Dreaded Plateau

[oliviamanda]

So, I have been doing exercise regularly for about a year. I just got a fitness evalation that unkindly told me that my body fat is 33%. What's the problem? Too much cardio, not enough strength training, not eating enough, skipping meals... not snacking on healthy stuff like nuts and fruit and protein (according to the trainer).

I enjoy cardio. I did lose some pounds when I was strength training with my kettlebell, which I am back to. I am also restarting pilates (at home) because I enjoy it and it's a good core workout. Plus it's relaxing.

I eat healthy, I follow No S, I do not snack or overeat. I exercise. I have been the same weight for about a year, which is too high for my liking. I don't mean to be a downer, but I just can't get the scale to go down. It did when I was doing the kettlebell a lot and I could feel the difference in my clothes getting looser. Does anyone have suggestions?

[BrightAngel]

I have been the same weight for about a year,
which is too high for my liking.
Does anyone have suggestions?

Cardio is great. Strength Training is great.
Both of them will make you Hungry, and can cause you to eat more.
Strength Training might trade some of your fat for muscle,
but 1 lb still weighs 1 lb, so it won't cause weight-loss.

Bottom line:
If you want to lose weight…EAT LESS than you are currently eating.

[marygrace]

I find I have to do vigorous exercise regularly (4-5 times per week) to keep my body looking the way I want it to look. If I stop exercising (and consciously eat less to make up for it), I might not gain much weight, but my body will just start to look "doughy". I don't like it. Another thing I don't like is conventional strength training--I find it painful and pretty boring. Some things I do that I've found to really help get my body looking the way I want (with daily walks or jogs):

Yoga - A low-key practice (such as Yin or Hatha) is great to stretch muscles and lower stress. A more vigorous practice (like Vinyasa or Power) will give you all that, with the added benefit of seriously strengthening your muscles. After a few months of consistent practice (for me, 3 times a week), people started telling me that I looked different.

Interval training - Adding intervals to a steady-state cardio workout has been shown to increase calorie burn for hours after the workout is over, resulting in increased weight loss. Basically, just add short bursts of intense speed (30 seconds to a minute, then recover for a few minutes at a slower pace) to your regular cardio workout.

For whatever reason, both of these tactics seem much more manageable and enjoyable to me than hitting the weight room, or placing additional food restrictions on myself.

[connorcream]

I don't mean to be a downer, but I just can't get the scale to go down. ... Does anyone have suggestions?

A calorie deficit results in lost weight. I have divided my healthy lifestyle thoughts into 3 distinct but important concepts.

1. Calorie deficit results in weight loss over time. Larger the deficit, quicker the loss.
2. Types of calories gives me nutrition and either an easier or harder time of achieving this deficit. A food journal is a great tool in tracking this effect.
3. Exercise is for fitness. The number of calories burned is so small and variable that I consider it a bonus. I exercise daily usually 2 miles with resistance bands for health reasons not weight loss reasons. Muscle mass gained is also a bonus too and also highly problematic in assessing.

Those are my suggestions. You are quite capable of losing the weight and being the best possible you. I hope to hear of your future success.

[gratefuldeb67]

Maybe they're wrong Olivia and that's not an accurate evaluation. I wouldn't worry about that...
One thing you haven't mentioned is your current weight/height and overall size and what your goal is in terms of all those?
Keep in mind, if you are working out a lot, muscle is considerably more dense than fat... Three times as dense, so if you are merely looking at your scale, to see a change in number, you might be frustrated if you work out enough and are building lean muscle... 1 lb of lean muscle is equal in mass to 3 lbs of fat.
So I'd just suggest taking waist measurements and deciding on what size you would like to be, and don't pay so much attention to the numbers on the scale. When I was doing yoga a few times a week, and doing NoS with about 80 percent success, a few years ago, just doing the yoga regularly, toned me up so much that after a year, my waist went down about 4 or 5 inches, and people who knew me for a while all mentioned I looked like I had lost 30 lbs, but the actual readout on the scale only went down about 12 lbs over the whole year.
Good luck and congratulations on all the great work you're doing.
Don't let something like this psych you out

[oliviamanda]

Thanks everyone.
The truth is I do not eat a lot. Cutting down my food is not an option because I feel like I do not eat enough. I follow No S and usually I don't pile my plate up or have seconds. I do eat at all different times... sometimes very late. I am 5'6" and weigh 162. Previously before baby and practicing No S, I was 136 lbs and I was only walking for exercise. I have been going to the gym for about a year and I think I haven't varied my workouts with intervals. I know that muscle weighs more, etc... I just don't understand how I haven't been able to lose any weight. My goal is to get back to where I was or as close as I can. I have noticed my legs have firmed up, and my problem zone of course is my middle. So, I am just going to have to keep changing things up. This week I went to the gym once and of course I still weigh the same not going. I am committed to going to the gym because it makes me feel good.

[oolala53]

It sounds like you need to keep working with the kettlebell again, since you say you lost weight then.

You will not NOT lose weight because you are not eating enough. It may be hard to accept, but it's likely you need to work out more vigorously more often and/or eat fewer calories. It might not mean eating "less." It might mean eating less of certain foods-- the dense ones.

Exercise is actually a slow way to lose weight, but so what? Would you rather eat 300 calories a day less for 12 days or burn off 300 calories by being active every day? Or a combination? Something's gotta give.

Or accept that you enjoy the way you eat and exercise the way you do, and have to realize they don't give you the body you want. But if you are genuinely not happy, you have to do something different.

I do want to say that I don't accept the idea that being thinner makes you a better person. My self-esteem is better now than it was when I was 30 lbs. heavier. I do intend to keep working on my habits, but I never want to go back to thinking that my worth was attached to how my clothes fit or what size I wore.