[Siki]

Hello everyone, this is my first post but I am a regular reader
I am a 33 year old female, living in Mexico, and I have always been overweight.
Since november last year I decided to enter gym and change my diet with the help of a professional nutriologist.

Well, first couple of months, I was losing weight and all, but right now, its been like 4 months not gaining or losing weight, just staying the same (same weight, same measurements, same % body fat). My nutriologist says that a possible cause is that I am doing to much exercise (about 2 hr cardio per day plus weight lifting) and I am eating between 1600 and 2000 cal per day,
She recomends that I cut back on excercise but I really dont want to, because I love going to gym.
Currently I am 170 pounds and 5.9 tall

What do you guys think I should do?
I would really appreciate all your feedback

P.S. Sorry for my english, its not my native languaje

[GoldenLeaf]

I just got caught in a plateau myself. I broke it, finally, by letting myself eat off plan for a couple of days. Amazingly it just seemed to work somehow. Like my body was so relieved to be bombarded with food that it was happy to let that kilo go. I'm back on plan now though, and funnily enough I didn't actually enjoy eating that food as much as I thought I would, it gave me heartburn and a belly-ache.

For reference I ate things like vegetarian pizza, mud cake, chocolate and lemon meringue pie. And I had popcorn and a soft drink at the movies. Other than that I ate my normal things I just let myself have some of the crap I've been obsessing over for the past few weeks... hahaha. And not only did my weight drop the 1kg (nearly 2 pounds) I've been wanting to lose for the past 2 weeks, I discovered those foods are yummy to think about but really not that yummy in reality.

PS Your English is fine!

As for the gym, maybe just do 1 hour of cardio for a week or so? Too much cardio can stall weight loss. Weights are great.

[mortonpixie]

According to this calculator:
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/cal...alculator.htm#
...you should be eating 2020 calories a day for fat loss and 1550 for extreme fat loss. What does your diet consist of? If you are exercising that much - you should be having at least 100g of protein per day. Muscle burns fat - you want to build muscle - you can't if you are eating a diet primarily composed of carbohydrates.

Here's 2 things that come to my mind:

1. Your "range" of caloires. You say you are consuming 1600-2000 per day. 3500 calories = 1lb of fat. So if you generally eat closer to the 2000 mark, you are actually eating 2800 more calories per week than if you stuck to the 1600 mark.

2. Maybe you would benefit from calorie cycling or zig zagging. This method really helped me bust my plateau. I love working out as well - and found that I needed more calories on my intense workout days (the days I run). You take your aggregate total of allotted calories for the WEEK and have more on some days and less on others. Your body is still getting the required nutrition, it's just "tricked" into having more some days and less on others.

Hope this helps!

[Siki]

Thank you both , I think I am going to try calorie cycling in an effort to trick my body, and also try to be closer to 1600 than 2000 cal (my nutriologist gave me a 1600 cal per day diet, but often is just not enought for me ) but I know I have to be more focus on that.
Also I am going to eat more protein and less carbohydrates

Have a great weekend

[mortonpixie]

Blessings to you on the rest of your journey! Let us know how you are doing.

[Hopeful8]

I was on a serious cardio regimen for about 3 months (90-120 minutes 6 days per week) along with strength training and I was having some serious plateau issues. For the past month I have changed my workouts completely while keeping my diet the same. I cut my workouts down to about 30-45 minutes total 5 days a week. I stopped the crazy cardio and am just doing a moderate amount. The only thing I'm doing right now is Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred along with some light yoga. The weight has been falling off like crazy. I used to agonize over the scale and the fact that I would be the same weight throughout the entire week. I'm not stressing about my weight loss anymore and I'm not putting as much pressure on myself to drop the lbs.

When I was doing all the cardio I was dropping 6-8lbs per month and now I'm dropping about 10lbs per month. It's not a drastic change, but it's enough for me to see a difference in how my body is responding.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

[ncuneo]

If you're sure you're eating 1600ish (meaning you're weighing and measuring all your food) and you are exercising that much then I'd say you're not eating enough. I run 4xs a week (60mins) and strength train 2xs a week (45 mins) and can't lose unless I'm eating closer to 1700-1800, and from the sounds of it you're exercising more than me. I also recommend calorie cycling and freedieting.com for a good recommendation on your calories.

[Siki]

hopeful8 --- the changes you made are exactly what my nutriologist recomended me: do less excercise and dont stress to much about losing because that may just be whats holding your weight loss back.

About 2 weeks ago I took a vacacion and had a whole week off excercise and dropped about 3 pounds (I still watchedmy calories) and when I resumed excercise I gain it back, so I think I just have to relax and enjoy what I am doing and dont get to stress about

ncuneo --- thanks for the info, I am going to try calorie cycling, and actually right know I am eating same calories, but more protein and less carbs

Guys thank you so much, I will be keeping you posted about changes/progress

Big hugs from Mexico

[Siki]

Hi guys, I just started using fitday to track my calorie intake, for 3 days now, and I am actually eating close to 2000 cal per day, and all this time I was thinking close to 1600

[mortonpixie]

Wow! Great job, Siki!! I used to use fitday, but found it a little frustrating. If that becomes the case, might check out www.fatsecret.com