Questionhi, i just recently started a new diet and excercise program, but i'm starting to become discouraged... let me give you some back story: back in jan me and my gf started dieting and working out with fantastic results (I lost 12 lbs in 3 wks) but school started back up and it was short lived and we gained all our weight lost back. More recently (about 3 weeks ago) we started the SAME diet and exercise program back up again with nothing... for me about 2lbs in 3 weeks. the worst part is we consume as little as possible during the day and work out all week and if we take a break for one day, like a saturday, we gain ALL of the weeks weight loss back... its frustrating! here are my details: 5' 7" 190lbs, 10min pushup/situp/strength 20-30min cardio daily, 1300-1800 calories a day. (fruit or oatmeal for brkfast, salad for lunch, and usually some kind of low cal chicken or turkey dish for din.) I feel like I'm doing the right thing, and what makes it even worse is it worked 6 months ago just fine. Please help!
AnswerThank you for your question. I cannot tell you for sure why the same diet is not working this time, but I can give you some ideas.
My first thought was if all of your daily activity then are comparable with now. Were you walking more? Shopping more? Doing more cleaning? Using more stairs? Working different hours at work? Going to bed earlier? Believe it or not, all of those little factors can add up, even wearing more clothes in the winter adds a couple pounds you are carrying around every day.
My second thought is your calorie level. I would guess you are college-age since you are speaking about school starting back up. The average male in college needs 3,000-3,500 calories to maintain weight. Of course you want to lose weight, but if you cut too much your body will slow your metabolism...and it doesn't speed it up as fast as it slows it. That is why people who yo-yo diet find it more difficult to lose weight every time they diet. Also, you said you try to eat as little as possible during the day; does that mean you are eating more at night? If so, you could try to switch. Your most caloric meal should actually be lunch. And don't forget drinks that contain calories can add up, also. Speaking of drinks, people who drink low-fat milk after working out maintain more muscle than people on low-calorie diets who do not (especially if it is drank within 20 minutes of exercising) and milk also helps maintain electrolytes as well (some studies show better) than sports drinks.
Hopefully you are staying hydrated. If you do not exercise on the weekends and eat more, you may add weight due to 1) water and 2) glycogen stores. Neither are necessarily bad because they are things your body needs. They may also explain your large change in numbers before; most people who lose weight quickly are not losing fat.
Your exercise and diet plan sounds like sound, healthy plan. If I were you, I would stick to it. If you want to do more, try to work out more, making sure to switch up what you do each day. You may also want to do more than 10 minutes of strength training; I don't know exactly what you are doing so 10 minutes may be enough, but if you are doing any weight lifting 10 minutes isn't much unless you are really going at it without any breaks. A 1-2 pound/week weight loss is actually the healthiest recommended. I would also recommend only weighing yourselves one day per week, on the same day and at the same time each week, and concentrate more on how your clothes fit than the numbers on a scale. Some people lose several inches without losing any pounds at all but they get toned and lose fat.
Good luck with your weight loss goals. If you have any further questions, please contact me again.
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