So here is my story, I have been working out, following Jillian Michael's book Winning By Losing for about 7 weeks now. (For anyone who dosent know her workouts are circuit training) So far so good but I am really starting to feel tired and my muscles seem to be sore a lot more than normal. I have gone over the book again and looked things up on the internet to make sure that I have good form and everything. I eat any where from 1500-1600 calories a day and I workout for an hour to an hour and a half 5 days a week.

My question is am I not eating enough for my weight (206lbs)?? I dont think its the holidays or anything that having me feeling tired I just feel tired all the time?? Also my weight loss has slowed and this week I didnt lose anything I know that its not a plateau or anything but I just want to make sure I am getting enough nutrients and stuff.

Thanks for reading!! And any advice is appreciated!

You're definately eating enough. I weigh 30 pounds more than you, and I eat 1400-1700, and I've been losing very steadily.

Hard to say.

When I was over 200, I was eating and losing at 1800 cals. I was also working out pretty hard with a trainer, doing weights and cardio.

But I think just as important as how many calories you're eating, is WHAT you're eating.

If you're eating 1500 calories of simple carbs and junk, you're going to feel run down and sore, especially if you're working out hard. If you're eating 1500 calories of lean protein, veggies, complex carbs, and healthy fats, then you're going to do a lot better.

Can you give a sample of a daily menu and maybe we can offer better advice!

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Actually, just because a certain number of calories are right for one person doesn't mean they are right for someone else. You may find that you can increase by a bit and still lose -- we are all different. You could try a little increase -- 100 a day or so for a week and see what happens...basically increasing by little increments until you find the perfect balance.

However, before you change your eating, are you getting enough of a rest period between your work-outs? You don't want to strength train the same muscle groups two days in a row -- that is a recipe for feeling tired and really, really sore. We build up muscle by first breaking it down...by tearing the little fibers. To do that, our bodies need time to repair. Cardio is fine pretty much every day...strength training not so much. I've heard pretty good things about Jillian Michael so this probably isn't the issue. However, I wanted to raise it just to be sure.

Actually- I should probably add to my last post. Although eating around 1500 is working for me, you should definately make sure you're getting the right nutrients at the same time. If you can't get the vitamins/minerals/etc you need at 1500, it will hurt your weight loss. Daily vitamins are helpful for me.

Here is my menu for Sunday....

Breakfast-3 egg whites scrambeled
1 tsp Butter
1 slice of Whole wheat bread

After workout- Protien Shake Cal-176

Lunch-Herb Stuffed Shells (201 Cals)
1/2 C Green Peas
Green Salad
2tbs Rapsberry Vinaigrette Dressing

Snack-1 oz Dark chocolate

Supper-4 oz Salmon
1/2 C Brown Rice
1 c Broccoli and Cauliflower

Dessert- Sugar Free Pudding with Cool Whip lite

Snack-Kashi TLC Crackers and Laughing cow cheese wedge

I only came to 1353 for Sunday but I was on the move most of the day. But other wise this is what my days look like??

Thanks for the input!

Schumeany-I am getting the 48 hours of rest in between workouts, one day i do chest, shoulders, triceps, quads and rectus abs. The next day is Back, biceps, hamstriongs, glutes and obliques. That is the way she has it lined out in the book.

Honestly, my gut reaction here is that you're not eating enough. If that's an average day for you and you're working out hard, I think your body is probably holding on to the weight because it's being underfed.

I know it's counter intuitive, but it's true that there's this balancing point (and it's different for everyone) where your body is getting just enough nutrition to keep going, but not enough to encourage it to begin letting go of excess weight. And a lot of people make that worse by working out harder and eating even less ... which just makes it worse instead of better.

I would try bumping up your calories to around 1700-1900 for a little bit. You may gain a little at first, but I'm willing to bet money that after a couple of weeks, the weight will start to come off again - as long as you maintain the same workout cycle.

Eventually you'll have to drop back to 1500 or so, but I wouldn't do that until you start seeing a slow down in your weight loss again.

Again, it's all personal, but when I first started working out seriously and really looking at my calories, I was around 220 or so and I ate 1800 calories a day. I didn't drop down to 1500 calories until I hit about 180.

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Angel, I remember you talking about Pilates or cardio yoga on your off strength training days, are you still doing that? Something I found when I was doing weight training consistently (and have noticed again in the last week of adding weights back in) was that if the yoga on the off weights day had a lot of solid arm and leg work (downward dog, plank, warrior poses, sun god (if that is the real name! ), chair, those kinds of poses) rather than the stretching poses that I was pretty sore.

And yes, adding more protein calories in might help get you over the edge. Saturday does seem a little low to me for how much work you are doing.

I don't see any fruit here at all and I would lose a few things and add more veggies.

Shannon-Yes I have been doing pilates on my off days. I didnt even think of that. I will try not doing it this week and see if that helps.

Thanks for all the advice ladies!! I really, really appreciate it!!

I agree that you could probably eat more. Why not try having one yolk with those eggs? There are quite a few vitamins in the yolk and it would add a bit of calories. Maybe some good, natural peanut butter too. Unless your addicted like some of us when it comes to pb.

I would try eating more at least on days you workout a lot. i weight a little less than you and eat between 1700-1800 calories and so far in 2 months have lost 16lbs. So I would eat more..

What kind of oxidizer did you come up with after taking the test in the book? Do your ratios come out to what Jillian recommends? I find Fitday.com very useful for tracking my ratios (and it's free )

For example - I'm a balanced oxidizer - my ratios are supposed to be 40/30/30 percent of calories from carbs/protein/fat. I'll assume your calorie count you are using is after working out the formula from the book.

I think you should take the recommended rest day as well. It's designed to keep your body from burning out.