Plateau, plateau... HELP!

[weevilkris]

Hi Everybody,

Super-nerd girl here has finally decided to grow up and get married. I want to be a gorgeous bride on my special day, and of course, that means, getting into the best shape of my life.

Currently: 142 lbs, fairly muscular but too much fat to see it. Bust 36 Waist: 27.5 Hips: 40 (yikes)

Since we don't have dates set yet, I've set the following goals:

by my birthday (2 months from now): down 15 pounds, lose 2 inches in hips.

by my good buddy's wedding (October 27): at goal: 117 pounds, 36-24-36 (why those measurements? because I can. In fact I should probably be smaller, but to start with, let's see how I look with those )

Now, I've always been fairly athletic/muscular (I played rugby in college), but I've never actually done a strength training program before.

Where I am now:

DIET: I follow a mostly vegetarian/vegan diet. I try to keep it to 1200 calories per day (NOTE: I am fairly short 5'3" so this should not be a scary low amount). Typically on the weekends i will eat more (1500-1600 cals). I will usually have 1 serving of meat, fish, or chicken per week, and perhaps 1-2 servings of dairy. I consider this to be a fairly healthy diet, though I am sure it can be improved: for example I try to choose whole grains but sometimes will eat a bagel.

EXERCISE: 30-60 minutes of cardio or cardio/strength training combination 5 days per week (think Jillian Michaels No More Trouble Zones). I can complete the "No More Trouble Zones" with 5lb weights without issue. I can swim laps for an hour easily. I can run a 5k in about 33 minutes (I suck at running).

My problem: I cannot seem to lose an OUNCE. :-)

So - how do I start? What strength training exercises should I try and more importantly, how much weight should I try at each to start? What about diet?

[shredder]

Hi! Welcome to the forums!

I would personally recommend trying a paleo diet to lose weight. Whole grains may not be as great for you as you think, particularly if you are trying to lose weight. It's worked for a lot of people, and I've lost a lot of weight since I started it too. Plus you feel great. I know it sounds weird to try before you start it, but try it for 30 days and see if you don't look and feel better. Steve has a great write up on it here so you can learn more about it: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/10/04/the-beginners-guide-to-the-paleo-diet/

To answer you question about how much weight you should try to start, start with just the bar! You can add weight from there and see how much you can handle. Or, you can just do body weight exercises. See (http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/)

You might also want to try interval training, which burns a lot more calories than cardio. (http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/01/27/kick-your-ass-and-kickstart-your-metabolism-in-20-minutes/)

I know that's a lot of NerdFitness links, but then again that is the site we're on. The blog has a lot of great information.

Good luck with everything!

[Mike Pants]

Everything Manveru said. If you're not vegetarian for ethical reasons, give Paleo a try. Without the wheat flour causing insulin spikes in your bloodstream, the pounds fly off pretty fast. I lost 15 pounds in two months, and that was even with the gained muscle mass from weight training.

Cardio is great for endurance but pretty lousy for weight loss. You're going to want to put on lean muscle so that your body is burning more just to keep itself going throughout the day. And that means you need to stop pretending those 5-lb weights are doing anything and really push yourself. Start lifting and lifting heavy. Head over to the Free Resources section of NF to get started. That's where most of us started our weight-loss adventures.

[Waldo]

Where I am now:

DIET: I follow a mostly vegetarian/vegan diet. I try to keep it to 1200 calories per day (NOTE: I am fairly short 5'3" so this should not be a scary low amount). Typically on the weekends i will eat more (1500-1600 cals). I will usually have 1 serving of meat, fish, or chicken per week, and perhaps 1-2 servings of dairy. I consider this to be a fairly healthy diet, though I am sure it can be improved: for example I try to choose whole grains but sometimes will eat a bagel.

EXERCISE: 30-60 minutes of cardio or cardio/strength training combination 5 days per week (think Jillian Michaels No More Trouble Zones). I can complete the "No More Trouble Zones" with 5lb weights without issue. I can swim laps for an hour easily. I can run a 5k in about 33 minutes (I suck at running).

My problem: I cannot seem to lose an OUNCE. :-)

So - how do I start? What strength training exercises should I try and more importantly, how much weight should I try at each to start? What about diet?

Your deficit is way too big for your exercise levels. You don't need to make wholesale radical changes to your diet, you need to EAT MORE. This sounds backwards but it is why you are plateaued (that and worrying about it).

Read this:

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html

Strength training will help greatly as well. You don't need to go crazy; a few sets of pushups, pullups (or something similar like rows), and squats a few times a week will do wonders. Steve has a bunch of good bodyweight Strength training on the main blog.

And being mostly vegetarian/vegan, are your protein levels high enough? Not the RDA, that only applies to couch potatoes, not people who exercise. You need to be much higher than that (0.75-1g/lb LBM), and every day, unlike fat and carbs the body has no ability to store protein for future use other than your muscles, if it needs to it will eat your muscles for the protein.

[weevilkris]

Thanks guys.

I've looked into the Paleo diet, but the part that seems strange to me is the no lentils/oatmeal/quinoa. I could probably cut out the bread reasonably well, but since oatmeal and quinoa are gluten free (heck quinoa isn't even technically a grain), I'm not sure how this could be so "bad". Surely it's better to eat some organic oatmeal than 15 slices of bacon for breakfast?

I definitely think that cutting down on the dairy, incorporating a little more lean meats and cutting out the toast and bagels sounds like a good idea. But I need a "grab and go" breakfast that I can work with. It's been pretty easy on the vegan side grabbing some oatmeal from Starbucks for breakfast (plain with sprinkled cinnamon).

If I go Paleo, the only breakfast I can think of that i can get anywhere near my office is an omelette. Eating an omelette every single morning doesn't sound like it'd be so fab for my cholesterol.

Any other ideas? Or, do you think "Paleo but with oatmeal for breakfast" will get me most of where i need to go?

[Blueberries]

The myth that dietary cholesterol is linked to having bad cholesterol numbers is just that, a myth. I'm not strict Paleo, but I know many who are make something called Egg Monster once or twice a week to be able to grab a piece for breakfast and go. Do a forum search and you'll come up with lots of hits.

[Mike Pants]

The great thing about going Paleo is that every step you make in that direction means significant improvement in your health, whether you go 50%, 80%, or 100%. It's not like, say, Atkins where one misstep utterly obliterates the effectiveness of the entire process. So if you want to cut out breads and pastas but keep oats, you're still doing yourself a world of good.

That said, while oatmeal isn't a grain, it still reacts in much the same way as a grain when digested, including causing insulin spikes (especially if you are gluten-sensitive) and releasing phytic acid, which can cause inflammation in your gut and prevent mineral and nutrient absorption (which is also the reason to avoid legumes).

There are benefits to eating oatmeal, too, of course, so you really just need to weigh the advantages over the drawbacks for you and your lifestyle. On the whole, things like oats, rice, and quinoa are on the "not as bad for you" side of the Paleo scale when compared to things like corn and wheat and beans, but you do have alternatives. Fruit with almond butter, sausage patties, eggs, hash browns? I know of a lot of Paleo people who make and freeze things like eggs and potatoes ahead of time and then pop a hash-brown patty in the toaster in the morning. Personally, I never really liked breakfast food in the first place, and Paleo breakfasts can be a challenge, so I usually just skip ahead to lunch foods and treat breakfast like any other meal.

[weevilkris]

MikePants,

Thanks for this info regarding people having some success going 80% etc. If I think about what I really think our ancestors ate, I do not get a burger pattie and a slab of bacon every day. Instead, if you think about the migratory patterns of ancient peoples, they tended to follow the water. What's in water? Fish, mollusks, and other seafood. And if you look at a lot of the uncontacted tribes (the few that are still primarily hunter/gatherers), you'll find that they see meat as a big "treat"; fish might be once every other day, fowl a little bit less, but a big piece of red meat game would be a rarity. The diet consists primarily of vegetables, leaves, tubers (like yuca), nuts, and seeds.

So I think I might try something like that -- being vegan 3 days a week, 1 serving animal protein the rest; incorporating mostly fish and fowl instead of red meat, but keeping things like oatmeal, beans, and quinoa in moderation. In terms of the research, this sounds the most metabolically sound.

I'll let you know how the diet goes, in terms of the strength training, I keep hearing that I should "train with heavy weights" - does anyone have good guidelines for selecting the right weight? Nowhere can I find anything to help me get started. The plans on NF are great to start with your own body weight, but as a n00b in the weight room, I want to be able to understand what I'm really looking for.

[Mike Pants]

I think the diet sounds good, and quinoa is a great source of protein if you're not going to be eating a lot of animal products. And if we take chimps and gorillas as a benchmark, they only eat meat for 5% to 10% of their total intake. Let the chimps be your guide...

Selecting the right weight to start lifting can only be determined by one thing: trying to lift different weights. If you can bench a 20-pound barbell 10 times and the last one is just as easy as the first one, you're not lifting enough. If you can only bench a 50-pound barbell once, you're lifting too much. If at the end of 5-7 reps, you can just barely finish but still maintain perfect form, you've got it right. A few minutes of experimentation and you'll be good to go.

[shredder]

I highly recommend forgetting everything you've ever learned about nutrition for a little while and giving 100% paleo a try for just 30 days. Let the results speak for themselves. Personally, my results have shown me that bacon is indeed healthier for breakfast than oatmeal. Worst case scenario you adjust it after 30 days based on how you feel. But like it was said before, any adjustments you make in that direction, even smaller ones, like cutting out bread or pasta, are going to be great for your health.

For a quick breakfast, try cooking a few days of food on the weekend, and them microwaving them in the mornings during the week. I like to cook a couple slices of bacon, a few eggs, and some veggies like spinach, peppers, and onions.

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