Weight loss stopped diet/exercise

andyh01

Hi all
Gone through a bit of transformation last year. I'm male 37, 169cm tall. Last year I was around 87kg BMI over 30. I sorted my diet cut out crap Inc alcohol and started exercising more. I'm now down to 65kg but seem to have stalled. U got down to about 63kg but seem to hover around the 65kg.
I've readjusted the amount I eat although will eat/drink when hungry mostly fruit as snack poriage for breakfast with Hannah, maybe a bowl of wheat shreds with berries or cottage cheese sandwich on brown bread or egg salad for lunch and chicken filet boiled potatoes (fist size) and veg or brown pasta for tea, no fat yogurt and more fruit if still hungry and put my of juice.
i cycle 50km 3 or4 times a week plus one longer 50-80 miles a week and run 10k few times a week, last night did 13 miles at around 9 mins a mile, as doing a half marathons in October. I do 5k park run in just under 22mins.thankst
My current BMI is around 22, weist 30, viscarsa?/belly fat is at 5.

Have I hit the lowest weight and now building muscle or do I need to look at diet more maybe keto/low carb ? Or has the weight loss just slowed down and just carry on, been same for a few months now.
Thanks

maryka

I always find I shift weight easier when I incorporate high intensity intervals into my training. Are you doing any of that?

Last year when I wasn't doing any high intensity and just a lot of miles/volume, I cut radically back on carbs (not keto, but keeping them at 25% of caloric intake) and also lost some kgs. Have gradually added carbs back in more now that I'm back to the high intensity stuff as I struggle to recover and perform well without them. But for maintenance mode or just fuelling long endurance stuff, replacing carbs with fats worked for me.

Also used to have a long overnight fast and ride fasted a lot in the mornings. Again, something easy to do on low intensity exercise, not so much with high intensity. Previously I did 5:2 and 16:8 and also saw some kgs drop off.

I think you need to treat your body's reaction to food the same as its reaction to training, to some extent. Need to keep mixing things up a bit, keep it guessing, don't let it get too used to the same thing for months on end or it will get too adapted and then plateau.

andyh01

Yep do some hiit at least twice a week.thurs is track night although a recent addition. I'd also class the 5k park run as hiit and done some hill reps.
Yes kind of do fasted session occasional 50k before breakfast although not for awhile, the weekly social club ride circa 60 mile/4 hrs have breakfast in morn before hand but that's it bar the expresso at cafe stop.

Think maybe I should start recording more what I'm eating and the exercising. As I don't have a rough idea of calories in/out . I also do expect the weight loss to slow so.maaybe need to be more patient too..

craigus89

Out of interest, why do you want to lose more? Those numbers sound like you’re a pretty healthy weight now.

andyh01

Craigus89 wrote:

Out of interest, why do you want to lose more? Those numbers sound like you’re a pretty healthy weight now.

...so I don't look like Humpty Dumpty wearing lycra..

Just going on the smart scales whilst I'm in the normal range I'm at the top end so I would like to get to around 57kg or just under 9 stone for my height I'd be bang in the middle of the range, bit of leeway. Plus be quicker uphill on bike and want get parkrun under 20 mins and half marathon under 1hr 30.

maryka

If you haven't tracked caloric intake much before, it is quite enlightening to do it for a while (and a bit horrifying, not to mention guilt- and laziness-inducing if you take it seriously).

Even though I have been using MyFitnessPal fairly regularly for a few years so am pretty versed with food calories and macros, when I go off it for a while and then go back to using it, I still find I underestimate what I eat... so whilst not good to be a slave to it, it's also useful tool to keep an eye on general trends and catch bad eating habits forming!

Harder to track calories burned but again, just having a general overview is helpful. Lots of tools out there these days to estimate exercise calories, Garmin is pretty good for running.

bonzo_banana

As you lose weight it becomes harder to lose more weight as you aren't still shifting that additional weight around. You need to eat less and exercise a bit more if you want to get lower. Intermittent fasting could help, perhaps one day a week just have an evening meal and make it a regular occurrence. Get yourself a heavier bike that makes you work harder, try to add back some of the weight you have lost to the bike. The lighter you get the easier cycling becomes but perhaps you need to increase the difficulty a bit so it matches past efforts. If you were 85kg previously perhaps add 25kg to the bike somehow. Perhaps the rear rack if you have one. Do a few shopping runs on the bike to save a bit of petrol. I've seen it written a sumo wrestler can consume up to 13,000 calories a day, the bigger you are the greater your energy needs and the easier/faster you consume calories.

If the exercise you did previously at 85kg required 850 Calories at 60kg it would only need 600 Calories as it is fairly proportional to weight assuming its exercise where you have to shift your weight, i.e cycling or running. This is Calories over your normal Calorie requirements for your body. Obviously you might need 2,500 calories typically per day and exercise is on top of that so when you were 85kg you needed 3,350 Calories and now you only need 3,100 Calories for the same exercise. If you eat the same those 250 Calories over the long term could be significant. There are about 3,500 calories in a pound of weight so it would take 14 days to gain a pound at your lower weight if you were at 85kg using 3,350 Calories and had a static weight. Ultimately a 60kg body weight needs a 60kg body weight lifestyle with regard food and exercise which is different to a 85kg or 55k body weight lifestyle etc. If you don't like reducing your food or exercising more then be happy with your current weight that sounds really healthy to be honest.

keef66

I'm a fraction shorter than you, but 25 years older. Fattest I ever got was 72kg. I could probably get down to the 60kg I last saw in my late teens if I tried really hard, but I doubt I could stay there.
63kg seems to be a good weight for me. I maintain it by sticking to 5:2 eating, and I can see by looking in the mirror that the podgy bits are all gone.

So it sounds like you're in similar territory. If you think you look OK in the mirror, don't worry too much about the scales

StillGoing

I don't know whether it has been mentioned, but for the same weight of muscle and fat, the muscle is denser and therefore not as big as the same weight in fat, so the scales aren't the best for showing that you're getting leaner. Body measurement of 2 x waist should be no greater than your overall height, be it inches, CM or whatever.

Also vary your exercise regime. Just cycling can become just another movement your body gets used to. Add a bit of variation such as weights, swimming etc.

https://www.livestrong.com/article/4386 ... of-muscle/

andyh01

Thanks all.
I get the bigger you are, the easier it was for me to lose weight. I understand at rest muscle mass needs more energy then fat and have a feeling I've she'd the fat and now building muscle still feels like I have man boobs and a bit of a belly.

Maybe It is portion control I started off recording what I was eating but as was losing I wasn't too fused. I know smart scales says my BMR is around 1860 just st to maintain, so me days and my around 1500 other days probably around 2000.

Today had poriage with red top milk, with a handful.of sultarners and chopped bannan washed down with coffee (no sugar,, red top milk)
Did a 50k ride in just over 2hrs at AVG 16mph.few climbs bike is a mason Bokeh about 10kg with rack and bottles and 35mm g ones.
Back home lunch was cottage cheese on 2 brown wholemeal bread with salad plenty of no added sugar juice, a few pieces of fruit apple and orange , no added sugar no fat youghert
Tea was bowle of wheat shreds with sulltarnars prune and bannan
Went out with running club did about 7 miles around 5 mins per km
Got back and had 2 poached eggs on one brown bread

Tomorrow out with cycling club doing about 60 miles on poriage and expresso

andyh01

Hmm think got impatient as just looked back on the weight

7/8 was 63.75kg on downward trend

13/8 after short holiday not not activity came back at 66.80kg

21/8 64.45kg downward trend the days in-between have been a bit yo yo /flunctunation s

keef66

One other thing I learned was to weigh myself every day. Straight out of bed, first pee, and hop on the scales. You can get quite large fluctuations from day to day, and if you only weigh yourself once a week you can sometimes think you've lost a lot and others think you've gained which can be demotivating. With daily weights you get to see the overall trend.

If you can still see some belly fat and moobs it suggests you do have some more fat to lose. But with that kind of diet and exercise it should happen.

I'd personally choose full-fat milk and yoghurts, and keep an eye on how much sugar you're getting in your juices and fruit

bompington

AndyH01 wrote:

cycle 50km 3 or4 times a week
one longer 50-80 miles a week
run 10k few times a week
last night did 13 miles at around 9 mins a mile, as doing a half marathons in October. I do 5k park run in just under 22mins

male 37, 169cm tall, 65kg, BMI 22, waist 30, belly fat 5.

Firstly, don't fret - you've done really well getting to where you are now, it must have taken determination and self-discipline, that's a resource you still have. You can achieve any (reasonable) target you want.

I am wondering a bit about the stats you've mentioned here though.

That's a lot of training, and your vital statistics look pretty good (I'm struggling to see how you can look like Humpty Dumpty tbh).

But, to take the parkrun as an example: my best parkrun time is 24 mins - on a course that is very hilly and mostly off-road: the general consensus is that you're about 2 minutes slower there than the average parkrun course.
It was set when I was nearly 50, and weighed about 82kg (bit taller at 174, but put it this way - that's BMI 27: halfway between overweight and obese).
I was already suffering badly from the hip problems that would lead to a replacement, not to mention serious heart disease.
Now, after hip surgery and years of crippling medication, I can still run it in about 28.

Or take half marathons: at your age (but BMI about 26) I was running halfs in under 1:30.

I'm not trying to say anything about myself here, these are not particularly great stats and I don't consider myself any kind of super-fit example.


To be blunt - what I'm saying is that your results aren't all that great considering all the training you're doing.

There could be any number of reasons for that, but the schedule you've described suggests that you're training pretty much every day, with a total of well over 10 hours a week: I am in no way a qualified coach, but it seems pretty likely that you need to train less but harder. It's easy to rack up the training but never be sufficiently recovered to actually be achieving any gain - the "junk miles" syndrome.

DeVlaeminck

I guess different people have different talent - 22 minute 5k is not to be sniffed at though yes lots of people could do faster. My take would be it would be easier and more effective to up the training (or change the balance of running and cycling to suit upcoming events) than lose another 8kg but it is likely (not inevitable ) that doing both would be more effective still.

Apropos of naff all I've made a return to running this year after over 10 years off it. Strava tells me I've run 88 miles - my first run was 5 miles at 9:30s (literally took a week to recover) longest is 10 miles at about 8:30s and my last run on Monday night I was doing a sub 6 minute mile at the end of a 5 miler and feeling surprisingly good - well until my calf tore and I'm now hobbling about and back to square 1.

def_defyr

You may be overtraining and your body is reacting by doing whatever it can to keep the weight on.

My experience with weight loss (and I've never been even close to overweight, just saw things creeping up once I passed 45 y/o), is that you need to find what works for you, it can take a bit of trial and error. One thing that I will say, is that unless you're specifically wanting to live the pro racer lifestyle, a deprivation-type diet is going to backfire. You might want to consider modifying it a bit to a more "everything in moderation" that will allow you to take pleasure in eating.

Since December I've gone from 77 kg at 1.80 m to 71 kg. My training was specifically for cyclosportives, around 180-200 km a week (long weekend rides, 2x weekly 1h30 interval sessions), with 2-3x 45 minute weight training gym sessions. I definitely overtrained at times so had to force myself to dial back, and that's when I noticed the weight starting to really come off.

For me what's worked, dietwise, (and it has to fit into our family routine) is to eat vegetarian 5/7 days, with two days of meat, whether it's fish, fowl or beef/pork. A vegetarian diet that includes plenty of cheese, mind you! Also drinking lots of water.

The other interesting thing I found is that eating something before exercise, even early morning, seems to avoid hunger pangs later in the day, rather than doing the "slam a cup of coffee and ride a 100k" routine. All that did for me was to induce incredible hunger pangs. Now I eat a bowl of weetabix with raisins and toasted almonds before a.m. workouts and the weight has come off and stayed off.

mrfpb

To repeat the stuff I agree with:
Use full fat milk/yoghurt and cut down carbs. They all get turned to fat if you don't use them, but fat is a better appetite inhibitor.

Don't focus on a fixed BMI point, it only leads to frustration. Choose a range you think is healthy.

BMI alone won't get rid of the moobs/belly.

Also studies are now showing people in the overweight category (25-30) are less likely to develop cardiovascular and metabolic diseases than people in the healthy category (18 - 25).

Waist height ratio is thought to be a good indicator - that's your waist at it's widest, not your trouser size. For example I fit into w32 trousers but my gut circumference is 38 in. That's 55% of my height, so not good (Should be 50% or less). But I have a healthy BMI of 24.

I have just got back from Summer hols with little activity and lots of food, so I have work to do. But tracking my BMI won't deal with my stomach.

StillGoing

BMI is a flawed measurement for healthy weight and should not be relied on. More people are using the waist to height ratio to assess healthy weight.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265215.php

webboo

Do you do any other exercise other than cycling or running, as these obviously will do little for your upper body muscle tone.

simon_e

AndyH01 wrote:

Craigus89 wrote:

Out of interest, why do you want to lose more? Those numbers sound like you’re a pretty healthy weight now.

...so I don't look like Humpty Dumpty wearing lycra..

Just going on the smart scales whilst I'm in the normal range I'm at the top end so I would like to get to around 57kg or just under 9 stone for my height I'd be bang in the middle of the range, bit of leeway. Plus be quicker uphill on bike and want get parkrun under 20 mins and half marathon under 1hr 30.

9 stone at your height is quite low. To get to 57kg, and stay there, you may well compromise your performance (and your health) rather than enhance it. And if you think you look like Humpty Dumpty at 65kg that rings a bit of an alarm bell for me.

I'm not sure those 'smart' scales are giving you the right information and, as already mentioned, BMI is unreliable. Don't worry about weekly variation in weight, especially after a holiday. Use your weight solely as a guide, not a goal. Better to be strong, fit and healthy and 3 or 4kg over your supposed 'target' than unhappy and always trying that bit lighter. Could you settle for trying to stay within a range, say 60-63kg?

I'd cut down on sweet, sugary foods, including fruit juice. Try to get as much of your carbs from veg (preferably raw) as possible. 5 a day is not enough, aim for 8 or more servings, and more veg than fruit. I was 62kg a few weeks ago and dropped 2kg by cutting down on crap like biscuits and cake, especially in the evenings, and drinking only water apart from a mug of black coffee after porridge for breakfast. I snack on nuts at work to try to keep the munchies away. I'm not a fan of dairy so wouldn't advise cow's milk or cheese, though I do like full-fat plain yogurt with banana (prebiotic + probiotic in one bowl). I wouldn't eat wheat shreds or weetabix, that's not real food. The same goes for most packaged breakfast cereals. A soaked bircher-style muesli would be better, or maybe add some nut butter to your porridge.

Don't rely on the fasted rides too much. I've read recently that an effective tool is to do an interval-type evening workout and eat mainly good quality protein after e.g. scrambled eggs and very little carbohydrate. Then an easy ride in the morning with only water. Once a week is probably enough. Some people find intermittent fasting can work but they probably have more lard to lose than you. It's important that you still fuel adequately and be aware of the risk of RED-S: https://cyclingtips.com/2018/03/food-th ... ting-risk/

ric/rstsport

mrfpb wrote:

To repeat the stuff I agree with:
Use full fat milk/yoghurt and cut down carbs. They all get turned to fat if you don't use them, but fat is a better appetite inhibitor.

For clarity, when overfed, eating a diet higher in fat, leads to more fat accumulation, than a diet where carbohydrate is overfed.

andyh01

Thanks all.

There's so much stuff out their and gets confusing. low fat/low carb/don't exclude food groups every thing in moderation...

waist circumference is 83cm around the belly button widest point height 169cm so 49.11%

The running is fairly new activity for me, I've only done 5 park runs so far, started with a time of 28 mins. At 22 mins last time, I was taking it easy as legs still felt heavy from the track session, so it's getting easier/faster.

I am conscious of not wanting to push hard too soon and overdo things and injurer myself or have long term issues. I do have a couple days rest during the week too.

I do need to get some dumb bells to do a bit of strength/conditioning I do 30 push ups, 30 sit ups and plank for a few mins a few times a week.

This week so far :
Sun the 13 mile run I mentioned earlier
Mon rest day
Tues 50k ride morn 7 mile club run eve
Wed 50 mile ride but on way back had a flat that I couldn't fix so limped bike home shouldering bike
Today is track/speed session

Wed morning first thing, I was around 65/64Kg made mistake of weighing myself after the ride and was 62.4kg and this morning back up to 64.5kg, which is marginally lighter than same time the previous day and is on downward trend each day other than the skewed afternoon weigh in after the ride and before eating where it went down but back up in the morning.

ric/rstsport

AndyH01 wrote:

Thanks all.

There's so much stuff out their and gets confusing. low fat/low carb/don't exclude food groups every thing in moderation...

That's (un)fortunately because there's more than one way to skin the proverbial cat. Additionally, what you may want to do diet wise will also depend on your training consistency/regularity, your absolute fitness, your relative fitness, your mental tenacity, and your personal likes and dislikes, etc.

There's a wealth of evidence showing that there is more than one way to lose weight (by this i mean that you can choose, e.g. carbs, low carb, plant based, unprocessed, etc), and that in the short-term no particular way is particularly bad for you (in terms of health), but maybe in terms of athletic performance.

It's akin to the various issues that occur with training -- that is there's proponents who use polarised training, tempo/threshold, HIIT, reverse periodisation, etc.

Personally, as someone who works in this field (i provide both coaching, and nutrition coaching), i prefer to use a multi dimensional approach in both instances. that is, in terms of training, i'll do e.g. pyramidal and polarised, etc and in terms of nutrition, i'll periodise that as well so that at times it's low-carb, other times moderate and high, etc.

bikerider101

Your metabolism is naturally slowing down; this explains why you are not losing as much weight as previously.