Stuck At 180, What Can I Do Better?

I’ve lost quite a bit of weight over the last few months, went from 215lbs to 180 but now I’ve been stuck around 180 for the last month and haven’t lost a thing. I’m pretty built but still have that lair of fat over everything sadly. Ah regret the days of sitting on the coach eating gushers.
I’m 16 and 6’.

Here’s my diet on a usual day.

Breakfast: Nutrigrain bar, cup of yogurt, and water.

Lunch: Usually a protein bar and 2 cups of 2% milk. (At school)

Mid afternoon(3:00): A small can of baked beans or tuna and cheddar cheese.

Dinner: Depending on whats happening usually a tuna sandwhich or some lean beef if I’m home. If I go out who knows but I stick to healthier things such as steak, grilled chicken etc.

I’d estimate I get about 70g of protein a day.

I also workout 3 times a week. However my workouts don’t vary much and I pretty much do the same thing everyday. I also workout at home so some things are limited but I feel it’s pretty intense I’m very tired by the end. Here’s what my workouts include. Rotating between legs, arms, abs with light cardio mixed in.

10 pull-ups with weighted vest on(25lbs, 2 sets
10 forward pull ups no vest, 2 sets
25 push ups with vest, 3 sets
10 bench presses 125lbs, 3 sets
15 curls 25lbs, 2 sets
10 Butterfly curls(name?) 15lbs, 2 sets
20 squats with vest, 3 sets
25 weighted sit ups 15lbs weight behind head, 2 sets
25 crunches, 3 sets
30 lunges with vest, 2 sets
45sec iron chair with vest, 2 sets (harder than it seems)
Usually throw in a few jumping jacks to get the blood flowing between every few sets.

Sip Surge throughout.

I run 3 days a week and walk with a weighted vest 4 days.

Nothings exact and I know I could do better.

Yea I know I’m noob. Please help. :stuck_out_tongue:

Any tips suggestions would be much appreciated.

You dont eat. At all. You can only lose so much weight by simply cutting calories, and your body composition will probably not be what youd like even then.

Nutrigrain bars are the devil. Dont eat them. Have some eggs.

Go read Dr. Berardi’s articles. That should help you out.

That was possibly the worst diet I have ever seen on this web site. This kid would actually be better heading to McDonald’s. That was ridiculous. Why do your parents even let you eat like that? Protein bars as meals? If anyone is a candidate for malnutrition and possibly even stunted growth, it is YOU, kid.

EAT… MORE… FOOD!!!

Your workouts are wearing you out because you have no fuel. Your entire workout would be a warmup for one of mine.

Follow the 7 Habits by John Berardi. You will eat more food and alter your body comp. You will also have more energy to do a real workout. In a few months you will realize that you were not “built” under a layer of fat.

Just as everyone else has said…EAT

your metabolism has probably halted due to too little calories. I am 6’2, 195, 13%BF…That is a drop from 17%BF. I consume around 2100-2200 calories a day and have continually dropped body fat AND gained muscle. Point in case, EAT more and work on burning that with cardio and/or high intensity weight training versus just cutting K’s

best of luck bud

I’m eating at least 3 times as many calories as you and I’m only 160 pounds! I have gained 30 pounds in the past two and a half months, and the scary part is most of that is muscle. I suggest you download Weird Al’s “Eat It” and listen carefully.

Ahaha 70 grams of protein a day. And then we calculate the thermagenic effect of protein, thats 30% percent burnt off in heat. You body has an amazing 49g of protein to build muscle with. If you keep up you may look like my hero…

See, hes real buff. You sound like the girl in my chem class that is on her “diet”. She eats carrots, lettuce and them 100 calorie packs of snack food(well they are only 100 calories, I mean 5 packs of them is only 105 calories right?. She wonders why she is still chunky.

Although you arn’t trying to gain weight, which you should be doing… You are freaking 6 feet tall and 180, you ain’t fat.
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1462142

You are starving yourself.

Triple your protein intake. From REAL food, not powder. You’re eating…what…about 1600 calories give or take a couple hundred. That isn’t enough to even fill up our women here. That are 50 lb lighter than you.

I had a daily plan worked out, but then I deleted it because you need to wise up on your own. You need to take a break from this ridiculous starvation. Boost your metabolism back up and try to repair the damage that you have done before you start cutting again.

You need to up your calories by about 500 this week, and another 500 cal the next week. After than up them another 300 calories and start over on your cutting.

Further, you need more muscle. You can’t flex bone man. Take the same amount of fat that you carry now, and add 15 lb of muscle to your body. You’ll look better with the extra mass.

[quote]Aragorn wrote:
… You can’t flex bone man. [/quote]

If the OP keeps eating that diet he probably WILL be able to flex bone shortly!

Ok honestly I never wouldn’t have thought I’m not eating enough. Simply because I’m never hungry. With what I do eat I feel full pretty much the entire day. But I’ve made some slight improvements to my diet here’s what I think I’m going to do.

Breakfast: I’ll eat a handful of peanuts with my yogurt. Instead of the dreaded Nutrigrain bar.

Lunch: I’m gonna start buying yogurt at school and eat that with my protein bar and 2 milks at lunch.

Mid afternoon: I’m gonna mix chopped lean beef in with my baked beans and eat that or Tuna sandwich at this time.

Dinner: Will end up being another tuna sandwich usually, but when I go out I’m gonna go for a sirloin or something like that. I’ll also be sure with either one to eat another handful of peanuts and yogurt later in the day.

Anything else I should add? This was just a quick revision.

The reason you feel full is because your body has grown accustomed to not being fed, so its not asking for more food. Your metabolism has to be through the floor right now.

What you have posted is a good start. Dont be afraid of food though. You need to eat. Work your daily caloric total up over a couple of weeks. Adding two meals wouldnt hurt you either. Youre 16, once your metabolism recovers from the damage youve done to it, you should be able to eat a good bit more than that with out worries of gaining fat.

Are you afraid of meat? I swear all you eat is peanuts and yogurt. Meat is not bad for you, regardless of anything anyone at PETA may tell you. Meat is good for you.

Take a look at this meal plan:

1-
2 eggs, oats, skim milk

2-
6 oz turkey on whole wheat

3-
8 oz chicken breast with veggies

4-
tuna sandwich

5-
8 oz lean beef, chili, veggies

6-(bed time)
1/2 cup cottage cheese w/ sugarfree jam

This is not a ton of food, but it is still a ton more than you are eating. Like I said, your first changes are a good start, but keep adding calories. Your body will adjust to the amount of food you are eating. Because of the damage you have likely already done to your metabolism, the only thing that is going to get you out of your current metabolic hole is…gasp…

More food.

At 6 feet tall and 180, even if you are carrying more fat than you’d currently like to, you’re carrying very little Lean Body Mass. For starters, I would adhere to Dr. Berardi’s 10 Habits. I don’t think you mentioned whether or not you’re involved in sports, but that will impact what you’re training program will look like. In terms of getting stronger and slapping on quality weight, I would try something along the lines West Side For Skinny Bastards I or II by Joe DeFranco. In terms of bodyfat, as long as you are not expanding in waist size daily and having to buy new pants every month due to excess fat gain, try not to worry about it too much. Start to lay a good foundation for a few years, then you can worry about cutting. That being said, it’s not a free pass to balloon up and get really fat. If you followed something like DeFranco’s program and Berardi’s 10 Habits, in 6 months, I think you’d make awesome progress if you go balls out and remain consistent. Good luck to you.

[quote]novagreg wrote:
For starters, I would adhere to Dr. Berardi’s 10 Habits.[/quote]

Did Dr. Berardi add 3 more habits that I missed? :slight_smile:

[quote]superdad4 wrote:
Did Dr. Berardi add 3 more habits that I missed? :)[/quote]

he did indeed, you get them when you purchase precision nutrition :slight_smile:

[quote]dead lead wrote:
superdad4 wrote:
Did Dr. Berardi add 3 more habits that I missed? :slight_smile:

he did indeed, you get them when you purchase precision nutrition :)[/quote]

Sounds good!

You need to be careful of certain foods that are labelled as “healthy”, for example: nutrigrain bars, protein bars, and yogurt. Often these are nothing more than candy. Most nutrition bars are nothing more than a candy bar with some added protein. You really need to be careful with yogurt.

If you are talking plain yogurt then it can be part of a healthy diet. A lot of “yogurt” is nothing more than ice cream or candy that has some yogurt in it. Stick to whole foods and learning to read food labels.

Any thing that contains white flour, sugar (if you see a word ending in “ose” it is probably added sugar), chemicals you cannot pronounce, or has the word “hydrogenated” anywhere on the label it should be avoid. “Hydrogenated” is another term for trans fat. I have seen foods labelled as having 0 grams trans fat, but have hydrogenated oil.

This is a lie. These oils are added in because the food is garbage and they are need to petrify to last a long time. Proper food, training, and rest are the only ways to transform your body. Do your research and keep at it.

[quote]sharetrader wrote:
Aragorn wrote:
… You can’t flex bone man.

If the OP keeps eating that diet he probably WILL be able to flex bone shortly![/quote]

Hehe

Sorry it’s been a long time since I updated this.

But over the last month I’ve changed my diet significantly. I started keeping a log of calorie and protein intake. Here’s how it looks.

3/22 - 2280Cal - 142g prot.
3/23 - 1980 - 140
3/25 - 2050 - 147
3/26 - 2340 - 175
3/27 - 1890 - 135
3/28 - 2570 - 186
3/29 - 2370 - 149
3/30 - 2015 - 138
3/31 - 2426 - 168
4/1 - 2258 - 162
4/2 - 1999 - 150
4/3 - 2387 - 172
4/4 - 2168 - 158
4/5 - 1897 - 139
4/6 - 2564 - 189
4/7 - 2218 - 167
4/8 - 2038 - 140
4/9 - 2652 - 181
4/10 - 2235 - 152
4/11 - 2168 - 169
4/12 - 2365 - 162
4/13 - 2548 - 181
4/14 - 2091 - 162
4/15 - 2231 - 181
4/16 - 2374 - 172

After my diet change I’ve noticed significant strength increases to areas I never would have thought of getting to so fast on my old crap diet. My muscles have much more endurance also.

Current Max Bench - 175lbs
Current Max Deadlift - 365lbs

But after all these changes theres still one thing my weight is still staying around 180lbs. Just off the scale I weigh 178.6lbs at the moment. And also I’d say my body fat is around 20%.

You added 100 calories to your diet over the course of a month…

Did you catch the part about eating more?

oops, hit post before I meant too.

Most everything Iv read says that you should take your bodyweight and multiply it by 14 and that is the number of calories you should consume for weight loss.

Im assuming that when you say you have changed your diet greatly, you have improved your food choices. Given the figures that you showed, I would not say that your diet has changed drastically.