Dude! Somebody please offer some insight...

I am 27yrs old, 5ft 7inchs and I weight approx 220lbs. I am literally at my wits end, I have done everything! Most recently I signed up with a personal trainer for a period of 4 months and the results we slim to none. He thought that I was not following some part of the regimen but I 100% did everything he told me to. Here is what we did for 4 months at the gym 5 days a week for a min of 2 hours each day: (I don't know the names of all exercises) We did abs everyday.

Monday - Legs

6 different exercises 6 sets of each at 12 reps including hip abductors

45 mins of slow paced cardio

Tuesday - Chest/Biceps

4 different exercises 6 sets of each at 12 reps

1 hour of slow paced cardio

Wednesday - Shoulders/Back

Gravitron 6 sets 12 reps

3 more exercises same sets and reps

1 hour of slow paced cardio

Thursday - Legs

Squats same sets and reps

3 more exercises same sets and reps

45 mins slow paced cardio

Friday - 1 hours cardio and abs

I did this 5 days a week for 4 months with little to no results. My diet was pretty much the same every:

no less than 8 glasses of water everyday

1 bowl of oatmeal with a teaspoon of maple syrup

banana and yogurt for a snack

tuna WRAP with 2 teaspoons of mayo and a banana

peanut butter protein bar snack

baked chicken with steamed broccoli and brown rice

i mean, this is what i ate everyday with slight variations. there was no soft drinks, no coffee (which i love), no ice cream.... NO SWEETS AT ALL!!! somebody please tell me, could i possibly have a thyroid problem? insight please, i'm losing my will.

and... when i say little to no results, i build not muscle, i lost 1 inch off my waist and that was it! 

P.S.

I also did 1 hour of intense cardio kickboxing every thursday for the same period of time.

 

I'd say it has something to do with portion size.  1 bowl of oatmeal could be 1 cup or more than 3 cups depending on the size of the bowl.  Wraps aren't better than bread calorie-wise and I'd say most tortillas I find are actually higher in cals that 2 slices of bread (unless I'm buying la tortilla factory).  Protein bars are generally high-cal as well.  Also, the portion size of your dinner seems uncertain.

If you don't have a food scale, buy one.  Plus, make sure you're logging exercise and calories.  If you've already been measuring portions and aren't overestimating your activity level, a chat with your doctor wouldn't hurt.

Your exercise looks great, but your calories only add up to about 1500.  Which may be fine if all you are doing is sitting on the couch all day.

With all of that exercise you should up your calories by at least 500 calories, if not a little more, because I am not sure exactly how many calories you are burning.  You just need to eat those calories back.

can i borrow your metabolism for 4 months? lol. i try to stay in good spirits about this. i really am at my wits end. thanks for the reply.

I noticed that this is your first day here, welcome.

Have you used the expenditure and allowance tools yet?  Don't want to scare you when as above I told you you want to eat more.  Check that out first and then come back and tell us what it says.

totally sounds like your not eating enough for all that exercise your doing. Use the tools and figure out the right intake.

Wow, I'd be pretty frustrated with 4 months of intense effort and no results too!  The only thing I can think of is what everyone else has said - your body thinks you're starving it and is desperately hanging on to every bit of fat that it can.

Maybe get another trainer to review your meal plan?

Also wondering - have you seen ANY results at all?  Do you feel stronger?  Feel like you can move faster?  Can you see muscle definition/toning?  Do any of your clothes fit differently?  Does your face look slimmer?

I know EXACTLY how you feel! I did the personal trainer thing, ate what she told me to eat, and had EXACTLY the same result... NOTHING.

You're doing WAY too much exercise for the amount of food you're consuming.

Here's the deal. You're putting HUGE demands on your body, but you're giving it almost no fuel. In metabolic terms the message you're sending is the animal herds have left, the fruits and berries are gone, and you're working your heart out just to find this meager amount of food! Your body thinks you are starving, so it's conserving every speck of fat it can.

Give your body a rest for a while. Eat moderately... more than you are now and wait for your metabolism to recover (a few weeks to a month), then try restricting your diet again, but keep eating 5 to 6 times per day. If you keep giving your body food at regular intervals, it will even out your insulin levels, and prevent 'starvation mode'. This worked for me!

Are you a male or a female?  What are your goals?

First...get another trainer, stat.  That one doesn't know what they're doing.  Regardless if you're a male or a female the diet plan you've been given is not a very good one.  It's too low in calories and not a good variety of foods.  And not sustainable for long term success.

I'm guessing you're male and trying to build muscle while burning fat?  I'm guessing this because of all the slow paced cardio you're doing...which is pointless as well.  You are really wasting your time doing an hour of slow paced cardio, in my opinion. 

Read this:

http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=152 6539&cr=

It breaks things down pretty good about high vs. low intensity cardio training.

dont get any big ideas, theyre not gonna happen

Mate,

Welcome to my world. I have been sailing in the same boat as you are for the past 4-5 months.

I'm 5' 10, 176 pounds and have been busting my guts out in the gym, both cardio and weights, but haven't lost an ounce of fat or put on a ounce of muscle, until I discovered what was wrong. I was eating too little compared to what I was burning.

The problem was and is that the cc meter shows that I need to eat atleast 2000 cals a day and burn 2250 cals a day, but no matter how much I stuff myself I cant get past 1500 cals a day, but am able to burn 2250 cals a day. I am at a loss how to increase my food intake, I dont want to stuff my face, but at the same time I want results (fat loss or muscle gain).

Any help on how to increase my food intake will be appreciated.

You could easily be eating far too much or far too little with that plan. A tuna wrap can range anywhere from 200 calories to 1200. A 'bowl' of oatmeal can be 500 calories. Brown rice is 200 calories a cup, if you're eating 2 cups, plus a big chicken breast, that's another 600 calories. Plus 250 for your bananas, and 200 for the yogurt, and 300 for the protein bar... well now you're at over 3000 calories, and even with all that exercise, you very well could maintain on that, especially with those "slight variations".

On the other, more likely, hand, you could be at 200 for the oatmeal, 300 for the wrap, 400 for dinner, 200 for the bananas, 100 for the yogurt, 200 for the protein bar. That's a grand total of 1400, which, with your exercise, is like slapping your body in the face and telling it you're starving. It thinks you're gonna die, so it starts jerking in the reins on your metabolism and cutting out all that calorie-burning muscle. Now you're barely burning more than your eating, hence the loss of... loss.

Use the tools on this site to calculate your daily burn. Subtract 750 calories from that, and eat that number. It takes a loss of 3500 calories to lose a pound, you could safely lose about 1.5lbs a week (a little less than the max of 1% bodyweight/week). Eat a well balanced diet, and for god's sake, add back in some ice cream or something. Don't kill yourself in the name of dieting, because it's a lifestyle change to become healthier, and you can't live if your dead.

After you've figured out your daily calorie goal, count everything, and get there. One of my handfuls of walnut halves is 300 calories, you can manage that pretty easy, don't you think? So don't say you can't eat enough, 'cause you can, you just forgot how. If you couldn't eat enough, you wouldn't be trying to lose fat.

When all that's done, go to the fitness forum, and ask some questions until you realize that it's simply insane to exercise so much every day. Cut it back to maybe 3-4 times a week? I'm no expert, but melkor (found on the aforementioned fitness forum) is, and there are plenty of other helpful people there that can show you the error of your trainer's over-zealous ways.

That's my opinion, anyways. Not sure if it made sense, I'm exhausted, but there you have it. Good luck. :)

I was in the same exact situation as you are now.  I don't have time.  It's my thyroid.  I have too much stress.  I have bad genes.  It hurts too bad to exercise.  My weight is fine for my frame.  No matter how hard I try, I can't lose weight.  At 6'2 252 (my MD said I should be around 185), I got a trainer, was watching what I was eating (or so I thought) based on the trainer's recommendations, and 3 months with no results.  My pants were a little looser, but nothing really remarkable.  I joined here, started doing a little research and reading on the web, and threw out everything the trainer told me about eating.  Here's what I learned about myself:  You have to find what works for you and your body, and something that is comfortable for a weekly, not daily, routine.  I learned what eating clean was.  I learned how 1 "cheat day" a week can trick your metabolism (My cheat day consists of wings and beer with wife and friends at the local sports bar.  Boy, do I love wings and beer!!).  And I learned how to count calories.  After I ditched the trainer, and learned these things, I learned I could be more effective on my own.  I don't do the 5 or 6 meal a day thing.  For me, 4 times a day was sufficient, about every 3 hours.   I do still alternate work outs with weight training and cardio Mon - Sat, but not nearly as strenuous as the trainer had me doing.  I only eat fruit before 11am, to give myself the rest of the day to burn off the sugar.  I'm now down 40 pounds, but get this, I weighed that in June 2006.  So, 40 pound in 2 years (with a knee injury in between).  Not great by most people's standards, but great by mine.  And the last 20 came off a lot quicker than the first 20, which coincided with my learning how and what to eat to compensate with exercising.  And I still have 25 to go, which for the first time in my life I'm not concerned about how I will lose it.   I guess what I'm saying is DON'T GET FRUSTRATED.  If your serious about this read, learn, and utilize.  It didn't come on in one day, it won't come off in one day.  As you progress, each pound lost not only looks good in the mirror, but lifts your spirits, gives you more energy, gets you excited about the future, makes you want to continue, and, as it continues, gives you the opportunity to buy all new clothes!

Hey! I want to thank everyone for their words of encouragement and advice. I am in much better spirits after reading the post and suggestions here. I realize that I am preparing myself for a "new lifestyle" and not just in it to lose weight. It's a long journey and I am ready and willing to get back on the horse, but we all know how frustrating it can be when you see some people who just drop weight like a bad habit and you're still stuck with the butt in your mouth! I am heeding every word of advice here and will begin using the tools. 

i think this is exactly what I needed, a forum. Not some guy jacked with muscle so far up his a** that he can't see straight! Thank you very much and let the games begin! 

Hi there - I'm sorry you've been having such trouble! I've been stuck several different times at several different weights before, but, that's been because I'm not strict enough with myself :) So, I didn't have the same trouble. However, I've been reading on here about the success of switching off calorie amounts, like one day having a deficit of 500-1000 depending on the amount of calories burned by exercise that day, then after a few days of that, having a normal eating day that goes up to 2000-2200 calories to cause the metabolism to speed up, so if others have posted about that here, I'd listen to them. However, if you're miserable, you should definitely have days when you have low-calorie coffee or ice cream (for which, thank god, there are some great alternatives).

Also, you should DEFINITELY go to your doctor and find out if your thyroid is okay, because the only reason I could think that you wouldn't lose weight on that strict of a regimine is that you're in starvation mode or if your thyroid is messed up. I've known a lot of people who've either been severely underweight (even when eating 5000 calories a day, literally) or severely overweight (eating probably less than 2000 calories a day) purely because of a thyroid disorder, so first thing, check that out. Then, yeah, maybe it's time for a new trainer, since this one has definitely not been effective for you. Trainers are expensive, so you should be getting your money's worth!

Good luck :)

Well you have tracked everything you've eaten and all your workouts for a good period of time.  I would take this information to your doctor so that they can test you for any medical problems that would keep you from losing weight.  I had a friend whom was really over weight and she always thought she had a thyroid problem and the docs wouldn't do anything until she kept track of what she was doing well once she tracked everything and realized what she was doing she started losing.  So to me it looks like you are trying and you have everything written down so you know you aren't missing anything so you should really go to your doctor to see what is wrong.  At least if nothing is wrong he/she can help you modify your diet and excercise to help you lose.  my guess is you might be eating too little or too much.

So far from you posting you sound healthy.  For your height your weight sounds great.  Maybe your being a little hard on yourself.  You're gaining muscle so keep your chin up.

I'm sorry but that exercise plan sucks. SUCKS. What's up with all that slow paced cardio and hip machines?

My guess is the issue is with your diet. You can have the best or worst work out plan ever and none of it matters if your diet is off.

I agree with the previous posts - first of all, count your calories to find out how much you are really consuming compared to what you're burning.

Second, fire your trainer. Doing low intesity cardio in my opionion is silly, if you're going to do cardio work at 70-85% max heart rate - you're working out anyways, you might as well make it count! Also, lift heavier weights - so that you can only do 3 sets of 8-10 reps. Not only is it faster, it is more efficient in building muscle. You want to see results, and don't worry if you're a girl, it's still very hard to bulk up, but lifting heavy will give you the definition and get rid of the jiggle ;)