights, few reps are high intensity and similarly, don't burn a lot of fat during the exercise, but continue to burn long after the exercise is over.  Heavy weight lifting breaks down muscle tissue.  That soreness is the result of lactic acid release and tiny tears in the muscle fibers, so after a hard workout, the body has to repair the damage you've done.  As it does this, it attempts to prevent future damage by making the muscle stronger and this is how muscle tissue is built.  The repair process takes energy too.  You've also depleated all the glucose stores that were in your muscles so those have to be replished.  ITs a lot of work, so you body augments with burning fat to aid in the process.  Low intensity is light weight and lot of repetition.  This tends to do less damage to muscle tissue, so most of the fat burn occurs during the exercise to replace energy being burned, but again, drops quickly after the exercise.

So which one is better?  That depends on your goals, your time and even avaialbility of equipment.  Alternating these activities can also have its effect through muscle confusion.  Always changing up what and how you do things keeps your body from adapting.  Back when I did a lot of running, I would run 4 miles 5 days a week and on the 6th I would do an LSD (Long Slow Distace) run of 8 miles at a much slower pace.  As I am just trying to get back into shape now, I'm starting slow and just walking with two or 3 days a week devoted to heavy lifting.  I will probably transition to more high intensity resistance on a more regular basis.

[SunsetRunner]

If you are working out that much, you probably arent eating enough....try increasing your protein too, or just take a day off from your workout, I bet you see a loss.  Dont give up, you will find the formula to success

[heartnurseva]

 My best advice, and a tip I learned from a fellow fibit user, is to establish a small goal of 5 lbs, then once that is met add another 5 lbs and so on. It is so much more rewarding. Allow a breather day, and realize that it is possible to over do it.

[denisehb]

Good morning.

Like many here, I am moving more, eating less, and working hard, but not seeing the number on the scale drop...YET!  Seems like it's pretty common (unfortunately), but I know persistence will pay off.  Besides, what negative can there be to eating healthier and exercising? 

Finding it frustrating sometimes not to see the scale drop, I am always looking for others experiencing the same/similar for ideas/suggestions to shake it up a bit, and maybe even just to commiserate. 

This morning, I read an article about a woman who successfully lost (and is keeping off!) 69 pounds.  I found the article to be inspirational in a very realistic way. 

She says, "There will be times that you won’t see the number on the scale. Take before pictures so you can see how far you’ve come! Also, take measurements because as you replace the lost weight with muscle your inch loss will decrease and may not show when you weigh in." 

Lord knows I have enough "before" pictures to choose from.  I have done the measurements a few times, and that does seem to help.  Sounds easy enough, so I may just take her advice (in addition to the scale) as motivation! 

Best of luck to us all!

[nkotblove]

Hi, I  been  walking  for 1 year  now.  And  on December  29 2014. I  bought this  fitbit  zip and i love it.

yes trying to  lose weight it's  harder for me to do to lose weight for me.....

But I  have  lost inches on my legs..... and good luck 

best of  luck 

[nkotblove]

I can't lose the weight yet.... I aways be walking for 2 hours and more when I have the time for 3 hours on the treadmill
I love to walk on the treadmill is fun fir me.....

[tickfit1949]

I have been trying to lose weight for 3 weeks now and have only lost one pound.  I got my Charge HR on August 7th.  I walk at least 5 miles a day, use my Bowflex three times a week.  Trying to run 1/4 mile during my walk and increase by a little each week.  I set my deficit to 750 calories, but I only have 15 lbs that I want to lose.  I have either honeynut cheerios with strawberries and almond milk or egg beaters with light string cheese and a high fiber/low fat tortilla for breakfast and coffee with creamer, usually 3 oz of rotissere chicken and green salad for lunch, no dressing and 3 oz of meat, green salad and veg for dinner.  Snacks are usually fruit, wasa crispbread and hummus or string cheese.  My calories intake is 1200 or less and calories burned 1850 -2050.  I am getting frustrated and almost want to stop the exercise.  In 2007 I joined Weight Watchers and lost 35 lbs in 6 months so why can't I lose now.  I didn't do much exercise then, just counted my points, it was hard for me to stop losing and maintain then!! Five years later I was back to pre Weight Watchers weight probably because I started my old habits of chips, sour cream, ice cream, i.e. junk food..  I think I was a carb lover, so tried not eating bread, pasta, refined sugar, just eating protein, veggies and fruit.   Anyway, now I am 66 and want to get to 130 lbs.   Need help/motivation?  I have been reading a lot of comments here and seems like everyone says it will eventually start to come off.  Do you feel it is necessary to exercise everyday or is it okay to take one day off a week??  Just feeling discouraged I think.  thanks for listening/reading.

[Raviv]

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@tickfit1949 wrote:

I have been trying to lose weight for 3 weeks now and have only lost one pound.  I got my Charge HR on August 7th.  I walk at least 5 miles a day, use my Bowflex three times a week.  Trying to run 1/4 mile during my walk and increase by a little each week.  I set my deficit to 750 calories, but I only have 15 lbs that I want to lose.  I have either honeynut cheerios with strawberries and almond milk or egg beaters with light string cheese and a high fiber/low fat tortilla for breakfast and coffee with creamer, usually 3 oz of rotissere chicken and green salad for lunch, no dressing and 3 oz of meat, green salad and veg for dinner.  Snacks are usually fruit, wasa crispbread and hummus or string cheese.  My calories intake is 1200 or less and calories burned 1850 -2050.  I am getting frustrated and almost want to stop the exercise.  In 2007 I joined Weight Watchers and lost 35 lbs in 6 months so why can't I lose now.  I didn't do much exercise then, just counted my points, it was hard for me to stop losing and maintain then!! Five years later I was back to pre Weight Watchers weight probably because I started my old habits of chips, sour cream, ice cream, i.e. junk food..  I think I was a carb lover, so tried not eating bread, pasta, refined sugar, just eating protein, veggies and fruit.   Anyway, now I am 66 and want to get to 130 lbs.   Need help/motivation?  I have been reading a lot of comments here and seems like everyone says it will eventually start to come off.  Do you feel it is necessary to exercise everyday or is it okay to take one day off a week??  Just feeling discouraged I think.  thanks for listening/reading.

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First, a 750 calorie deficit is too high if you only have 15 pounds to lose.

Second, 15 pounds isn't something to be stressing about.  I'm sure it's a big deal to you, but honestly, in the big picture of life, I wouldn't be so worried about it.  And the increased cortisol from stress is going to make losing weight even harder anyway.

From what I see, and I may be wrong, you're working your body hard and not feeding it enough.  It's going to fight you on that.  Your diet is very carb heavy, and carbs are not evil, but you need to work on adding more protein and fat too.  You need more calories (set your calorie deficit at 250 and eat until it says "You nailed it"), fewer carbs, more protein and a little more good fat.

Have an avocado and an egg or two.  Have a bigger piece of meat.  Get good sleep and be happy.