Frustrated.

C

cpritch_ks

Member
I've been gaining weight and it is driving me crazy. I haven't changed my diet, I haven't decreased my workouts, I have been taking days off to recoup, but it seems like whatever I do, I'm still climbing that scale. My husband swears to me it is just because I'm finally putting on muscle, but I don't see how I can gain this much weight in muscle that fast. I eat well about 85% of the time, try to avoid sugar & fast food like the plague, lean protein sources, lots of fresh fruits and veggies. I work out about an hour a day, (with Cathe of course), sometimes a little longer, sometimes a little less, at least 5 times a week, and I drink plenty of water every day. I think where I have noticed the gain the most is in my mid-section/core region, and with swim suit season upon us, it has me most panicked! I've got to be doing something wrong, I just can't pinpoint it. . .

I need help!! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. . .
 
Hard to say what the reason is that you gain weight.

The culprit for me usually is diet. Try and write down EVERYTHING that you eat for at least a week. That was one of my big "aha" moments. I was eating healthy and clean, but just too much.

Did anything else change in your life lately. Sometimes when we are stressed out, weight starts creeping up.

I use fitday when I was tracking my calories, I have the PC version, but it's also online at www.fitday.com (I think it's free), a lot of people here also like www.sparkpeople.com

Carola
 
Thanks Carola. I appreciate your response. I think I will start journaling what I am eating daily, I may be eating too much. I try to eat every couple of hours so I may be overdoing it. The stress has definitely increased lately, but I thought I was handling that okay through exercise. I may need some additional stress management tools. x(
 
OMG I could have written this! :eek:

SAME story here. Working out six days a week, an hour or more a day. Basically a good diet, I have my bad days, but on a whole (I've used Sparkpeople and tracked my calories and they are where they should be) it's good.
I can't see any changes that I've made recently to pack on the pounds, but it's just creeping up and it's around the midsection where I've never carried extra weight.

I guess maybe it could be my age, &/or hormones......? (I will turn 44 this summer)

If so, I'm not sure what to do about it. I really don't think I can or should add to my workouts and I'm not sure how to tweak my diet enough to make a difference.

An average day for me would be:
yogurt before my workout
a soy fruit smoothie (with protein powder and sometimes flaxseeds ) after
lunch.....a wrap...sometimes eggbeaters and veggies, sometimes a veggie burger with hummus.....fruit , occasionally baked chips or pretzels
dinner would be lighter.....a big salad full of veggies& chicken or tuna or canned salmon on it... with just a little olive oil based dressing or something lite or FF.
or oatmeal or cereal
tonight it was a smoothie and some triscuits (it's HOT today, just not overly hungry in this heat)

Boy, it would be great it we could both get this figured out.
It seems like we're doing a lot right....
but I guess we're missing something?


;( ;(
 
Just a thought - if you are working out hard 5-6 days a week, maybe you are consuming *too few* calories. You might want to try zigzagging calories or taking an altogether different approach with your workouts. Many folks here have said they've gotten better results with more weights, less cardio - everyone is different - so perhaps it's time to do some experimenting. I agree, too, that FitDay and sparkpeople are great tools for calorie tracking/weight loss. Good luck!

~Cathy :)
 
Thanks Cathy:)

I HAVE noticed that I seem to put on some weight with heavy weight work and when I stop, I lose a little. It's just that THIS time the weight is thickness around the middle and that's never been the case.

I have heard of people zigzagging calories, but I'm not sure exactly how that works. Is there somewhere I can read up on it?

Again, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts & suggestions.:D

Becky
 
Most of the time it's eating too much - like 95% of the time. I agree with the others that say journal your food intake. Calories in, calories out. Very simple equation, no rocket science, no matter what your age.
 
Becky,
I first learned about it by reading Tom Venuto's e-book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle . There have been lots of threads on BFFM - it's quite popular here (and is a great resource). You can also probably google on zigzagging and get a lot of hits on it.

Basically, when you zigzag, you would go low-cal a few days and then up your calories for a few days. For example, if your target calories were, say, 1800, you might consume 1500 calories each day for two days and then one day of 2400. There are other variations to it, but that's the basic idea - vary your calorie intake to keep your body guessing & your metabolism fired up.

Cathy :)
 
Hello,

What kind of weight traning and aerobic have you been doing lately? Maybe you need to switch up. If you have been doing the same aerobic workout and same weights then you could be stagnating. Time to increase intenstity and higher weights, without spending more time exercising: the fitter you get, the harder you should work and the more you should try to push yourself. For instance, if you've been doing IMAX 1 per week, then increase it to 2 or 3 times per week, use IMAX 2 or 3. If you've been lifting the same or lbs then increase the weights by a couple of lbs.

I think diet could be a factor, but rather than watching every thing you eat, maybe you should relax a little bit. Sometimes, you can eat super clean but a calorie is a calorie. If you eat too much food, healthy or otherwise, you will not lose weight. I think you should not watch and record every thing you eat, rather aim for 3 meals a day and some snacks in between. Make these healthy if you can. Listen to your stomach, if you feel hungry then eat, but otherwise don't. Drink more water too.

I don't know much about diets myself, but I find that I can pretty eat what I want as long as I don't eat too much. I am better with the exercise: I aim to get fitter. Lately, I've been doing harder cardios like intervals like IMAXes and Hardcore Extreme 2 to 3 times per week. I am trying to increase my weights as well, in frequency as well as lbs.

Don't let your body get used to the exercise routine, aim higher and harder.

Yen
 
I am 33. I typically alternate daily between weights and cardio, with more emphasis on weight work, meaning I do weights more during a week than I do cardio. For Cardio I switch it up between KPC, Cardio Blast, Rythmic Stem, IMAX & IMAX 2. A typical meal for me would be chopped up raw green, red & yellow peppers, onions, sliced almonds with 2 hard boiled eggs or a piece of boiled chicken. My snacks usually consist of an apple with peanut butter or a protein bar. It must also be said though that I do indulge in dark chocolate from time to time. heeheee.

I guess I feel like I am keeping the intensity up because I am always sore the next day from whatever I did the day before. Maybe that is incorrect logic though, I don't know. At any rate, I appreciate everyone's responses! I think I am going to try some different things as suggested here and see what happens.

Thanks!!
Corie
 
Hi Corie! It could be that your workout routine needs to be changed up. Perhaps your body is too used to it by now. You need to look into BFFM (I'm on it) its great! For instance a day's meal plan for me would be:

1: high protein/high fiber cereal w/strawberries & rice milk
2: oatmeal w/4 eggwhites + 1 whole egg omelette
3: steak/brown rice/broccoli
4: chicken/yam/asparagus
5: fish/salad
6: protein shake

Ditch the peanut butter & protein bar. Do you see the difference already in the way we eat? I personally think your undereating if you keep gaining. That's usually a sign (bloatedness & thickness) of your body telling you to hold onto your fat b/c your not feeding it enough. You can see by my eating plan just how nourishing it is & I do zigzag my calories. You simply take 2 days out of the week for your low carb days & take the yam out of Meal 4 & Meal 2 take out the 1 whole egg. You also change up Meal 1 & eat oatmeal w/protein powder. I'm 5'2" 107#s & I do have muscle definition.

As far as the workout is concerned, you can either do a circuit week or a functional fitness week or an endurance week. Just do something entirely different from heavy weight training/cardio for 2 weeks & see what happens. Eat squeaky clean & I just betcha you'll see amazing results! HTH, Kathy:D
 
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