Frustrated with my lack of weight loss

[theBrookDweller]

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!

yeah, especially when you consider that most "light" beers are 75-115 callories. A buddy of mine put on 130lbs of beer weight in a year because he did nothing but down a 30 or two on the weekends.

 

[TroySander]

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

No bread. Its empty food that just sticks around your mid section.

 

[August West]

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.

I wouldn't completely trust those calculators. They tell me I can eat 3500 calories thereabouts with a sedentary lifestyle and maintain my current weight. That's way, way off, and I go to the gym 4 days a week!

If I ate 3500 calories a day, I would blow up very quickly.

 

[TwoFour Lowkick]

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.

This was a big issue for me. I LOVE coffee. I was drinking close to five cups a day at the office. What I failed to realized that each cup of coffee had about 5 sugars in it. 5 x 5 = 25 sugar packets. So, yeah you could imagine that was a problem.

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

Definitely! Why do all that hard work during the week to throw it all away during the weekend?

I'll try to eat more protein too. I LOVE tuna steaks and rice. Also a big fan of avacoda. Love salads etc.

Try ostrich, it's awesome Super lean, lots of protein and iron

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.

remember, in order to lose weight, you need to be running a deficit. I know for me, I can't eat anymore than 1800 calories if I want weight to come off. Even if I am training MT 9hrs a week. This website helped me a lot when it came to watching what I ate and measuring how many calories I burned:

MyPlate - Food Diary & Food Calorie Counter | LIVESTRONG.COM

Maybe try adding some lifting to your routine. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories your body needs/burns through in order to maintain it. So you'll burn more calories sitting at your desk all day if you up your muscle mass percentage.

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.

Hydrate immediately after your workout, then weigh yourself if you must. When you weigh yourself in the AM, you'll be at a lower weight. I know that after a workout (I probably go through about 60oz of water during a workout, and then maybe 20 afterward. When I get home from the gym I'm about 190lbs. When I wake up, I'm 186ish). Sometimes you need to play little tricks on yourself to keep motivated.

Good luck!

 

[tyrrvk]

wow - lot of helpful posts here.

will need to start tracking caloric intake so I don't sabotage the work I am putting in in the gym/running etc. That would really piss me off.

I'll drop the chocolate milk after workouts and just drink a litre of water (or whatever I need to rehydrate). Noob mistake.

I'm cool with vodka/whiskey instead of beer.

More work will need to go into figuring out what to prepare/make on day's off. But the calorie tracker will help with this.

Thanks all! I'll start reading all the FAQ's etc listed in here.

 

[leftovercrack]

I wouldn't completely trust those calculators. They tell me I can eat 3500 calories thereabouts with a sedentary lifestyle and maintain my current weight. That's way, way off, and I go to the gym 4 days a week!

If I ate 3500 calories a day, I would blow up very quickly.

hmm strange, I did say decent estimate in my post and the one from the faq on this forum actually gave me a number that worked out really well. Of course if you use your own brain to think things out, It should be obvious to track your weight loss/gain based on any number you use and adjust accordingly to what your scale/bodyfat% is doing.

 

[philthy rich**]

apparently no one here has heard of these things called VEGETABLES which everyone should be eating everyday without exception.

eat carrots, broccoli, peppers, ect every day for a month and watch what happens

 

[PreludeMTL]

I'm 5'10, where is most of your weight?

I was 205, Id say more muscle but a lot of my weight is in my legs...like Mirko lol.

I've been doing MT for 1.5 yrs, really stepped it up the last few months as I want to compete amateur as a challenge (I'm 32) and currently I'm sitting at 195 regularly

I've always ate clean and was steady at 205, I have been going to train more often and that's when I saw the weight drop.

Like other said, don't just rely on scale...measure. My dress pants started falling off of me even though the weight drop was minimal at first...snowball effect...the weight will come off..

Green Pepper in my omelet's every morning!

 

[SLaKKJaW]

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)

This, 100%. Especially the bold part.

One thing that stood out to me from your post is that you said nothing about snacking. Your 3 meals seemed appropriate in size, based on the intensity you say you're getting with your workout. You have to be careful that you're not putting your body into starvation mode. Not only will you have little in the way of returns when your output is somewhat close to your input of calories... you will also have a spike in fat formation when you do "cheat". Energy in, energy out. Keep the levels in consistent and adequate. Your daily life will handle most of the output with your workout being a bonus.

And don't be afraid to dig into the proteins. Not only will it help rebuild your broken-down muscles and stop your body from breaking them down more for amino's needed for your other functions, it'll ramp up your metabolism by allowing it to work consistently rather than sporadically.

 

[turbozed]

Man, looks like a lot of nutritional myths just refuse to die.

There is no metabolic advantage to smaller and more frequent meals over the day. The part about avoiding 'crashing' does have merit as larger meals require more energy to digest.

'Starvation mode' won't occur in any significant sense if you eat everyday as is demonstrated by the effectiveness (loss of weight and improvement of body composition) of intermittent fasting.

If you're frustrated with your lack of weight loss, it could be that perhaps you are overestimating your calorie consumption. If you really must know for sure, you can buy a Escala scale on amazon for about $20. Weigh all your foods and input all your foods into fitday or a similar calorie counter. You'd be surprised how much random alcoholic drinks or late night snacks you forget to add into the calculation until you actually meticulously track your intake. I did it for a couple of months and have a much better sense of my body and its energy requirements.

Remember it's more of an issue of body composition than just merely weight. You can weigh less and be skinny fat. You can weigh more and still have a smaller stomach and waist. The numbers are meaningless. Go on what you look like and feel like.

 

[mmafreedom]

Man, looks like a lot of nutritional myths just refuse to die.

There is no metabolic advantage to smaller and more frequent meals over the day. The part about avoiding 'crashing' does have merit as larger meals require more energy to digest.

'Starvation mode' won't occur in any significant sense if you eat everyday as is demonstrated by the effectiveness (loss of weight and improvement of body composition) of intermittent fasting.

If you're frustrated with your lack of weight loss, it could be that perhaps you are overestimating your calorie consumption. If you really must know for sure, you can buy a Escala scale on amazon for about $20. Weigh all your foods and input all your foods into fitday or a similar calorie counter. You'd be surprised how much random alcoholic drinks or late night snacks you forget to add into the calculation until you actually meticulously track your intake. I did it for a couple of months and have a much better sense of my body and its energy requirements.

Remember it's more of an issue of body composition than just merely weight. You can weigh less and be skinny fat. You can weigh more and still have a smaller stomach and waist. The numbers are meaningless. Go on what you look like and feel like.

The point I was trying to nail (and to which you affirmed, thank you) was that when your dieting, the last thing you want is a crashing of energy and a feeling of hunger which can lead to excessive eating and over compensation.