After 4 Years, I Am Quitting - PLEAS HELP!

[themis]

Four years and 2 months ago, I came to the realization that I was in poor health. I was about 45 pound overweight. With parents who are both significantly overweight, my future did not look so bright.

Therefore, I decided to start lifting weights and doing cardio. After the first year, I had dropped a majority of the weight. I was down to about 12% body fat, which was damn good. I did this on my own without a personal trainer.

Wanting to step things up a notch, I hired a personal trainer and made some more gains. After one year and significant costs, I decided to venture on my own again. For the next year, I continued to make gains.

About one year ago, some thing went wrong. I have no idea where or what. Since I keep meticulous logs of my workouts and diets, I should have been able to pin point the problem but I can not.

For the past year, I have made almost zero gains in strength, endurance, and/or fat loss. I have tried everything possible. I have altered workout routines every few months. I have tried different types of workouts- some of them suggested here and some of them coached under personal training again.

Currently, I am working out six days a week. MWF are for lifting, different body parts each day. TRS are for cardio, usually HIIT-style on an elliptical.

Diet concerns: At one point, I thought the issue may have been my diet; however, I whole-heartedly believe I am consuming the right amount of fat, carbohydrates, and protein.

Sleep concerns: On average, I sleep about 7.25 hours/night. Some days, I wake up a little tired. Some days, I wake up before the alarm clock goes off. There appears to be no correlation between sleep and workout performance.

Intensity concerns: There is no quantifiable way to measure intensity. Yet, let me put it this way. I sweat my ass and push so hard that a tear or two isn't uncommon. I fight every day I lift.

What is going wrong? Just about everything. I am losing strength and it is occurring at a relatively quick pace. I am losing endurance. I am gaining fat weight.

After all this, I am getting tired of fighting. I am tired of wasting my time in the gym and not keeping my current physical abilities. If I am going to lose strength, endurance, and muscle, I'd rather do it spending time with my family.

I will continue to do cardio in hopes of not getting fat and taking care of my heart. But, I think my weight lifting days are over.

Before I make this radical decision, could I have missed something? What could be causing this attack of my body?

[beatphats]

Originally posted by themis
Diet concerns: At one point, I thought the issue may have been my diet; however, I whole-heartedly believe I am consuming the right amount of fat, carbohydrates, and protein.

What exactly is your diet??

[bgzee]

6 days a week may be too much, it could be over training and messing with your CNS.

[scott_donald]

Originally posted by bgzee
6 days a week may be too much, it could be over training and messing with your CNS.

bump hiit 4 times a week with a good diet is perfect...

[scott_donald]

forgot welcome to the board...

[I4NI]

u should def take a week or 2 off and get some quality rest in, then come in slow exercising 2-3 times a week, your nervous system is tired man, also, try changing routines every month, try doing a bulk phase to put on some more muscle, try a new supplement like v12, noz, or swole v2, try getting back to basic compound movements, try different splits (upper-lower, push-pull, whole body circuits), and try changin your diet, i would try takin in all carbs as oats and do a clean bulk, good luck

[J.S.B.]

Take some time off. A week or 2 can work wonders.

- Side note bro, If your not having fun, and enjoying yourself in the gym, any gains will be hard to come by. Some time off, and a new goal, may be what you need.

[lucubration]

Originally posted by J.S.B.
Take some time off. A week or 2 can work wonders.

- Side note bro, If your not having fun, and enjoying yourself in the gym, any gains will be hard to come by. Some time off, and a new goal, may be what you need.

exactly. The body and mind are connected, after a while, you'll be like, you know I quit and after 10 days or so you're like wow I feel much better. Hypothesises involves repairing microtears, CNS repair, mental rest, etc...

[Damien]

You say you are sure that your diet isn't the point.
You said you keep track of it.
Can you write down what and how much you eat.
How many calories are you consuming, what's your post workout meal??
Don't do HIIT 3 times a week if you have problems gaining, cut it down to once and do some weighted stuff for GPP.

You can also be overtraining. If you didn't take time off in 4 years then for sure.
Take a week's break, rearrange your diet and routine and don't be too afraid of the little extra fat you may gain.

[nubreed]

Pass the gym and proceed directly to ben & jerry's. One less ripped dude = more fly b!tches for me !!!

[stever]

Thats a word no one wants to here...Quitting. You do realize what you just said!!!

[The Engineer]

never quit... you'll regret everything if you do.. fortunately it's not like a lost relationship that you can never get back (you can always start up again working out), but read what the guys and gals on this board have written and find your inspiration again.. they know their stuff...


'cept apparently nubreed.. geez.

[such a loser yo]

First, take a week or two off.

Second, after that long it's really hard to gain muscle / lose fat simultaneously. You would probably benefit from cycling between cutting and bulking.

You should also change the type of routines that you've been doing. If you've traditionally done high rep routines, change it so that you do higher weights at lower reps.

And sometimes you need to bring in supplements to kick start growth and overcome your plateau.