Frustrated with my lack of weight loss

[tyrrvk]

Hi -
Noob here. Trying to get in shape, not to fight, but to trim down, lose weight, etc. Not really looking to get big/muscular (well, more upper body strength is OK) but want to lose fat/weight.

Started MT about a month ago, and go 3x a week for 1.5-2 hrs. Pretty high intensity. Jog a few days a week (1-2 miles) and play squash 3x a week over lunch.

5'10, 204lbs. Want to be around 180. In my mid 30's. No allusions of fighting, and not wanting to "cut 20 lbs in 20 days" or any of that crap.

Breakfasts are always oatmeal + banana and big glass of water
lunch is usually a sandwich wrap (lettuce, sliced meat etc), fruit cup and tea
drink coffee during the day 2-3 cups max, drink water as well
treat myself with one coke zero late afternoon
dinner is whatever I've cooked - on nights I have MT, I Can barely choke down any food it seems like - too wrung out. I might have a sandwich, banana, but I always have a glass of chocolate milk to help recover.
Weekends and nights off MT, I eat a bit more - not as disciplined. Love to have some beers too on the weekend.

Any tips? Should I just relax and keep at it and I will start to see results? I feel like my stomach is flatter, but stepping on the scale (once a week, same morning) I feel like I've plateaued. My cardio is improving for sure - doing endless combos no longer is as tough etc. I am guessing I need to do smaller portions, less beer, maybe start logging stuff to see where I may be messing up (unknowingly) and not stress so much. I just had hoped weight would shed off me - I certainly bust my ass enough at practice. Can you gain muscle from Muay Thai?

Danke

 

[curb1850]

Hi -
Noob here. Trying to get in shape, not to fight, but to trim down, lose weight, etc. Not really looking to get big/muscular (well, more upper body strength is OK) but want to lose fat/weight.

Started MT about a month ago, and go 3x a week for 1.5-2 hrs. Pretty high intensity. Jog a few days a week (1-2 miles) and play squash 3x a week over lunch.

5'10, 204lbs. Want to be around 180. In my mid 30's. No allusions of fighting, and not wanting to "cut 20 lbs in 20 days" or any of that crap.

Breakfasts are always oatmeal + banana and big glass of water
lunch is usually a sandwich wrap (lettuce, sliced meat etc), fruit cup and tea
drink coffee during the day 2-3 cups max, drink water as well
treat myself with one coke zero late afternoon
dinner is whatever I've cooked - on nights I have MT, I Can barely choke down any food it seems like - too wrung out. I might have a sandwich, banana, but I always have a glass of chocolate milk to help recover.
Weekends and nights off MT, I eat a bit more - not as disciplined. Love to have some beers too on the weekend.

Any tips? Should I just relax and keep at it and I will start to see results? I feel like my stomach is flatter, but stepping on the scale (once a week, same morning) I feel like I've plateaued. My cardio is improving for sure - doing endless combos no longer is as tough etc. I am guessing I need to do smaller portions, less beer, maybe start logging stuff to see where I may be messing up (unknowingly) and not stress so much. I just had hoped weight would shed off me - I certainly bust my ass enough at practice. Can you gain muscle from Muay Thai?

Danke

Some of the other guys can help more and will probably point you at the stickies.

However, I was trying to drop some weight about a year or two ago, and I was drinking beers on the weekends. I was amazed at how much that changed things, made a huge difference for me.

I switched it out for vodka and diet coke, or red wine. All I can tell you is from my experience.

Good luck.

 

[TheMadHatter]

well how much weight have you lost so far?

 

[Beable]

Not an expert, but have you considered measuring your waist and other areas that you might have fat accumulated and then seeing if you slim down in those areas rather than just using the scale as your metric?

It looks like you know what to do: lose the beer etc. Low carb works very well for me.

 

[cooks1]

Some of the other guys can help more and will probably point you at the stickies.

However, I was trying to drop some weight about a year or two ago, and I was drinking beers on the weekends. I was amazed at how much that changed things, made a huge difference for me.

I switched it out for vodka and diet coke, or red wine. All I can tell you is from my experience.

Good luck.

This does make a huge difference for some people. If you can stomach it, move away from the yeast based beer. Wine is good. I actually started drinking champagne for a while.

Also, it sounds like you could use more protein in your diet.

Other than that, just keep it up. I have lost over 70 lbs from my peak in fatness over 2 years ago, and am in pretty decent condition now.

What I found was that my for every 15 or so lbs I lost, my body would start going "WTF". Every so often my energy levels would dip for no reason (I was eating plenty of healthy food and vitamins) and I would get absolutely ravenous out of nowhere. This would last a week to 10 days with little or no weight change, even perhaps gaining a little. Eventually though you kind of bust through it. For me, the period after busting through a plateau was AWESOME. Weight just melts off, you almost literally see daily improvement for a little while after that.

Good luck.

 

[K Flow]

It doesnt seem like you are getting a lot of protein in your diet. I would suggest always eating at least eggs or meat (preferably both) to your breakfast.

 

[PistolPeteMMA]

Your diet looks decent to be totally honest. Keep in mind with your MT training you are building more muscle and turning fat into muscle. That being said muscle weighs more than fat. Do you put sugar in your coffee??? Coffee isn't too bad for you because of the cafine. I would replace the chocolate mile postworkout with a protein shake with water. Less sugar and is def. better for you. You can prob. increase your protein intake a bit which may help as well.

Good luck...

 

[Belatucadros]

eat smaller meals more often

is breakfast, lunch, dinner it? Coffee doesn't count at all and I'd cut it if you can.

Instead have some fruit or even a small protein.

- breakfat
- snack
- lunch
- snack
- dinner
- snack

Snacks don't mean chocolate bars, chips, etc either. Fruit, protein, whatever's good for you.

 

[Belatucadros]

re: the milk, milk is actually pretty good as a default PWO goes if you don't want to put too much effort into it.

But if you're strictly looking to lose weight, I'd be careful with it. Investigate skim.

 

[Jaedong]

You might have gained muscle and lost fat at the same time and therefore your weight didn't change. General guidelines are to eat plenty protein (any meat, diary, eggs, nuts, fish), eat a lot of vegetables, some fruit, some grains (pasta, oatmeal) and also enough of healthy fats (olive oil, nuts, dairy (including butter), fatty meat, coconut oil, avocados, fish or / and fish oil capsules). Stay away as much as you can from junk food (too much and subbar fats and calories), sweets and table sugar. Also for weight loss limit white grains (white rice, white breas). On the weekends you can have a beer or two and a cheat-meal (like cheesecake or whatever you want) but don't just binge all day those calories can add up very quickly. You also don't have to be hungry to lose weight, just eat the right foods.

Here you can type in what you ate for the day to get an overview on how many calories and protein you consumed :

FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal

Basic guidelines are to decrease 500 calories from you daily calorie needs to lose weight.

Good luck

 

[rafib]

Hi -
Noob here. Trying to get in shape, not to fight, but to trim down, lose weight, etc. Not really looking to get big/muscular (well, more upper body strength is OK) but want to lose fat/weight.

Started MT about a month ago, and go 3x a week for 1.5-2 hrs. Pretty high intensity. Jog a few days a week (1-2 miles) and play squash 3x a week over lunch.

5'10, 204lbs. Want to be around 180. In my mid 30's. No allusions of fighting, and not wanting to "cut 20 lbs in 20 days" or any of that crap.

Breakfasts are always oatmeal + banana and big glass of water
lunch is usually a sandwich wrap (lettuce, sliced meat etc), fruit cup and tea
drink coffee during the day 2-3 cups max, drink water as well
treat myself with one coke zero late afternoon
dinner is whatever I've cooked - on nights I have MT, I Can barely choke down any food it seems like - too wrung out. I might have a sandwich, banana, but I always have a glass of chocolate milk to help recover.
Weekends and nights off MT, I eat a bit more - not as disciplined. Love to have some beers too on the weekend.

Any tips? Should I just relax and keep at it and I will start to see results? I feel like my stomach is flatter, but stepping on the scale (once a week, same morning) I feel like I've plateaued. My cardio is improving for sure - doing endless combos no longer is as tough etc. I am guessing I need to do smaller portions, less beer, maybe start logging stuff to see where I may be messing up (unknowingly) and not stress so much. I just had hoped weight would shed off me - I certainly bust my ass enough at practice. Can you gain muscle from Muay Thai?

Danke

Nutritionally, I would suggest adding more vegetables and maybe a fruit a day to your meals.

Caloric intake it actually looks pretty good. (In my sig I have a link to a fat loss manual as well with HIIT workouts for fat loss and diet tips).

And yes, you can gain muscle from Muay Thai practice especially if you guys do some conditioning at practice.

 

[tyrrvk]

Thanks all for the replies/encouragement. :icon_chee

To answer your questions:
I've lost around 6-7 lbs, since I've started (more or less). My arms feel like they are more toned, so I am wondering if I am gaining a bit of strength?
We do a bunch of conditioning at the end of each practice, and in between pad rounds. Pushups, crunches, burpees, squats, calf raises, jump rope, etc. Hard work.

I do put a bit of cream and sugar in my coffee. So that's one thing to look at.

I'll cut back on the beer a bit. I think the carbs/gluten goes straight to my gut anyways

I'll try to eat more protein too. I LOVE tuna steaks and rice. Also a big fan of avacoda. Love salads etc. Weekends are where I mess up I think - eating out some, and drinking the beer. I run in the morning, but if I go over 2400 calories i am in surplus mode and it doesn't help.

I think one thing that might have thrown me off is weighing myself after practice (when I sweat a TON) and then again in the morning. I get excited to see my weight after a workout, then the next morning after hydrating, I am 1-2lbs heavier! noob mistake I am sure.

Once I get under 200lbs I am going to be stoked!

Thanks.

 

[Beable]

Your weight will fluctuate throughout the day. Get in the habit of consistently tracking your weight at the same time each day (or whatever interval you choose). I weigh myself before my morning shower.

You're working a lot on the exercise portion. I think it would definitely be worth your while to formulate a plan for eating clean with whatever strategy you decide to go with. Otherwise, it's kind of a waste to exercise so much with not being careful about what you eat, given that weight loss is your goal.

 

[taninecz]

ts, sounds like you are losing body fat (anecdotal tummy flattening, etc) and gaining muscle mass. remember that muscle is denser/heavier than fat, and so it can replace it "on the scale" rather easily.

id recommend losing beer for a few weeks, and taking this question to the S&C forum. or doing a search for similar over there. if you are looking to lose fat and not simply weigh less building more muscle is the way to go. this will increase your resting metabolism, etc etc.

other than that, stick with it. one month is a good start.

 

[taninecz]

also, you could try cutting down on caffeine. some people find it stresses their body and can impede recovery.

 

[August West]

It's the beer. I can eat only 1800-2000 calories every day of the week(I'm 6'6 and 290 lbs) and then drink beer on the weekends and stay at a constant weight.

It's amazing how much weight beer can put on you. Switch to vodka/whiskey!

 

[JSN]

IMO you're at a point now where you want to start approaching your diet like an accountant- buy a kitchen scale (you can get one for $5 that will serve you fine), use the nutrition info and make a log of every calorie going in. there are good iphone/android apps that make this easier if need be. be generous here.

then try to find a way to estimate your calories burned through physical activity- be conservative.

now remember that 3500 calories roughly equals a pound of bodyfat and set a reasonable caloric deficit. a rough estimate is that with very little activity, you need to eat about 2500 calories a day to maintain bodyweight, so 17,500 a week to stay at 204. add to that the calories burned from exercise (should be pretty significant) and try to maintain a level of food intake equal to something like a pound or two of bodyfat a week, so like 3500-7000) calories.

 

[leftovercrack]

Your diet looks decent to be totally honest. Keep in mind with your MT training you are building more muscle and turning fat into muscle. That being said muscle weighs more than fat. Do you put sugar in your coffee??? Coffee isn't too bad for you because of the cafine. I would replace the chocolate mile postworkout with a protein shake with water. Less sugar and is def. better for you. You can prob. increase your protein intake a bit which may help as well.

Good luck...

Turning fat into muscle? Luck will be all he has if he listens to your advice.

 

[leftovercrack]

IMO you're at a point now where you want to start approaching your diet like an accountant- buy a kitchen scale (you can get one for $5 that will serve you fine), use the nutrition info and make a log of every calorie going in. there are good iphone/android apps that make this easier if need be. be generous here.

then try to find a way to estimate your calories burned through physical activity- be conservative.

now remember that 3500 calories roughly equals a pound of bodyfat and set a reasonable caloric deficit. a rough estimate is that with very little activity, you need to eat about 2500 calories a day to maintain bodyweight, so 17,500 a week to stay at 204. add to that the calories burned from exercise (should be pretty significant) and try to maintain a level of food intake equal to something like a pound or two of bodyfat a week, so like 3500-7000) calories.

this is good adivce, there is even a link in the faq's to site that has a calculator to figure out a decent estimate on your maintenance calories. Then keep reading the faq's and inform yourself on the different macro splits people use and decide which one works best for you and try it out.

 

[mmafreedom]

Hi -
Noob here. Trying to get in shape, not to fight, but to trim down, lose weight, etc. Not really looking to get big/muscular (well, more upper body strength is OK) but want to lose fat/weight.

Started MT about a month ago, and go 3x a week for 1.5-2 hrs. Pretty high intensity. Jog a few days a week (1-2 miles) and play squash 3x a week over lunch.

5'10, 204lbs. Want to be around 180. In my mid 30's. No allusions of fighting, and not wanting to "cut 20 lbs in 20 days" or any of that crap.

Breakfasts are always oatmeal + banana and big glass of water
lunch is usually a sandwich wrap (lettuce, sliced meat etc), fruit cup and tea
drink coffee during the day 2-3 cups max, drink water as well
treat myself with one coke zero late afternoon
dinner is whatever I've cooked - on nights I have MT, I Can barely choke down any food it seems like - too wrung out. I might have a sandwich, banana, but I always have a glass of chocolate milk to help recover.
Weekends and nights off MT, I eat a bit more - not as disciplined. Love to have some beers too on the weekend.

Any tips? Should I just relax and keep at it and I will start to see results? I feel like my stomach is flatter, but stepping on the scale (once a week, same morning) I feel like I've plateaued. My cardio is improving for sure - doing endless combos no longer is as tough etc. I am guessing I need to do smaller portions, less beer, maybe start logging stuff to see where I may be messing up (unknowingly) and not stress so much. I just had hoped weight would shed off me - I certainly bust my ass enough at practice. Can you gain muscle from Muay Thai?

Danke

Get a gram of protein per lb of lean body weight, preferably in lean cuts of meat, eggs, nuts etc.
Eat your fruits and veges.
Get your carbohydrates from natural, unrefined sources.
If possible eat 5 small meals every 2-3 hours throughout the day. This will give you a constant flow of energy and no crashing, plus it won't spike your insulin too severely when you over feed. This also sends messages to your body that a constant flow of energy is coming in, and hence no need to store fat (what happens when you starve yourself)
Drink plenty of water.
Eat 500 calories below maintenance and you will see weight loss.
Stop drinking chocolate milk after a work out.
Cut back on the sugar and cream in your coffee.
Limit carbohydrates in the evenings.
If you are going to drink beer, try get a low carbohydrate beer. As someone said earlier, vodka is even better.

(Please note that carbohydrates ARE NOT bad. The thing that goes with carbohydrates is timing, when and when not to have them. A good time to have them is before an exercise to give you energy to perform intense training sessions, or after exercising with a serving of protein to help transport the amino acids (protein) into the muscle fiber via protein synthesis)