Frustrated.. stength is building but not losing fat

[sahtt]

I've been working out steadily for the last 2.5 years while in college. I've changed up my routines a few times but have always gone at least twice a week; this semster I've gone 4-5 times. I was fortunate enough to have a good foundation in strength training from Highschool baseball, the rest I learned from here or other guys in the gym.

Before this semester, I've just cared about eating healthy and building strength. This was the first time I actually paid attention to calories and ate very lean to get rid of fat. I have a soda or two a month and never eat fast food, delivery pizza, etc.; not too easy for a college kid.

Bottom line, every semester my strength increases "good enough" given my frame. I came into college about 155 5'8.5, I'm now 170 5'9.5. Just for example, I have built my bench max from about 160 to 235, decline 175 to 265, doubled my dead lift, almost doubled most of back exercises, etc.

I have a bad lower back that doesn't respond well to squats. Basically it causes me to kill my form once I have substantial weight and try to go under the parallel. I've tried working on it without success, but with the leg press I can do sets of 650-700lbs, though I wish I could do squats.

Here's the main issue, I just can't get rid of the fat over my stomach. I am fortunate enough to go to a large university and since I was in a weight training class last semester I had my body fat tested with several machines, including the one that cost the university several hundred thousand dollars. You lay down and an attendent uses a 'wand' to scan your body, the machine then produces detailed analysis of your body fat, where it's centralized, how that compares to average, etc. Pretty cool.

Overall, I was about 12-14% depending on the method, but I had slightly more over my stomach than "average" as far as distribution goes. This didn't surprise me because the leanness in my legs/shoulders etc. whlie wearing a wife beater/tank top undershirt would suggest I had a 6 pack.

I calculated my maint. around 2700 cals, I've been eating around 2-2.2k but I do drink some beer on average once a week, so I consider that my 'cheat' day.

In the start, I thought the fact I wasn't losing weight was because I was not eating enough, that's why I start counting calories to begin with. I also drink TONS of water, 6-7 big glasses every meal and have been doing that since I started a couple years ago.

Now I do cardio; about 300 cals worth 3-5 times a week, eat the right amount of the right food [I've read most stickies in the forum], and weight train but the only results I see are marginal strength improvements.

At first I didn't let it get to me, but after months of dedication and supposedly doing things right while your roommates eat pizza, fast food, etc. on a daily basis and only push 1/2 as much weight as you, yet you barely look bigger and not much leaner, it gets to you!

What the hell am I missing? should I down further in calories just to test it, or is that going to stall me further?

[Trashard]

Have you tried HITT cardio trainig? I am not much of a calorie counter. I eat healthy year round (of course you gotta cheat a few times but overall...) but i have noticed that while doing HIIT, i find my cardio workouts to be a lot more effective, also shorter since dont have to spend 40 minutes on a treadmill which bores me to death. I would give HIIT a try, you might be pleasantly surprised about the results. Sometimes what your body needs is a bit of a shock since you're no longer a newbie and results will take longer than they did when you first started working out.

[nithos]

Can you post your full diet (or an example) and the average macros for the last two weeks?

[numinix]

I don't think it's a training problem. But post your full workout anyways. I find compound exercises great for strength and mass, but iso's, imo, are extremely important for defined and localized muscle mass (ie, pec flies).

Perhaps you have miscalculated your caloric intake (what you actually eat). Especially since you have not mentioned anything about weight loss (muscle and fat), and have hinted more towards muscle gains. Have you recently been losing weight, or gaining? Has your BF% decreased to 13% or increased to 13%? You may want to consider bulking to a greater muscle mass and then try cutting in the spring/summer of this year. If you find yourself in a plateau for fat loss, more muscle can be very helpful...

Posting your diet would be helpful because we could get a better idea of your insulin levels throughout the day...

[sahtt]

Thanks guys for the replies already. It's finals weeks and I've been at the library/gym since I posted this.

I only have about 15 mins but I'll give what info. I can quickly. First, I haven't tried HIIT but I've always wanted to. I am going to look more into it.

I don't have my exact diet because I eat at all sorts of different places, different foods, and frozen $hit due to tiem constraits. But this is fairly accurate:

Breakfast:
A light yogurt.
1 cup high fiber/protien cereal, 3 cups 1% milk, total 500 cals
Early lunch:
Frozen dish like Lean cuis. with veggies/lean meats always 250-340 cals, I try to get ones with lower sodium content since everything else is OK
2 cups of 1% milk 200 cals
Late lunch/snack:
some snack like 2 veggie corndogs, 300 cals w/ good protein low fat, 2 cups of milk 200 cals
besides that I may eat baked chips for similar cals

[I work out at this time]
dinner:
frozen dish with lean meat/veggies, 2 cups milk 500 cals

Depending on where I'm at with my cals, I'll drink more milk with dinner or cook a small high protein low carb/cal snack. I like milk if you guys didn't notice, I go through at least 1.5 gallons a week.

Here's my workout last week exactly, I'm near the end of my strength training so the reps are near the lowest I go. After xmas I'll go back up to 10 reps with lower weight.

Monday-Chest
Bench:
bar 20 reps, 115 Warm Up 9 reps, 145 W.U. 6 reps
195X3X3, 200X3
115X8 cool down
Incline bench dumbbells [moto accident makes using bar painful]:
50[each dumbbell]X8 W.U.
70X6X3, 75X7
Depending on time, I'll do 4 sets on abs using weight on inverted bench, otherwise I save it for another day.

Tuesday-Shoulders/biceps
Dumbbell shoulder press:
35[each dumbbell]X8 W.U.
50X6X3, 55X6
Shoulder shrugs:
60X10 W.U.
80X10, 85X8X2, 90X8
Biceps:
27.5[each dumbbell]X16[8 each arm] W.U.
35X14X3
Chin-ups:
BodyweightX6X3

Abs if I didn't get them in Mon.

Wed. off day

Thursday-Decline bench/Back
Decline bench:
W.U. sessions similar to bench
210X4X3
Decline dumbbell press:
60[each dumbbell]X6 W.U.
75X6X3, 80X4 [need spotter/help and don't have it to go up in weight]
Back:
The first excercise I do is the one with one knee and hand on a bench and you lift the dumbell from the ground similar to starting a lawn mower leaned over, obviously I don't remember what it's called.
W.U. with 40X8
75[each dumbbell]X6X4 [each arm]
Then the next is the one [1/2 machine] where you stand on the mini platforms and add free weights in front of the handles. There is closer mid-back/lower center back grip and outward grip for higher up behind the shoulders. You raise the 'lever' with weight on the end off the ground and stand in a squating position pulling it towards your chest.

W.U. then 120X6X3 closer grip, 110X6X3 outward grip alternating style.

Lat pull down:

W.U. then 135X7X3

Friday off
Sat. off

Sunday or Sat. depending on sched:legs/deadlift/abs

Deadlift:
W.U. 160X8X3, 170X7

Usual set of abs. Since my lower back isn't treating me well, I'm not currently doing squats and deadlifts are all it can take besides riding my sportbike 3 times a day 6 times a week. I'll also throw in calves or wrists depending on what I've missed or want to try out.

When it gets a little less sensitive I will get back into squats on Sunday or sat.

I also do a stairstepper on its highest difficult for 3 sessions of 11 minutes about 2-3 times a week at least, each session is 140 cals [very rough estimate given by machine].

Did that help any? That diet is a very rough one, my diet is always different but I keep a very close eye on what I eat. I throw in a protein filled jamba juice or a 'guiltless chicken platter' from chili's once in a while as well.

[sahtt]

If you noticed the odd tendencies to go up in weight and sometimes even reps on the last set; it's because I don't have a spotter until the last set so I might get one extra off.

Almost forgot on the important BF% deal, I am basically consistent since I was in early highschool. I've slowly added about 30lbs of muscle and increased somewhat substantially in strength, but have not got leaner. Some days I'll feel slightly leaner, then the next day I'm pissed off again. My body fat % is probably still right around 13%, as I have the exact same fat over my abs as I've had for as long as I can remember.

[sahtt]

Any tips...? Suggestions?

[codewarrior]

Originally Posted by sahtt

Any tips...? Suggestions?

How is your sleep working out? Getting enough?

[sahtt]

Funny you mention that..

Before the last month or two, I had really bizzarre sleeping habits. Due to my heavy school workload I'd often have 4 hour nights of sleep. I knew it was terrible for me and it would piss me off, but it was often unavoidable. After getting fed up with working out on with no energy etc., I just said I'm getting 8 hours of sleep no matter WHAT. So far it's working well and it's forced me to go to sleep at somewhat reasonable times.

I have noticed my strength building faster since [I knew it would; I've already been through it before], but I swear I actually gained some fat. I've got an easy 4-5lbs of excess fat sitting on my abs and it bothers the hell out of me.

[nithos]

Originally Posted by sahtt

Any tips...? Suggestions?

I think you need to clean up your diet. Since it sounds like you are already pretty lean, try to avoid all processed foods. I would also suggest tracking calories like a hawk.

[viciouselipse]

hit up the Keto boards time to convert you.

[mudy]

Get off the 1% milk, try skim, take multivitamins, omega oils
Get off the corndog (corn is starchy meat inside is not "real" meat)
Do you like redwine? Try it instead of beer, good for your circulation, stimulates brain activity and produce more hemoglobins.

Eat nuts, almonds, peanuts (the ones in the shell), sunflower seeds (with the shell not salted) or filberts, walnuts. Dry roasted, or raw.(instead of chips) You can mix them for variety in a little bag with some raisins -not much-, good snack.

If you really like milk, drink the 1% with all natural peanut butter (Not skippy! Smuckers is pretty good, Whole foods market lets you make your own)

Eat some 100% whole wheat bread, you can make sandwich of it with turkey/chicken breast from the deli, lettuce, tomato, mustard thin slice Low Fat mozarella.

Look on Kashi's website, they have all the nutritions on and pick what food u like.

I don't see fruits in your meal. Get a banana with your breakfast. Strawberry and raspberries are low in fructose and calorie, eat them as snack (u can mix with your milk and spenda, maybe eggwhites)
If you can't cook in your dorm or where every u live, try powdered eggwhites or the liquid ones. Eat it the way u make eggs, or mix it with your shake, FF cottage cheese (put splenda in!)

Protein powder is great when u r on the go. Isopure has it's own protein drinks in a bottle, u can buy them in advance and drink when u know u wont have time to eat proper food.

Take light "fatburners" like Hydroxycut before breakfast and 30 mins before cardio.

[sahtt]

Originally Posted by mudy

Get off the 1% milk, try skim, take multivitamins, omega oils
Get off the corndog (corn is starchy meat inside is not "real" meat)
Eat nuts, almonds, peanuts, filberts. Dry roasted, or raw.(instead of chips)
If you really like milk, drink the 1% with all natural peanut butter (Not skippy! Smuckers is pretty good, Whole foods market lets you make your own)
Eat some 100% whole wheat bread, you can make sandwich of it with turkey/chicken breast from the deli, lettuce, tomato, mustard think slice Low Fat mozarella.

Look on Kashi's website, they have all the nutritions on and pick what food u like.

Take light "fatburners" like Hydroxycut before breakfast and 30 mins before cardio.

I was hoping I wouldn't have to go to skim milk, but that is a logical progression to cutting some easy cals. The corndog is a 'morning star vegetable corndog' that only has 150 cals and I something like 10 g's of protein; I think that's a decent snack.

I need to buy more almonds and nuts, good reminder. Sandwiches are a great idea, I usually go through a loaf of whole wheat bread every 1.5 weeks or so, I should have added that in to my diet. I haven't eaten cheese in any substantial quantity in 6 months+, so I'm fine with a turkey/whole wheat/mustard sandwich all day long.

I'll check out the Keto section as well.

[JACOBKELL]

I also constaly go to gym but i lose fat only when i am on diet.Very frustrating.

[mudy]

Jacob, eat more calories.


Sahtt, make sure you read the label and ingredients.
100% whole wheat bread, if it contains all purpose this and some kind of other wheat, that is not whole wheat.

ANPB only contains peanut. No oil, no salt, no sugar, nothing!

You may try canola oil mayo, but dont use much, still mayo.

Your abs exercise does not say much. U said if u missed on Mon or "the usual". How many days, what kind of abs? U can do it every day! Or just do 3-4 times a week if u like breaks in between. Crunches, use ball: lift legs, ball between ankles, pass to your hands, arms back on floor, by ears. Also, sit up bench, adjustable, change angle, do situps. Or another one, lay on floor, hol onto something behine your head and lift your legs.

[sahtt]

Thanks for the food tips, it's going to help.

I didn't go into detail on abs because it's not easy to describe without a paragraph.

I use weight resistance and train my abs just like any other part of my body, usually 4 sets of 15. I only do it twice a week, everything I've learned says more than that is probably counter productive. If I wasn't using weights, I can see how it could be beneficial to do it more often.

[numinix]

you should have another meal in there and concentrate on your pre and post workout shake/meals. Those frozen dinners are usually pretty low in protein. You can't just concentrate on calories, you need to reduce the calories within your macros. An overal reduction could be counterproductive if it were, for example, a decrease in protein and not carbs or fat.

Also in your training, you do almost entirely compound exercises; as I suspected. You need to do some isolation exercises as well. Both are equally important.

[numinix]

Originally Posted by viciouselipse

hit up the Keto boards time to convert you.

keto is a short term fix and won't get him the results he wants.

[durdent]

12%BF is pretty lean anyway. Count your calories. Also, you might have 'puppy fat'. Which tends to go with age, not with exercise.