Diet and Exercise - not losing any fat

[missandreaellis]

Hi,

Im in a rut at the moment. Ive lost over 20kgs and my weight has hit a plateau for the last couple of months.
Ive upped my weight sessions, changed my weights, upped my cardio and changed my diet regualry and nothing seems to be able to shift it.
Im 170cm & 80kgs - about 35% body fat
At the moment Im doing the following:

Per week:
RPM (spinning class) - 4hrs
Kickboxing - 2hrs
Running - 2 - 3 hours
Lower body weights - 2 - 3 hrs
Upper Body weights - 2 -3 hrs.
And i was thinking of adding more cardio to it.

I need to keep my cardio up there as i want to compete in more triathlons and Im in training for teaching RPM.

My diet usually consists of:

Breakfast:
Protein powder & Ice & water

Snack:
Beef Jerky

Lunch:
grapes & salomn

Snack:
Protein powder

Snack:
fruit

Dinner:
steak & veg or chicken and veg

I do sometime binge eat and eat alot of grapes (maybe 1/2 kilo or peanut butter) Usually happens maybe once a week or once every two weeks.

does anyone have any suggestions where i should change what im doing???

Thanks for your advice

[pink378]

stop binge eating.

I dont see any complex carbs at all. only 2 servings of fruit a day (and thats not until lunchtime) and some veg at night. that is not enough carbs and it's probably why youre binging. your body needs some energy.

try adding some oatmeal or whole wheat toast to breakfast. ditch the beef jerky (high in sodium and additives). lunch needs some greens or vegs and maybe another complex carb such as sweet potato or brown rice.

[missandreaellis]

hi,

thanks for your reply. I started to eat some small amounts of complex carbs and found i started to put on weight again. I was having oatmeal and water for breakfast about 30gr (dry) serving so i cut it again.

Ill try to add it again and see how i go.

Thanks for your help!

[jess_muscles]

hey there- i concur with the above statement.

just looking over your diet i can see heaps wrong with it-sorry just my opinion.

grapes and salmon is a crappy lunch. it doesn't even sound filling which is probably why u binge.

lunch should consist of a high quality protein source, complex carbs and vegetables. salmons pretty high in fat (albeit good fat) so maybe go for chicken or tuna for lunch, with sweet potato and some broccoli or green beans. you can still have your salmon some days.

i know you said carbs have made u put on weight in the past but sweet potato is a good option, and u can have it instead of the grapes, (which are carbs anyway)

i don't see any dairy in there either, so have at least one of your shakes with milk instead of water. if this is gonna be a long term thing, it needs to be balanced.

if u like peanut butter, add it to your shake in the morning. that way your covering your fats, plus you wont feel the need to binge on it. if you don't do this, at least add some fats somewhere in there, eg flaxseed oil with your lunch or dinner

sounds like you do heaps of exercise a week, so don't be afraid to up your cals. and make sure your water intake is enough- i think you'll be sweet...you've already lost 20kg thats awesome you should be cheering!!

goodluck

[Amanda76]

Wow chick...you need to EAT. It's no wonder you binge eat as you're starving yourself between binges with unbalanced meals and too much activity.

You are eating protein with pretty much every meal. That's good. Don't forget about the wide variety of whole-food proteins available to you (egg whites, wide variety of fish, fresh beef, cottage cheese, etc).

It's also good to see you are getting some healthy fats in. Again try to get variety. Nuts like almonds and walnuts are great. Cook your food in olive or macadamia nut oil. Avacado has many benefits as well.

Try to eat a serving of vegetables or fruit with every meal.

You need to add a few servings of complex carbs (especially with your activity level!) and I would expect for you to gain some pretty instant water weight from putting them back in your diet. But the scale won't go up and up with water weight. You'll gain some water and stabilize. Adding those carbs back in will allow your muscle to fill back up with glycogen for energy (which stores water in the muscle with it) and make your workouts more productive which will help you preserve lean mass and lose fat. Add things like oats, brown rice, and sweet potato and water gain should be pretty minimal.

What do you drink throughout the day? I'm hoping it's lots of water.

[sacha2]

How long have you been eating like this? If you are gaining weight from 30g of oats (?) then you need to go see a doctor and get a serious medical evaluation. It sounds like you have damaged your body from these eating habits. I hate to say it, but it seems quite disordered.

[missandreaellis]

Thanks for all your advice.
I drink heaps of water - about 3litres a day.
I havent been eating like this for a long time - just currently. Everytime I stop losing weight I try to change my diet completley to shock it into losing it again. I might go see the doc aswell and make sure everything is alright.

Thanks!