Niall2407 said:
Hoping someone on here can help me
At the middle of July I decided I'd get into this thanks to some great contributions on this thread by other posters. I weighed 12 stone at the time and decided to limit my calories to 1200 per day rather than the 5:2 way.
Now nearly 5 weeks later I weigh 11.5 stone but seem to have hit a wall.. Don't seem to be losing anymore.. I run 3 miles one day a week, I walk 5 miles one day a week and play 5 a side on another day..
Regular days food consists of:
Breakfast - Banana
Lunch - 75g white Rice, half a red Pepper and 2 eggs.
Tea - grilled chicken, steamed veg and potatoes (mash/roasted)
Just wondering how I can lose more weight, especially around my abs and improve my diet.. I see many things about avoiding all carbs, is that good or bad?
Cheers for any advice
OK mate, well, Mancitizens and JMW are pretty much bang on really.
A few things you need to remember, the less you have to lose, the harder it is to lose it, and at your weight, you've lost a hell of a lot in a very short space of time, (and it won't be just fat you've lost there either).
This is a Marathon and not a sprint, what you've done in fat/weight-loss terms is akin to competing in that Marathon, and sprinting with all you've got for the first few hundred meters and wondering why there's very little left in the tank to go the rest of the way, you've hit it with everything you've got from the start with a very drastic and unhealthy diet, as well as a lot of exercise and left it with nowhere else to go.
Your body is only really interested in it's survival (which it is VERY good at doing), it likes to be in a comfortable position for survival regardless of what you want it to do (not to be confused with 'starvation mode' btw), when it senses it's having to work in a severely restricted environment (ie lack of nutrients + lots of output) for a sufficient amount of time it will start to do just that by doing things like slowing your metabolic rate down, re-partitioning of macro-nutrients etc via gluconeogenesis and triglycerides and suchlike.
So first off, ditch that diet mate, start to slowly introduce some lean protein sources, vegetables and some EFA's (essential fatty acids) like nuts/seeds, coconut oil, oily fish, if you want carbs other than vegetables then again, introduce them slowly, in small amounts at say breakfast and before and after training.
You will gain some weight for now, but much of it will be water weight, glycogen replenishment and a bit of lean muscle-mass returning because you've left it in a depleted state for the last 5 weeks or so, remember mate, SLOOOOOOOOWLY :-), hope that helps.
