I Don’t Want to Look Like a Potato

[quvodigo]

... no offence to potatoes, of course😉

I am 5’4, 180lbs (I know, ugh), and will be 45 tomorrow. I work out consistently and have a home gym in my basement, so the pandemic hasn’t changed anything other than the time of day I go down there.

I do strength and cardio, and have just started stage two of NROLW, but have done other workouts before that. I enjoy strength training, but do some cardio as well (treadmill walking or jogging, just got a rebounder, etc).

I have been following a macro counting program for the last two months, and have only succeeded in gaining five pounds and feeling sick at the amount of food I am supposed to ingest each day. It feels like too much, and because I struggle to lose an ounce, this five pound gain has me feeling lower than low). My measurements have not changed, and my lack-of-progress pictures are depressing.

My stats:

2041 calories a day
61 g f
152 g p
221 g c

Because I lift, I don’t expect to be 110lbs. That’s not realistic for me at all. I’d be happy with a 30-40 lb loss, but I can’t lose anything. Ultimately, I don’t want to be round anymore.

Should I ditch macros and try keto, IF, or something else? I know that weight loss is mostly diet, and I do feel confident that I have the exercise part of the equation in hand - where do I go from here?

Thanks for reading!

[WendyB]

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@quvodigo wrote:

I have been following a macro counting program for the last two months, and have only succeeded in gaining five pounds and feeling sick at the amount of food I am supposed to ingest each day. It feels like too much, and because I struggle to lose an ounce, this five pound gain has me feeling lower than low). My measurements have not changed, and my lack-of-progress pictures are depressing.

My stats:

2041 calories a day
61 g f
152 g p
221 g c

If your feeling sick with the amount of food you eat then you are eating to much

Also your 2041 Cal a day seems a bit high to me for a women looking to lose weight. You might want to drop it down some

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[emili]

@quvodigo with your height, your metabolic rate isn't super high. so eating over 2000 calories per day- you are eating at surplus, not deficit. Unless you are burning through a ton of calories through cardio. As much as lifting is strenuous, it doesn't burn through calories as quickly. it for sure changes your composition and improves fitness. you may want to consider going the counting calorie route with fitness built in. You may want to increase your protein and reduce down your carb if you are serious into lifting and use cardio as a warm up only. eating that many calories per day is not going to reduce your weight. I am 5'7 and rooted in cardio and I don't eat that many calories per day in maintenance (I do make up for any deficit during the weekend 😉 ). Maybe go the old fashioned way for a bit and see how you do. calculate the deficit you are comfortable with per week, figure out how much of your daily allowance should be protein and weight, log and workout. Pretty sure you will see a difference.