Help - not dropping bodyfat

[Flagirl27]

I'm 27 years old, 5'5", 135 lbs, 21% bf. I have been lifting for 4 years now and have put on some decent muscle and have been trying to shed the bodyfat so finally see my 6 pack. I've been overweight all my life and have lost 45 lbs in the 4 years. I have been taking an eca stack with 400mg yohimbe twice a day (once in the morning and once 45 minutes before I work out in the afternoons) and just the eca at lunch. This is what I have been eating for the past 4 weeks:

bfast: 8 egg whites, 1/4 cup oatmeal

snack: protein shake

lunch: 6 oz albacore tuna, large salad with dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar

pre-wkout: protein shake, 1/2 cup oatmeal

post-wkout: 6 oz albacore tuna, 1/2 cup oatmeal, 2 cups veggys (either broccoli or snap peas - frozen, not canned)

I totalled this up to be around 1500 calories a day. I eat some different things like 4 oz sweet potatoes instead of oatmeal or frozen ears of corn, etc. I have been following this diet for 4 weeks now. I've tried the zig zag approach where 3 days last week I ate 1800-1900 calories then went back to the 1500 calories a day. I only drink green tea (unsweet) and about 1 gallon of water a day. Some days Crystal Light, but never diet drinks and no sugar.

My workouts are as follows: 4 days a week of lifting (10-15 reps) one week I did 20 reps just to change things up followed by 45 minutes of cardio. On the 2 other days I do 90 minutes of cardio (20 minutes high intensity to burn the gycogen out and 70 minutes of 70-75% THR) I measured my bodyfat percentage before I started this program and I just tested it again last night. It has not budged. I've tried doing cardio in the morning and again after my weight workouts, but I found that I was losing strength in my lifting, so I cut back to only doing cardio after my weight workouts. I've never felt better in my whole life, but I've been trying to lose this stubborn bodyfat for years to no avail. This is the hardest I've ever dieted and still nothing.

I know this is long, and I applogize, but could someone please tell me if I am missing something? I feel like I should have dropped my bodyfat percentage at least a little bit! Am I not eating enough? I have a very sedentary job, so the only time I am active is after work. I lift for 1 hour to 1hour 15 minutes and then do cardio so I'm in the gym for 2 hours 4 days a week and 1.5 hours 2 times a week. I only take 1 day off each week to recover. I also take glutamine for recovery.

Please someone help me - I'm sooo frustrated! Thank you!!!

 

[Phemomena]

Hi, welcome to the boards, great first post, you've given us most of the info we need to help ya out..

first, congrats on the weight loss...great work thus far

now, as for your diet, it sounds to me like you aren't eating enough food!! (and way too much oatmeal, you must really like the stuff!)

i am a bit smaller than you and eat almost twice as much!

i've posted my diet here

http://209.11.101.244/forum/showthread.php?threadid=41081

you may want to take a look at it for ideas... you probably won't want to eat as much as me, my metabolism is through the roof, but adjusting it slightly to up your calls to about 1800-2000 (daily) would probably help get you outta a rut (right now, you're really not eating enough to support your activity, so your body is stagnating itself and consuming muscle at an equal rate with fat... thus no change in body comp)

i'm surprised you've managed to stick to such a limited diet, are you a non-meat eater (i see no beef, chicken or other meat/poultry other than tuna) if you have no problems eating meat/poultry, do so... some variety is good for the body... also, where are the fats? you need healthy fats (EFA) in your diet (i.e. flax seed oil, udos choice... ect)...

as for the sedatary job, unless you are tied to a phone line, make any excuse you can to get up and walk around the office, make 5 trips to the kitchen to get your lunch rather than 1, walk rather than email/calling... just try to get up outta that chair and do something every hour or so...

ummm.... any other ideas guys???

good luck

phem

 

[Sassy69]

Welcome Flagirl -- from FL? Where?

Great post -also understand your frustration - I've been in the same situation for the last several months - trying all the modifications I can think of. A few months ago I followed a more "holistic" diet where I added spirulina to my diet, mixed w/ like 4 oz pineapple juice first thing in the morning and also before I got to bed, mixed w/ some fiber. I also added more variety of veggies to my meals (more "colors" - carrots, beets, etc. to the regular dose of spinach, broccoli, etc.). Also removed all dairy and replaced with soy and removed most of the protein mix w/ regular meat, moved the general % of protein down a little in favor of more carbs and also removed all diet soda (aspartame) and all ECA. I followed a high protein diet for several months last year for bb competition. So the purpose of the "holistic" thing was to "clean out" my system. You might want to play with your calorie intake - like maybe up it a little in case your body thinks it is in a bit of a "starvation" mode. So bump up calorie intake, maybe add more and wider variety of meat and take out one of the protein mixes/day. Do this for maybe 6 weeks and then cut it back down.

Not sure, but its something that you could change up to "shock" your system a little. Or instead of increasing calories across the board you might try "carb cycling" where you do somethign like 200 g carb/day for 4 days and then under 50 g carb/day for 3.

Any other ideas girls? And yes I agree w/ spatterson about including like a tbsp of good fats (flax oil or Udo's) per day - you can mix this into your protein mix or a juice drink or your oatmeal in the morning.

 

[Flagirl27]

Thank you so much for your reply!

I kinda thought that maybe I wasn't eating enough, but with such a sedentary job I thought maybe I was still eating too much. I try to get up and move around as much as possible - at least every hour otherwise I get antsy. Sometimes that's not possible, but I do my best.

The only other problem is that I really have to cut back on my quad workouts. I had been squatting over 200 lbs with no problems, except my boyfriend (also into bodybuilding) said my legs were too big (mine measure 23 inches and his measure 24 inches and he is 80 lbs heavier than me) I don't think they look too big, and I love to work legs, so cutting back is going to be hard for me to do. I have cut back to only using 150 lbs and doing 2 workouts a week (one lighter weight - only 135), but they just got bigger. Now I guess I'll have to cut squats out and just do hamstrings unless you have some suggestions!

I do eat meat - chicken and fish. I ate so much chicken in the past 4 years that I have to try and find other more exciting things to eat like orange roughy, mahi and tuna. I got sick of eating chicken every day! I don't like to eat a lot of red meat because it makes me feel really fat. Maybe its all in my head - don't know.

I do eat a lot of oatmeal, which I absolutely HATE, but other than sweet potatoes, blueberries and corn I don't know what other carbs are "legal". Maybe someone could give me some ideas?!

I also just started taking Flax seed caps again. I tried taking them before, but they made me sick to my stomach. I take 9 capsules a day. I tried the oil before, but it was messy. I have 2 bottles of caps, so I'm going to use those up before I go buy the oil again.

By the way, I do measure everything on a food scale, so I know I'm not exagerating my food. When I do eat chicken, I measure out 6 oz. don't know why this number, it was just easier for me to calculate the ratios.

Is natural peanut butter ok to eat when you are on a cutting diet? I see you eat peanut butter in your protein shakes, but isn't that a lot of calories for me?

Thanks for your advice, and if you have more I would love to hear it!!!!

 

[Flagirl27]

I live in Palm Coast which is near Daytona Beach, FL.

 

[Phemomena]

ahhh.. don't let your man tell you how to work your legs, he's just jealous... if you like 'em the way they are... keep it up!!!

fish is great... very healthy protein (and those others taste sooo much better than tuna.. bleeeeach... )... lean cuts of red meat are great a couple times a week... very good for muscle repair (i read that somewhere at least, i personally feel better with red meat in my diet)

carbs - brown rice, red potatos, whole wheat pasta... i get these really great breakfast musliex whole wheat pitas with flax seed, some dehydrated fruits and such... they're all natural and taste great, but its a local toronto thing ... lots and lots of veggies (spinach, romaine, asparagus, peppers, etc)

adding fats in your diet won't make you fat, (as long as you are watching the saturated fats (which all nat pb is low in)... sure, its a great treat too... can't deprive yourself of everything! i wouldn't eat too much peanut butter cutting, but a couple tsps a day would not hurt your diet (the good fats will probably actually help)...

 

[Flagirl27]

Thank you all so much for the advice!!! I was going crazy here!!

I will try adding the natural peanut butter - I happen to LOVE peanut butter so that makes me extremely happy!!

Unfortunately I don't like rice or regular potatoes (including red) so I won't be eating either one of those. When I eat the tuna and oatmeall after working out I mix one can tuna, 1 egg white, 1/2 cup oatmeal and some spices (ground mustard, pepper, onion and garlic powder) and cook in a nonstick pan sprayed with pam. They taste soooo good that it's hard for me to eat anything else!! Don't know if you've ever tried this, but I hate tuna also and it makes it a lot easier to eat!

I'll have to go to the health food store and find some of those pitas. They sound really good!

Thanks again!!!!!!!

 

[Star]

Too much Oatmeal???? How is a quarter cup in the morning too much oatmeal? I do think the oatmeal alone would be sufficient as your first meal though. My stats are similar to yours.....And I too had BIG trouble getting my weight to budge. Found out that when I stopped dieting is when I started losing the fat and lbs. Not trying to flame but how do you stand to eat like that?? Looks yucky. tasteless. Hmmmmm I have (example) oatmeal morn...tuna on whole wheat for lunch....avacado snack......steak, asparagus or salad for dinner. Delicious!! I have lost 5 lbs in the last week and a half. Also seems like you are working out a bit much. Try alternating days......weights.......cardio.....weights......cardio. Legs, If you wanna cut em drop the weight and try doing 4 sets with reps of 12.....Drop down sets are the best for cutting up those legs. No matter what ya do look how you wanna look, k?

Star

 

[Flagirl27]

I forgot to ask 2 other questions - sorry!

What about raisins? Are they ok to eat when cutting? I know they have a lot of calories and a lot of natual sugar (130 calories for 1/4 cup serving, forgot how much sugar).

Should I be taking more yohimbe than 800mg per day? They come in 400mg capsules and I take 2.

Thanks again!

 

[Phemomena]

Too much Oatmeal???? How is a quarter cup in the morning too much oatmeal?

quater cup in the am + 1/2 mid day and 1/2 pm = too much oatmeal!