Four weeks ago I started a very low-carb diet and excersising for an hour and 30 mins a day. Everyday. I know I cannot reach my goal in four weeks, but I expected to see at least some kind of result. And I have. Unfortuantly, the results I am getting are not good. I am getting chubbier. I diet hard and work my a** off in the gym, but I am gaining weight. I dont eat sugars, barely any carbs, I dont eat late at night I don't understand. What am I doing wrong? :d_confuse

I think we're going to need some more information here...

What is your excersize routine like?
What is a sample menu? How many calories?
How tall are you?
What do you weigh?
What is your body fat % if you know it?

I can foresee a lot of issues that might arise here, but without more information its impossible to determine whats going on...
Also, scale weight means nothing. If you think you're chubbier because your scale says you're heavier, thats not an accurate indication that you're chubbier. How do your clothes fit? How do you look in the mirror? How do you feel? Any changes in those categories...

More info is certainly needed, please repost w/ as much as you can and we'll all pitch in and try to help you out.
-Andrew

Cut the very low-carb diet out. It's junk for most people IMO (meaning, sure it can/does work if done properly, but it's almost impossible to maintain longterm, and because of this is not what most people need). Approach things with a more balanced macronutrient ratio, and simply implement a calorie deficit.

As lemonsong mentioned, it would be nigh impossible to offer any real advice to you unless you can say what you've been doing so far.

Generically, if you are doing a good bit of cardio and eating 5-6 times day, evenly spaced out, and your calories are in the ballpark of 10X your body weight, you'll begin losing weight. For all we know your low-carb diet entails 15 lbs of ribs every morning. Be specific :D

I think we're going to need some more information here...

What is your excersize routine like?
What is a sample menu? How many calories?
How tall are you?
What do you weigh?
What is your body fat % if you know it?

I can foresee a lot of issues that might arise here, but without more information its impossible to determine whats going on...
Also, scale weight means nothing. If you think you're chubbier because your scale says you're heavier, thats not an accurate indication that you're chubbier. How do your clothes fit? How do you look in the mirror? How do you feel? Any changes in those categories...

More info is certainly needed, please repost w/ as much as you can and we'll all pitch in and try to help you out.
-Andrew

My excersisce routine is walking for 30 minutes to get warmed up. Then I go do 3 sets of 25 on pretty much all my muscles. ((biceps,triceps,calves, etc etc)) Then I go back into the cardio doing the bicycle for 20 mins, the stair treader for 20 mins running for 20 minutes and then I walk for another 30.

For breakfast I have eggs mostly. In between b-fast and lunch I'll have a piece of fruit. For lunch I have a turkey and ham sandwhich and then another piece of fruit and something along the lines of chicken, hamburger without the bun or broiled fish for dinner.

I'm 5'3 and 162 pounds

I do not weigh myself. I don't care how much I weigh, I care about how I look. The scale doesn't mean anything to me. I look chubbier, my clothes are more snug. I thought working on my body would make me feel better but it hasn't. I feel worse.

You're probably feeling worse because your diet, low-carb or not, it's pretty poor.

Where the fresh vegetables? What's going on the ham sandwich? Deli ham is often highly processed and very fatty. What sort of bread? How large are your portions? Is that lean hamburger? What's going on top of it? At first blush, it looks like you're grossly under-eating for the amount of exercise you're doing. Have you tried calorie tracking? Write down everything you eat for a few days to get a solid understanding of how many calories you're eating, and where they're coming from (carb, protein, fat). Then you'll be able to adjust your diet intelligently, based on good information.

What you may be experiencing is muscle gain. It's much easier for newbies (assuming you're new to lifting) to gain a tad of muscle than it is to get your furnace stoked for fat-burning. Your increase in size may be that your fat-burning has yet to catch up with your exercising. It will happen in time.

I recommend doing some good research. Here are few helpful sites:
Krista's site for some female-friendly advice on lifting and training (http://www.stumptuous.com/weights.html)
An online directory of exercises to help you build a program (http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html)
Hussman's Fitness Site to help you understand nutrition and caloric deficit (http://www.hussman.org/fitness/)
Skwigg's "Stuff to Read" page for good information and general insanity (http://skwigg.tripod.com/wow/id24.html).

If you can ask some more specific questions, there are many well-informed men and women here who will try to point you in the right direction.

:gl:

Addendum: most "low-carb" diets have people increasing their carbs after two weeks. I'm thinking your not getting enough carbs. That will make you feel sluggish, sleepy, and generally unwell.

My excersisce routine is walking for 30 minutes to get warmed up. Then I go do 3 sets of 25 on pretty much all my muscles. ((biceps,triceps,calves, etc etc)) Then I go back into the cardio doing the bicycle for 20 mins, the stair treader for 20 mins running for 20 minutes and then I walk for another 30.

Sounds like you're overtraining HARDCORE. If this is your daily routine, and you're eating what you're eating, your metabolism is probably going very slow and "starvation" mode could certainly be occuring. Try developing a program of about 30-45min. cardio, and seperating your lifting by muscle groups rather than working them all out daily. Also, its not beneficial to work your muscles immidiately after cardio, so if possible spread it out by 8 hours, or alternate days of cardio and lifting and do full body workouts (thats how I started, 4 days of cardio per week, 3 days of full body workouts).

Warm up for about 5 min. then work hard on your cardio equipment of choice for about 35 min. then cool down for 5 min.

For breakfast I have eggs mostly. In between b-fast and lunch I'll have a piece of fruit. For lunch I have a turkey and ham sandwhich and then another piece of fruit and something along the lines of chicken, hamburger without the bun or broiled fish for dinner.

I think there are lots of newbies that hear "eat 5-6 meals a day" and think it means eat 3 meals w/ snacks in between. This is not correct. Small meals are the goal. Replace your fruit with an actual meal and that should help somewhat to not only keep you full, but keep your metabolism constantly burning. Its fine if you want to do the low-carb thing, although as Skoorb said its very difficult to maintain long term, but make sure you're getting good sources of protein and essential fats. I see good sources of protein in your diet, but I don't see too much in the way of essential fats (with the possible exception of the fish). I would suggest a more well rounded diet, and I would also suggest eating carbs thar are low-GI carbs. You mention you're trying to avoid sugar, but several pieces of fruit aren't helping to reduce sugar and while I'm certainly not opposed to fruit, eating it at the wrong time is not going to help.

I think almost certainly you're undereating. Depending on portion size, I really doubt that what you said above is enough..especially!!! with the gross amount of cardio you're doing. At about 160lbs (what I weigh as well) you should eat no less than 1600 calories, and I'm eating about 2100 and seeing even better losses than I was when I was eating 1800. In fact, I would suggest eating 12X your body weight which would about 1950 calories for you.

Think of your metabolism as the fire that runs a steamengine...the more kindling you add, the faster the train goes...metabo works the same way, the more food you add the more it burns and the more it burns the more fat you burn.

There is no truth to the idea that if you eat less you'll lose weight. The point is to make a SLIGHT calorie deficit (you burn slightly more than you intake). If you take in what your body needs, and then excersize you'll create that slight deficit. Overtraining and undereating will IMO not exactly make you gain fat, gain weight, or anything like that but its not going to help you lose anything and its really not going to help you long term.

I do not weigh myself. I don't care how much I weigh, I care about how I look. The scale doesn't mean anything to me. I look chubbier, my clothes are more snug. I thought working on my body would make me feel better but it hasn't. I feel worse.

Glad to hear you aren't scale-oriented, thats a good thing for newbies. As far as the look and clothes are concerned, I think you may have figured out that a "low-carb" diet isn't right for you or your body. I think you might feel worse because you'er not eating enough and excersizing too much. All of us on the boards would be happy to help you set up an excersize routine, and we'd be happy to set you up with the kind of diet that will help you achieve your goals. (In fact, if you have AIM feel free to IM me at: LemonSong1 and I'll help you in more detail) The most important thing is not to quit, and to keep moving forward. You'll get a lot of support from the folks here, and we've been through a LOT! Keep posting, keep working toward your goals, and you WILL succeed.

-Andrew

I have the exact same problem. However, I know that I undereat for the amount of exercise I've been doing and I'm making every effort to change that.

The minute your body goes into starvation mode, you can kiss your hard work goodbye. Your body will start to conserve your fat cells because it doesn't feel you are getting the amount of food needed to supply your body with energy. Like everyone else, I would suggest to eat enough small meals throughout the day so you never have the hungry feeling. Get your share of protein and vegetables and don't forget the carbs - just make sure they are the good carbs-. Stuff like brown rice, whole wheat, cream of wheat cereal... Bananas are a good thing to eat as a pre-workout energy booster.
I'm not a good calorie counter, but I find when I eat more, I seem to lose more weight.

Like other people suggest on the board, try not to do weight training right after your workout because supposedly you are more likely to lose muscle (energy supply) rather than fat. Other people seem to suggest that working out in the morning (cardio) and doing weight training at night can increase your likelihood of burining fat and gaining muscle.

Either way, i'm sure there are lots more tricks to losing weight. I commend you on your progress and keep striving for that goal. Don't let the lack of results discourage you, rather use it as something to strive harder to achieve. Plus, don't overdo your workout. Always have some time to rest your muscles, otherwise no matter how hard you work, it won't be effective.

I speak like I know what I'm talking about, but those are the tips that have been useful for me.

If you have any tips about this problem, please feel free to let me know. I have been starting to see some progress, but definitely not as much as I feel I should be with all my hard work. :(

Good luck with everything.

I speak like I know what I'm talking about, but those are the tips that have been useful for me.

If you have any tips about this problem, please feel free to let me know. I have been starting to see some progress, but definitely not as much as I feel I should be with all my hard work. :(

Sounds like you certainly know what your'e talking about. These aren't "tricks" as much as just the way things works. The more precise and the more "in" to this stuff you are, the better your chances for progress.

As far as seeing progress for the amount of work you put in...it always seems like you're putting in more work than the progress shows, for everyone. I workout 44 times a month, and I only hope to lose 1 or 2lbs of fat during that time! These are gradual projects, nothing happens over night in this business!! Consistency is more important than anything else and i consistency can only occur with motivation, and motivation isn't always easy to find.

You know what I find weird? When people get into exercise by walking like 20 minutes a day and get more results than the person who works out and strength trains with cardio (at least 20-30 mins) on a regular basis....

Any exercise is great but I don't think that walking around would make me lose poundage, unless I hiked a mountain every day. I guess it's tough because the more fit you are, the harder you need to work to get results.

I know there aren't short cuts but I wonder sometime how it's easier for some people than others. However, I know that there are smarter workouts rather than harder ones. I think that's what is great about forums like this, you have so many people working towards the same goals, sharing tips and knowledge.

You know what I find weird? When people get into exercise by walking like 20 minutes a day and get more results than the person who works out and strength trains with cardio (at least 20-30 mins) on a regular basis....

This could be either because they're beginners who'er seeing limited gains from their comparative lack of excersize to a mere 20 min. of walking (although I did 45min. of incline walking today as my cardio and plan to for the next few weeks). Also, this is because fat loss is about 80% about diet. Just because their excersize routine is VERY basic, doesn't mean their diet isn't more "advanced."


I know there aren't short cuts but I wonder sometime how it's easier for some people than others. However, I know that there are smarter workouts rather than harder ones. I think that's what is great about forums like this, you have so many people working towards the same goals, sharing tips and knowledge.

I agree, thats one of the best things about these forums...and it seems like almost everyone on these forums has found some degree of success...just look at all the REAL before&after pictures in the Media Gallery (including mine)!! There are certainly smarter rather than harder workouts, but what it really comes down to is just a couple of things: what works for you, how dedicated you are, and how long you stick with it...All of these three go together because in order to find out what works for you you have to stick with a program and then make alterations and tweaks as time goes by and you see or don't see results, in order to stick with the program long enough to see if something works for you you have to have dedication to it, and if you have both dedication and stick-to-it-ivness chances are you'll figure out what works for you and get the results you desire!

Sounds like you're overtraining HARDCORE. If this is your daily routine, and you're eating what you're eating, your metabolism is probably going very slow and "starvation" mode could certainly be occuring. Try developing a program of about 30-45min. cardio, and seperating your lifting by muscle groups rather than working them all out daily. Also, its not beneficial to work your muscles immidiately after cardio, so if possible spread it out by 8 hours, or alternate days of cardio and lifting and do full body workouts (thats how I started, 4 days of cardio per week, 3 days of full body workouts).

Warm up for about 5 min. then work hard on your cardio equipment of choice for about 35 min. then cool down for 5 min.



I think there are lots of newbies that hear "eat 5-6 meals a day" and think it means eat 3 meals w/ snacks in between. This is not correct. Small meals are the goal. Replace your fruit with an actual meal and that should help somewhat to not only keep you full, but keep your metabolism constantly burning. Its fine if you want to do the low-carb thing, although as Skoorb said its very difficult to maintain long term, but make sure you're getting good sources of protein and essential fats. I see good sources of protein in your diet, but I don't see too much in the way of essential fats (with the possible exception of the fish). I would suggest a more well rounded diet, and I would also suggest eating carbs thar are low-GI carbs. You mention you're trying to avoid sugar, but several pieces of fruit aren't helping to reduce sugar and while I'm certainly not opposed to fruit, eating it at the wrong time is not going to help.

I think almost certainly you're undereating. Depending on portion size, I really doubt that what you said above is enough..especially!!! with the gross amount of cardio you're doing. At about 160lbs (what I weigh as well) you should eat no less than 1600 calories, and I'm eating about 2100 and seeing even better losses than I was when I was eating 1800. In fact, I would suggest eating 12X your body weight which would about 1950 calories for you.

Think of your metabolism as the fire that runs a steamengine...the more kindling you add, the faster the train goes...metabo works the same way, the more food you add the more it burns and the more it burns the more fat you burn.

There is no truth to the idea that if you eat less you'll lose weight. The point is to make a SLIGHT calorie deficit (you burn slightly more than you intake). If you take in what your body needs, and then excersize you'll create that slight deficit. Overtraining and undereating will IMO not exactly make you gain fat, gain weight, or anything like that but its not going to help you lose anything and its really not going to help you long term.



Glad to hear you aren't scale-oriented, thats a good thing for newbies. As far as the look and clothes are concerned, I think you may have figured out that a "low-carb" diet isn't right for you or your body. I think you might feel worse because you'er not eating enough and excersizing too much. All of us on the boards would be happy to help you set up an excersize routine, and we'd be happy to set you up with the kind of diet that will help you achieve your goals. (In fact, if you have AIM feel free to IM me at: LemonSong1 and I'll help you in more detail) The most important thing is not to quit, and to keep moving forward. You'll get a lot of support from the folks here, and we've been through a LOT! Keep posting, keep working toward your goals, and you WILL succeed.

-Andrew

Wow I had no idea I was undereating. Thank you. :tu:

Cut the very low-carb diet out. It's junk for most people IMO (meaning, sure it can/does work if done properly, but it's almost impossible to maintain longterm, and because of this is not what most people need). Approach things with a more balanced macronutrient ratio, and simply implement a calorie deficit.

As lemonsong mentioned, it would be nigh impossible to offer any real advice to you unless you can say what you've been doing so far.

Generically, if you are doing a good bit of cardio and eating 5-6 times day, evenly spaced out, and your calories are in the ballpark of 10X your body weight, you'll begin losing weight. For all we know your low-carb diet entails 15 lbs of ribs every morning. Be specific :D
........


what is that you say 10x body weight. Never heard that before. Please explain. :d_wink:

I started out roughly where you are (I was 168 lbs) -- it took me 8 months to lose 40+ pounds by doing the following:

1. Exercise -- I alternated weight training days with aerobic days. So every other day was one or the other. I occasionally threw in extra cardio on a weight day, but that depended on how I felt.
2. Diet: around 1500 kcals/day, give or take. I didn't go low carb (I felt awful on low carb!), but cut out simple sugars, white bread etc. My carbs consisted of whole grains like oatmeal and 100% WW high fiber breads (if I had bread at all). Protein was about 40% of calories, Carbs 40, fats 20% or so.
3. Logging: Log in fitday or another program so you know exactly what your ratios are, etc.
4. Drink lots of water!
5. Avoid the scale (you know that part already) and focus on the measuring tape.
6. Don't overexercise or undereat-I am guilty of doing both as I neared goal (although never under 1500 calories) and now my hormones are all out of whack. I need to put fat loss goals on hold for a bit and eat more. :)