Ok. I have been working out and watching my calories for 3 months now. I lost 4 pounds initially (a drop in the ocean) and now have gained back 2. I don’t understand. I am active. I do cardio 4 - 5 times a week. I do weights 2 - 3 times a week. I started to look into the math. But everyone has a different math! And none of it makes any sense anymore. One person’s math says I should consume 1950 calories a day. Another math says 2200. Yet another math says 1630. WTF!?!?!?!?!
I should really be losing weight by now, but am not. I am gaining muscle, but a pound of fat and a pound of muscle weight exactly the same. A pound. So while I am quite sure that I am taking up less space, I am not seeing any difference in the scale but a GAIN! Needless to say, I am not happy about this. I am going to my gp next week with my test results, and then I am going to look into seeing a dietitian or nutritionist. See what I might be doing wrong, if anything.
What I don’t get is that I can do Jillian Michaels‘ Cardio Kickbox DVD, and most of the time, I can keep up without a problem, sometimes I am even ahead of her. How can I be so obviously fit and yet still so overweight? The other day, I jogged for 12 minutes and barely broke a sweat, which is really something for me. Again, WTF!?!?!? Weight should be dropping off me!
I’ll stick with it because I’d rather be fit and chunky than not fit and chunky, but still…WTF!?!?!?
I did my math of what I eat on average every day. It works out to be 1710 calories. On top of that, I average a -500 calorie exercise session. This brings me to about 1200. That may be too little. I don’t know. I am 5′10″ and have heard about 17 different amounts of calories I need to consume in a day. All I know is that, other people seem to workout less and lose more in 3 months than I have. I am not only stuck, I’m gaining. Maybe I do need to eat more. I don’t know…maybe I need to change the type of cardio? Maybe I should just walk? I’ll need to choose a time of day at which I feel safe to go out alone. Maybe some of this kickboxing I have wasted 3 months on will come in handy. I wish I still had access to an elliptical, but I don’t, and our apartment is too small for one. I’ll add walking three times a week, 45 - 60 minutes, to replace the DVDs that I am already really tired of. I’ll go out at times of day when there are people out and about, witnesses. I’ll go back to my couscous (or other grain) and veggie lunches. I’ll sub even oven-baked fries (which I really don’t eat but once a month) with spinach salad. I just don’t know what else to do. I eat fruit. I eat vegetables. I eat small portions of lean meat. I don’t gorge on cheeses or dairy products, mostly because I can’t digest them. I am doing everything right and seeing little to no progress. But I am not giving up!
Complete Jillian Michaels review from a dietitian’s perspective.