Not Seeing the Results I Want

[MandyMac]

I'm Female, 17, approximately 140lbs, 5'6'' with a BMI of about 22.
Pretty average, if an average BMI is about 21.

I used to weigh around 150lbs, and my Junior year of HS in the fall I lost 15lbs in the fall during my swim season; going down to 135lbs.

I went from a size 12, to an 8.
I was on an extremely strict swim diet at the time, so that, and burning as much as 3,000 calories in a 2hr practice, is what did it.

This season however, I didn't lose any weight again. Given, I wasn't as strict with my diet- but still.

I'm done with swim now... forever ... I probably won't ever be burning that many calories in that amount of time again.

I'm on week 2, month 2, of INSANITY. The first month, I didn't lose any weight or drop any inches-- I just kept assuming it'd happen in month two. But so far, nothing still.

I've been following a good diet, according do my FitBit account I should eat about 1700 calories a day, with the exercise I do, to lose 10lbs by next month. And according to livestrong I should eat 1200 calories: with 0 exercise, and about 1900 with the exercise I do; to lose 2lbs a week. I tried the INSANITY diet plan, of 5 200ish calorie meals, and I felt like I was eating too often, and I felt too full all the time. So I went back to my normal diet of a decent breakfast, spreading lunch out over a few hours, then a normal sized dinner after I exercise, with a snack somewhere.

They're both basically telling me the same thing.
There are some days that I go over a little bit, and some days that I'm under, so on a weekly basis- I'm always on track.

However, I'm still not losing any weight.
I'm not gaining either.
I'm not losing/gaining inches.

The only results I'm seeing is that I've got more endurance from Insanity.

But that's not the only thing I want.

I only want to lose 5-6lbs, on my stomach and "muffin top" area. My thighs, butt, hips, arms, etc, are fine to me.

What am I doing wrong?
What else should I be doing, or not doing?

Thanks

[MandyMac]

Yeah, all of my muscle is in my legs and abs. I could do squats and situps all day- but ask me to do just a couple pushups? Honey, no.

I don't drink any soda, coffee, energy drinks, tea, etc. It's just water and milk-- occassionally juice.

I'll try drinking a lot more water.

One of my problems is snacking- I don't do it often (maybe once a 1-2x a day), but when I do, I tend to grab a cookie, or something high in sugar rather than good stuff.

Life is hard.
And cookies taste good.... dang.

[Wends_]

Being a vegetarian teenager, you receive tons of advice and questioning, I'm sure.

When you are ready, there is LOTS of research out there. Check out Dr Neal Barnard, Rip Esselstyn, Brendan Brazier, Dr Pam Popper, to name a few.

With provided info on food choices, I think plant strong is your answer! Add beans to your diet for the fiber, and remember that each plate must be 3/4 of unprocessed plant foods, ie veggies not tons of grains. All plants have protein, even potatoes (eat those baked, not fried). Eat cleanly and pass up the cookies and fried foods. You'll find your body uses cleaner foods as FUEL and you'll actually be able to eat more of it, due to the high water and fiber content!

You can make clean choices at those restaurants, too. Order a salad, dressing on the side, add a plate of steamed veggies (that's important to ask for, or it'll be cooked in butter, probably), or a PLAIN baked potato, and put salsa or 1/2 an avo on it.

[rodriguezmoses]

I agree with the eating more protein and reducing the carbs.

Building lean muscle mass is essential to reducing inches.

 
Also like Wends said order your salad dressing on the side.

I use salsa instead of dressings for my salads. And homemade salsa is eay to do!

[karlaweymier]

Spend the next week cutting processed sugars (sorry cookies have to go). Watch the amount of other carbs you are taking in and like the others have said - up your protein numbers. Chances are the sugars are the culprits keeping those pounds on the scale. Good Luck! And like someone said - chances are very high that you do NOT need to drop any real weight. Watch your sugars and eat healthy, continue to do the cardio and if you can add weight training to define your muscles I'm sure you will be happy with the results. Keep in mind the goals are Healthy, Strong, Fit - not some fashion magazine's idea of skinny.

[divedragon]

You can try Intermittent fasting to change body composition without calorie restriction.  Do you track your calories?  Are you meticulous about it?  I remember watching a program where one girl was overweight, but her roommate was very slender.  They each had a perception about themselves and each other that the heavy girl hardly ate and the slender girl ate all the time, but when they made them write down everything the ate, just the opposite was learned.  I know if I want to loose weight I HAVE to write down everything I eat and everyone who ever told me they don't need to do that, they can 'eyeball' what they eat and know always has a problem losing weight. 

I would recommend the following:  Keep your food log (fitbit app does fine), continue your insanity, but add weight training, try to shift your diet to higher protein,  but avoid soy protein if you can (whey or other sources such as beans.  Soy contains a lot of estrogen pre-cursors and estrogen makes it harder to burn fat.).  For men, things like pomegranet juice are known to increase testosterone production.  Women do produce it too, but I've seen no studies on this, but it might not hurt to try a glass of pomegranet juice each day.  Good luck.

[Intrceptor350]

From personal experience - sit ups do nothing. You'll get way more benefit from doing plank variations which use muscles specific to the area you want to target.That being said, there is no such this as spot reduction. Squats are an amazing workout, given the number of muscles it works and it's also one of the 5 basic fundamental workouts that give you the best results. Hate to break it to you, but so are push ups lol I'm a firm believer that every girl should at least be able to master 5 correct push ups. Upper body strength is so underrated.

What's worked for me is doing cross training. Specifically around 25-35 minutes strength and core (3 sets) followed by 40 minutes of Cardio. This can be any type of cardio ( biking, running, elliptical). The key here is to change up your workouts. I also focused on portion control.

I also sometimes eat cookies. Nothing wrong with that.

Long story short, from what I've read from your posts whatever it is that you're doing isn't working anymore and coming up with a new workout plan may be what's needed. Thye body needs to be challenged and I think it may have adapted to what you're doing.

[DanielleinDC]

When your family (I assume) drags you to a meaterie, try ordering a salad or see if there are veggie sides you can get. Or if you do get starchy foods, make sure you do a higher protein meal the next time you eat. If you go to chain restaurants a lot, get the VeganXpress app that'll let you know vegan options at chain restaurants. If the seafood/steak places you go to are indies, you'll hopefully be able to work with the staff to get a meal you can eat.