Belly growing despite working out, please help

[TheGrinch08]

Hi All,

First time posting on this forum so pretty excited. I am looking for any advice or tips on what I might be doing wrong as six weeks into working out my belly seems to be getting bigger! I will start off with a bit of background info and go into workout routine and nutrition. Any help or advice will be much appreciated.

I am a 5' 7" male, almost 39 years old and weight about 163lbs. I have been following the Insanity Max 30 program for the last six weeks. For the first 2 weeks I went by the schedule but starting on third week I started the ab attack exercises and on the days of doing the tabata exercises I added a half hour of P90X shoulder and arms exercises to get a full hour. On the sixth day I go through the full workout for P90X shoulder and arms routine.

Starting on the 5th week after the Max 30 workout, I added on an extra 20 minutes of the P90X3 MMX workout and dropped the ab attack exercises. Starting this week (6th week) after the Max 30 workout I do the full P90X3 MMX workout. On days of tabata exercises I kept the P90X arms and shoulder routine.

As for nutrition, I pretty much eat similar meals every day. For breakfast I have 224g of 93% lean ground turkey, 250ml 100% egg whites and 2 pieces of light string cheese. For lunch I have half of a large chicken breast, either mixed green salad and baby carrots or 1 & 1/2 cup of mixed frozen veggies and ½ fat free cottage cheese. For dinner I usually have 224g of 93% lean ground beef, one whole zucchini or yellow summer squash(sometimes both) and either ½ a cup of oatmeal or ¼ cup brown rice and a medium to large apple. In between breakfast and lunch I usually have a cup of almond milk with 2 cups of cheerios and a medium to large banana for a snack. Sometimes after dinner I would eat a handful of almonds.

According to a food calorie calculator I take in around 2000 calories a day and from the Fitbit charge 2 the hour cardio sessions I burn roughly 750 calories and the tabata days with weights roughly 500 calories per hour.

I do try to eat clean as I do not add salt or oils in my food and I rarely eat out or eat junk food. I do have one cheat day where I eat more and have a less restrictive diet and I do tend to sneak in some junk food. At work I am pretty much on my feet all day and I do walk a good amount of walking but it is not overly strenuous. I do drink plenty of water throughout the day.

I have pretty much stuck with this workout/diet routine for the last 6 weeks and although I am seeing some improvement in other parts of my body, for the life of me I do not understand why my belly seems to be getting bigger. I can sorta feel my abs but there is still a good layer of fat that I can pinch away from my stomach area.

I have worked pretty hard to push myself to workout and eat proper and it is getting pretty frustrating to see my belly grow instead of shrink. If anyone has any experience with this or any insight and or advice, I would very much appreciate any words of wisdom you can shoot my way. I am sorry for the long post.

[kimm4]

Your estimated maintenance should be right around 2400 calories so if you're gaining weight/getting bigger it's because you're eating more than you think. Figure out a proper calorie intake based on your goal and get a food scale to track everything accordingly.

It's a basic tracking error and nothing more.

Good luck.

[polishedball]

Any reason why you don;t want to do a weight lifting program? or are those, I assume from the names there more cardio conditioning.

[steeperdolphin]

Are you hitting the squat rack?

[alewisdvm]

Hey man,
A little bit similar stats. I am 5'9", 40 years of age, body fat currently 16%. I started at a body weight of 174.5 on Feb 10th, and now 164.3. I am cutting to about 158 before a clean bulk.

Reviewing your post, I am a bit confused. I am not really sure if you are trying to emphasize cardio or lifting. The only comment I can really add is that if you are not losing weight, the calories are to high. Period.

There is no doubt, everyone recommends lifting while cutting. It helps to reduce muscle loss (assuming sufficient protein). But! None of your macros matter (IMO), if you are not in a calorie deficit. I would ignore calorie calculator. Whatever you estimate is your current calorie intake, reduce it another 500. Regardless if you are truly eating 2500 or 2000, a 500 calorie reduction will get you there.

The other point:
Your lifting. Everyone tends to rest a lot more than they think between sets. So, unless you are shortening your rest breaks and keeping your heart rate up, you are unlikely not burning as many calories as you think while lifting. Therefore, got to increase about of cardio if you want to burn more.

For our size, you would have to maintain a heart rate of at least 140 for 20+ minutes, just to burn about 200-250 calories.

Just my random 2 cents.

[OutdoorsinCO]

Why are you avoiding salt?

You need to track your food better.

[gbk56]

Hey man,

...

Whatever you estimate is your current calorie intake, reduce it another 500.

...

^^^^^^^^

[Fishman15]

Sometimes after dinner I would eat a handful of almonds.

lol, not this again...

[crupiea]

Just stick with what you are doing. Finish your program,. Whats the worst that will happen? You wont end up 300 lbs from doing it. You can always lose weight without working out at all with some slight tweaks to the diet so dont sweat it right now.

have fun with the workouts and see them through. Once you want to move on to something else, take a week or two off first and fiddle with the diet ti get yourself into losing weight.

For now t seems like you are into it so dont get overly worried, just enjoy it and challenge yourself.

I trained for a marathon a while back and figured it would be a good way to drop a few but its didnt work that way, i gained weight while doing it. You just need so much fuel to do it that you have to eat. No bug deal, once i was done with it, i lost the few lbs I picked up.

[PiperBill]

lol, not this again...

I thought the exact same thing. OP, do you know how many calories are in 100g Almonds? A "handfull" could be anything from 150 to close to 500 cals or more. You need to get a handle on your calorie intake.

Also don't take anything you get from a Fitbit unit as gospel. It's all just fancy guesswork and of little other real use other than a source of motivation.

[CommitmentRulz]

OP, what has your WEIGHT done over this period of time?

As others have noted, if your "grabbing a handful of almonds" and the like, you really don't know how many calories you are eating. Then, there's this:

I do have one cheat day where I eat more and have a less restrictive diet and I do tend to sneak in some junk food.

By this description, you could easily be blowing any calorie deficit that you have managed thru the week out of the water.

[PiperBill]

.... I do have one cheat day where I eat more and have a less restrictive diet and I do tend to sneak in some junk food.

You can't "sneak" food in without your body noticing. :-)

[Bo_Flecks]

I have worked pretty hard to push myself to workout and eat proper and it is getting pretty frustrating to see my belly grow instead of shrink.

You're eating too much. Stop that.


Problem solved.

[EjnarKolinkar]

Any reason why you don;t want to do a weight lifting program?

That was my Q too. I never met anybody who got big, thick, and solid muscles doing jazzercise.

Working out, wearing yourself out in a gym, and weight training on an effective program are 3 very different things.