Hi all.
im looking for some avice on my diet and workout regiem

im eating 1500 cals a day. working out 5 times a week which includes eiter surfing, long walks and running up and down hill for at least 30 mins at a time (covering about 3-4 miles).
I also now include a 20-30 minute a day exercise regiem to tone and strengthen muscles.

im eating a good mix of brown pasta/rise, potatoes, eggs, light cheese, lots of fruit and veg and rice cakes for snacks. I have a small treat every now and then (maybe once a week)

I have been doing this for 3 weeks and have seen no difference in the scales and measuring tape. I have seen a huge difference in my want and pace of exercise, but its very disconcerting seeing no results where i want it most (on my dress size)

I dont understand how i can run and workout as a really strong and good level and still feel energetic but i am not loosing weight.

Is there any advice i can get? i find it difficult to keep up anything under 1500 cals, bu if people think thats why im not loosing ill give it a try. (i often get really moody and end up binging if i go under 1500 cals.)

should i be working out more? maybe 2x a day? or will this not make a big difference?

any advice would be great
thanks

Eat more! You are not eating enough for your weight and activity level. Give 1800 a try for a few weeks and I'll bet you'll see a difference.

thing is if i eat more then i dont seem to loose i seem to gain. its really weird, its like i have the powerand strength to bur alot but my body is used to it and so i dont loose anymore?
whats annoying is im still a big girl.... how can that be fair?

usually a good rule to follow is 10 X body weight for calories. so if you weight 175 lbs that would be 175 X 10 + 1750 calories for the day. as you weight decreases so will your calories

so if i continue to eat 1500 will i see a weightloss eventually?

Not necessarily, you may just continue to maintain. The gain you see when you increase your cals may just be temporary water weight and shock to your metabolism. How long do you eat extra cals? You need to try to stick it out for 2-4 wks to know for sure. The 10x body weight rule does not take into account activity.

The other possibility is that maybe this is the right weight for your body, you are within your ideal range, intact I think you're in the low end of it. Sometimes our bodies have different plans for us.

Hi Freethetoys,

Are you a vegetarian? I noticed no meat or fish.

My first question is, I know, a little annoying, but: how anal are you about measuring your portions? Do you eyeball them, measure them, or weigh them? Are you counting everything you eat, even tastes or nibbles? Just checking, b/c it helps to know if the 1500 is accurate.

Do you log your cals online? If so, what is your proportion of carbs/fats/protein? I basically ditched rice and pasta when I started counting my calories because they just took up too much! That's my personal choice and not for everyone, of course. But looking at your food I would be curious if you are getting enough protein to support your exercise.

Do you eat a lot of processed foods? Diet soda? Anything that could make you bloat or retain water? Even regular cottage cheese has a ton of sodium.

It sounds like you are eating healthfully and taking good care of your body through exercise -- you're doing the hard part -- the rest is just tweaking!

thanks i do measure everything with scales. I try to get as uch protein as possible (yes veggie) so i include beans sure every meal has a good aount of green veg and beans/ pulses aswell as cheese and eggs in theday. I dont drink diet soda, and i dont eat anything too weird or have massive portions, just try to eat the right stuff when im hungry.

typical food diary:
bfast: 2 eggs and 2 slices of wholemeal bread (320)
apple and snack a jack (70)
baked beans and a small jacket potatoe with salad (500)
dinner: spinach, geen beans, peas, mushrooms and some pasta with a low cal/fat tomatoe sauce. (500)
ice lolly (low cal and fat) for dessert and some blueberries (90)

plus lots of tea during the morning, water in the afternoon.

i also have fish maybe once a month to keep family and boyfriend happy but i dont buy it. i dont log my calories online, bcause its alot of time when i eat very similar foods all the time. I probably have too many carbs bt with the amount of physical activity i do i always presumed carbs were good for energy (as long as thee the right type of carbs and not reliant on white carbs)

anyway thanks for the advice,......anything else people can think of?
hopefully in another 2 weeks ill show a weight loss

Sometimes just changing things up will kick start the weight loss again. Sometimes if I get stuck I'll stop eating bread and pasta all together and try to eat foods low in carbs. Pretty much I eat as little carbs as possible, but only for a short period of time, maybe a week or two at the most. Then after that just slowly add it back (don't go crazy with pasta everyday after that because you'll probably just gain everything back you lost from the no carb diet).

Oh I forgot, sometimes I just change up my work out. It seems you do a good range of things, maybe just push harder or go a little longer. Or try something new out, jump rope, hulla hoop, or biking. Anything different for a couple weeks will probably work and not be as hard as the no carb suggestion I gave above.

Since you already have variety in terms of exercise, maybe try calorie cycling. I've heard many people have successes in breaking a plateau with that. It's supposed to trick the metabolism into thinking that you're not consuming too few calories and thus that it doesn't need to slow down to compensate for less fuel (there's lots on the why's and how's of this if you search on here).

You could still average out at 1500-1600 a week but maybe only actually eat 1500 daily 3 times a week (Mon, Wed, Fri) and then on Tuesdays you could go up to 2000, maybe Thursdays have 1300, Saturdays, maybe 1800 and Sundays 1400. I'm not an expert on calorie cycling so I'm sure my suggested schedule could be better. But anyway, just something you could consider trying to see if it helps!

Well done with your progress so far, though!!!

I don't have advise since I'm essentially in the same boat as you are...for me the only silver lining is that at least I'm not gaining and at my current calorie load I don't feel deprived at all. I'm nervous about adding calories when I'm not really hungry, but I'm going to give it a shot. If I end up gaining weight, I'll scale back.

Just wanted to let you know that there are others out there who share your frustration!

Try dropping your carb percentage and upping protein. Your muscles need protein to work properly. I got to a point where I had to drop all processed foods and most carbs to continue losing.

Also, I consider beans a carb not a protein. Give me a minute to plug in the numbers but I don't think you're getting very much protein at all.

Ok, I plugged your food diary into Fitday. You're eating almost 200 carbs a day and only 47 grams of protein. I would definitely look into some ways to reduce the carbohydrates and increase protein in your diet. Will you eat Tofu? At least temporarily, I really think that's what's causing your stall. HTH!

I thought I was eating well, but then I started weight lifting and saw I should be 30% carbs, 30% fat, and 30% protein. When I started counting the grams of each, I realized I was eating twice as much carbs as anything else.

I reduced them and increased my protein and the weight comes off much easier. Try counting and comparing how many grams you are eating, your muscles need protein to heal and the more muscles you have the more calories you burn during the whole day.

Calorie cycling always helps me too, if I increase them for a day or so and then go back to my normal habits it seems to kick things back into place for me.

Calorie and carb cycling help a lot for me, especially the carb cycling, the less the better, for me... You eat lots of fruits, cut that to one maybe 2/day and very low glycemic ones like berries...

If you are lifting weights, lift heavier, the more muscle you have the more calories you'll burn, plus you will look smaller too... Sometimes with weight training you will not see the scale move but you will see inches go...