Lost a stone, but now I've hit a wall

[parkus]

Not literally

My diet is as follows..

6am - 2 x poached eggs on a slice of brown bread w/ salt, pepper, and olive oil.
9am - promax diet shake + a banana + handful of brazil nuts and walnuts + oats. Blended into a smoothie.
12pm - Oats-so-simple porridge.
3pm - promax diet shake (nothing extra added)
5pm - bowl of home made root vegetable soup.
7pm - meal from healthy/low fat/etc section of Good Food magazine.
10pm - natural yoghurt + blueberries + a banana.

I also workout (abs focused) on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and jog Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I also cycle for about 2 hours on a Saturday (mixed uphill and downhill). Usually do a 1/3rd of the workout on a before work (about 6.30am) and 2/3rds after work (about 5.30pm).

I've been on the diet for a few months and started the workout routine about 3 weeks ago. Are there any other things I should consider to help shift the last bit layer of belly fat?

[GBDG]

What is an abs focused workout?

[Ordinary_Chap]

How tall & heavy are you? How many calories are you consuming per day and how many do you need (if you've worked it out).

Edited by Ordinary_Chap on Sunday 6th January 23:48

[Art0ir]

GBDG said:

What is an abs focused workout?

1. If the vehicle is fitted with an anti-lock braking system, check that

a. a warning lamp is fitted
b. the lamp illuminatese
c. the lamp follows the correct sequence of operation

[mattikake]

Depends how much you're trying to lose, what your weight is now and your height. Sounds like you've just discovered the law of diminishing returns. So you now have to work a bit harder on exercise and diet.

Try adjusting your diet to this format - morning carb based, afternoon balanced (carb + fat + protien ), evening protein based.

Why an ab focussed workout? If you're after weight-loss/fat-loss do a calorie burning focussed workout - diet and exercise plans should match, not be in conflict. Kettlebells are ace and fun for this.

How long/far are you going with your CV?

Only 3 weeks in the exercise? Needs much more time than that for good effect. Patience is your friend, not your enemy. Patience means you can not worry about killing yourself for a result. Your body needs a chance to respond to what's going on.

Most dieters can lose weight fast initially, but it always tails off sooner or later.

Could be time to count calories in and calories out. May also be time to start counting macro nutrients in and when.

[lawrence567]

Add some cardio in early doors every day?

[pilchardthecat]

Why the fk are you eating every 5 minutes?

Are you a ruminant?

[Pothole]

pilchardthecat said:

Why the fk are you eating every 5 minutes?

Are you a ruminant?

I was thinking something similar...

[Hoofy]

Moo!

[Smitters]

My thoughts would be:

Maybe do a couple of weeks very strict calorie deficit.

Or

Exchange a workout for a high intensity CV session - run/cycle some hill sprints after a decent warm-up. Very good value for time exercise provided it doesn't injure you (so take care...).

Or

Think about the holiday season - has this slowed things down and will they pick up in a week or two when turkey/choc/booze isn't floating about?

[Tiggsy]

So before lunch you've eaten...2 eggs, bread, olive oil, shake, banana, brazil nuts, walnuts, oats, porridge.

I'm not surprised you've hit a wall!

What on earth are you doing at midday that means you need that much food???

[Hoofy]

Tiggsy said:

So before lunch you've eaten...2 eggs, bread, olive oil, shake, banana, brazil nuts, walnuts, oats, porridge.

I'm not surprised you've hit a wall!

What on earth are you doing at midday that means you need that much food???

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

[SlimJ]

Surprised no one has mentioned this but it sounds like your exercise is creating more muscle while burning fat, muscle is heavier than fat so it's likely that your weight has stabilised due to the increase in muscle mass.

How tall and heavy are you? are you big and fat? or just slightly flabby?

Oats-so-simple porridge? Is there a lot of rubbish added to that? Why not get a plain porridge oats 1kg bag from Tesco for about 70-80p with nothing added, then add your own fruit and flavourings? I'd probably eat porridge first thing rather than for lunch, lunch should be meat and veg/salad and some carbs.

I broke my leg back in July, I was about 74kg (5'7" tall), within 6 weeks of doing not very much I had dropped down to 69kg due to muscle loss, now I'm back in to training I'm back up to 73kg.

[Cheib]

Tiggsy said:

So before lunch you've eaten...2 eggs, bread, olive oil, shake, banana, brazil nuts, walnuts, oats, porridge.

I'm not surprised you've hit a wall!

What on earth are you doing at midday that means you need that much food???

Doesn't everyone have two breakfasts by 9 am ?!?!

[wiffmaster]

SlimJ said:

Surprised no one has mentioned this but it sounds like your exercise is creating more muscle while burning fat, muscle is heavier than fat so it's likely that your weight has stabilised due to the increase in muscle mass.

It's very hard to build muscle whilst losing fat. Weight loss is roughly 2/3 fat and 1/3 muscle. If you lift weights whilst trying to lose weight, the most you can realistically expect is to maintain muscle mass...you'd be hard-pressed to actually build any new lean mass.

[Mr Trophy]

pilchardthecat said:

Why the fk are you eating every 5 minutes?

Are you a ruminant?

Is it alot of ste that you need to eat every couple of hours to keep your metabolism going?

[pilchardthecat]

Mr Trophy said:

Is it alot of ste that you need to eat every couple of hours to keep your metabolism going?

Yes it is a lot of ste.

But it makes a lot of suckers for the supplement companies.

[pilchardthecat]

SlimJ said:

Surprised no one has mentioned this but it sounds like your exercise is creating more muscle while burning fat, muscle is heavier than fat so it's likely that your weight has stabilised due to the increase in muscle mass.

No-one has mentioned it because he's doing a shed load of cardio and probably not putting any muscle on at all.

He is on the direct train to skinnyfat.

[Tiggsy]

pilchardthecat said:

No-one has mentioned it because he's doing a shed load of cardio and probably not putting any muscle on at all.

He is on the direct train to skinnyfat.

while there are lots of benefits to weights for weight loss...he doesnt NEED weights. Marathon runners dont lift big but they have low body fat.

This bloke just eats too much, too often!

[Smitters]

I dunno. I totted that up and made it between 2500 and 3000 cals off the top of my head and making some assumptions. Add the exercise he's got going now and there should be a deficit. Lots of meals sure, but are each of them massively calorific? Aside from the eggs, none look too massive. I also assume you don't knock a stone off without some concentration on diet, so let's cut them some slack, especially as they have four posts. Don't want to seem like the baying, bro-science slaying, over-cynical rabid dogs we all actually are now do we?