Endomorph!! Needing advice
 

I weigh 238lbs... and 5'4, 20 year old.
- 3 days a week and doing 30-40 minutes of cardio..
- 3 days a week doing 30 minutes workout with dumbbells (15 and 20lb)



My diet is usually

Breakfast: 2 eggs, some spinage and a piece of toast.

Lunch: Mediterranean salad with low cal dressing.

Dinner: 4(roughly) ounces of meat, a cup of veggies, and maybe a potato.

I try to drink 2 full glasses of water a day.


I am an endomorph:
- I gain muscle easily.
- I eat healthy and watch my calories to about 1,500 - 1,800 a day.
- Carbs are my worst enemie
- Weight loss is extremely slow
- Stop exercising for less than a week and all my weight comes back.


If I stop doing any of these things, weight comes back on even worse than before!!

I feel stuck... if I try something new and stop that I will pack on more weight



:?:

Hi difficult to say why at 1500 cal a day you do not see result. Do you note everything, such as drinks because 2 glasses of water a day is not enough, you might be dehydrated. Do you have a scale to weight your food since sometime it is difficult to estimate size of portion. Good luck and dont give up

1. You are not eating enough. YOu an afford to eat heaps more and you will still lose weight. I weighed less than 200 pounds, considerably less, when i started. my daily calories were 1650 and no exercise.

I would say this is the simple explanation of your predicament.

I would also strongly recommend you read the books i've just been reading. The don't Go Hungry Diet and Don't go Hungry for Life by Dr Amanda Sainsbury-Salis. Read them in order.

They offer excellent and reliable information about weightloss. The author is a weightloss scientist. Although i dieted for about 3 months before reading her book and it worked, i am now using her approach a little more and noticing how that's even easier.

Her info is detailed, convincing and intelligent without being academic. She will explain why what you are doing is not working for you and is very very unlikely to enable you to achieve your goals.

Do yourself a favour, eat more and read her books.

I think 1800 calories a day is too high, but 1500 with exercise is a good amount at your weight (based on my experience with my own weight loss).

There could be many factors why you're struggling. First, if you do have 1800 calories, do that maybe once a week....other days, stay at 1500. Are you sure you're counting right? People tend to overestimate how many calories they burn through exercise and underestimate how many calories they consume. Btw, I would eliminate the toast at breakfast.

4 oz. of meat isn't very much. I think 6 oz. is better.

Also, if you're eating high sodium foods, that could be masking your weight loss due to water weight. Same thing goes for exercise...you could be losing inches but your body may hold onto water as your muscles recover from exercise. What do you do for cardio? Is it walking or something more intense? Are you sweating? I suggest not weighing in for a month, even though it might be difficult for you. Try to take photos and measurements. Are your clothes fitting you any different? The scale isn't the most accurate indicator of what's going on in the short term especially.

I also suggest more than 2 glasses of water. Try to get at least 6 glasses a day.


If you're still not losing any weight over a month, perhaps see a doctor to rule out any medical issues.

You say carbs are your worst enemy yet you're eating both toast and a potato? My advice is to eliminate those and eat some low carb fruit like berries or melon instead.

I also suspect you're not eating enough protein. Try adding some more protein to breakfast, maybe meat like a pork chop or homemade sausage (seasoned ground pork - much lower fat and sodium than storebought). Is there protein in your salad at lunch? If not, add some meat and cheese. And what's in the "low cal" salad dressing? Whatever they're removing to make it low cal (probably fat) they're adding something else to increase flavor (probably sugar). You'd probably do better to make your own - olive oil, vinegar, and some herbs.

It also seems like you're eating your heaviest meal in the evening. This works for some people but not for others. Try eating more calories at breakfast and fewer at dinner. I know for me, personally, this is critical for weight loss.

And I agree with the others who have said you're not drinking enough water.

Best of luck to you, sometimes you have to risk a little gain trying something new.

I try to drink 64 oz. of water a day, 8 8 oz. glasses, I have found that is where my body functions best, TMI alert, I find if I don't drink enough water I become irregular eliminating solid waste as well as retaining water, swollen ankles, fingers, etc.

You might want to try slow burning carbs like sweet potato, peas, etc. for breakfast I've found grits or oatmeal with my eggs keeps me satisfied for longer than either on it's own.

Since you are doing weights with a pretty good weight (I only use 6 lb. dumbbells, you're doing great) you probably want to take measurements rather than relying solely on the scale.

Again best of luck and try to get in a little more water each day.
:sunny:

Looking at your diet and just running the numbers in my head, they don't add up to 1500-1800 calories unless that is one BIG potato. Where are the rest of your calories coming from? Are you counting strictly? As the others have said you are not drinking NEARLY enough water, especially if you are working out like you say.

Someone above said you might need to take some risks to figure out what works for you. You say carbs are your enemy, but how do you know? Lower your carbs and increase your protein by a lot. Do NOT cut out all of your fats. Fats (good ones) are necessary for weight loss.

Losing weight is a process and since everyone is different your process is going to be different from everyone else's. But the universal law of thermodynamics applies to everyone. More calories consumed than expended equals weight gain, less calories consumed than expended equals weight loss. That is irrefutable. The efficiency that the weight is gained and lost is different for everyone and that is what you need to figure out.

Good luck. Work at it. Figure it out. Don't give up.

Sorry that's ridiculous to say a piece of toast and a potato are causing her problems. I ate such things and still do and have no trouble. Its not a toast and a potato that's her issues.

What she means is eating too many carbs. One piece and a potato hardly amounts to too many carbs.

secondly to lucky mommy, how can 1800 be too much its more than her maintenance calories!

Another thing with exercise, your muscles will hold a lot more water. In her second book Dr Amanda explains this really well. I just read it tonight. So its quite possible you are losing fat but don't notice it. So i wouldn't give up. But as i said before i would eat more.

I think your diet is unsustainable.

Pattience, while I agree with you in principal, we have no idea what her issues are, everyone, including you, is offering her advice on things to try. She says she is an endomorph so we take her at her word. If she is an endomorph and I have no idea, but what reason would she have to say it if she isn't, then she needs to limit carbs. She is insulin dominant and carbs exacerbate that. How much she needs to limit them is highly dependent on her individual intolerance of them. That is not for us to say. If she thinks she can handle a piece of toast and a potato every day, then that is between her and her physiology. But just offering her things to try is not "ridiculous".

It wasn't me who said she couldn't handle them. Somebody else did.

Limiting carbs does not mean she has to quit them. If she's not insulin resistant then what's the problem? She didn't say she was insulin resistant. So i don't assume that someone is until they say so. Especially since she's only 20 she is unlikely to be insulin resistant yet.

Pattience, I clearly said in my response that 1800 is too much based on my own experience. There are people who I've met on this board who can hardly maintain at 1200 calories a day. It is a known fact that obese people, even once they lose weight, must eat less in order to maintain a similar weight as someone who has never been obese. I think it's reasonable for OP to eat at the lower range for a while to see if that helps. We are all here to offer advice and support and to share our experience.

Where did I say insulin resistant? I said insulin dominant that's what endomorph means. Insulin resistance is a different issue. Please don't misquote me.

I am going to try to read her books. I looked it up and it sounds like she's on to something. Plus I want to thank you for responding! You've been in a similar spot that I am and have gotten out.

Thank you for your response. I'm already doing what you said. Which is why I have eggs in the morning and meat atleast one other meal. If I eat too much protein I get tired so I try to aim for veggies to fill the rest. I know carbs in the form of pastas or breads are my enemy is because I gain weight like a madman when I eat more of it.

Fat loss is always an equation of energy.

The idea that you are going to eat more calories and lose weight (faster) is pure fantasy.