Really need advice / help with this annoying problem..

[SRWest21]

OK. I'm new here and really need some help and advice with this annoying problem I am currently having. I used to be in great shape when I was younger with not much body fat at all, then over time I've gained a lot of weight due to being lazy and no longer participating in sports. I used to play basketball at a high level and weighed 195 pounds and I am 6'2". That was when I was 18.. I'm now 24 years old and weigh 225 pounds.. I'm really out of shape and desperate to get back to where I was but with added muscle.

I really do understand (in depth) how to exercise properly and eat well. I used to be all about my physical appearance so I know how to get it done. I've been hitting the gym for 3 weeks now (HARD) and eating no more than 2,200 calories a day. Also ensuring I consume lots of protein. Now, I don't ALWAYS eat the best calories, now and again I might have a packet of crisps, or some pizza but I always make sure I generally eat good nutrition and stay under my 2,200 calories!

For some reason, I weigh myself every morning since I started 3 weeks ago and the scale hasn't moved a pound! I actually noticed it a pound OVER yesterday? I mean WTF is going on?

One confession is that I don't drink enough water, at all. Apparently for my size and body weight I shoudl be drinking up to 4 litres per day, and it's lucky if I consume only 1 litre.

Still, what could be causing this huge delay in weight loss, and any or all advice is much appreciated! I need this f*cking help! I want to be back in shape by summer, and I kick my own ass at the gym (trust me), I can barely move my arms due to DOMS right now actually haha.

Thanks!

[Gxp23]

Maintenance calories?

[SRWest21]

Maintenance calories?

Thanks for the reply. For my current weight 2,200 is maintanance calories. I actually think it might be a little under. One other thing is.. I do tend to be really hungry at night just before I sleep so i'll snack on something. Last night I had peanut butter on toast and a protein bar.. Then when straight to sleep on that.. But it's still all counted in to my daily calories, just not sure if that would have any effect?

[Gxp23]

Thanks for the reply. For my current weight 2,200 is maintanance calories. I actually think it might be a little under. One other thing is.. I do tend to be really hungry at night just before I sleep so i'll snack on something. Last night I had peanut butter on toast and a protein bar.. Then when straight to sleep on that.. But it's still all counted in to my daily calories, just not sure if that would have any effect?

How can your maint be so low!? How many times a week you at the gym?

Read this

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=156380183

[brittfitt]

Are you tracking your macros/calories? Actually weighing &/or measuring your food? It sounds based on your choice of descriptive words of "try," "generally," "lots," that you're just kind of eyeballing portions. You admitted you don't always make the best food choices. You also said you try to eat lots of protein, but what does that mean to you? Chicken once or twice a day? 50g? 500g? And if you're only drinking a liter of water per day, it is because you're drinking other things like soda or juice in it's place? I assume so because I can't imagine drinking that little fluid, daily. Those calories and sugars add up fast in soda.

No matter how hard you work in the gym, if your diet isn't locked down, you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

[snorkelman]

Sorry, but I plugged in some guess numbers, and assuming you are 20 % body fat and a minimal (sedentary) activity factor, I estimated that your TDEE is about 2560.

I am not certain what your main goal is, but to maintain weight, consume an amount of calories equal to TDEE.

To lose weight, consume 10% to 20% less than TDEE.

To gain weight, consume 10% to 20% more than TDEE.

[SRWest21]

Not tracking my macros but I am with calories. I don't eyeball portions I generally use an app that I scan the barcode and all nutrition is added up.. My fitness pal app? I do drink sodas, but always full diet sodas with zero calories and zero carbs... I might just try the week being ridiculously healthy.. If I eat too low in calories which sometimes I might could this be a cause for no weight loss? One day I might only eat 1500?

Are you tracking your macros/calories? Actually weighing &/or measuring your food? It sounds based on your choice of descriptive words of "try," "generally," "lots," that you're just kind of eyeballing portions. You admitted you don't always make the best food choices. You also said you try to eat lots of protein, but what does that mean to you? Chicken once or twice a day? 50g? 500g? And if you're only drinking a liter of water per day, it is because you're drinking other things like soda or juice in it's place? I assume so because I can't imagine drinking that little fluid, daily. Those calories and sugars add up fast in soda.

No matter how hard you work in the gym, if your diet isn't locked down, you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

[SRWest21]

I want to lose weight and as fast as possible. I've been eating never any more than 2200 calories, sometimes less, so surely I should be losing weight? I wonder if it's at all possible that i'm building muscle which weighs more than fat, but I doubt that would happen as quick as 3 weeks would it? This is really starting to mess up my motivation for the gym.. i'm about to go down the beach now for a HIIT run, but it's started to become f*cking pointless... I need answers and help soon so I don't get back on the mcdonalds train lol! Should i lower my calories even more?

Sorry, but I plugged in some guess numbers, and assuming you are 20 % body fat and a minimal (sedentary) activity factor, I estimated that your TDEE is about 2560.

I am not certain what your main goal is, but to maintain weight, consume an amount of calories equal to TDEE.

To lose weight, consume 10% to 20% less than TDEE.

To gain weight, consume 10% to 20% more than TDEE.

[brittfitt]

Not tracking my macros but I am with calories. I don't eyeball portions I generally use an app that I scan the barcode and all nutrition is added up.. My fitness pal app? I do drink sodas, but always full diet sodas with zero calories and zero carbs... I might just try the week being ridiculously healthy.. If I eat too low in calories which sometimes I might could this be a cause for no weight loss? One day I might only eat 1500?

My fitness pal is a great tool, and the barcode feature makes it super easy. But are you always eating the entire package of foods you're scanning these barcodes on? How do you know you're only getting a single serving or how much you're actually consuming if you're not measuring or weighing? That also suggests that you're eating a lot of packaged foods. What's your sodium intake like? MFP should have that data for you.

How much protein/carbs/fats are you eating currently? I know you said you haven't been counting macros, but your diet is gonna yield different results if you're eating 350g carb/100g protein a day vs 200g carb/250g protein. You should be able to go into MFP and look at the "past week" view. Look at the pie chart or the numbers. Report back.

[SRWest21]

Sure. I'll check on that later and get back to you on here, thanks!

Question I have though, while I understand macros is important, at the end of the day doesn't calories be the only thing that really matters? As long as i'm not overeating and getting enough protein? Does the carb intake matter that much??

My fitness pal is a great tool, and the barcode feature makes it super easy. But are you always eating the entire package of foods you're scanning these barcodes on? How do you know you're only getting a single serving or how much you're actually consuming if you're not measuring or weighing? That also suggests that you're eating a lot of packaged foods. What's your sodium intake like? MFP should have that data for you.

How much protein/carbs/fats are you eating currently? I know you said you haven't been counting macros, but your diet is gonna yield different results if you're eating 350g carb/100g protein a day vs 200g carb/250g protein. You should be able to go into MFP and look at the "past week" view. Look at the pie chart or the numbers. Report back.

[chibixeno]

Stop being lazy. Track you macros. Eat 500 under maintenance.

Also stop being impatient. It didn't take you 3 weeks to get this way.

There is no fast track to weight loss. Just consistency. Lose a pound a week for 4 months.

Finally 3 weeks is about the time it takes for your body to respond to a diet change so don't be discourage because the scale hasn't moved. DRINK WATER.

[SuffolkPunch]

Yes - almost. You need enough protein, dietary fat (for the essential fatty acid content), vitamins and minerals (details in the sticky threads).

Beyond that, calories in v.s. calories out is what determines weight changes (so long as you can see beyond the 'noise' caused by water weight changes in your body)

[chibixeno]

Sure. I'll check on that later and get back to you on here, thanks!

Question I have though, while I understand macros is important, at the end of the day doesn't calories be the only thing that really matters? As long as i'm not overeating and getting enough protein? Does the carb intake matter that much??

MACRO's, MACRO's, MACRO's!!!

Always hit your macro's.

40% protein/ 30% fat, the rest whatever you want but make sure that the daily calories are 500 under you maintenance.

[Gxp23]

MACRO's, MACRO's, MACRO's!!!

Always hit your macro's.

40% protein/ 30% fat, the rest whatever you want but make sure that the daily calories are 500 under you maintenance.

No, no ratios.

[brittfitt]

Sure. I'll check on that later and get back to you on here, thanks!

Question I have though, while I understand macros is important, at the end of the day doesn't calories be the only thing that really matters? As long as i'm not overeating and getting enough protein? Does the carb intake matter that much??

People will argue for both camps, that macros matter, that they don't. Whichever camp you subscribe to (which appears to be that they don't matter), your carb intake does affect the number on the scale. Superficially or not. If you eat 500 carbs a day, then switch to 150 carbs/day, you're going to see the number on the scale go down purely because of water loss. That's why people on Atkins or keto lose so much weight in the first week or two. This is a way oversimplified illustration, but basically - for every gram of carbohydrate you consume that's stored in your muscles as glycogen, your body has to compensate by storing 2.4g of water along with it. Think of it as basically payment for utilizing a storage unit, with the condition being that when you come to collect that "energy," your body gets rid of the water along with it. It's a package deal.

So in (a highly dramatized) theory, if you ate 400g carb and didn't utilize any of that, your body is also going to store 400x2.4g water = 960g water. At 28.5g/oz, and 16oz/lb, that's over 2lbs (or about 1kg) of water your body is storing just to compensate for those carbs.

[SRWest21]

OK, thanks for all the replies and i'm not sure if this is where I'm going wrong but I just checked that my BMR is 2050...

So are you saying I should be eating only 1500 a day? Seems insanely low.

[SRWest21]

Really interesting. Over the last week I have probably consumed a lot of carbs, with pasta, bread etc... so you're saying its possible to technically weigh less than the scale shows due to water in my body? I feel like i've lost that's the strange thing, and my girlfriend thinks too also, just scale is showing different lol...

How long does muscle weight take to put on?

People will argue for both camps, that macros matter, that they don't. Whichever camp you subscribe to (which appears to be that they don't matter), your carb intake does have affect the number on the scale. Superficially or not. If you eat 500 carbs a day, then switch to 150 carbs/day, you're going to see the number on the scale go down purely because of water loss. That's why people on Atkins or keto lose so much weight in the first week or two. This is a way oversimplified illustration, but basically - for every gram of carbohydrate you consume that's store in your muscles as glycogen, your body has to compensate by storing 2.4g of water along with it. Think of it as basically payment for utilizing a storage unit, with the condition being that when you come to collect that "energy," your body gets rid of the water along with it. It's a package deal.

So in (a highly dramatized) theory, if you ate 400g carb and didn't utilize any of that, your body is also going to store 400x2.4g water = 960g water. At 28.5g/oz, and 16oz/lb, that's over 2lbs (or about 1kg) of water your body is storing just to compensate for those carbs.

[brittfitt]

No one ever even threw out that number, 1500. Seriously, read the sticky at the top of the Nutrition forum, "Calculating Calories and Macronutrients." I can't link it because I don't have enough posts.

Whatever your TDEE is, knock 10% - 20% off that. So if your TDEE is 2500, eat somewhere between 2000-2250.

And you are obviously not counting your calories. You just said, "I have probably consumed a lot of carbs, with pasta, bread etc..." How much pasta? 4 oz? a bowl? Do you have no idea whether you ate a box of pasta and/or an entire loaf of bread?

Getting caught up worrying about water weight is absolutely pointless. Stop focusing on the scale. Eat right. Count your ****. Train hard. And results will happen.

[chibixeno]

No, no ratios.

Explain plz.

[desslok]

Weighing yourself every day will mess with your head. If you are going to weigh yourself daily, write it down and take a weekly average, and compare that week to week, not day to day.

[Gxp23]

Explain plz.

Quantities per mass>ratios.

Ratios can lead (usually) to eating not enough fat, more protein than needed and carbs dont need to be set.

[SRWest21]

Hey guys. I just wanted to come back here and give a big thank you for the help! I took all of your advice in to account and my following nutrition has been as follows:

Calories: 1800
Protein: 200g
Fats: 50g
Water: 3-4 Ltres

I've managed to now drop 6 pounds in the last week. I understand some will be water weight but it's definitely having an effect.

I appreciate all of the advice and will continue improving on the diet.

One question I do have however is... How often should I recalculate calories and nutrition goals? Once per month?

Cheers!

[desslok]

Hey guys. I just wanted to come back here and give a big thank you for the help! I took all of your advice in to account and my following nutrition has been as follows:

Calories: 1800
Protein: 200g
Fats: 50g
Water: 3-4 Ltres

I've managed to now drop 6 pounds in the last week. I understand some will be water weight but it's definitely having an effect.

I appreciate all of the advice and will continue improving on the diet.

One question I do have however is... How often should I recalculate calories and nutrition goals? Once per month?

Cheers!

I find that every 2 or 3 weeks is good to help avoid hitting plateaus and getting discouraged.

[BenStevenson]

I'd advise against using the scale to measure progress, your weight changes so many times throughout the day, even if you weigh yourself at the same time there will be some variables which may give you different numbers (Maybe you sweated a little in the night, or food hasn't fully digested yet etc...) Just go by the mirror and performance in the gym, The scale is pretty unreliable unless your eating every meal on the clock exact same time every day, monitoring water consumption etc, and who in the hell wants to do that?

[NBThing]

After 3 weeks 1 pound gain?

You eat too many calories. Simple. Eat less.