Pissing me off.

[fusioncom]

Last week I ate super clean, worked out 4 times, and did some walking on various other days.

Instead of dropping at least a pound I added 4 according to the scale this morning.

The only thing I started on was Creatine so i'm guessing its making me retain some water.
Either way my quest for 20lbs in two months is killing me. My body isnt responding.
Here is an example of my week, and one day of food........what am I doing wrong!

Food Day (Workout Day)

Wake: 6:30am
Meal 1: Wheat Toast (1 Peice)
One Scoop On Whey mixed with Waterh
Gym: 7:00am
Work: 8:30
Meal 2: 8:45
Kashi Go Lean Oatmeal
Scoop of On Whey mixed with Water
Green Mag Creatine
Meal 3: 10:30am Cottage Cheese Approx 1 Cup
Meal 4: 12:30pm
Grilled Chicken Salad
Meal 5: 6:00pm Some lean meat Chicken, or Fish, Maybe beef
with at least 1 green veggie and a sweet potatoe or Whole Wheat Bread.

Now perhaps I'm just not eating enough? At 285lbs?

My workout consists of a 5X5 program, followed with 30 mins of low intensity walking.

I'm debating changing to Cardio only until I loose about 20 lbs, and alternate a month of Weight Lifting in here and there.

Ideas? Creatine the cause?

[JustLost]

That doesn't look like much food at all. What are your daily targets/totals for calories, protein, fat, and carbs?

Do you know what your maintenance calorie level is?

[pnycar69]

Originally Posted by fusioncom

Last week I ate super clean, worked out 4 times, and did some walking on various other days.

Instead of dropping at least a pound I added 4 according to the scale this morning.

The only thing I started on was Creatine so i'm guessing its making me retain some water.
Either way my quest for 20lbs in two months is killing me. My body isnt responding.
Here is an example of my week, and one day of food........what am I doing wrong!

Food Day (Workout Day)

Wake: 6:30am
Meal 1: Wheat Toast (1 Peice)
One Scoop On Whey mixed with Waterh
Gym: 7:00am
Work: 8:30
Meal 2: 8:45
Kashi Go Lean Oatmeal
Scoop of On Whey mixed with Water
Green Mag Creatine
Meal 3: 10:30am Cottage Cheese Approx 1 Cup
Meal 4: 12:30pm
Grilled Chicken Salad
Meal 5: 6:00pm Some lean meat Chicken, or Fish, Maybe beef
with at least 1 green veggie and a sweet potatoe or Whole Wheat Bread.

Now perhaps I'm just not eating enough? At 285lbs?

My workout consists of a 5X5 program, followed with 30 mins of low intensity walking.

I'm debating changing to Cardio only until I loose about 20 lbs, and alternate a month of Weight Lifting in here and there.

Ideas? Creatine the cause?

I would say yes. The creatine is the culprit.

As far as your diet goes. What I would suggest is this. And only because it works great for me for 1-2 lbs per week.

Meal 1:

1 piece of wheat toast 2grams of protein and 13 grams of carbs
1 scoop of whey with water. 23grams of protein and 13 grams of carbs?

meal 1 23 grams of protein and 26 grams of carbs

Meal 2:

Kashi is 8g protein and 26g of carbs.
1 scoop of whey 23g protein and 13g carbs

meal 2 31 grams of protein and 39 grams of carbs

Meal 3:

1 cup cottage cheese. 28grams protein 6 grams of carbs

Meal 4:

Grilled Chicken Salad 40g protein 10 carbs

Meal 5:

Meat 40 g protein 0 carbs
Vegetable 2 g protein 10 carbs
Sweet potato 2 g protein 24 carb

meal 5 44g protein and 34 carb

In total that is 166grams of protein and 115g of carbs.

That is not bad. However! Adding up all those calories it seems like you are not eating enough. I could be completely wrong here, but you should add up the calories for all that, because from my back of the envelope calcs, it only seems like about 1200 calories.

Most likely you are retaining water from the creatine. That will stabilize. Were you losing weight before the creatine?

Drop the creatine first and see what happens. Then double check to make sure your diet is in order.

If you are trying to lose a bit faster, then you may want to try carb cycling. So during the week avoid carbs as much as possible, and then do some carb loading on weekends.

Your cardio needs to be a bit more than a brisk walk unless that is all you can handle right now. The intensity should be higher. For just walking, you would have to walk 5 miles a day to get the same benefit as 30-40 minutes on a stationary bike.

And what is your weight lifting sesion like? How long have you been lifting?

When I first started lifting, I gained weight at first.

And dont trust the scales. You weight can fluctuate up and down significantly from day to day. Bodyfat measurments, or even just size measurements with a tape are the better way to judge your progress.

Dont expect to see results after just one week. It takes your body time to get into that mode of losing fat vs maintenance.

Hope this helps.

[fusioncom]

Well if I follow the setup 15 x Bodyweight my maintenance weight is 4275.

My cutting should be roughly 3700 calories.

I'm concerned with eating this many though, although I exercise...I'm stuck behind a desk all day.

Eating 3700 calories on a cutting diet has to be hard. I can acheive 2500ish no problem...but wow 3700.

[fusioncom]

Usually I do the following on a lifting day.


Bench Press 5x5
Incline Bench 5X5
Bent Over Row 5x5
Machine Row 5x5
Hack Squat 5X5

On the next day I'll do some non compound lifting

Biceps, Triceps, Shoulders, abs, etc.

Then Compound day again.

Walking at 3.5-4.0mph 30 minutes after each gym day.

I can jog at about 5.2-5.5 for a good 15 minutes, take a walking break of about 5 then repeat. Should I do that instead of the regular walking?

I'm going to lay off the creatine for a week and see how it goes.

[RichM601]

Originally Posted by fusioncom

Usually I do the following on a lifting day.


Bench Press 5x5
Incline Bench 5X5
Bent Over Row 5x5
Machine Row 5x5
Hack Squat 5X5

On the next day I'll do some non compound lifting

Biceps, Triceps, Shoulders, abs, etc.

Then Compound day again.

Walking at 3.5-4.0mph 30 minutes after each gym day.

I can jog at about 5.2-5.5 for a good 15 minutes, take a walking break of about 5 then repeat. Should I do that instead of the regular walking?

I'm going to lay off the creatine for a week and see how it goes.

I would ease up on jog a bit just because it might be bad on your knees at that weight. I wouldn't say cut it out totally but minimize it to a couple of minutes at a time. And if you want, add a minute each week or two.

Good luck.

[fusioncom]

So here is my meals up to right now Today. Using the nutrition charts I have. I'm roughly at 1050 calories so far today. Good lord.

I still have 2k to go........or should I suffice with 2500 today.

8:45 Kashi Go lean Oatmeal ,Water,
10:30 Large Grilled Chicken Breast , Water,
1130 1.5 scoop on whey with water
1230 Healthy Choice Chicken Frozen meal , Water,
4:30 Mcdonalds Grilled Chicken Salad with Italian Dressing Water

[NeedToBeBig]

Hey man, Chill. the first week that I start creatine the loading phase puts like 5 pounds of water on me. you're prolly fine

[G-mane12]

Yeah its probably just the creatine holding water, not much to worry about. but creatine usually puts about 10 pounds on me, so why don't you just drop it while ur cutting?

[jcosley]

Originally Posted by fusioncom

So here is my meals up to right now Today. Using the nutrition charts I have. I'm roughly at 1050 calories so far today. Good lord.

I still have 2k to go........or should I suffice with 2500 today.

8:45 Kashi Go lean Oatmeal ,Water,
10:30 Large Grilled Chicken Breast , Water,
1130 1.5 scoop on whey with water
1230 Healthy Choice Chicken Frozen meal , Water,
4:30 Mcdonalds Grilled Chicken Salad with Italian Dressing Water

Stick to your diet and give it a few weeks.....i know u feel disappointed when you dont lose the lbs but your body is getting used to you using Creatine and wokring out, it iwll happen...stick with it.

[wontonnpho]

I know how ya feel. Sometimes crap like that happens. I have a hard time cutting too even when eating healthy. Maybe you should try progressively lowering the cals to see how that helps. Have you tried taking supps too?

[Jules Verne]

Probably as stated above.

Plus you have one single data point if you only weighed yourself weekly - no where near enough statistics to accurately say what your current weight is (although the error probably is less than the 4lb increase), or how much water you really gained though the creatine.

[ScottC]

One...don't go cardio only. Bad idea. Do 30 minutes of low-mod intesity cardio after you lift. A brisk walk on the treadmill is what I am doing.

Two...How much water are your drinking? I didn't see anything posted about that.

Three...I didn't run your numbers, but it is suggested that if your cals for fat loss go over 3000 cals per day, then just start at 3000 cals per day. You may have to up this slowly to get used to it, but your body needs them calories.

[Dominikm]

Like said before, your diet is lacking. You need to eat "more" to loose weight as it seems you are stuck in the midset of eat less and excersie more, you need to eat you MBR calories, factor in your activity level and minum 500 calories per pound of fat you want to loose, approx.

With the diet there is no way that was the case.

[Blackout]

You need to figure your maintenance calories based on your Lean Body Mass and activity level! Not total bodyweight!

Please read the above again!

Especially yours will be much lower, and correct. The only people who get close with the BW x 15 calculations, etc. are those in the 'normal' bodyfat range to begin with. People very lean or fat have skewed, incorrect numbers. Use the Katch McCardle formula and go from there. Good luck.