dapper

I have been doing this for 6 months now. I think my last measurement my gut was bigger than it was in the beginning. I also weigh 12 more obs than I did when I started. I lift 5 days a week. I also walk Saturdays and Sundays at a 3.5 to 4.0 mph pace for 30 min. I eat right around 2250 calories daily. Here is my diet and it does not fluctuate much. By the way I am a diabetic so I have to eat carbs so my sugar won't drop too low but I am well below what the nutritionist told me to eat by about 100 carbs a day. So here is the diet.

Meal #1
1 serving Cream of Wheat
1 serving protein drink (substitute for 4 eggs only one yolk scrambled sometimes)

Meal #2
3 pieces Chicken Tenderloin
1 serving Danon carb control yogurt

Meal #3
2 slices low carb 100% whole wheat bread (7 carbs per slice)
1 tbsp natural peanutbutter
1 tbsp sugar free strawberry jam
1 serving danon carb control yogurt

Meal #4
3 pieces chicken tenderloin
1 serving danon carb control yogurt

Meal #5
1 chicken breast
2 servings green beans
2 cups lettuce with some carrots
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp parmasean cheese

Meal #6
Syntrax Matrix 5.0 protein drink
1 serving danon carb control yogurt

I also drink about a gallon of water a day.
I also take CEE, Alpha Lopic Acid (for diabetis mainly), Fish oil for my heart.

My last blook glucose test called an A1C was below 6 which was excellent. My cholestrol went for 252 in March to 107 in May and all my other readings are in range.

So there is a difference in that stuff. The problem is that I am not losing any fat. I have ate only 1500 calories a day, 2500 calories a day, 2000 calories a day and it doesn't matter I keep putting on weight and my measurments stay the same or get bigger. I feel like I have wasted 6 months now. I feel like the only way for me to lose any fat is to just stop eating.

I spend anywhere from 40 to 60 min working out daily. My routine is as follows.

Mon-Legs
Tue-Chest/Triceps
Wed-Back/Biceps
Thur-Shoulders/Traps
Fridays-Abs/Forearms

I have tried doing more cardio, less cardio and it doesn't seem to matter. I walk on the weekends after meal #5 because walking is great for a diabetic and keeping their sugar levels down. Basically the only difference in my diet is on Friday nights I have 2 Laura's lean ground beef patties with fat free cheese instead of the chicken breast and I do the same on Saturday evenings.

Please help I am getting very depressed over this. 6 months and no results is pretty depressing. I don't follow the scales much. I do weigh myself once a week for the heck of it. Mainly I use the tape measure and I do have BF calipers I am learning to use but no difference in those either unless they get bigger and the electronic BF tester at my gym, I do it for the fun of it sometimes and it is consistantly going up.

HatesFat

The scale is important to figure out your caloric needs, give us your current weight.

One thing that I'm confused about is what approach you are taking with your diet. You have part focus on low-carb, and then you have things like strawberry jam and cream of wheat.

Generally, to achieve a state of ketosis, you have to keep your carbs down to 5% of your total calories.

If ketosis is not the goal, you need to up your carbs to be 40% of your calories. You should not be messing with the middle ground... you're either going for ketosis or you are not.

The way your diet looks now, it looks like you're trying to go for an atkins-style ketogenic diet, which can be effective, but may hamper your muscle gains, or muscle preservation. Muscle loss and fat-stagnation may also lead to increased BF% readings.

You should look into cyclical ketogenic diets (or carb-cycling) where you bring yourself into ketosis for a period of time and then you have periods where you ingest a large amount of carbohydrates when it is most useful to do so (for example, post-workout).

Another option is that if you are tired of the low-carb thing, try switching over to 40/40/20, i.e. 40% of cals from Protein, 40% from carbs and 20% from fat (mostly unsaturated). So in your case, say you weigh 200lbs, i would approximate that you will need: 2000 cals, 200g protein, 200g carbs, around 45g fat... that is an average... you may want to zig-zag your cals, i.e. 1700 one day, 2300 the next, but try to aim for a 3500-cal deficit for a given week. That SHOULD lose you 1lb of fat per week.

Whatever you do, do not under-eat. Jury's out on overtraining IMO, but under-eating is pretty much unanimously considered the death of muscle which is tough to gain in a lot of cases.

dapper

I am 5'8" and I weigh 208 lbs weighed this past Sunday morning.

I am a type II diabetic. So I am trying to keep my carbs low but I have to eat carbs. The sugar free strawberry jam has 5 carbs. The cream of wheat has 23 carbs. I am supposed to eat 60 to 75 carbs per meal (using 3 meals a day). But I come out to around 120 carbs a day. Two things can happen when a diabetic don't eat any carbs, either their blood sugar goes low and this is not a good feeling or our liver says hey you need some energy and starts dumping sugar into our blood and it is simple sugar and causes our sugar to go high. I try and eat complex carbs. I am not sure about the cream of wheat if it is simple or complex but I used to eat oatmeal which is complex but I got so sick of it I started throwing it back up. I take some fish oil and Alpha lopic acid before I eat this meal. Meal #3 has around 20 carbs and meal #5 has less than 20 all coming from the green beans, I also take ALA with my meal #3 and take fish oil and ala with meal #5.

So I cannot do what normal people do for eating. Heck my nutritionist told me to eat this carbs 50%, protein 25%, and fat 25%, but she also said that a blood sugar reading below 170 was alright. I have always been told to keep blood sugar around 100.

dbflgirl

Perhaps you should try following what the nutritionist prescribed.

skelooth

yes you are right, it is important for a diabetic to eat carbs because you can get keto-acidosis (I spelled that wrong, i can feel it), where basically your blood becomes toxic. This is especially true if you are insulin dependent.

How long have you been diagnosed as a diabetic? It is very difficult for diabetics to lose weight, very. My mother is an insulin dependent diabetic who I live with, and for the past year or so I have been coaching her on meals and things... I think she has lost about 15lbs in the last year.

It really does look like you are on the right track and doing the right things.... but don't give up!!!!! I want you look at it this way...

What type of shape would you be in if you DIDN'T diet and exercise?
How long would you live if you DIDN'T diet and exercise?
What would your quality of life be like if you DIDN'T exercise?

Those three questions really do not paint a pretty picture. If you've been at it for 6 months with very little results (I'm sure you've made progress even if not overly significant) than i'm sorry to say but if you stop you are going to put fat on like a balloon. Don't let that happen. Just keep plugging away it the way you have man. Giving up is for losers. You're fighting an uphill battle, but with enough time it can be won.

__________________

dapper

dbflgirl...The nutritionist said to eat approx 225 carbs a day. She also stated that my sugar being below 170 was good. Well the doctors say sugar should be around 100. So who is right? I don't know but what I do know is that I am maintaining my sugar with only one pill a day and excercise. So when people say I am workiing out too much I am doing it for the diabetis but I figured I might as well get some good out of it and eating what I do I would think that in 6 months I should have done more than add .25 inches onto my waist. I just measured my waist this morning at belly button level where I always measure. I don't spend a lot of time in the gym each night. I just need to do something for the diabetis to help keep it under control. That is why I walk on the weekends just to get my sugar reading down after I eat supper. I don't eat many carbs at supper anyways. Whatever is in a salad, with oil and vinegar dressing and green beans. Chicken has nothing for carbs and sometimes I eat eggs instead of chicken and I watch how many yolks I eat if I have 4 eggs I eat one yolk if I have 6 eggs I eat 2 yolks.

You were the one that told me to eat more food and lay off the protein drinks so I have been fixinf scrambled eggs ever since you told me this. and I substitute danon carb control yogurt for meals 2 and 4 instead of the protein drink. So now it is a protein drink after I workout and one before bed along with another yogurt. No I haven't found the low or no sodium cottage cheese. Maybe our cows in Tennessee don't make it that way hahaha. I drive all over and I stop when I see health food stores and no sodium free cottage cheese. So I use the yogurt. I like the yogurt I have never liked cottage cheese but was willing to give it another try because I guess it is good for me.

skelooth

i just saw the sodium free cottage cheese in my local supermarket today... but... I'm really curious... for some reason the low sodium cottage cheese has more carbs

__________________

dapper

Figures............I am still trying to figure out if Natural Peanut Butter has only peanuts and salt, then another product let's say JIF has all this processed stuff in it how the heck can the natural peanut butter cost so dang much, same with sugar free stuff, if you don't put the sugar in it aren't you leaving something out. I get so angry when I see something that doewn't use hardly any ingredients cost so much more than the same item but that item is processed with all the crap in it and wouldn't it take a lot more steps and longer to make than the more natural stuff. The only thing I can think of is that they don't sell as much of the natural stuff so to make their profit on it they have to charge more. If more people ate better I bet the processed crap prices would go up and the natural food would go down. Who the heck knows just a huge pain in the arse for me.

skelooth

supply vs demand

according to my macro-economics 101 teacher (or at least how she'd put it) is that natty foods/health foods are 'scarce', in the sense that not everyone has them, the supply is limited, and the demand is small, which means higher prices (They've got to make up the money they lose for the products not moving fast enough).

Where as the 'bad' food is available in massive abundancies (ton of supply) because it sells very well and everyone eats it (demand for 'more' is low), making the price lower.

This is only my 2nd macro economics class and i've already learned so much!!!!!!! YAY!

But yeah, it's ridiculous. according to theomnivore (.com? .org?? i forget) it's all a conspiracy to keep the wealthy fit and the poor fat.

__________________

dbflgirl

If this is pre-workout, the shake is ok. Otherwise, have the eggs.

The carb control yogurt is probably not helping you. How about some brown rice instead?

This meal is comprised of nearly entirely processed foods (bread, jam, yogurt). If you really want to have a sandwich, how about tuna? Better yet, replace the bread with a small potato (regular or sweet) and a dish of tuna with lemon and olive oil.

Have some green veggies instead of the yogurt. How many ounces is the chicken and what cut is the tenderloin?

Looks good.

What kind of protein is the Syntrax? Ditch the yogurt here.

When do you workout?

I would try 2000 calories for about 2 weeks and see how you do.

dapper

Syntrax Matrix 5.0 is a slow release protein. I take it before I go to bed. Why do away with the yogurt? Like I said I eat it because of the diabetis, and I am pretty much right at 2000 calories maybe 2100 to 2200. I bought some tomatoes and cucumbers today so I will be eating them as snacks. Not many calories and I will have a little more to eat. By the way the yogurt has 60 calories, 6 grams of fat, 6 carbs, and 10 grams of protein. It is Danon carb control yogurt in a little cup.

Meal #3 well, I eat what I eat for the main reason I am on the road all day. I pack 3 meals in my cooler which holds 3 of those ice things and hold 76 oz of water not including the 33 oz bottle I start off with each day. It is just easier to fix a sandwich. I thought the sugar free jam was pretty natural, I haven't checked a label other than the nutrients. Also I didn't know yogurt was bad.

Meal #1 I mainly do have eggs. It's just that I had bought some protein from vitamin world $5 for a 5 lb tub. Met-Rx they are discontinuing it so it was being sold real cheap. I am jsut trying to use it up is the only reason I am not eating the eggs every morning anymore, but once it is gone back to the eggs every morning.

For meals #2, 3, 4 I am on the road. I have no way to cook or heat anything up. If for some reason I don't have a busy day and I am home for one of those meals I heat up some veggies. But as I said jsut a few min ago I did buy some tomatoes and cucumbers today so I can pack them away.

The chicken tenderloin is a frozen bag of Tyson, I haven't look at what cut the tenderloin is. Meal #5 consist of chicken breast. I could stop buying the tenderloin and just fix 1 extra breast and cut it in half for meal #2 and #4.

I am not saying I an't do better it is so much easier for me to fix a quick PB&J and then heaad back on the road and eat as I drive, I eat 3 meals a day while I am driving this makes me get home a little quicker at the end of the day.

I don't do seafood, just the smell of it makes me want to throw up. My first wife was a Phillipino and the things she did with deafood was not natural and it smelt so bad that I would get sick. I have never gotten over it and she lift back in 1991. I can't stand walking through the seafood section of a grocery store.

Also along with all this being a diabetic makes me have to work a diet different than most at least something that will keep my sugar down. So I think it makes it extra hard. I do not eat potatoes anymore. At least white. If I do eat one it would be sweet potato but I can't fix it while driving. Yes they are a complex carb though but I have cut any kind of potato out.