Help with fat loss ground to halt!

[1nofor]

Right, 1st post is a call for help from PH'ers knowledge of health!Long story short is I've lost little over 2 stone by running & bit of weights work over last 2 years.

Now I need your help as the weight loss is getting harder and have virtually stall for last few weeks.

I'm 6", 14st 6lbs & about 19-20% BF (3 stone is lard!). I want to shift about 1st over next 8 weeks or so.

I've packed in refined sugar so I think I've the diet sorted with following:
Brekkie: Porridge 30gram/semi skimmed milk, 2 x wholemeal toast, 1x tea with semiskimmed
Snack: fruit/nuts
Lunch: Ham/chicken salad wrap homemade, apple, 1x tea with semiskimmed
Snack : Apples
Dinner: 1/3 Veg.(greens/carrots/sald), 1/3 carb.(pasta/Potatoes),1/3 protein (Chicken breast, extra lean beef, fish)
All topped off with approx 1 ltr H2O per day.

I have few bits & pieces of gear at home :

Weight bench, 45kg York barbell/dumbell set

Routine up 'til now:

Twice per week alternate (Tues/Thursday)
Tuesday
Sets and reps 3x10
Squats
bench press
stiff legged deadlift
military press
chinups/pullups

Thursday:
Sets and reps 3x10
Deadlift
bench dips
lunges
dumbbell shoulder press
bent over rowing

I'd also get 90mins kickboxing(badly)training, every second week or so.
Finally a run of 4/5 miles on Saturday.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to why weightloss has stopped or has body just adapted?

Can anyone suggest changes (complete rountine or otherwise) or is it a case of needing to up intesity?

PS. Ive just bought following bits of kit: 16kg kettlebell and heavy punchbag

Thanks to all for help & sorry for long first post!

[dangerousB]

First up, when you say "snack - apples/fruit/nuts", how much of them do you eat? Also, when it comes to your evening meal, you have 2/3 carbs to 1/3 protein (there is fat in there also, but we'll ignore that for the mo') - is that by weight or by appearance on the plate? I know that sounds a daft question, but how accurate are you with your intake?
When it comes to the exercise, I think your frequency/duration element is way, waayyy too low for your weight loss goal - 3 x 10 of 5, what? 30 mins absolute max, twice a week + a short run at the weekend? I would up that considerably - currently that's IRO an hour and a half a week of exercise - nowhere near enough chap!
Up that to five hours a week, maintain your current diet and report back!

ETA Welcome to PH by the way!!

[MacGee]

Up your CV time and no carbs after 6 pm! Cut out bread and sweet fruit. More water! See how that helps!
Steve Backley has a FB blog re this. Look him up and read. Think he knows something about exercise etc...,

[Hoofy]

Be interested to know what effect the weight training is having. After a session could you, say, go for a run? Or do you feel completely destroyed?

Actually, comparing what you're doing to what I'm doing, if you've been doing that for 2 years (I've been doing weights for 3 months), it's far too light for you. For instance, with squats, let's say you're doing 45kg. I'm doing 2 x 25kg Bulgarian squats - that's 50kg going through one leg, 3 sets of 6 with a handful of extra reps in the last set. In other words, I am sure you can shift much heavier weight.

Edit: and as MacGee suggests, you need to put in more CV work. Kickboxing once a fortnight plus a 5 mile run once a week isn't enough. Your new bag will help. Do loads of one minute bouts until you can't punch any more.

Edited by Hoofy on Tuesday 3rd January 22:48

[LordGrover]

1nofor said:

Right, 1st post is a call for help from PH'ers knowledge of health!Long story short is I've lost little over 2 stone by running & bit of weights work over last 2 years.

Now I need your help as the weight loss is getting harder and have virtually stall for last few weeks.

I'm 6", 14st 6lbs & about 19-20% BF (3 stone is lard!). I want to shift about 1st over next 8 weeks or so.

I've packed in refined sugar so I think I've the diet sorted with following:
Brekkie: Porridge 30gram/semi skimmed milk, 2 x wholemeal toast, 1x tea with semiskimmed
Snack: fruit/nuts
Lunch: Ham/chicken salad wrap homemade, apple, 1x tea with semiskimmed
Snack : Apples
Dinner: 1/3 Veg.(greens/carrots/sald), 1/3 carb.(pasta/Potatoes),1/3 protein (Chicken breast, extra lean beef, fish)
All topped off with approx 1 ltr H2O per day.

Welcome to PH.

Your breakfast appears to be quite large - porridge is pretty filling.
Fruit and nuts are VERY high calorie - keep quantities down.
Lunch sounds fine if portion size is okay.
Again, apples/fruit very high in sugar - if you must snack try raw/crispy salad/veg.
Dinner again okay, assuming portion sizes are reasonable.

Have you tried weighing and calculating kcals, even for just a day? You may be surprised how much you're consuming. Come to that, have you worked out how many kcals you need?

It's WAY easier to consume fewer calories than to work off excess ones so get your diet right before worrying too much about perfecting your exercise regime.

Just my two bobs worth.

[1nofor]

Thanks to all for replies, I knew the fountain of knowledge here would come up trumps.

Right, I think you need a more indepth reply so I'll start with the food question:

I've been using Myfitnesspal app to track exactly what I eat and try to eat about 1800 cals/day by weighing out portions but I think the App calculates Cals a bit on low side. I've been trying to lower carbs intake and increase protein instead. Snacks are handfull of nuts or apple, not both! So I'll cut out the apples to raw carrots/veg. Still, I think I'm eating too much carbs.

Oh, & up water intake!

Exercise:
Running was exercise of choice for last 2 years where I would cover avg 15-to 20 miles per week over 16 week training program. Here it is: http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/MaraNovice1.html... This culminated in running marathon last October. However, even after the steady state training, I still only lost about a stone. Now I wasn't particularly paying attention to what I was eating and this certainly had impact on weightloss & my actual time of 4:20

I started weight lifting about 4/5 months ago , I've been using light to make sure form is correct. I clearly need to invest in decent set now as you all point out, the weights are just too light now and I'm not working hard enough. Just like my old school reports! So I'll order 100kg Olympic weights.

So here is revised training, adding in 20 mins HIIT for vomit finish to exercise:

Twice per week alternate (Tues/Thursday) Heavy weights
Tuesday
Sets and reps 3x10
Squats
bench press
stiff legged deadlift
military press
chinups/pullups
20 min HIIT treadmill

Thursday:
Sets and reps 3x10
Deadlift
bench dips
lunges
dumbbell shoulder press
bent over rowing
20 min HIIT treadmill

90mins kickboxing(badly)training, once week Monday or Wednesday.
CV run of 4/5 miles on Saturday.

How does that look?

Thanks for the warm welcome as well!

Once again, thanks for all you help & input, I'll update this thread in 4 to 6 weeks with progress hopefully.

[Hoofy]

1nofor said:

I think I'm eating too much carbs.

What percentage of your food is carbs?

So your CV work is 20 minutes, 20 minutes, a run on Saturday and kickboxing once a fortnight? Certainly an improvement. Can you do the 20 minute runs on Monday and Wednesday and make them 30? The HIIT will certainly help. Your body's got used to the steady running.

Re olympic weights, you realise you need an olympic bar, right? And you're buying a range to make 100kg rather than just two 50kg weights, right?

[otolith]

1nofor said:

I've been using Myfitnesspal app to track exactly what I eat and try to eat about 1800 cals/day by weighing out portions but I think the App calculates Cals a bit on low side. I've been trying to lower carbs intake and increase protein instead. Snacks are handfull of nuts or apple, not both!

Have you been weighing out the nuts? If not, weigh a handful and see, they're very calorific.

[LordGrover]

Hoofy said:

Re olympic weights, you realise you need an olympic bar, right? And you're buying a range to make 100kg rather than just two 50kg weights, right?

I started with this set: click.
A good starting point - simply add 20 or 25kg plates as and when needed. If you're starting out 145kgs will last you a year at least before you need to buy more.

[1nofor]

otolith said:

Have you been weighing out the nuts? If not, weigh a handful and see, they're very calorific.

Will do this evening.

"What percentage of your food is carbs?" it would avg 45/50%, up until this week according to Myfitnesspal app. Bad news right there I suppose.


Weights are on order so should be able to crack on later this week! So I will use enough weights so that last few reps of 3x10 is a struggle and increase weight when it I can do 3x12? Would that make sense?

Bear in mind this is at home so no spotters!

To all of you, thanks a million for all the replies & suggestions. I really appreciate the feedback and help that is provides by all.


OK, so new timetable is starts tonight with 90 mins kickboxing
Rest of week is as follows:

Monday
30 mins minimum HIIT running

Tuesday
Sets and reps 3x10
Squats
bench press
stiff legged deadlift
military press
chinups/pullups

Wednesday
90mins Kickboxing

Thursday:
Sets and reps 3x10
Deadlift
bench dips
lunges
dumbbell shoulder press
bent over rowing

Friday
30 mins minimum HIIT running

Saturday
CV run of 4/5 miles

Sunday
Rest

Any more tips & tweeks?

Once again thanks to all.

[LordGrover]

If you have no spotter a cage is a very worthwhile investment. I have this one: click. Pretty solid and does everything I need plus you can add cables etc. if required.

[Hoofy]

It'll do. Don't change anything for a month and see what happens.

[Onemcs]

If I were you I’d look into these.

Firstly - www.myfitnesspal.com - This offers a food diary with support for iPhone, iPad and Blackberry. Also can be done on the computer. Personally I use it all the time!

Secondly - Tabata Training. - Its HIIT ( High Intensity Interval Training.) Very good and speeds up the metabolism plus only takes 8 minutes

[1nofor]

Onemcs said:

If I were you I’d look into these.

Firstly - www.myfitnesspal.com - This offers a food diary with support for iPhone, iPad and Blackberry. Also can be done on the computer. Personally I use it all the time!

Secondly - Tabata Training. - Its HIIT ( High Intensity Interval Training.) Very good and speeds up the metabolism plus only takes 8 minutes

I use that Myfitnesspal app on Iphone, I tend to think it underestimates cals.

Tabata training, that looks interesting! Will stick with HIIT for next month and then may try Tabata.

Right, I'm gonna stick with what I've got and I'll report back here in a month with progress.

In fact, I'll report back on each Monday!

[Hoofy]

4 minutes a day? It's very "microwave generation".

[Dave_ITR]

At 1 litre a day your water intake is very low.

[MacGee]

I know water is good for you but my dad is 93 and only drinks tea. I've never seen him drink a glass of water, ever. He laboured all his life and is fit for his age. Uslessly slow joggers have to have a bottle de l"eau with them for their shuffle up the streets....why would they need to replace stuff whicvh they havent lost? The top indoor rowing coaches reckon thirst shouldnt set in until at least 40 mins hard rowing.
Just a few thoughts!

[1nofor]

Thought I'd just update this,

one month later & after upping water intake, reducing carbs, increasing protein, using heavier weights & adding in "boot camp" class once a week I'm down to 14st.

Thanks to all with suggestions & help

[Ordinary_Chap]

Thats great news! Keep the updates coming!

Lee