Trouble Losing Weight

[Kyrian]

I've been tracking my diet for the past couple months and I've not had any success. I'm fairly active as I'm in the military, and I exercise at least 6 days a week, including cardio, circuits, and weight training. I eat pretty healthy and track my calories, and I've experimented with both a regular healthy diet and the paleo diet. However, I've put on a few pounds of muscle and lost no fat.

When I exercise daily, I eat around 1500 calories, which is enough to feel satisfied throughout the day and make good gains in weight lifting and increase my running speed across the weeks. However, I don't lose any fat. But if I eat a few hundred less calories (1200-1300), I get incredibly tired and don't have the strength to finish my workouts.

I keep a battle log here, and here's an example of what I eat:

Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs, 1 banana, 1 cup plain yogurt

Lunch: Grilled chicken on salad, fat-free ranch dressing, avocado

Dinner: Grilled Chicken, fish, or pork and steamed vegetables, sometimes a piece of bread

Snacks: Apple, raw vegetables, yogurt

[progress126]

I'm not an expert so don't quote me on this but I don't think you're eating enough based on the amount of exercise you do. Your body is holding onto every bit of fat to compensate for the lack of calories coming in. It may sound weird but i think if you increased your caloric intakethe weight will stsrt coming off. Anyone else want to chime in?

[bigm141414]

What does your exercise routine look like? How are you measuring your weight loss progress? Just the scale or using measurements? progress makes a good point that if you are highly active and are only eating 1500 calories it may not be enough. I know it sounds counter intuitive but the body is a weird thing.

[shadowmeldfs]

My thoughts would be to increase your caloric intake also. 1500 seems low for an active person. You are already tracking everything, so you should notice any changes.

Good luck.

[The Tin Man]

Some questions/comments (both related to your question and not) after seeing your height/weight (5'3"/145) and routine:

-Why did you pick the exercises you did?

-Have you tried deadlifting?

-If you're worried about squat form feel free to film yourself and post a video here.

-Do you know your bodyfat percent? If so, how was it measured?

[airen123]

I'm pretty similar to you-5'3 and bounce between 135-140 lbs and working on getting the weight off. Body fat is 24-25% here.

I looked at your exercises...possibly add in a couple HIIT cardio?

Ab machine can be cut out if you do more core weights (ie, deadlifting, squats, lunges, overhead, bench)...

I'm impressed you are able to stick to that food regimen. Food is my problem.

[jessicatron]

I have to agree with uping your calorie intake. I think 1500 is too low as well.

I would add protein to your snacks. I don't know what others recommend but I think you'd see some improvement if you added in protein with your snack as you only seem to be snacking on carbs. I would also kick the apple and replace it with sweet potatoes. So maybe an example snack could be chicken w/ sweet potatoes?

I'm not sure what you like. I'm just basing this on what you've posted.

[joeyb]

I don't know where 1500 came from, so I'm going to assume it's calculated from BMR with a deficit. When you calculate your BMR, that is what your body will burn at rest, so eating that many Calories will without exercise will keep you at the same weight. If you cut out 500 Calories, you will lose 1lb per week. However, if you do that and you work out a lot, then you need to also consume extra Calories approximately equal to the number of Calories that you burned while working out. If you don't, then your total for the day will be much less than the 1500 that is expected. 1200 Calories is generally considered a bare minimum for women to consume in a day. So, if you are burning more than 300 Calories from your workouts, then you are essentially starving yourself. This is especially true if you are only consuming 1200 Calories a day, which is why you are so tired. Your body reacts poorly to that and starts trying to store fat in any way possible.

Basically, you need to eat more food so that your body doesn't turn everything it consumes into fat. There are two ways to do that. You can either up your Calories for the day and then workout as much as you want or you can eat 1500 Calories plus whatever you burn while working out, which will keep your deficit each day constant. That's up to you how you want to do it. I've been on a 1000 Calorie deficit for about 2.5 months and I lost 2lbs/week like clockwork.

If you are eating healthy whole foods, you should feel full all day long. I've found that I actually have to eat some slightly unhealthier foods to get up to my 1000 Calorie deficit. So, if you feel hungry or like you can't get enough food, I'd say that's a strong indicator that you aren't eating enough.

[Kyrian]

Whoa, what a response...

I only really got into fitness a few years ago, when I decided to join the military, so my knowledge of working out is pretty lacking. I do a lot of reading on it, and I am definitely improving, especially since I found this site

I weigh myself every morning and tape every week; my tape measurements have stayed the same, which is why I assumed the weight gain was mostly muscle. I'm officially taped at 33% body fat, which I find ridiculous.

As for diet and exercise - I try to keep to a schedule of 30 minutes of cardio (biking or running) and an hour of weight lifting a day, with a day every week of rest. I am interested in trying more powerlifting, but I'm about to go on vacation for a bit and then move, so I'll probably have to stick with a more flexible exercise schedule until then. My diet is pretty much controlled by what is available in the chow hall (which is cafeteria level at best, and goes by the motto, fat bad sugar bad MAKE EVERYTHING DIET), and I have to change my exercise schedule to account for my (usually) daily squad PT.

But it sounds like the general consensus is up the calorie intake and try some powerlifting, so I'll try it out and hopefully that'll help Thank y'all!