Not sure what's going on with my weight....

[Scathe]

I'm 37 and decided about 2 months ago to finally start getting in shape. I work a sedentary job as a web developer, and also used to drink a LOT of beer every night, so I've gained a lot of weight, starting in my 20's. At my peak I hit 230 lbs at 5'11". Diabetes runs in my family and I decided before that happens to me, since I'm not getting any younger, it was time to start getting in shape.

My first day at the gym was December 3rd, so this week was my 10th week at the gym. At the same time, I cut out all sodas and sugary drinks, cut out all fast food, all snacking altogether and eating after dinner, beer is limited to 1 night a week (I can choose either Friday or Saturday night, and I switched from Yuengling to Michelob Ultra; I typically have 6-8 on the one night per week I drink). I go to the gym 4 days per week, 30 minutes of strength training (usually the Planet Fitness 30 minute express workout) and 30-40 minutes of cardio (15-20 mins on the treadmill, then 15-20 mins on the elliptical). Here are my meals:

Breakfast consists of my workout stack:

* SlimFast Original (for more nutrients and better absorption of the other stuff)
* MuscleTech Nitro whey protein (also contains 3g of creatine)
* Magnesium tablets
* Fish Oil caps
* GNC MegaMen Energy & Metabolism multivitamin
* MuscleTech Clear Muscle
* Prime Labs Prime Test

The shakes (SlimFast & Nitro) are blended with 1 banana for extra fiber and potassium, with 2 cups of 1% milk. Total calories from the stack (milk included) are about 625, 75g of carbs, 13g of fat, and 5g of saturated fat.

Lunch:

* Turkey or ham sandwich on homemade Italian bread with 1 slice of Swiss cheese and mustard
* Quaker granola bar for extra fiber
* An apple
* 8oz can of V8 juice
* Second dose of Clear Muscle

Dinner:

* Usually either steak, chicken, or pork chops. Occasionally a homemade burger with 90/10 lean ground beef
* Small portion of a starch (1/2 cup of rice or corn, or baked redskin potato)
* Vegetable, either Brussels sprouts, asparagus, broc****, or green beans

I only drink water for the rest of the day after the breakfast stack, except on my one night of beer drinking.

Somehow I've gone from 230 lbs to 240 lbs, and have not noticed clothes fitting looser or anything, so it doesn't seem like I'm losing fat. I'm really not sure what I'm doing wrong.

[xsquid99]

You are not in a calorie deficit if you've put on 10 lbs, you are in a calorie surplus. You can work out until you're blue in the face but perceived "healthy foods" still contain calories, and yes, "too much of a good thing" is in fact a reality when it comes to calories.

Get a food scale, lean to count calories, weigh EVERY SINGLE THING that goes into your mouth. Every bit of cooking oil, salad dressing, condiments, sauces, etc. If you want to booze it up on the weekends its fine, but those 8 beers are going to require a couple hours on an elliptical to burn off, so only you can decide if its worth it or not.

https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...3439001&page=1

[Plagen]

pt on my one night of beer drinking.

I'm really not sure what I'm doing wrong.

The answer is you eat too much.

Start at least with an honest estimate of the total caloric intake on your list. And don't forget to include the 6-8 beers that you drink on the weekend, just spread it over the week. Then take of 300-500 calories off and see where it gets you in a month.

[bamazav]

Xsquid is right, you are in surplus. Are you only eating 3 meals, as listed or is there other snacking going on, even "healthy food"? Have you calculated your total calories from this menu? Do you also realize that if you eat this menu and then have 8 Mich. Ultras, you are adding over 700 additional calories per week. if you are walking the fine line of maintenance vs surplus, this can definitely put you over. I am always of the mindset that if I am going to have extra calories, I prefer to eat them rather than drink them.

Go to the link Xsquid provided and use that as a starting point. Each one of us are different, so your actual need may be less or may be more, you will will have to experiment with it, but if you are not accurately tracking intake, you will never figure it out.

[dmatsinger]

To expand on the deficit, you also need to figure out what your BMR is, then calculate your total TDEE. Cause on top of not knowing how many calories you are consuming a day you don't seem to know the amount of calories you are burning in a day. Basically you need calories in < calories out, its not about eating healthy its about eating in a deficit, which you can get by eating less or moving more.

[Scathe]

Thanks guys!

To answer some questions:

* No snacking. Only the meals listed are eaten.
* MyFitnessPal says I consume about 1700 calories on a typical day on the new diet. The beer adds about 108 calories a day averaged throughout the week, so that would be 1810 cals/day.
* I burn around 400-450 a day during cardio, 4 days. MyFitnessPal doesn't know how much would be burned during the 30 Minute Express workout (for those unfamiliar, it's 20 stations, 10 of them are stair steppers, the other 10 are various resistance machines). I'd estimate 100-150 calories burned doing the express workout, putting me at 500 a day, or 2000 burned a week at the gym.
* I have definitely gained strength, and am noticing marked tone in my arms now, so some of it is muscle, but I find it hard to believe that I've gained 10 lbs of muscle in 10 weeks, while losing exactly 10 lbs of fat as well. Maybe it's possible.

I figured out this morning that I forgot a very critical thing while figuring out caloric intake, though. Largely thanks to some posts here in this thread provoking some extra thought as to what all goes into my body. This could be my breakthrough moment where the epiphany arrived as to what's killing my weight loss: coffee. I drink a TON of coffee all day at work. At least 4-6 10oz cups throughout the day. Each cup has about 2 tablespoons of sugar and nondairy creamer. Drinking the coffee is something I was doing without even thinking about it. Here's the breakdown PER CUP:

* 25 g of carbs from sugar
* 96 calories from sugar
* 6 g of carbs from creamer
* 60 calories from creamer
* TOTAL: 31 g of carbs and 156 calories per cup. Multiplied by 6 is 186 g carbs, 936 calories!!

That brings it up to 2800 calories a day, rather than the 1800 I THOUGHT I was consuming! A thousand calories a day flew completely under the radar. Maybe it's time to stop drinking coffee, or learn to like black coffee...

Would anyone recommend using something cleaner to get the caffeine fix, like a supplement? Stacker 2 or similar?

Thanks again, this was insanely helpful!

[tblodg15]

Don't worry about how many calories you are burning during exercise and those estimates are usually way high anyways. And DO NOT adjust your daily calories in My Fitness Pal based on those burned during exercise!

What is your TDEE estimate? Just monitor your daily calorie intake with a target of 500 calories less than your TDEE (and like I said above do not adjust for exercise). After a few weeks adjust calories based on whether you are losing weight at the desired rate (usually 1 - 2 pounds per week).

You did NOT gain 10 lbs of muscle in 10 weeks!

Good catch with the coffee sugar and creamer but no need to go black. I lost 65 lbs drinking several cups of coffee every day but I did switch to using sugar free liquid creamer. You will make adjustments along the way if you stick with the weight loss and I now drink 1 or 2 cups with sugar free creamer and the last several months I have started drinking a few cups of coffee with 1 tbsp of skim milk and protein powder. It took a few trials to find the protein powder I liked the best but the vanilla I am using now I like just as much or more than using creamer.

[ElrondHubbard]

In addition to the excellent responses you're already received, it might be pointed out the creatine will soak up several additional pounds of water weight. It's not a problem, but something to keep in mind.

Now fix the coffee issue, and you're good to go!

[Scathe]

Don't worry about how many calories you are burning during exercise and those estimates are usually way high anyways. And DO NOT adjust your daily calories in My Fitness Pal based on those burned during exercise!

What is your TDEE estimate? Just monitor your daily calorie intake with a target of 500 calories less than your TDEE (and like I said above do not adjust for exercise). After a few weeks adjust calories based on whether you are losing weight at the desired rate (usually 1 - 2 pounds per week).

You did NOT gain 10 lbs of muscle in 10 weeks!

Good catch with the coffee sugar and creamer but no need to go black. I lost 65 lbs drinking several cups of coffee every day but I did switch to using sugar free liquid creamer. You will make adjustments along the way if you stick with the weight loss and I now drink 1 or 2 cups with sugar free creamer and the last several months I have started drinking a few cups of coffee with 1 tbsp of skim milk and protein powder. It took a few trials to find the protein powder I liked the best but the vanilla I am using now I like just as much or more than using creamer.

Thank you! My TDEE estimate is 1882 calories per day / 13176 per week. It'll be really hard to do 1300 per day, but maybe if I swap out eating lunch for another SlimFast and a V8 instead? Maybe add the granola bar and/or apple for some extra fiber and substance and only cut out the sandwich? I've just been doing SlimFast for breakfast to get something in my stomach, get a few calories pre-workout, and hopefully help with absorption of the other supplements while avoiding any real "food" for breakfast. So, maybe I should try following the complete SlimFast plan and just throw in some healthy snacks with it for lunch (apple, granola bar and 8oz V8, since one thing SlimFast sorely lacks is fiber)?

If you guys think eating anything with SlimFast is too much, maybe some Metamucil instead?

[tblodg15]

Thank you! My TDEE estimate is 1882 calories per day

I was thinking that TDEE sounds low and that you must be a really small guy. And then I remembered that you mentioned being 240 so no way it’s that low if you are doing any exercise at all. Go calculate it again or try a different calculator.

[Scathe]

I was thinking that TDEE sounds low and that you must be a really small guy. And then I remembered that you mentioned being 240 so no way it’s that low if you are doing any exercise at all. Go calculate it again or try a different calculator.

Yep, you were right. Tried another calculator, and this one says 2427 (the first one only asked for age, height, weight, and daily activity level (sedentary for me); the second one asked a lot more questions, including workout details). Definitely not small; slightly above average height, and obese . So my intake goal for each day is between 1900-2000, then? That would be much easier to pull off than 1300!

My goal weight right now is 180, which is higher than where I should be for age & height (160-170 is ideal), but since I work out I'd like that extra weight to be muscle. BMI is the most important metric, not necessarily weight for height. Plus, losing 60 lbs would be amazing regardless of BMI or whether it's in the ideal range or not.

[Scathe]

Also, does anyone think I should switch to pure cardio and cut out strength training until I drop the weight? I know resistance training doesn't burn many calories. I definitely want to build muscle and get jacked, but weight loss has to be the most important goal for the shorter term. Or do you think the way I'm already doing the workout is fine? One part of me thinks more cardio and burning more calories is the way to go, the other part of me thinks I'm already burning a decent amount and simply adjusting to a lower calorie diet is the key (and I can still continue strength training). What are your thoughts?

Side note: I find the treadmill & elliptical to be extremely boring. I actually dread that part of the routine. The treadmill is definitely less tolerable than the elliptical for some reason, and it hurts my left shin (shin splints? I'm wearing brand new New Balance, laced tight, definitely the right size; could be related to the weight I'm carrying). I'm thinking about going 30-40 minutes on the elliptical after strength training and cutting out the treadmill. Is it better to keep splitting between the two, or does it not matter? The thought process behind splitting them is that they (sort of) work different muscle groups (elliptical is more of a full body cardio workout; treadmill is almost completely leg). The elliptical also definitely seems to burn more calories per hour than the treadmill, and it's easier to get my heart rate up to target (about 150). It's difficult on the treadmill to get up to target, whereas on the elliptical it's actually easy to go way over and have it telling me to slow down. Just not sure if keeping the treadmill in the rotation is important or not.

[tblodg15]

Also, does anyone think I should switch to pure cardio and cut out strength training until I drop the weight?

No, definitely keep the strength training!

And yes doing the elliptical alone is fine. I lost 65 lbs and the only cardio I did was on the elliptical 3 days per week for 40 minutes each session. I started off on level 2 and kept increasing as I became more fit until I was pumping away like a madman doing HIIT intervals on level 10.

[Corbets]

If you’re having hunger problems, just keep adding in fibrous vegetables. Not all veggies are created equal, but a couple hundred grams of broc**** or cauliflower won’t move the needle much on your calories but will make you feel more full.

[CommitmentRulz]

Also, does anyone think I should switch to pure cardio and cut out strength training until I drop the weight? I know resistance training doesn't burn many calories. I definitely want to build muscle and get jacked, but weight loss has to be the most important goal for the shorter term.

No. Don't stop with the weights. It helps insure more of the weight loss is fat as opposed to muscle. I KNOW that you want the scale to read lighter, but you want to lose FAT, not just weight (especially at the detriment of muscle.)

[Scathe]

Awesome, thanks a lot everyone -- really great advice! Repped everyone until it wouldn't let me anymore; will come back tomorrow and give out the rest.

[dmatsinger]

You want to keep lifting weights to maintain the muscle you have. If you just do cardio you will burn the muscle you having making it so that you would need to gain that muscle back by the time you want to add the muscle back. You can add approximately 1 lbs of muscle a month, so if you lose 50 lbs with 10 lbs being muscle, would take you an additional approximately 10 months to add that muscle back.

[xsquid99]

A few words for you:

Zero Calorie Coffee Creamer
A couple packs of Equal or splenda or whatever
Profit

Follow the rest of the good advice you got here and you should be seeing the pounds come off. DO NOT stop lifting.

[MrCarrot]

Also, does anyone think I should switch to pure cardio and cut out strength training until I drop the weight? I know resistance training doesn't burn many calories.

When I started out 6 months ago I intended to only do cardio as I only wanted to lose weight. Before too long I ditched the cardio altogether and did weight lifting exclusively, and I'm glad I did as the weight has been falling off ever since. I'm getting a bit too thin for my liking now, but if I hadn't been lifting and continued doing lots of cardio then I dread to think what I would look like by now and at least this way I've retained most if not all of the muscle I had to start with. I found counting calories to be far easier and far more effective than running on a treadmill. If you cut out lots of the crap - in your case beer, in my case it was chocolate and sweets, you'll probably find you have a large amount of room for more nutritious food whilst still consistently losing weight.

I do regularly eat donuts, chocolate, popcorn and things like that because I don't wish to go insane, but this time I'm eating them in moderation and factoring them into my calorie count, which it sounds like you're now doing with the beer so well done on that front.

My TDEE estimate is 1882 calories per day / 13176 per week. It'll be really hard to do 1300 per day...

Those TDEE calculators all give different figures and can be wildly inaccurate. I started on 1,500 cals a day and was advised by the helpful people here it was too low. Eventually I increased it to 1,800 and now I'm on 2,000 and still losing weight. You're a similar age, starting weight, height and occupation to me so if I were to make a bet I would say your TDEE is probably in the region of 2,800 but obviously that's a complete guess.

If you find yourself consistently hungry, consider swapping the shakes for real food, as it'll be more filling.

Good luck.

[hmmmm16417]

get rid of the granola bars and slim fast. go with more "real" food for your nutrition that you prepare yourself and only use shakes/supplements to complete where you are lacking rather than staples to your main diet. prep your food ahead of time and portion it out so there is no variable and no chance of just grabbing this or that when you are hungry.

if you need to drop some calories, try using less milk and replace it with water in your shakes.

[wevie]

I'm surprised no one has said it unless I'm overlooking it but drinking almost a 1,000 calories a week in beer (or any other empty calorie drink for that matter) could kill any potential progress all by itself.

Is beer that important to you? It has ZERO health benefits and honestly that much can't be great for the liver.

[wevie]

Thanks guys!

To answer some questions:

* No snacking. Only the meals listed are eaten.
* MyFitnessPal says I consume about 1700 calories on a typical day on the new diet. The beer adds about 108 calories a day averaged throughout the week, so that would be 1810 cals/day.
* I burn around 400-450 a day during cardio, 4 days. MyFitnessPal doesn't know how much would be burned during the 30 Minute Express workout (for those unfamiliar, it's 20 stations, 10 of them are stair steppers, the other 10 are various resistance machines). I'd estimate 100-150 calories burned doing the express workout, putting me at 500 a day, or 2000 burned a week at the gym.
* I have definitely gained strength, and am noticing marked tone in my arms now, so some of it is muscle, but I find it hard to believe that I've gained 10 lbs of muscle in 10 weeks, while losing exactly 10 lbs of fat as well. Maybe it's possible.

I figured out this morning that I forgot a very critical thing while figuring out caloric intake, though. Largely thanks to some posts here in this thread provoking some extra thought as to what all goes into my body. This could be my breakthrough moment where the epiphany arrived as to what's killing my weight loss: coffee. I drink a TON of coffee all day at work. At least 4-6 10oz cups throughout the day. Each cup has about 2 tablespoons of sugar and nondairy creamer. Drinking the coffee is something I was doing without even thinking about it. Here's the breakdown PER CUP:

* 25 g of carbs from sugar
* 96 calories from sugar
* 6 g of carbs from creamer
* 60 calories from creamer
* TOTAL: 31 g of carbs and 156 calories per cup. Multiplied by 6 is 186 g carbs, 936 calories!!

That brings it up to 2800 calories a day, rather than the 1800 I THOUGHT I was consuming! A thousand calories a day flew completely under the radar. Maybe it's time to stop drinking coffee, or learn to like black coffee...

Would anyone recommend using something cleaner to get the caffeine fix, like a supplement? Stacker 2 or similar?

Thanks again, this was insanely helpful!

Yep there's your answer. Do you really need all that coffee to make it through the day? Drinking empty calories is a weight loss killer

This may not be a popular opinion but if caffeine is a must try diet soda however zero calorie green tea would be a better option.