Need help, 5 weeks into competition cut with no results

[getcut34]

My wife is 5 weeks into the 12 week transformation challenge, and she hasn't lost a pound. She is a personal trainer herself, but has struggled to lose weight since she was 14. She is 5'1", 140 lbs. She is very muscular, but I would estimate her lean body mass to be around 100-105 lbs, as she has pretty narrow shoulders.
She has seen some very minor changes over the last 5 weeks, as her body measurements have yielded a 1 inch loss around her thigh and a 1 inch loss around her hips, along with 1/4 of an inch here or there in other areas. She looks like she has lost a little weight, but is extremely frustrated that the scale does not reflect it after 5 weeks of training.

Here is her current plan:

1200 calories a day. 50g carbs, 120 g protein. She eats EXTREMELY clean. Chicken, eggs, turkey, veggies, fruit juice, protein sups, mulitvitamin, omega fats. She takes one cheat meal a week, usually eating a movie-sized box of candy.

Cardio: 1.5 hours a day 5 days a week. She does HIIT and steady state, generally doing 1.2 hour in the morning and 1 hour after her weight workout, but it is not consistent.

weights: moderate-heavy. she does 3 or 4 sets of 10, pushing herself. She's a strong girl, so she lifts pretty heavy naturally. She lifts 4 times a week, 2 upper and 2 lower.

history: She has weighed between 140-160 since she was 14 (she is 22 now) and hasn't ever been able to get rid of that last 20 lbs, even though she played soccer and basketball in highschool and soccer in college.
Her digestive system is very sensitive, so she eats almost entirely organic food. She is alergic to seafood.

Her energy during this 5 weeks has been fair, she doesn't have a lot of extra energy after working out 3 hours a day obviously. She has not slept particularly well, but generally gets 7-8 hours of sleep, although sometimes she doesn't fall asleep until 5 am.

We work out pretty late at night, around 9 pm usually. She has protein after this workout directly before bed, generally 250 calories or so, not a lot of carbs but some. She is just now starting to do her weights earlier so she isn't consuming those calories right before bed.

Please help me help her, she is getting really discouraged working so hard and eating so clean and seeing no results.

[rockangel]

My wife is 5 weeks into the 12 week transformation challenge, and she hasn't lost a pound. She is a personal trainer herself, but has struggled to lose weight since she was 14. She is 5'1", 140 lbs. She is very muscular, but I would estimate her lean body mass to be around 100-105 lbs, as she has pretty narrow shoulders.
She has seen some very minor changes over the last 5 weeks, as her body measurements have yielded a 1 inch loss around her thigh and a 1 inch loss around her hips, along with 1/4 of an inch here or there in other areas. She looks like she has lost a little weight, but is extremely frustrated that the scale does not reflect it after 5 weeks of training.

Here is her current plan:

1200 calories a day. 50g carbs, 120 g protein. She eats EXTREMELY clean. Chicken, eggs, turkey, veggies, fruit juice, protein sups, mulitvitamin, omega fats. She takes one cheat meal a week, usually eating a movie-sized box of candy.

Cardio: 1.5 hours a day 5 days a week. She does HIIT and steady state, generally doing 1.2 hour in the morning and 1 hour after her weight workout, but it is not consistent.

weights: moderate-heavy. she does 3 or 4 sets of 10, pushing herself. She's a strong girl, so she lifts pretty heavy naturally. She lifts 4 times a week, 2 upper and 2 lower.

history: She has weighed between 140-160 since she was 14 (she is 22 now) and hasn't ever been able to get rid of that last 20 lbs, even though she played soccer and basketball in highschool and soccer in college.
Her digestive system is very sensitive, so she eats almost entirely organic food. She is alergic to seafood.

Her energy during this 5 weeks has been fair, she doesn't have a lot of extra energy after working out 3 hours a day obviously. She has not slept particularly well, but generally gets 7-8 hours of sleep, although sometimes she doesn't fall asleep until 5 am.

We work out pretty late at night, around 9 pm usually. She has protein after this workout directly before bed, generally 250 calories or so, not a lot of carbs but some. She is just now starting to do her weights earlier so she isn't consuming those calories right before bed.

Please help me help her, she is getting really discouraged working so hard and eating so clean and seeing no results.

Not enough food, too much cardio.

If she has a lot of digestive issues/food allergies she needs to be seeing a dietician who specializes in those issues.

[Hannah73Louise]

Wow. How is she managing 3 hours exercise a day on 50g carbs!! I'd add in at least one or two carb up days a week on that schedule. Two days a week of 400g carbs, then go back to the current diet the rest of the days. Bet that would work like a charm

[kdiamond55]

Not enough food, too much cardio.

^^^^ This

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing! I don't know how she can survive on that little food...poor thing, her body is probably holding on to every bit of nutrition it has.

Stick to the diet, but add more calories.

[vandalgirl59]

All the above. I stopped when you told the cal amt. MORE FOOOOOD!

[rockangel]

All the above. I stopped when you told the cal amt. MORE FOOOOOD!

I know seriously, right!!!! Im shorter and lighter and i still eat more than that!! :O

[AUTiger13]

not just more food but less gym time altogether! It has been said on here many times before=competitions aren't about who suffers most.

[Rowyn]

She is 5'1", 140 lbs. She takes one cheat meal a week, usually eating a movie-sized box of candy.

Her digestive system is very sensitive, so she eats almost entirely organic food.

While I agree with some of the girls that she is over-doing the cardio, this jumped out at me. At only 5'1", an average deficit for 3/4 pound loss per week IS pretty low around 1300-1400 cals.

Have you seen some of these boxes, holy smokes! Some are 1000 cals depending on the candy. Does she track her cals exactly using a site like Dailyburn or something? I fought the chubs my whole life too, I just plain ate too much for my size. But didn't really know this until I started tracking my food. Just make sure she is really eating what she thinks she is eating, at 5'1", there is not alot of wiggle room for error.

Rather than cheat with junk, why not add more healthy fats and carbs into her daily allotment? She will FEEL much better and it will keep her motivation/energy higher. If she is feeling tighter and her measurements are going down, that IS success even if the scale is not moving. Go look at my progress pics, I lost three sizes and only a few pounds

[Axelrose08]

Have you invited her to join this site?? Maybe it would help her to see some of these amazing ladies that eat like football linebackers and look AMAZING!!!

1200 cals a day is what she would need if she was laying in a coma all day/night. Her body needs that amount just to perform basic survival.

What are her goals? Does she want a marathon runner body? A well muscled/defined body? Again, if she could come on here, read the stickies, ask questions and get answers from some very intelligent people that obviously know what they are talking about.

My final thought. I use to care way too much what the stupid scale said. I wanted it to drop consistantly every single week. When it didn't happen, I'd feel like your gf. Best thing for her to do is take a sledge hammer and beat the hell out of her scale, there's alittle cardio there.
Take measuments every 2 weeks to a month (looks like she's doing that with nice results). She will get there, it just takes a long time and a lot of hard work.

Best of luck!!!
Tara

[rockstar55]

Have you invited her to join this site?? Maybe it would help her to see some of these amazing ladies that eat like football linebackers and look AMAZING!!!

1200 cals a day is what she would need if she was laying in a coma all day/night. Her body needs that amount just to perform basic survival.

What are her goals? Does she want a marathon runner body? A well muscled/defined body? Again, if she could come on here, read the stickies, ask questions and get answers from some very intelligent people that obviously know what they are talking about.

My final thought. I use to care way too much what the stupid scale said. I wanted it to drop consistantly every single week. When it didn't happen, I'd feel like your gf. Best thing for her to do is take a sledge hammer and beat the hell out of her scale, there's alittle cardio there.
Take measuments every 2 weeks to a month (looks like she's doing that with nice results). She will get there, it just takes a long time and a lot of hard work.

Best of luck!!!
Tara

Definately sounds like overtraining to me. That alone can cause you to hold on to extra fat because your body is over stressed. Agree with all of the above, bump up calories and WAY less cardio.

[viridian]

I would personally drop all cardio and stick to JUST the diet and weight training for three straight weeks. No cheats period.

That is an insane amount of cardio on top of a big caloric deficit.

[lhoneym]

Ok, based on the 50g Carbs and 120g protein a day, she is consuming 680 cal. That leaves the remainder of her 1200 cal coming from fat...which is 43% cal from fat. NOT GOOD!

I really suggest that your wife reads the stickie under nutrition on Calculating Calories and Macros. Emma Leigh wrote an awesome article that applies to everyone (male or female) and really clears up a lot of the myths and bs that surrounds "dieting".

[megs1990]

As your wife doesn't lie in bed all day long not moving, she is consuming far too few calories just for her everyday routine, weights and cardio excluded! With a huge calorie deficit and insane amount of cardio on top of weight training, her stalled weight loss and slowed metabolism is a scream out saying that she starving! I went cardio crazy for a month or two along with a restricted caloric intake slightly higher than your wife's, my weight loss stalled and I too was getting frustrated with all this effort and extreme dieting I was doing with minimal to no results. I cut out the cardio for a month and increased my caloric intake slightly to see what results I would get and I actually lost weight. Sometimes less is actually more!

Try to get her to eat 6 small meals a day rich of protein and carbohydrates and healthy fats. If she insists on doing all this training she needs to increase her carb intake. They won't hurt her, they will be good for her! But generally she needs to increase her overall caloric intake if she wants results. She is only burning herself out with her current plan and more than likely losing muscle than anything else (which contributes to the slowed metabolism).

[kudostojen]

Ok, based on the 50g Carbs and 120g protein a day, she is consuming 680 cal. That leaves the remainder of her 1200 cal coming from fat...which is 43% cal from fat. NOT GOOD!

Why? Sound's like keto to me...and if so, carb ups would help her.

[Femtex23]

Just make sure she is really eating what she thinks she is eating, at 5'1", there is not alot of wiggle room for error.

NO JOKE, lol. I'm 5'4'' and 130 lbs...and that's only b/c I've been managing my diet like crazy. No matter what your fitness level, if you are shorter and muscular, it's extremely difficult to stay in shape over the long term. A taller woman can put on a couple pounds and look healthier! If we do, we look chubby, lol. Eh.

[PrettyReckless]

Er, here are the problems I see:

1) Low calories
2) Keto diet
3) Overtraining

All of the above could lead to a slower metabolism, because going on a keto diet makes your body try and slow down the usage of other sources when it's not getting the carbohydrates it needs to work out. Secondly, she's already consuming too few calories as it is, considering she works out almost everyday - hence, the overtraining.

I'm not so sure, but if it's been 5 weeks, she could have a thyroid issue because of the calorie limits and the overtraining. Her hormones must be out of sync by now, and it's best to see an endocrinologist and see if she has a thyroid issue.

[kudostojen]

Er, here are the problems I see:

1) Low calories
2) Keto diet
3) Overtraining

All of the above could lead to a slower metabolism, because going on a keto diet makes your body try and slow down the usage of other sources when it's not getting the carbohydrates it needs to work out. Secondly, she's already consuming too few calories as it is, considering she works out almost everyday - hence, the overtraining.

I'm not so sure, but if it's been 5 weeks, she could have a thyroid issue because of the calorie limits and the overtraining. Her hormones must be out of sync by now, and it's best to see an endocrinologist and see if she has a thyroid issue.

I agree with you regarding the cals and over training... but i will disagree with you regarding the keto diet. There are 3 different types of keto (if using Lyle McDonald's book) and the TKD and CKD are best when training. There are advantages and disadvantages to both depending your training and/or goals. I did keto for almost a year and i functioned AND reached my goals just fine.

I don't mean to come off defensive but it bothers me when people state keto doesn't work or it's bad for you (that's how i interpret your post).

[PrettyReckless]

I agree with you regarding the cals and over training... but i will disagree with you regarding the keto diet. There are 3 different types of keto (if using Lyle McDonald's book) and the TKD and CKD are best when training. There are advantages and disadvantages to both depending your training and/or goals. I did keto for almost a year and i functioned AND reached my goals just fine.

I don't mean to come off defensive but it bothers me when people state keto doesn't work or it's bad for you (that's how i interpret your post).

Oh, no! I'm all for keto. I've gone on a keto diet before, and I've definitely had positive results. It's just that the OP didn't mention carb cycling, so it seems like his wife's permanently not getting carbs at all, which is really bad for the metabolism. Sorry for the misunderstanding.