What am I doing wrong? page 2

[Damiana]

You're near your goal weight, which means its going to be a lot harder to lose the weight from now on. I think you should eat less. I know people will say calories don't matter but if you want to lose weight and you are at a healthy weight already, there's no other way but more calorie restriction. Aim for 1500 a day and do not expect fast results. You might want to stay away from the scale too, and instead rely on your clothes' fit and your measurements because you may be losing fat and simultaneously gaining muscle if you are quite active as you are.

[Knifegill]

Wow. You're doing it right, and it's working. Why change anything? You might lose and gain three pounds in a day! Do you look good and feel good? It sure sounds like it. Your macros are awesome, I eat the same percentages and it's just right for me, too. Those last three pounds (Of bone density? Fat? Muscle?) might well be better kept on you.

Also, people may disagree here but aiming for 2,000 calories at 129 pounds seems pretty high

I aim to keep my calories around 2,000 and I am 175 pounds and a 29 year old male.

Maybe you need to just lower your intake a bit. 63% fat or 1,260 calories (if your aiming for 2,000 cals) is a lot of fat!

No, it's a pretty typical amount of fat. I'm a 2500-3500 calorie guy at 5'9" and 30 years old. Give me a pound of bacon, three eggs, two avocadoes and I'm out the door. It all just turns into muscle. Yeah, I'm a younger male and the OP isn't, but that doesn't mean high-calorie and high-fat aren't right. Some people have a higher BMR, and the OP works out a LOT.

[Catrin]

My BMR was tested last year and it is higher than average for my age/gender. If it drops much lower than it is then my body won't give up anything. I worked out my calorie targets with a good sports nutritionist. It is hard for me to meet those 2k calories...
.

[primalrob]

sounds like you're doing great. losing those last few pounds should be fairly easy...well, not easy, but dropping a number on a scale isn't really hard. changing your body composition, however, will require work and patience. how would you currently describe your body?

you may just need to try a few tweaks here and there. your macros look great, so i would look to the other aspects of your life. how is your sleep? are any of those workouts heavy lifting? where is your stress level most days? do you sprint (metcon and HIIT are great for getting your heart rate up, but don't compare on the deep muscle front)?

[Zanna]

For body composition, you may find it helpful to include some yoga or Pilates, in addition to your weight training. It's a nice counterbalance to the weight lifting.

[Catrin]

Dropping those last few pounds is amazingly difficult, but that is ok. I tend to carry my weight more like a man than a woman - everything is in my middle section. Since I've lost so much weight I've a lot of loose skin there, and with 2 abdominal surgeries over the years the odds of my ever being able to see my abs is probably not a reasonable expectation.

There is heavy lifting on those workouts, but right now my trainer is concentrating on my form. My head/body doesn't seem to like to cooperate with each other and learning proper form after several years of learning bad habits from another trainer is making that a rather frustrating process for both of us. I am staying the course however. My upper body strength is pretty bad, my lower body is quite strong.

He has us sprinting occasionally, and I also sprint on the bike.

I may well just be over-thinking all of this, I tend to do that...

[ajb0203]

Hi Catrin - I'm new here, but I have a couple thoughts. I am younger, but similar size - 5'4", 120 lbs. I did a similar "bootcamp fitness" type class from Oct 2011-May 2011. Two things I didn't see you mention was your BF% or how long you had been in the class. That's important to know. I started the class at about 127 lbs & 23% BF. I ended around 118 lbs & 16%. I didn't worry about weight for the first 4 months. I'd lose weight & regain it (plus some!) because of the fast loss + muscle gain. I didn't feel like I made any weight progress, but I was measuring BF% & reducing that. For calorie intake, they had me at around 1400 for weight loss, 1700-1800 for maintenance. I was not supposed to drop below 1200 calories. I wasn't eating paleo then. I ate normally (SAD, but not terrible SAD) but had to go to a low sugar diet where I monitored my calories closely for a couple weeks to finally get to my goal. It sounds like you are already low carb, so one theory is too many net calories (esp. if it's hard to get that many in), and maybe not enough recovery. The other theory is you're exactly where you should be. (For years, I thought I needed to weight 105 lbs because I weighed 105-110 lbs throughout my 20s. Then I looked at my lean body mass now and realized my lean mass was almost what my total weight was then and it was never going to work. And I was probably healthier now. I think we get hung up on a magic number sometimes. Better just to feel awesome.)

[sbhikes]

x2, but hell I hope I can do that at 53 y/o.

I'm lifting at 47. 53 is not old at all. I fully expect myself to be backpacking into my 80s.

Also, people may disagree here but aiming for 2,000 calories at 129 pounds seems pretty high

Perhaps, but I think calorie-counting and weighing on the scale should both be thrown out the window. Instead, lift barbells.

Dropping those last few pounds is amazingly difficult, but that is ok. I tend to carry my weight more like a man than a woman - everything is in my middle section. Since I've lost so much weight I've a lot of loose skin there, and with 2 abdominal surgeries over the years the odds of my ever being able to see my abs is probably not a reasonable expectation.

There is heavy lifting on those workouts, but right now my trainer is concentrating on my form. My head/body doesn't seem to like to cooperate with each other and learning proper form after several years of learning bad habits from another trainer is making that a rather frustrating process for both of us. I am staying the course however. My upper body strength is pretty bad, my lower body is quite strong.

He has us sprinting occasionally, and I also sprint on the bike.

I may well just be over-thinking all of this, I tend to do that...

I have been attending a conditioning class for 10 months with lots of core work, lots of body weight work, somewhat high intensity etc. until recently. The weights were never heavy, but we'd lift them so many times it really hurt. It worked well at first but was no longer adding value. I wasn't getting stronger or seeing body comp changes anymore.

I have started using barbells. After only 3 weeks I can see abs forming. My waist is an inch smaller. I could not do a pushup at all and now I can do 4. I bet today I can do 5. I eat more because I'm hungry and want to be strong. Here's a link to my journal post yesterday with what I ate. I'm guessing that's more than 2000 calories.

I bet I weigh more than 133 now but I don't care. My boyfriend asked me the other day, "How come your legs look so nice lately?" This morning he saw my belly and said, "Woah, look at you! You have abs!" Lifting barbells actually works. I'm not coordinated, either, but I can do this.

[MarissaLinnea]

Just a thought.....for the amount of activity you do, maybe you should drop your fat and up the carbs a little?

[Tribal Rob]

If you are looking to just reduce fat then would not a 24 -36 hour fast once every couple of weeks be a good way to burn some extra fat?

I'm suprised no-one has mentioned it so far, but what you are eating is working for you as you feel good and are maintiang a good activity level, so I would have though IF on an easy day would work really well for you.