Even with Diet and Exercise, I Can't lose Weight?

Question

I'm 20 years old, and for almost 6 months now, I've been working out at the gym at least 5 days a week, doing 30 minutes of weights followed by 30 minutes of intense cardio (burning 500 cal during the cardio). I watch what I eat very carefully--I don't eat fast food, anything with white flour or sugar, and I probably drink once every few months. The only thing I treat myself with is a small bowl of plain vanilla ice cream 2 days a week or so. No matter how hard I try, I cannot lose these 15 pounds I've been trying to lose for ages. I have gained about 5 pounds in muscle (which is totally fine), but zero of the fat has come off.
I work so hard at the gym constantly, and always watch what I eat. I am so frustrated because I feel that all this work and effort is getting me no where and I just shouldn't even bother. What the hell am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

find calorie/fitness calculator on the net, enter all your stats and it will tell you how many calories you need a day to maintain, take off 300-400cal off that number and thats how much you need to lose.
eat 5-6 small meals a day (eat every 2-3 hours)
5-8 servings of fruit and veggies a day
8 glasses of water
have complex carbs for breakfast - they give you energy
have lean meat (protein) for dinner - repairs muscle
cardio exercise 4-6 times a week for 30-50min, light weight training
dont consume foods that are made of white flour (white bread, cakes, past etc.), sugar loaded foods (cookies, icecream, candy etc) and nothing fried, oily.
ofcourse you can spoil yourself once in a while with a little treat:)

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Try switching up your exercise routine. Do cardio first and do weights in a different sequence. When you do the same thing all the time, your body gets used to it and kind of slacks off. Or (and I know this may sound crazy) go off the diet for 3 days, and then be really strict with it. It will jump start your body. Are you eating 6 small meals a day? That will also jump start your metabolism. Don't get discouraged, at the very least you are maintaining a healthy lifestyle which is never a bad thing.

Answer 4

I can't either. I am in the same situation as you are and have come to the conclusion that I don't need to lose any weight. I am at my ideal weight. So might you be. The suggestion on counting your calories was good. Examine your activity level and the expected calorie burn and count your intake. If your intake is too high, it won't be by much, and you will be able to limit a few and maybe loose a bit more weight. On the other hand, if you are dieting AND exercising hard, your body may be in defensive mode and will hang onto that fat forever. If your body thinks it is going to be going without, it will go into conservation mode and will not burn your fat reserves. Instead it will cannibalize and burn muscle protein etc.

Answer 5

I've never concerned myself with how much I weigh but what my measurements are. There are 13 points on the body to measure that can help determine your BMI (body mass index). Check out http://fittogether.net/ and use the body fat monitoring tool. It's free.

How do you know 15 lbs is the correct number especially if you have gained muscle mass?

I agree with keeping a daily log of your calorie intake. You also need to pay attention to the type of calories you eat. A make up of 50% protein, 30% carbs and 20% fat is a good macro nutrient plan.


If you are truly monitoring your food, and you are at a plateau, you need to pay attention to what you eat and when. Lower carbs at night, protein after weight training etc. Check out http://bodybuilding.com/fun/index.html for guides on eating right, exercise plans etc. There are a lot of articles and success stories to view.

I also agree with changing your routine around. Your body adjusts to the workouts and you need to change around often. Some people do it each workout. You may like doing a 3 or 4 day split (Weights every other day M, W, F,) with Cardio in between (T, Th, Sa).

Good Luck, I feel your pain :)

Answer 6

You need to keep a food diary for a week. Put down everything you each even a jelly bean. Then look at it and see how many calories you are actually consuming. What type of calories, Carbs, protein, veggies and fruit. You are probably eating more than you think. If nothing changes when you try to reduce your calorie intake to 1400 to 1600 and reduce your fat, see your doctor for a complete check up with blood work.

Answer 7

After reading this I really want to share something because I spent many years switching from diet to diet without any success until I saw Pams magic plan (google it). Without a doubt the best weight loss that I have ever achieved and I am still trim to this day.

Answer 8

We get weight by eating extra calories and incorrect amount of macronutrients. There are two ways by which we can lose weight.

· Eating less

· Exercising more


You know
1 gram of protein = 4 calories
1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 calories
1 gram of fat = 9 calories
1 pound of fat = 454 gram
So 1 pound of fat = 9*454 = 4086 calories

Note: Our body fat contains around 3500 calories, as 10% of it is water.
So in order to lose a pound of fat (4086) in 2 weeks, we need to decrease calories consumption by 290 per day as 4096/14=290(approx)

15 minute of good exercise will help you in losing around 100 calories. So in order to lose 1 pound of fat in two weeks, we need to exercise for around 45 minutes (290 calories) if we do not want to make any changing in our eating habit. So just take care of the amount of calories in the food you take. The best idea for losing weight will be by cutting down the junk food with exercising. So greatest way to lose weight is a mixture of diet and exercise as exercise builds muscles, and bigger muscles burn more fat.

Answer 9

After reading this I want to share something because I spent many years jumping from diet to diet without experiecing any real results until I discovered Pams magic plan (just google it). Without doubts its the best weight loss that I have ever achivied and I have kept it off to this day.

Answer 10

Reading this I want to share something because I spent several years going from diet to diet without acheiving any real results until I came across Pams magic plan (google it).