Hitting a brick wall

[TallGirl12]

I am 6 feet tall and 168lbs, I have been trying to lose some weight and get toned but seem to not be getting any results! Maybe you guys can give me some tips/ideas?

I used to workout 5 times a week - half an hour of high intensity intervals of biking and then half an hour of core work (usually). After 6 months of doing this I saw absolutely no progress and gave up.

Since then I have been swimming two/three times a week and want to try working out again but don't want to waste time. I love swimming and want to use that as cardio if possible. Anyone have any idea how I can be more productive with workouts?

P.S- I also eat healthy the majority of the time, Thanks!

[MatthewCocking]

Hi There,

A little more information about your diet would be ace. What do you mean by "I eat healthy"?

If you could give me an overview of an average days diet that would be fantastic.

Just as a little advice for your weight loss, the first thing I would like to point out is this - Weight loss is all about calories in vs calories out. If you are eating more calories than your body needs (a surplus) all the exercise will do is prevent you from gaining weight. If you are looking to lose weight, you need to be in a calorie defecit, that is, thking in less calories than your body needs.

I will be able to give a more in depth answer once we have more details

Good to have you here!

[Boss Man]

Hi TG, good to talk to you.

Yes it would be interesting to know what your meal times are and what foods you eat at those times.

[TallGirl12]

So average daily diet goes as this:

Breakfast: either oatmeal with walnuts and brown sugar or an egg scrambled with wheat toast

Lunch: green salad with some type of protein (egg, chicken, etc.)

Dinner: varies but a normal dinner would be chicken with brown rice and some sort of vegetables or whole wheat pasta with pesto sauce

Snack: fruit or protein bar

Thanks for all your help!

[TallGirl12]

Also when I say the majority of the time I eat healthy I will admit sometimes I slip up and eat something less healthy but that usually doesn't happen often. Maybe once a week?

[toddhicks209]

It's okay to deviate from your diet and treat yourself to an "unhealthy" food you crave once in a while.

[Boss Man]

So average daily diet goes as this:

Breakfast: either oatmeal with walnuts and brown sugar or an egg scrambled with wheat toast

(Fine, but I'd ditch the brown sugar option with the cereal)

Lunch: green salad with some type of protein (egg, chicken, etc.)

(Fine)

Dinner: varies but a normal dinner would be chicken with brown rice and some sort of vegetables or whole wheat pasta with pesto sauce

(Fine)

Snack: fruit or protein bar

(Combine the two)

I'd also increase your snacks as well to include one between breakfast and lunch and one between lunch and dinner. You've got plenty of options like, microwaved baked beans, rice and soup dishes, bread, sandwiches, oat granolas, beef, turkey, chicken, ham and pork from a packet, boiled eggs, pre-cooked chicken breasts, nuts, peanuts, low fat cheese, vegetables, including pineapple, raw carrot and celery sticks, fruits including tomatoes, and cucumber, low sugar yoghurt and flax seeds.

You could also have crisps, (potato chips), as they are healthier now some of them, but check for things like saturate content and fatty acid content as well like sun seed as that's a good fat worth having and you could have canned tuna, but because it's recommended at 3 portions a week because of the metal content, so consume it conservatively if you do.

[MatthewCocking]

Hi Again!

Looking at your diet, I am very impressed. Its always good to see someone who eats whole foods a majority of the time, since it is a good way to live especially if you enjoy it!

Here is what advice would be. Check out a calculator such as this one:

www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/

Use this to calculate the amount of calories that you should be taking in on any given day. In order to build and maintain muscle I would advise getting roughly 0.8-1g of protein per lb of bodyweight.

Counting calories does not need to be a task. Personally, all I do is count PROTEIN and CALORIES. Due to the body and its natural balancing, it will crave fatty food and high carb food as and when it needs it, therefore there is no need to count carbs and fats.

There are a lot of people who "eat clean" simply because they believe it helps them avoid counting calories, but the reality is still the same. If you eat more than you need, you gain weight, if you eat less than you need, you lose weight. This is why counting calories and protein would be of benefit, it would guarantee your weight loss!

All it takes is a couple of simple changes. All you need to do is buy yourself a digital food scale if you don;t have one already and then begin weighing your food! Generally, on the packaging of food products there is an "advised portion" which tells you exactly how many calories and how much protein is in that portion. So as long as you either stick to portion sizes or relatively round numbers, its a very easy process!

I hope this help,

Feel free to let me know your opinion, its always nice to have peoples thoughts on advice!

[TallGirl12]

Thank you both Mathew and bossman,

The last time I worked out I don't believe I was paying as much attention to diet as I am now. So I hope this will help with future efforts. I have started using the app called fitnesspal, which I have used before, and it counts your calories and you can total your excercise, etc. just wondering if you had heard of this app and if you find it helpful??

As for Mathew I agree! Personally it's not a chore for me to eat healthy food simply because I enjoy healthy food. Last time I tried to lose weight I was trying to eat healthy but not counting calories and not watching portions, so I hope this makes a change!

As for both of your comments I also take that I should be eating more protein perhaps?

[Boss Man]

Protein is a filling macronutrient that promotes satiety, but it also promotes muscle growth and as 1lb of added muscle helps to burn an extra 45-50 calories a day, then it's good for weight loss, but also the extra amino acids in protein that are not used for anabolic reasons, would also be good, as they help with things like sleep, moods, good body cell oversight etc.

[TallGirl12]

I will definitely try to keep a better track of proteins then as well. Thanks!

[MatthewCocking]

Thank you both Mathew and bossman,

The last time I worked out I don't believe I was paying as much attention to diet as I am now. So I hope this will help with future efforts. I have started using the app called fitnesspal, which I have used before, and it counts your calories and you can total your excercise, etc. just wondering if you had heard of this app and if you find it helpful??

As for Mathew I agree! Personally it's not a chore for me to eat healthy food simply because I enjoy healthy food. Last time I tried to lose weight I was trying to eat healthy but not counting calories and not watching portions, so I hope this makes a change!

As for both of your comments I also take that I should be eating more protein perhaps?

Just on the note of the fitness app, I believe you may be talking about MyFitnessPal? and yes, it is a relatively useful app for tracking your calories and protein intake! Just make sure to ignore its inbuilt recommendations and work out your own, because it can throw you off track sometimes. As mentioned above, that calculator is very good

Just make sure you double check the calories and protein listed in the app since it is not always 100% accurate. However I have found it to be the MOST accurate out of all of the apps!

Good luck with it all!!

[Tom Muscle]

Thank you both Mathew and bossman,

The last time I worked out I don't believe I was paying as much attention to diet as I am now. So I hope this will help with future efforts. I have started using the app called fitnesspal, which I have used before, and it counts your calories and you can total your excercise, etc. just wondering if you had heard of this app and if you find it helpful??

As for Mathew I agree! Personally it's not a chore for me to eat healthy food simply because I enjoy healthy food. Last time I tried to lose weight I was trying to eat healthy but not counting calories and not watching portions, so I hope this makes a change!

As for both of your comments I also take that I should be eating more protein perhaps?

Just on the note of the fitness app, I believe you may be talking about MyFitnessPal? and yes, it is a relatively useful app for tracking your calories and protein intake! Just make sure to ignore its inbuilt recommendations and work out your own, because it can throw you off track sometimes. As mentioned above, that calculator is very good

Just make sure you double check the calories and protein listed in the app since it is not always 100% accurate. However I have found it to be the MOST accurate out of all of the apps!

Good luck with it all!!

Another good app for calorie tracking I can recommend is Lose It!

[MatthewCocking]

Hi Tom,

I was going to mention that one.. However after the last update a lot of people were giving it bad reviews. I'm not sure what the did but it appears their community didn't like it!

Any ideas what happened?