Major Commitment, Very Little Result

[ryanksmall]

I have been working out steady for 2 years now and am so disappointed with my results. I feel like I am doing everything right, and yet my progress has been so limited and it is extremely frustrated and discouraging. Throughout those 2 years, I have worked out typically 6 days a week for an average 1.5 hours/day. My workout routine is typically lets say 10 minutes of abs, 30 minutes of cardio and 50 minutes to an hour of weights. While I have put on some weight, I am at a complete loss as to why I am not seeing more results.

While I can see that my muscles have gotten a bit larger and I am a bit stronger, I am nowhere near where I thought I would be now 2 years on. My diet is way better than it used to be, specifically the amount of sugar I eat is significantly lower, while at the same time I make wise choices about what I eat - almost no alcohol, increased protein intake. I have tried lifting light with slower and more reps, tried lifting heavy, tried eating more, tried eating less with intermittent fasting - nothing seems to be working. I look very similar to what I did back in fall 2019, despite doing it would seem everything right.

I'm sick and tired of other peoples progress pics when many of them have done less than me and yet have better results. I am what you would call "skinny fat" - 6'4 @ 215lbs with a gut that I simply cannot seem to get rid of! I know I am probably doing more cardio than I should but I have a gut I can't get rid of.

At 43, I feel like if I quit now, I will never do this again so I am looking for some advice here cause I basically have no clue what to do to get the results I am looking for.

[SuffolkPunch]

Almost all of your results will come from the weight training - not the cardio or abs. You can probably drop those. It would be generally better to use a well known routine which has planned progressive overload. Something like the Fierce 5 intermediate program would probably be good.

You probably have made progress on your current routine though - what are you best effort major compound lifts at the moment? And how much has that increased in 2 years?

I realise you are tall but 215lbs is probably still carrying too much fat for you to get muscle definition - in many cases people just don't realise how much fat they carry (it doesn't have to wobble to be there) and how much weight they need to lose. Pictures would help confirm this.

Cardio doesn't cause fat loss in the absence of a net calorie deficit... you won't lose any fat at all while actively gaining weight. That will require a dedicated fat loss lower calorie phase.

[Darkius]

Intermittent fasting has been found in large studies to cause muscle loss, despite any short term growth hormone spikes. The control group ate 3 meals and lost far less. Maybe exercise and more protein would have helped, but I think one of the smaller tests used athletes and got the same result.

Your body needs carbs. Your fast twitch fibers are incapable of burning fat.

How much protein do you eat per day? To make serious changes, you likely need 200g, or minimum 150g per day. Whey is cheap. You need some fat intake to digest it. People starve if they don't get dietary fat.

Everything the first poster said is true.

Also, when dieting, do not lose more than 1% of your body weight per week or a substantial amount will be muscle, likely 40%.

[Darkius]

Humans recomposition much faster with pure fat loss or just bulking to build muscle. If you eat maintainence calories, you will get stronger but take much longer to change the mass of anything.


There is a chance that slower steady state recompositioning might be the result of people accidentally decreasing calories one day and increasing them the next. I don't know if any studies where long and careful enough to find out.



Also, exercise only makes you stronger if you recover between workouts and repeat before you atrophy. You got the second part covered. How are you doing on the first part? Do you workout sore muscle groups?

[Darkius]

Your 2 year results have motivated me to start my spreadsheet and get out my weighing scale.

Ill log the date and time of each weighing, twice per day for a better trend line, and will log how many calories I got per day and the macros.

I was going to sell a big mirror I have, but Ill now keep it for monthly pictures, and start arm and waist and leg measurements.





Note: metabolism calculators just give a ballpark. Same for body fat calculators. You have to go by weighing scales and take measures.

[Darkius]

Burning muscle is fast. It has fewer calories per pound than fat, and can be turned to sugar, which your body loves.

Adding fat is easy. Eat a big helping of icecream a few times a day and you will soon have 10 pounds of fat.

Gaining muscles is slow, as is losing fat without losing muscle, and that is if you do it right. Make mistakes, and see the two points above.


It is difficult to measure what is happening and fix it in time. Calculators are just ball parks, and scales measure water and food mass. Sounds frustrating, but the reward is that if you log everything right, you can get the improvement.


People can change their bodies at 1/3 the max speed just by making reasonable changes and being consistent. You did not even get those gains because you fell for intermitant fasting.

[coachcalande]

I have been working out steady for 2 years now and am so disappointed with my results. I feel like I am doing everything right, and yet my progress has been so limited and it is extremely frustrated and discouraging. Throughout those 2 years, I have worked out typically 6 days a week for an average 1.5 hours/day. My workout routine is typically lets say 10 minutes of abs, 30 minutes of cardio and 50 minutes to an hour of weights. While I have put on some weight, I am at a complete loss as to why I am not seeing more results.

While I can see that my muscles have gotten a bit larger and I am a bit stronger, I am nowhere near where I thought I would be now 2 years on. My diet is way better than it used to be, specifically the amount of sugar I eat is significantly lower, while at the same time I make wise choices about what I eat - almost no alcohol, increased protein intake. I have tried lifting light with slower and more reps, tried lifting heavy, tried eating more, tried eating less with intermittent fasting - nothing seems to be working. I look very similar to what I did back in fall 2019, despite doing it would seem everything right.

I'm sick and tired of other peoples progress pics when many of them have done less than me and yet have better results. I am what you would call "skinny fat" - 6'4 @ 215lbs with a gut that I simply cannot seem to get rid of! I know I am probably doing more cardio than I should but I have a gut I can't get rid of.

At 43, I feel like if I quit now, I will never do this again so I am looking for some advice here cause I basically have no clue what to do to get the results I am looking for.

Change your life completely:

Eat every 3 hours, 50
Grams of protein, eat your carbs and fats too

Lift to be a freaking 6-4 350 pound monster!

Become a powerhouse, a tank, a beast!

Lift big, eat big, live well. Dont quit.

Seriously study powerlifting and bodybuilding put together.

Try an upper lower
Split and dont be such a slave to the gym. In and out in an hour 3-4 days a week.

Change your life.

[Darkius]

Next time you read one of the numerous studies that says intermitant fasting or adkins caused participants to lose more weight, look what it says about lean mass. 90% don't look at lean mass, and the 10% that do say these fad diets resulted in a big loss in lean mass.


Show me a successfil body builder on adkins, and s/he likely ate so much protein that the liver was able to turn the excess into the needed carbs. A more varied diet with fruits and oatmeal is much more healthy. Candy is the enemy, not carbs in sweet potatoes.

[Stabdogg]

Could it be that you are simply working out too much and eat too few?

I mean, you're going to the gym 6 times per week and do both weightlifting and cardio, everytime? Can you post your workout routines?

Also, I think you have to make a strong decision. Either lose weight first and then bulk up while lifting, or bulk up now and lose the fat later. Us skinny's-fat's have it the worst. I think the body recomposition sounds nice but is the most difficult to achieve.

But anyway, yea it sucks. I can only imagine how it must feel to give it your everything for 2 years and the results aren't coming in. It's frustrating that so many factors have to be just right in order to get our bodies to grow. But most probably you did something wrong and you can turn it arround fairly quickly. See my questions above.

[TryingBB]

In4answers

[ryanksmall]

Thanks everyone for the replies!

I have posted pictures as requested, two from Oct 2020 after 1 year of working out [started Oct 2019 but no good pictures from then] and 2 from today). This should give a good sense of not only my physique but my incredible discouragement as I can say that I have literally poured my heart and soul into 2 years of working out for basically nothing!!!

My routine has been a 3 day split to date; push, pull, legs. I have some randomness though in the exercises for each group so say from a list of 10 exercises, I might pick 5 or 6 to do on that particular day.

So, from the replies, the consensus here seems to be;

1) That I am working out too much

2) I should eliminate abs and cardio as specific components of my exercise routine

3) I should stop intermittent fasting (I only started this about 3 months ago as nothing was working and it seemed from research there was some evidence to help prevent diabetes as I am pre-diabetic)

4) Stick to a pre-defined routine (Fierce 5)

I will admit, it seems counter-intuitive to cut back on my workout routine on the basis of a "less is more", but given that nothing has worked to date, I guess its worth a try.

I do have a couple remaining questions though;

a) being skinny-fat, should I focus on adding bulk or getting lean (or cycle)? Need to build muscle and get stronger, but I have a gut too

b) shouldn't there be some cardio in a workout program just for the sake of heart-health? I should point out that one of the reasons I added 30 minutes of cardio to my workout is because the doctor determined I was "below normal" in terms of cardiovascular endurance / lung capacity but after a year and a half of constant cardio in my workout routine I finally achieved the low-end of the "normal" level

c) what supplements should I be taking? I have been on 60g of protein for 2 years and 5g of creatine for maybe the last 3 months but is there something else I should be including? I did have my testosterone checked cause I thought maybe that was a problem but it came back normal so it seems all good in that regard.

d) can you steer me towards a good guide in terms of what to eat and when? I am sure there is loads of information out there, just want to get pointed to a good source.

e) to get big one must lift heavy? this seems to be the case but I did read a study that seemed like you could still make progress lifting lighter with more reps (which on the upside is appealing to us older people with some joint issues)

Anyways, that should answer everything. Thanks for your help.

[Darkius]

The reason intermitant fasting was offered for diabetes is to try to get those people to eat less. It is better to eat less but in 3 meals. Big meals boost blood sugar more.

Cardio is good. Just don't do it to the point of interfering with leg recovery. Listen to your doctor.

You can build strength with lighter weights, just not as much and not as fast. Best to avoid injury and use medium weights if that works for you.



Are you able to lose weight? That just depends on calories per day.


My 5 food groups are beans, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and grains.

Avoid anything with added sugar. It is legal for manufacturers to lie on food labels, for example saying there is 0 grams of transfat even though there is a significant amount.

You can drink 100% juice, but only to meet a fruit requirement, not for thirst or boredom. Juice is much faster to drink than chewing food, so it may be safest to not drink it at all.

Pizza has a good macro ratio, but tastes so good and is so easy to prepare that it is easy to eat too much or too often. Best to eat foods you won't eat on auto pilot.

[Stabdogg]

I don't want to go against your doctor but, if you're prediabetic then I think you benefit the most by cutting out all processed junk and eat fewer carbs. So ditch the white rice, candy, chips, fries, white bread, etc.
And replace with vegetables, a full wheat slice of bread here and there, sweet potato, brown rice, etc. But in limited amounts. And definitely forget about soda's and fruit juices. It's pure sugar water. Drink water and tea / coffee only.

Also 60 grams protein per day is too few to build muscle. The concensus is somewhere around 0.64g per pound of bodyweight per day.

So you are doing that 3 day split, 2 times per week for a total of 6 times per week, right?

It sounds much to me. Including the cardio, you are simply burning way too much calories, wearing your muscles out and combined with the lack of protein, they simply can't recover enough. That's just my theory though, and I'm a novice myself. Maybe others could step in here, but I would recommend doing a full body workout 3x per week. That's what is adviced to most beginners. And seeing that you didn't make much progression over the last 2 years, you are probably still a beginner.

There are many workout FB routines out there for beginners and I guess any of them is fine as long as they include a compound exercise for the big muscle groups and a few sets of isolation. And then the next day, rest!

[Darkius]

Pre-diabetic, 240 pounds, points to cutting.

Cubing our height ratios (76/68), assuming 140 is the lowest I should go, your equivalent is 195 pounds. So you can cut 20 pounds no problem and reassess.