Help me. (FAT loss)

[heather6790]

SOS!
So this message is long over due. Ive been holding off on asking for help, but Im beyond my breaking point. Im sending this message out to nutritionist, Drs online, forums, Personal Trainers, etc...

For those who dont know me,
I am a healthy 22 yr old that has been fighting my weight for 6 years now. I am currently a Personal Training Director, and just demoted myself from my management position at Vitamin World. So healthy is my way of life and I am burning myself out. How can I help so many people with my knowledge, but cant even help myself?

I am currently 180lbs, with a 22% BMI, depending on my water retention (I retain very easily). At my leanest, I was 165lbs with a 16.6% BMI.

I was my largest at 14yrs old, at 215lbs... My parents kept my diet clean, I was active in softball and grew up as an equestrian. So here the testing began.. thyroid, testosterone, estrogen, etc. I even had a nutritionist.

When I was 16yrs old, I then had a trainer but wanted nothing to do with fitness, still. I was in the 'young and dumb' high school, too cool stage.

By 18 yrs old, fitness became a slight obsession.

and STILL my weight would just maintain itself, no matter how hard I went, in the gym, and no matter what I did for a diet.

Skipping a few years of the same struggle.. and more testing. (just hoping for some kind of answers)

Last Summer is when I hit my lowest weight at 165lbs... to get there, a pro IFBB wrote my diet...
meal 1; 7 egg whites, 1/2 cup oats
meal 2: tilapia, brown rice or swt potato, and greens.
meal 3: tilapia and greens (broccoli, asparagus, or spinach)
meal 4: tilapia and greens.
Sometimes I would sub out fish for chicken.

I would spend 1 hr/day (7x/week) doing cardio. Normally the stairs, averaging between 180-250 flights of stairs.
Give or take, I would also weight train 5x/week.
Sometimes Id go back for a 3rd time, for Cardio #2.

In September, I moved to Virginia from Florida.. and now Im back to 183lbs.
DEPRESSING.
I still train, and still kill cardio 6-7x/week. Even went back to eating the above diet (I am very strict with myself)...and I gained 7 more lbs since xmas. So you can see why Im frustrated. I thought tilapia was actually my answer to success, but obviously I was wrong. I want my NPC card this year.
I wont even have a glass of wine because I already struggle so bad with my weight.. I dont need anything else to make it harder.
This issue, even fools with my head, a lot.

If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to email me heatherlowin@aol.com.
I dont know what else to do.

THANK YOU for reading, and Thank you in advance for helping me.

[Vaylor]

Calculate your macros and eat at a deficit. This link will help a lot:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=133163973

[Serpentarius]

i had ADD so i couldnt read all of that. If you are gaining weight you are eating too much. You are taking in too many calories than you are requiring to maintain your weight. You can eat whatever you want, count calories.
Thats a lot of exercise, completely unnecessary, cardio does not make you lose fat.
eat less, a lot less and weight will come off. Count calories, not food you are eating.

[surf junkie]

Just some generics:

1. dontevenknow what tilapia is. Looking at that nutrition plan I'd say ease back on the tilapia and add some more common meats... chicken, lean red meats, eggs.

2. With many pseudo-clients I've had in the past (training friends, etc), they were not doing enough exercise in general. 7-10hrs a week is a good start. Only people with "lean" genetics can get away with 3-4 hrs a week and eat like a normal person, yet remain lean.

3. You are over-estimating your BMR. Whoever came up with the claim of 2,000 calories per day, is a jerk. Individual BMRs can vary from 900 calories per day up to 4,000 calories per day, with only slight differences in performance. This has to do with the efficiency of your gastro-intestinal tract at nutrient and calorie uptake. Therefore, YOUR body may only require 1,500 calories (or more, or less) a day to function well, EVEN with weight training and adequate exercise.



So yeah, while you think you may be doing it right ... Re-examine your diet and training. It may be that you are able to do more, and/or eat a little less. Add patience to that equation, knowing that you shouldn't look for immediate results.



One thing.

When you were lean, do you remember which parts of your body began to add bodyfat first/most rapidly? This can give insight into your hormonal profile, in order to calibrate effective supplementation to get lean AFAP.

[heather6790]

Im shocked by some people claiming that I was eating too much.. but with that being said, Ive also done the HCG diet.. once on and once off the actually hormone. That was a 500 cal diet with only chicken, greens and an apple a day. I still was training (bc I do lift weights and do cardio ev day) & even then I was barely showing and results.

But thank you everyone, keep em coming.

& surf junkie, I have always had a slender mid section. I gain in my legs and arms... well this time around.. Im holding more in my mid section.

[dmacdonal9]

I think I'm seeing a bit of "I'm special so I need a special solution" attitude here. Stop looking for a "diet" and just eat adequate macro and micronutrients with a carefully controlled energy intake appropriate to your goals. If it's cutting:

1. Get rid of your misconceptions
2. Calculate your calories and macros
3. Eat about 20% less calories than you burn each day while still meeting minimum protein and fat. Get the remainder of cals from carbs.
4. Buy a kitchen scale and weigh everything that you eat.
5. Count calories using a site like MyFitnessPal. Here's how to count properly.
6. Lift heavy weights to preserve muscle mass, on a program like Starting Strength. Why not your own routine? Read this.
7. If nothing happens after 3 weeks, reexamine calculations, and eat less.

[Vaylor]

I think I'm seeing a bit of "I'm special so I need a special solution" attitude here. Stop looking for a "diet" and just eat adequate macro and micronutrients with a carefully controlled energy intake appropriate to your goals. If it's cutting:

1. Get rid of your misconceptions
2. Calculate your calories and macros
3. Eat about 20% less calories than you burn each day while still meeting minimum protein and fat. Get the remainder of cals from carbs.
4. Buy a kitchen scale and weigh everything that you eat.
5. Count calories using a site like MyFitnessPal. Here's how to count properly.
6. Lift heavy weights to preserve muscle mass, on a program like Starting Strength. Why not your own routine? Read this.
7. If nothing happens after 3 weeks, reexamine calculations, and eat less.

Gonna have to steal this. It handles nearly every question this forum receives.