What am I doing wrong!? Please help!

[relaxxx]

Hello to everyone,

firstly, this is a great forum with a huge wealth of information... So congratulations to the creators.

I am a fairly big guy, 194cm and about 97kg, so I'm slightly overweight but not a lot. I have always eaten quite healthy, but I didn't exercise a lot. I weighed about 110kg about 2 years ago but i lost about 20kg in 1 year... But then I went on a long holiday and you know how it goes... You lose track... So I put a few kilo's back on but I'm starting a new job in about 2 months so I want to make a good impression, hence I have been dieting for the past 2 weeks or so... But the weight isn't coming off! Even though as far as I can tell I'm doing everything right!

I jog for 1 hour a day, 5 days a week in the early morning, then I eat a fairly big bowl of homemade, all natural muesli and homemade yogurt with almonds, berries and unprocessed honey. About 11am I usually eat a piece of fruit, lunch at about 2 consists of a salad with minimum dressing, and either walnuts or tuna, afternoon snack is more fruit and dinner is usually a big plate of salad with a small portion of meat, pasta or potato. Desert is a fruit salad with yogurt and honey... I also take omega 3, antioxidants, multi minerals, and folic acid. I've had a blood test performed and my cholesterol, homocystein and everything else was very good... So I'm healthy, just overweight... I occasionally snack on unsalted nuts (not peanuts) and every now and then have a small piece of 70% cocoa chocolate, but other than that I don't eat a lot of 'treats'. So all in all I would say I eat about 4 serves of fruit and about 6 serves of veggies each day... Which I though was pretty good!

Anyways, thought I'd weigh myself this morning (2 weeks after starting my diet) but to my disappointment I haven't even lost a single kilo!:( So as you can imagine, self confidence has plummeted and I'm very disappointed...

The only thing I can think of is that I've replaced the fat with muscle as I do about an hour of weight lifting 2 times a week too and the jogging is fairly strenuous as I live in quite a hilly area... But to be completely honest I haven't seen much of a reduction in my waist line either! I know last time I dieted I didn't go through half as much effort but the kilo's just fell off! As much as 2 kilo's a week in the first weeks!

Anyways, I'm hoping one of you experts will know what I'm doing wrong cause its a very big kick in the guts to go through so much effort and not see any results!

Thank you very much for your time, and I'm sorry I wrote a novel:P

Regards,

[Gordz]

hey mate, i'd take measurements over weight readouts. you already sound in pretty good shape, so you're more likely to put on muscle than lose fat

[electrongirl]

sometimes it just takes a while to start showing. It sounds like you are eating really well and exercising enough.

Perhaps you might need to work out your calories. Because even if your eating good food you can still eat too many calories.

You could sign up to Calorie King to record your food, you'd be amazed how fast it can add up!

Also your BMI is only 25 so as you are quite tall your in a healthy weight range so it is going to be harder to lose much weight as your body will try to hold onto itself.

I think just focus on toning up and keep eating well and your body will react eventually.

[EvilWombatQueen]

It's likely that you've gained muscle bulk, but you should have seen a reduction in your measurements if that's the case.

Can you keep a log of everything you eat and how much you exercise in a day? You can either use http://www.calorieking.com.au, which Electrongirl recommended, or just use a pen and paper. There are studies that have shown people regularly underestimate how much they're eating and overestimate their amount of exercise. By keeping a log you have everything in front of you in black and white just to make sure this isn't the case.

If you sign up to Calorie King you can create a profile which will tell you how many calories you need to eat per day to lose weight. Plug in all of the things you are eating and see how it compares. Make sure to pay attention to the recommended portion sizes as it's easy to assume you're eating one portion when in fact you're eating two. It sounds unlikely but you may be eating more calories than you think given muesli and nuts are quite high in calories and (with toasted muesli) in fat as well.

It could be fluid retention. Has it been really hot where you live recently? Do you eat much salt with your meals? Have you started a new medication recently?

Stick with it for another couple of weeks. If you still see no results then you might want to visit your GP and address the issue with him or her. There could be a medical reason why you're not losing weight.

[heiditiana]

Hi there,
Can I just mention the fact that you seem to be eating a lot of sugar, even if its in fruit or honey or muesli its still sugar that if not burned will eventually turn to fat. But aside from that
you seem to eat very healthy and even eat quite low on the carbs so its a bit strange. Dont worry too much your not considered over weight and a lot of ladies like a man with a bit of meat on his bones.
Either way its said that if you write down what you eat each day it really makes a difference when deciding to snack on foods or not.
Good Luck!!

[relaxxx]

Thanks very much for all your replies,

I think there is truth to most of it but i honestly don't think I"m eating a lot of calories... And most of the food is all natural... The meusli is all whole grains, not baked and not processed or anything... And only has sunflower seeds, pine nuts and almonds so I suppose they're the healthiest nuts? My dads partner is a nutritionist and she put the meusli together so I think it should be ok...

I think you might be right about the sugar too...
What sort of fruits are quite low in sugar... And what could i substitute it with? I have been eating carrots as well as a snack... would this be a better alternative?
I mostly eat apples, pears, kiwi fruits and occasionally plums and mandarins and stuff... And I have about 2 oranges freshly squeezed too each day so I think the sugar could definately be true...

I'm probably putting on muscle mass as-well and i"m fairly happy with my arms, chest and legs but my upper thighs and around my stomach is still fairly flabby... Is there any sort of exercise I should be doing to target these areas? What sort of foods speed up your metabolism?

Thanks again for all the replies,

Its hugely appreciated.

Regards

[electrongirl]

I wouldn't worry too much about the fruit, its better than eating junk food! Apart from the sugar, fruit is high in vitamins & fibre.

For your stomach area, I suggest sit-up and crunches. For the thighs, squats and lunges.

I still think just checking your portions might help. It can't hurt!

[Czarina]

You might not be eating enough calories, being a male of your height you would probably need to eat quite a lot. If you don't eat enough, your body will hold onto fat because it thinks it may be starving. Like Electrongirl and EWK have suggested, your best bet would be to check out the Calorie King website.

[MoC]

I'll pass along the advice my brother gave me (personal trainer and works with elite athletes) work out your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) which is the number of calories you need to stay alive, then add that to the number of calories burned during exercise and aim to eat slightly less than that number. Essentially you're aiming to create a deficit between energy in and energy out which the body will satisfy by burning fat.

[Etch]

Moc has it right. Its basic mouth. Put less into your body then you are burning in a day. I eat my 1700cal's per day and then add roughly 10% of my excercise calories on top of that

[relaxxx]

Hey guys,

Just typed in my details into calorieking and it turned out that on an average day I was only getting 800-1200 calories after exercise even though it says I should be aiming for about 2000... But I'm scared that if I start eating more I'll put on weight!! What can I do about this?? If I'm not losing weigh now, how the hell am I supposed to by eating MORE!!

Should I just jump straight into the 2000calories by adding some carbs in the form of wholemeal grains to my lunch, and perhaps eating some more potatoes or so to my diet or do I need to build it up slowly? What would you guys suggest?

I don't feel tired or fatigued or anything which is why I had no idea I was eating too little!!

Thanks in advance for your help:)

[EvilWombatQueen]

The best way to see if you lose weight by eating more is to eat more! A lot of weight loss is trial-and-error. What works for some won't necessarily work for you so you may have to try a few things before finding a solution that works. It sounds like you definitely need to eat more from what you're saying.

Are you cutting down carbs too much? If you're not getting many carbs, and you're not deliberately following a low carb diet, then definitely add some healthy low GI wholegrain foods to your meals. If you're already getting enough carbs then maybe consider adding some healthy high calorie foods such as avocados or nuts. You won't have to eat as much to get a lot more calories, and if you're following a low fat diet your body is probably missing essentially fatty acids from your diet. Go for nuts that add good nutrients into your diet like walnuts (omega 3 fatty acids) or ones that are relatively low in fat but high in vitamin E (almonds).

Good luck! I hope you find the solution to your problem soon.

[Czarina]

When I first started on Calorie King, like you, I was not eating anywhere near enough and didn't feel hungry, etc...I decided to try and eat what CK said I should be aiming for (which was almost 1800 when I started) for two weeks to see what would happen, and lo and behold - I lost weight! I didn't believe it would work, but it did. Give it a go for two to three weeks, you won't regret it. Another reason to eat more is the fact that if you start out on a small amount of calories, you've got nowhere to go when you are closer to goal, because the less you weigh, the less you need to eat! I'm now on 1440 calories, but usually eat about 1600 gross, when exercise is taken into account.