Fat Loss Isn't Happening. WTF am I Doing Wrong?

Diet and Nutrition
21

[quote]Smallfry69 wrote:
Da Vinci wrote:
tw0scoops2 wrote:
I was shocked at how much was 0.5 lb of beef(as in I was eating way too much in one sitting). I’d also suggest(as someone said before) about getting a food weight scale.

Yeah, I mean, if you’re not weighing/measuring your food, you’re just estimating. Shit when I weigh my food, it’s to the gram, not oz.

Same, and food scales are so dirt cheap. I have a plastic job that might have cost me $10 tops and I weight everything.

My wife calls me an “extremist” so I must be doing something right then…

:-)[/quote]

I picked up a great digital scale at Bed, Bath and Beyond for about $15. My wife calls me “obsessive” but it is really the only way to know for sure.

22

Wow, thanks for all the responses!

Ok, in response to FitDay, I’ve actually been keeping one. Today is my first day back in the country for a while, and I didn’t have reliable access where I was, so there are no entries for the past couple of weeks.

Before that though, I was keeping track for quite some time, and I was adamant about being exact.

You can see it here: Xabe - free online diet and fitness journal

Comments/suggestions would rock! Thanks guys!

23

I can tell you right off WTF you’re doing. You’re diet looks like fracking bomb of crap! You eat way too many carbs, crummy protein sources, and a lot of junk. A lot of which are not low glycemic carbs so they stimulate a lot of insulin release which in turn helps stimulate bodyfat storage. Definately not what you want to do. Number two, your protein intake is way off in my opinion. I can’t remember if I read how much you weigh, but I’m sure you put it in there somewhere. Anyway, say your 175lbs, you should be at least equal your bodyweight with your gram amount of protein consumption per day.

Also, it doesn’t look like you’re eating many small meals throughout the day, but rather three squares which has long since been abolished in the bodybuilding community. If you want to get lean, you eat frequently, small meals, with plenty of protein, slow burning carbs, or if you’re up to it protein and fat. There is many ways to diet down correctly. Some work better than others for certain people. It’s very individualistic. But the basics that you must adhere to if you’re really want to lose weight are:

-eat small meals, frequently (at least 5-7/day)
-eat good protein sources
-consume slow burning carbohydrate sources (get rid of the noodles, the breads, pastas, whatever starches you have other than slow burning carbs and in moderation)
-eat healthy fats that at least give you some nutritional value
-don’t cheat your body of nutrients
-and eat some veggies

There’s more, but I have to jet. I’ll get back to this one later. Keep researching your dietary topics. I don’t think you’ve read enough about your fat loss to really lose all hope.

24

Alright my FitDay is complete for today, although I may have another protein shake at the end of the day.

gremlin1267, the small meal thing is something I’ve been working towards. It’s true that FitDay doesn’t really show what I eat per meal, but I may have some tuna for two different meals… so more often than it seems, I do split my meals up. I will definitely get rid of all the pasta and bread, that shouldn’t be too hard.

What are some slower burning carbs though? I know that quinoa, old-fashioned oats, and beans are all really slow-digesting carbs, but is there other stuff? And is whole-wheat bread ok in low amounts, or should I cut that too? I generally like to wrap some ham and cheese in a wheat tortilla, but I have no problem with discontinuing that practice.

Again, thanks to everyone that has replied. You guys are great!

25

for carbs, eat vegetables. stay away from grains except in the morning (first meal) and possible around workouts.

26

[quote]JMoUCF87 wrote:
Xab wrote:
I have been through Schuler and Cosgrove’s NROL Fat Loss I, II, and III, Cosgrove’s Real Fast Fat Loss (hosted here on T-Nation) and some home-made stuff. I have completed all the lifts to maximal effort. At the end of my lifting, I’m absolutely soaked in sweat, utterly exhausted, and fighting nausea.

No workout program in the world will make you lose fat if you’re not in a caloric deficit.

Xab wrote:
My diet is almost perfectly by Zone proportions. If anything, I cut the carbs back even further and consume more protein and fat in it’s place. I strongly limit myself to 2 cheat meals a week, and even those are within moderation. Nearly all my food is natural or close to it - lots of lean meat, whole grain stuff, and the like. I do not consume alcohol on a regular basis (maybe 1-2 times a month) and when I do, it’s usually only a few glasses of Crown straight up.

No “perfect” macronutrient ratio or avoidance of processed foods will make you lose fat if you’re not in a caloric deficit.

Xab wrote:
I cannot figure out why I’m not losing fat. In the pics I’ve taken of myself, I don’t really notice any change. While I have gotten much stronger, and agile, the fat remains.

The mere face that you’ve gotten “much stronger” should tell you that you’re not in a deficit. To gain strength you must gain muscle, and to gain muscle, you must supply enough nutrients for growth.

If you’re apparently eating enough to gain muscle/strength, how exactly do you expect to lose fat? by sticking to perfect ratios? “clean food”? magic?

No. The reason you’re not losing fat is because you are eating an excess amount of calories.

Here’s how you fix it: buy a food scale and sign up for fitday.com (I actually bought the fitday software and think it a worthwhile investment). Begin to track EVERYTHING you eat by measuring it in grams. Record your weight and adjust the calories based on real world results every couple of weeks.

As far as exercise, quit doing high intensity crap like you were and start lifting heavy weights. Only heavy weights will preserve muscle mass on a diet. Lifting light weights fast and to exhaustion will eat away at muscle while on a diet.

for more info read this: www.bodyrecomposition.com/training/weight-training-for-fat-loss-part-1.html

and this: www.bodyrecomposition.com/training/weight-training-for-fat-loss-part-2.html
[/quote]

Gaining strength does not always mean that you are gaining muscle, so you are incorrect there. That is why strength does not always equate to size. Some lifts are technical and improve with practice, I know some very strong guys that are not very muscular. If that was the case powerlifters and olympic lifters would have the largest and most developed muscles as opposed to bodybuilders, which again is not the case.

27

Xab-

you weigh 270 lbs and you are only eating ~2250calories a day and you can’t lose weight?

Decrease carbs drastically, increase protein(when trying to drop weight i try and get at least 1.5grams per pound of body weight) and increase healthy fats(nuts, avocado’s, fish oil…etc).

do cardio, do a lot of cardio. I go to my old highschool football field where they have a beautiful weathered track and a crapload of stairs and i run until my legs say ‘no’ then i do body weight lunges for reps of 30yards. Cardio is easy, you just never stop. Never stop.

Lift harder too, that can never hurt.

If you have time you should start a log here on T-Nation and ask for some help after a couple weeks if you are not making progress.

Someone mentioned the velocity diet. Honestly, if you have that kind of willpower(even if you don’t have that kind of willpower the diet will teach you it) and ~500$ extra laying around i would seriously consider it.

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[quote]JMoUCF87 wrote:
…
No. The reason you’re not losing fat is because you are eating an excess amount of calories.

Here’s how you fix it: buy a food scale and sign up for fitday.com (I actually bought the fitday software and think it a worthwhile investment). Begin to track EVERYTHING you eat by measuring it in grams. Record your weight and adjust the calories based on real world results every couple of weeks…
[/quote]

This is what I have done with everyone who is trying so hard yet not losing weight, and it never fails. EVERYTHING gets weighed on the scale, in grams, and logged in fitday. What I find is either they are eating way more calories than they thought, or else their cheat meals obliterated the small deficits they had otherwise created.

For a lot of people, the deficit required to lose fat will make them hungry and fairly miserable. That’s how it goes. That’s where the volumetrics stuff really helps – lots of veggies, high-fiber stuff instead of low-fiber, SF jello, etc.

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jb - Yeah, Poliquin has said similar stuff. Of course, anyone that he trains is getting the absolute best of training, but it seems to be common sentiment that the rule “You can’t gain size/strength while cutting” isn’t completely rigid; it’s exceptionally difficult to do so, just not impossible.

JaX Un - Yeah. That’s what I thought. I’m a relatively active 21 year old, 270 lbs, and 2250 isn’t causing me to cut? Most folks remark that I don’t look 270lbs, most guess me around 220 or so. I guess that’s good? Either way, I’ll be at the gym a hell of a lot more, cranking out some HIIT, Tabata bike sprints, and tons of walking lunges.

andersons - That is precisely what I have started today. When I eat food, I’m measuring it to the gram. It takes a bit of time, but it also helps tremendously to keep me from overeating. I’m going to try to up my fiber intake too, I hear that can help a lot with satiety.

30

[quote]Therizza wrote:
for carbs, eat vegetables. stay away from grains except in the morning (first meal) and possible around workouts.[/quote]

Yeah…what the Ruler Zig-Zag-Zig Allah said…

Cut the grains almost completely, they should be really limited right now. The vast majority of your carbs need to come from veggies.

As far as programming is concerned check out the Anabolic Diet or all the information on carb cycling.

I think it’s fairly obvious at this point that the carbs are your biggest problem.

Cut out…completely…the junk. If you’re serious about fat loss you don’t eat french fries and burritos.

31

If you like sandwiches, and I know that I love me some sandwiches when I’m in a normal eatting time (2nd V-Diet going on now), look for lettuce.

Which kind of lettuce is your preference, but I like Romaine because it’s big enough and flexible enough for my purposes. Meet your new “tortilla”. Wrapping the ham/cheese/whatever in the lettuce will cut out a decent number of processed carbs and introduce some fibrous carbs along with volume without the calories. I’ve extended this somewhat and made all kinds of lettuce wraps from things. Seared Salmon, Quinoa, and some simple asian Black Bean Sauce (this is the shit, get some) make an amazing wrap, and if you make them as you eat them, it forces you to take more time to eat which also reduces the amount of calories you take in.

I haven’t seen anyone mention this yet but that milk isn’t doing you many favors right now. I’m not the anti-milk crowd, and I try to get a glass or two in the morning if I hit the dining hall. That being said, 40% of your TOTAL carbs comes from the milk. Take the money you’ll save on milk and get some Metabolic Drive. 2 scoops of Metabolic Drive per day to replace the milk will drop your calories by about 13% per day, and you’ll only lose 10g of protein, but you’ll lose 65g of carbs. Take in 2 MORE scoops per day, and you’ll STILL be losing 60 calories per day but taking in 30g more protein and still losing 57g of carbs.

Like everybody is leaning towards, just to hammer it home more, lower carbs will do wonders.

32

[quote]Xab wrote:
jb - Yeah, Poliquin has said similar stuff. Of course, anyone that he trains is getting the absolute best of training, but it seems to be common sentiment that the rule “You can’t gain size/strength while cutting” isn’t completely rigid; it’s exceptionally difficult to do so, just not impossible.

JaX Un - Yeah. That’s what I thought. I’m a relatively active 21 year old, 270 lbs, and 2250 isn’t causing me to cut? Most folks remark that I don’t look 270lbs, most guess me around 220 or so. I guess that’s good? Either way, I’ll be at the gym a hell of a lot more, cranking out some HIIT, Tabata bike sprints, and tons of walking lunges.

andersons - That is precisely what I have started today. When I eat food, I’m measuring it to the gram. It takes a bit of time, but it also helps tremendously to keep me from overeating. I’m going to try to up my fiber intake too, I hear that can help a lot with satiety. [/quote]

I’m going to say this again, and this really should be the end of this conversation. Refer once again to my last post. Track your calories, track your weight and your skin folds. If your weight isn’t decreasing steadily over the course of 1-2 weeks, you are NOT in a deficit and you need to drop your calories more. It is up to you where you want to cut those calories, most prefer to make the cut in carbs…if your carbs are already low, you can cut more calories via fat since they’re more calorie dense at 9 calories per gram vs just 4.

Forget the fancy shit, you’re close to 30% body fat, plain and simple for someone in your position you need to be in a deficit of calories. Don’t over complicate things, you’re gonna have to be hungry to get lean and it may take you a while, so be persistent and good luck.

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[quote]Da Vinci wrote:

I’m going to say this again, and this really should be the end of this conversation. Refer once again to my last post. Track your calories, track your weight and your skin folds. If your weight isn’t decreasing steadily over the course of 1-2 weeks, you are NOT in a deficit and you need to drop your calories more. It is up to you where you want to cut those calories, most prefer to make the cut in carbs…if your carbs are already low, you can cut more calories via fat since they’re more calorie dense at 9 calories per gram vs just 4.

Forget the fancy shit, you’re close to 30% body fat, plain and simple for someone in your position you need to be in a deficit of calories. Don’t over complicate things, you’re gonna have to be hungry to get lean and it may take you a while, so be persistent and good luck.[/quote]

I wasn’t disregarding your advice, I was just responding to previous posters about past habits.

So far, I’ve planned out my total calorie intake, and I’ve adhered to that vehemently. I ended up eating some homemade pizza on Father’s Day, but both of those happen like once a year, and this year, they happened on the same day.

So, I’ve been managing my macronutrient ratios as planned, and it’s not had an adverse effect on my lifting so far. I was initially worried that I might be too weak, but it’s not the case. I’m also not as hungry as I imagined I would be. We’ll see what the scale has to say about this in a week.

In addition, this image is now a poster pinned to the ceiling above the head of my bed.

Thanks again for all the advice, folks.

34

Do you supplement? I use Fitday and try to account for supplements as for Fatloss as you describe they all count.

Fish oil, flaxseed etc are not free calories. Neither are nuts and seeds for snacks. I am down to 1600 - 2000 cal on avergae (on lifting days I get up to 2500 a time) and I have seen almost immediate results in terms of general fat loss.

35

I’m also going to say I don’t believe some of your fitday figures. Mainly portion size on things like pizza or stew, which are hard to measure (without weighing), and things like pizza tend to defy portion control anyway.

That being said, getting pretty “radical” with your diet might be an approach just to shake things up. low-card, liquid, whatever, it may not matter.

36

“I’m so tired of being flabby that I’ll listen to damn near anyone at this point, which is dangerous…”

Im fairly dangerous, but I’m 6’2" (like you) and well muscled (but cut like you want to be). First, you gotta get mad (you sound mad). Now do what I say:

Walk the earth with a black backpack filled with vitamins, cans of tuna, green apples, and a gallon jug of water. You may carry a bottle of Tapico hot sauce for your tuna. This stuff does little to improve the tuna, but it will keep you pissed off (which is how I like you). Don’t cheat, and reward yourself every 3 days with 50 almonds. Eat as much of the apples and tuna as you want every day (and finish daily your gallon jug of water). Repost in 3 months. Not very sexy, but it works. Why a black backpack and only green apples? Because I said so. You need to be disciplined.

If you think you will lose muscle doing this for 3 months, you are a person who’s fear will keep you from looking the way you want to look. Gyms are mostly full of well muscled doughboys who fill out their shirts, but don’t want to take them off. This will not be you anymore.

37

Lol I read OP fitday log. Bro your nutrition BLOWS (and yes, i know this was said already). You’re lying to us AND yourself,
CANNED APPLE SAUCE AS YOUR MAIN SOURCE OF CARBS?!?!?!?!?! Are you fucking trolling, man?

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[quote]EasyRhino wrote:
I’m also going to say I don’t believe some of your fitday figures. Mainly portion size on things like pizza or stew, which are hard to measure (without weighing), and things like pizza tend to defy portion control anyway.

That being said, getting pretty “radical” with your diet might be an approach just to shake things up. low-card, liquid, whatever, it may not matter.[/quote]

The stew was some homemade stuff, and the only calorie-containing components of it were potatoes and beef, which I measured, so the stew is precise. As for the pizza, believe me, I know I fucked up there. I measured it exactly to the weight, but like I said, it was homemade and on Father’s Day. I didn’t want to insult anyone, and it’s fucking delicious. It’s an extreme rarity, and it just happened to come up as I was beginning being meticulous on my nutrition. Just bad timing.

[quote]jCaesar88 wrote:
Lol I read OP fitday log. Bro your nutrition BLOWS (and yes, i know this was said already). You’re lying to us AND yourself,
CANNED APPLE SAUCE AS YOUR MAIN SOURCE OF CARBS?!?!?!?!?! Are you fucking trolling, man?[/quote]

I’m not lying to any of you or myself. I was in a hurry that particular day, and needed to grab a quick lunch. I figured, “Hey, applesauce is made from apples. Should be ok, right?” After putting it into FitDay and shitting myself, I decided to cut back on carbs for the rest of the day.

That said, do you have any actual advice, or did you just stop in to be a stupid fucking forum troll?

39

[quote]Xab wrote:
EasyRhino wrote:
I’m also going to say I don’t believe some of your fitday figures. Mainly portion size on things like pizza or stew, which are hard to measure (without weighing), and things like pizza tend to defy portion control anyway.

That being said, getting pretty “radical” with your diet might be an approach just to shake things up. low-card, liquid, whatever, it may not matter.

The stew was some homemade stuff, and the only calorie-containing components of it were potatoes and beef, which I measured, so the stew is precise. As for the pizza, believe me, I know I fucked up there. I measured it exactly to the weight, but like I said, it was homemade and on Father’s Day. I didn’t want to insult anyone, and it’s fucking delicious. It’s an extreme rarity, and it just happened to come up as I was beginning being meticulous on my nutrition. Just bad timing.

jCaesar88 wrote:
Lol I read OP fitday log. Bro your nutrition BLOWS (and yes, i know this was said already). You’re lying to us AND yourself,
CANNED APPLE SAUCE AS YOUR MAIN SOURCE OF CARBS?!?!?!?!?! Are you fucking trolling, man?

I’m not lying to any of you or myself. I was in a hurry that particular day, and needed to grab a quick lunch. I figured, “Hey, applesauce is made from apples. Should be ok, right?” After putting it into FitDay and shitting myself, I decided to cut back on carbs for the rest of the day.

That said, do you have any actual advice, or did you just stop in to be a stupid fucking forum troll? [/quote]

The only person who’s trolling is you. The apple sauce was there in previous days also. Your whole fitday log is a joke.
Here’s an advice: Squats and milk

40

[quote]jCaesar88 wrote:
The only person who’s trolling is you. The apple sauce was there in previous days also. Your whole fitday log is a joke.
Here’s an advice: Squats and milk[/quote]

Must be a mistake, I threw the rest of it out when I saw how stupidly high in carbs it was. And I do squat. And power clean, and split snatch, and deadlift, and blugarian split squat, and do HIIT, and do tabata shit, and a bunch of other stuff, all in a workout program that’s planned out to about a month and a half from now.

So, I guess you were just stopping in to troll then, huh?