The Fat Loss TroubleshootThis is your place to troubleshoot your fat loss problems from nutrition to training. This section is led by Leigh Peele, author of "The Fat Loss Troubleshoot," the ultimate fat loss manual. If your results have slowed or stalled this is the place to come for advice for all your fat loss needs.
Please Help me figure out why I can break this plateau of unknown territory for me!!!
I have worked out consistently for 20 years and NEVER fought my weight. In the last year I've gone up to a size 6/8 from a size 2! My usual weight was 120 lbs at 5'4 and now I seem to be hovering around 138-140 pounds and although I don't really care what the scale says, I DO care what my clothes are saying. I'm currently starting my 3rd week of CLX(Chalean Xtreme) and liking the results so far, but am feeling a little bit puffy, possibly due to the intense weight work and new style of training. I've always trained with weights, but in the past have usually used lighter weights, up to 15 pounds(for bicep curls). I'm desperate to kick start my metabolism again and regain my nice figure. I'm hoping that whole "muscle burns fat" will work! I'm 38 now and have had 3 children, the youngest being 4 and lost the prego weight with all 3 and got back into my clothes, don't know what has happened in the last year and a half. Trust me, I've gone to all kinds of Docs, had my thryoid checked, swore it's Perimeno, but docs say no, been checked for Celiac via an upper endiscopy. The only thing that was found was that I was having some active Epstein-Barr about 6 months ago and was very tired. I have had a stressful couple of years, don't know if that caused it. I'm taking Holy Basil now to try to counterract any possible Cortisol from stress. My weight is hanging around my whole mid-section, even though I have visibly strong obliques and lines to prove it. I would love some suggestions too. Here is an example of a typical day eating-wise for me.....
Breakfast...1/2 cup greek yogurt with 1/4-1/2 cup mixed fresh berries (black/Rasp/Blueberries), about 1T if Omega 3 granola (from TJ's) and about 1tsp of chopped walnuts....
I try to have a handful, or about 20 almonds as in between meal snack.
Lunch.... usually about 1/2 Quinoa, with some lentils or black beans (1/4 cup), chopped tomatoes, fresh basil, sometimes some fresh chikcen (cooked plain) about 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup, red onion, drizzle of Olive Oil and squeezed lemon and some Adobo seasoning.
Snack... Opt Nutrition Whey protein 1 scoop with 1 cup of Almond milk, sometimes add 1 big T of Peanut butter and 1/3 of a frozen banana.
Dinner... something like what I have for lunch or maybe grilled chicken with a slice of provolone cheese, tomato, roasted pepper ect.
Yes, I do have a lite dessert. Sometimes a small piece of a GF brownie from TJ's.
I drink coffee in am and about 3 cups of tea, usually green or decaf green tea.
I take the following supplements...
AM
Carlson's Fish Oil ...about 3 tsp daily
CoQ10 100mg... 1 daily
Vit D 3 ...1 daily
Rainbow lite women's multi vitamin ...1 daily
Jarrow's Probiotic ...1 daily
Ester c, 500mg....2-3 daily
PM
ZMA...2 a night
Tranquil Sleep (3mg melatonin, 200 Suntheanine and 30 mg 5HTP)
So, based on all of that info, what in the heck am I doing wrong? I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle!
Someone had suggested that I have about 3 servings daily of the Whey Protein powder so that it insures that I am getting 75-85 g protein just in that, not counting my food.
Do you think the fact that I am only using 1 serving of the Whey is not enough protein for me now?
Do you have any suggestions, I sure could use the help.
Other than feeling "puffy", you say you like the results. What are they?
I'm going to guess that you aren't losing the weight you want, so if that's not it, disregard the following...
Weigh your foods and calculate your calories and see where they fall. You're probably eating too much to lose the weight you want.
What's good is that you seem very focused on healthy foods and ingredients, but remember that you can get (or stay fat) on super organic free range grass fed Omega-3 foods, too. Doesn't matter how clean your foods are, it's calories that count.
BTW, doesn't really matter what the results are or aren't, not enough whey isn't the answer. Feel free to have more protein, if it works into your calories for the day.
I didn't try to add up your calories, but a few thoughts come to mind:
1) you had Epstein-Barr, so you probably moved a LOT less if you were super tired. Read this forum, and a lot of the other threads... daily movement (NEAT - Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) is activity that you do that isn't exercise. It makes a HUGE difference in overall calorie burn.
2) you don't weigh any foods. "1 big T" of peanut butter can be anywhere from 150 - 400 cals depending on how big it is. Get a food scale, stop using "scoop" or "cup" or "handful" or "teaspoon" and WEIGH - in grams - everything. You can't know if you need to cut calories til you know how many you're eating in the first place. There are links in this forum to Leigh's video on youtube about weighing vs measuring - once you see it, you'll realize how important it is.
Muscle burns more than fat, but if you're not moving much except in the gym (and I don't know if you are - you didn't specify), you won't make up for it with muscle alone. An intense workout can leave you so tired that you just couch-sit the rest of the day (I know it's happened to me!)... if that happens, you may not be getting what you want out of your workouts.
Thanks for your advice. So, if I start weighing stuff and finding out how many grams, how do I figure out calories????
Kelly
Almost everything you eat in a package (including the ingredients you cook with) will list a serving size in grams... once you weight it, just do the math. So if 100g = 100 cals, and you ate 125g, you had 125 cals. Otherwise, you can look up basic things like raw chicken breast on many sites - just google to find one you like... Weigh you powders and stuff too - one level "scoop" isn't always the same grams as listed on the label.
calorieking.com and fitday.com are both good sites that will allow you to enter food in grams. Some things to remember: for fruit like bananas, grapefruit, oranges, weigh it AFTER you peel it or remove the skin. Calorieking will say "edible portion". I tend to OCD things, so if I weigh my apple and it is 120 grams, I will eat it and then reweigh the core and subtract that amount! Also, if you buy chicken raw, I think (someone help me here if I am wrong) then you weigh it raw because the values they give you on the package are for the raw weight. Of course, calorieking and fitday both have raw and cooked chicken weights. It can get tedious, but also fun. If I eat cottage cheese, if I am feeling lazy, I will put the container on the scale and weigh it, then I eat what I want out of it, then reweigh to see how much I ate. It definitely keeps me from eating too much of things if I know I am gonna be accountable.
Hope this helps and not confuses you.
Missy
If I eat cottage cheese, if I am feeling lazy, I will put the container on the scale and weigh it, then I eat what I want out of it, then reweigh to see how much I ate.
That is so sweet I'm at a loss for words, I hate measuring cottage cheese. You rock Missy.
For stuff like yogurt or cottage cheese, I just put the bowl on the scale, tare it and put in the yogurt, so I'm only weighing not using volume measures. The same with cereal and milk, salad dressing, ketchup - anything I really "eyeball" or do "to taste" - I do as I like but weigh it also. For something like tuna salad I put in the tuna, tare, relish, tare, mayo, tare, chopped celery - add it up and done. Much easier for me than using measuring spoons.
For stuff like yogurt or cottage cheese, I just put the bowl on the scale, tare it and put in the yogurt, so I'm only weighing not using volume measures. The same with cereal and milk, salad dressing, ketchup - anything I really "eyeball" or do "to taste" - I do as I like but weigh it also. For something like tuna salad I put in the tuna, tare, relish, tare, mayo, tare, chopped celery - add it up and done. Much easier for me than using measuring spoons.
That's what I do. I got my scale as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago, and specifically requested one with a tare feature just to make things easier. Works wonderfully.
Tare the term for the scale feature that lets you reset the scale to zero when you have something on it already.
So you put on a bowl or plate, it weighs some # of grams, tare the scale to show zero and then add your food item and the weight shown is just the food not the bowl+food (so no math to get back to "just the food" weight).
I've had it for about a year and a half now and it works fine. I guess I haven't checked its accuracy, though I suppose I could always try a bag of unopened flour or something to see. But it's given me nothing to complain about and is still on its first set of batteries.
Don't forget to write all of your cals down in a food journal. The food journal is handy too because once you know the calorie value of food and it is in your journal you can refer to it again rather than looking up the info new each time.
Another thing I do - cut the nutrition label off the package and tape it in my journal. Somethings have to be photo copied (yogurt container). Then I have a personalized calorie counter book. Obviously this only works for stuff in a package. But beats looking up the info because sometimes info on the web is just plain wrong.
Oh and you can check the accuracy of your scale using penies and nickles.
1 penny is 2.5 grams, one nickle is 5 grams.
Kelly, I suspect you have some hormonal stuff going on as well. A lot of docs simply don't know how to identify and treat perimenopause hormonal imbalances. I've been doing a lot of research myself after a similar experience to yours.
I read this article summary recently that was kind of interesting. I can't remember who suggested it. It was probably someone in this forum for all I know.
True, but I thought you were saying that I could use a penny to check the accuracy of my scale down to tenths of grams. I'm sure there are some scales that do that, but mine doesn't.
Please Help me figure out why I can break this plateau of unknown territory for me!!!
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