New here. Need help. I'd appreciate some advise

Hello all,

My name is Dorian. I'm 21 turning 22 in a few weeks. I recently graduated school and well, all I can say is that betweeen school and work, I had no time to work out. So I gained the most weight ever. I got to be 220lbs. I began training with P90x which I am sure many of you know about. I saw my cousing get great results from it. So i gave it a shot. I currently weight right around 183lbs. I can say I was a success but have not gotten to my goal. My goal is about 175.

I work out daily. I diet, I only drink water now. I eat fresh vegetables, and fruits. I never even go past 1300 Calories daily. I have not eaten fast food in about 5 months. I have been stuck at around 182-183lbs for about 2 months now. I cannot seem to go down any further. I work at a very active job. So I can say I stay active all day.

My goal is to have a six pack by summertime. I have belly fat that I cannot get rid of. Is there any advise from someone who has been through this? I need help. I think I've cut down on so much food and drinks, I have began working out a lot more and Nothing seems to work...

Please advise?

1300 calories is not *nearly* enough to sustain yourself. You need more calories. Like 1000 more. What does your current diet and exercise plan look like? We can see what to tweak from there.

Well my days go like this.

9AM- I eat some fruit (Banana/apple/orange/grapes) Plus a yogurt and a slice of Whole wheat bread.

10:30AM - 11:45 or 12pm - Workout. I still follow P90X Program soit varies per day.

7PM - A sandwich (2 Slices of Whole wheat and grain bread and about 2 slicesof ham/turkey, and lettuce. No cheese or mayo.)
and a Small bowl of Veggies. Or to vary I will eat a salad ( no dressing) Just lime and a hint of salt.

Drink plenty of water in between because like I said, my job is very active. It also takes my mind away from eating alot. I get off work at 10:30pm So I go home, and watch tv for about 2 hours. Now, since I sit there watching TV sometimes I begin to get hungry, when that happens I will hit the gym for about 45 mins of cardio. By exercising, my hunger goes away, then i go home and repeat it in the morning Probably about 2-3 nights a week.

your hunger going away is making you fatter

some people say you gotta eat less to lose weight wrong you gotta eat more which means 5-6 meals a day & you have hit a plateau try this i got from transformation domination increase your calorie intake by 25% and simultaneously increase your daily calorie burn by 25% its a good method and it hasnt failed joal marion or his customers

Hi, Dorian! I went back and reread your post. Hopefully this will make some sense for you.

The most important meals of you day are going to be Breakfast, pre w/o and post w/o. Each one of these meals should have, at the very least, a complex carb and a protein. Try to limit fats before and after a workout, as they tend to slow down digestion (They take awhile to break down) and you want to get your pre and post w/o nutrition into your body quickly. If you are craving something sweet, do it after your workout. Your body is working to repair itself form the activity, and replenish glycogen stores, and will be most responsive to simple carbohydrates post w/o.

Generally, you want to get 5-6 meals a day, (4 at the very least) and in each one, work to get a protein and a vegetable in. No one eats enough vegetables. In your case, because you have been eating so little, your body is going to take awhile to respond to a larger amount of food. I would suggest slowly increasing your calories until you get to around 2300/day. P90X is pretty intense, from what I've heard, and you are going to need energy to fuel this workout!The body is programmed for survival. Unfortunately when we work super hard and don't provide enough fuel, it thinks that you are going to starve, and holds on to fat stores. The first thing to go is lean mass. This is *not* what you want! By providing more fuel, and letting your body know that it is not starving, it will relinquish that fat more easily, allowing you to preserve your lean mass. Everybody loves nice, firm muscles (:

At night, when you are hungry, it is because you are basically running on empty. While I am glad to see that you are taking charge with your fitness and diet, and being very proactive about your weight loss, I really think that a higher nutrient content each day is going to do some amazing things for you, not the least of which is cure your hunger pangs (: Your current diet is not sustainable, and I'd really hate to see you have worked so hard just to fall off the wagon and gain it all back. If you slowly increase your caloric content, you can maintain the loss while providing yourself with more energy. Eventually, your day should look something like this:

Breakfast: Oatmeal & protein (egg/eggwhites, low fat cottage cheese, something like that) Yogurt can have a lot of sugar in it (as well as protein!) so just watch out for that. It is perfectly acceptable in the morning. A piece of fruit is okay here, too. You can also have whole wheat toast w peanut butter and some fruit or veg. V8 is okay, there is a low sodium kind if that is a concern for you.
Pre w/o: Complex carb and some protein. Wheat bread, meat, and veg, maybe. Mmm...
Post w/o: Glass of chocolate milk. If you are interested in protein powder, a protein shake is good here. But chocolate milk is fine. Or a couple hard boiled eggs. Couple veggie sticks, or a piece of fruit would be good here too.
Snack: Handful of nuts, veggie slices or a peanutbutter sandwich on whole grain bread with some celery sticks (one of my personal favorites)
Dinner: Salad (watch the dressing, if you use it. I do lemon and salt, too!) w avocado slices, Lean meat, chicken breast, fish, turkey, pork, sirloin, and sweet potato. Or you can try some stir fry here, steamed veg. Whatever works for you!
Snack: If you workout again, have another glass of chocolate milk, or a boiled egg. If not, fat free cottage cheese and some of those leftover steamed veggies would be fine here. If you want to skip this meal you can, but if you get hungry in the evening, you need to eat.

Hunger is your body asking for energy. If you use energy instead of taking in energy when you are hungry, you are being counter productive.

Now, because you are so used to such a low intake, I would ease into this. In about a month you should be consuming ~2200-2300/day. In order to be fit and healthy, and to maintain and active lifestyle, you are going to need to fuel properly. The good news is, eating every 2-3 hours is a lot of food, and everybody loves food. Be creative with your meals, just make sure you are getting some good, complex carbs, lean meats, and healthy fats (nuts, avocados, things like that). Watch out for the sugar, too. Sugars are hiding everywhere, and they are very sneaky (: Though it sounds like you are not having too much trouble with sneaky sugar at the moment.

Oh, and there is some... question about eggs. I always eat the yolk, but I eat maybe six eggs a week. If you really start getting into them, you can drop the yolk, but make sure you eat at least some of the yolk, because that has all of the nutrient value. The white is protein, the yolk is nutrient and fats. (Good stuff, not bad stuff). If you are eating 18 eggs a week, you should probably drop some of the yolk, but if it is just a few, keep it. There's a ton of good stuff in that yolk!!

Make sense?