No Fat Loss After 3 Weeks?

Diet and Nutrition
1

Stats: 40 years old, 6’ 3", 188 lbs (former fat boy - was 261 lbs in Oct 06), 17% body fat (according to a BIA scale). Lost all that weight from Oct 06 to last May(indoor rowing). Have been VERY stable both in weight and BF% since May. My goal is to lose about 10 more pounds of fat. Doing the math that takes me to 178 lbs and 12% BF (if I lose no lean mass)

I still do a fair amount of rowing (40-50 minutes of hard sweating 3-4 times a week). Started mixing in the fat loss programs from New Rules of Lifing (about twice a week). Wasn’t seeing much change.

Started taking HOT-ROX Extreme about 3 weeks ago - 2 pills twice a day - I’m still not seeing anything. I don’t feel different (not sure if I’m supposed to be getting some kind of buzz). If anything, I’m getting hungrier and maybe have put on a pound or two. Losing a little of what ab definition (2-pack) I had when I was 184# back in the summer.

How typical is it for it to not kick in, or is 3 weeks enough to know that it won’t do anything for me? Any other advice about what’s going on?

2

Not long enough, just be patient. As it’s been said before: It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Just keep plugging away and before you know it you’ll be making progress.

3

Did you change your diet? You won’t lose weight from supplements alone.

4

Bioelectric impedance scales are notoriously inaccurate and unreliable.

5

[quote]tbartman wrote:
Stats: 40 years old, 6’ 3", 188 lbs (former fat boy - was 261 lbs in Oct 06), 17% body fat (according to a BIA scale). Lost all that weight from Oct 06 to last May(indoor rowing). Have been VERY stable both in weight and BF% since May. My goal is to lose about 10 more pounds of fat. Doing the math that takes me to 178 lbs and 12% BF (if I lose no lean mass)

I still do a fair amount of rowing (40-50 minutes of hard sweating 3-4 times a week). Started mixing in the fat loss programs from New Rules of Lifing (about twice a week). Wasn’t seeing much change.

Started taking HOT-ROX Extreme about 3 weeks ago - 2 pills twice a day - I’m still not seeing anything. I don’t feel different (not sure if I’m supposed to be getting some kind of buzz). If anything, I’m getting hungrier and maybe have put on a pound or two. Losing a little of what ab definition (2-pack) I had when I was 184# back in the summer.

How typical is it for it to not kick in, or is 3 weeks enough to know that it won’t do anything for me? Any other advice about what’s going on?

[/quote]

First off congrats on dropping the weight! Sounds like your stuck as a skinny fat guy right now. You have two options: 1. change your diet or 2. change your routine.

  1. Diet:
    What’s your diet like? You can’t outtrain and outsupplement a poor diet. I take HRX and on days when I take the max dose I can be a little high strung(don’t tolerate caffine well) and ravenously hungry all day. You could of course always go the simple route. If your not loosing weight then you are eating maintenance calories. Just cut them by a couple hundred a day and try it for a few weeks.

  2. Routine:
    it sounds like you are getting plenty of cardio type work but if you go into a calorie deficit the first thing to go is muscle if you don’t have a reason to keep it. I spend at least one day every week lifting heavy with money exercises. Try deadlifts, squats, etc. I do the complexes for fat loss routine for metabolic and cardio and it’s worked pretty well for me so far(before and after pics in profile).

I’m a FFB also(my avatar) and there’s nothing I love more than to see a fat guy loose the weight and look great so feel free to PM me if you have questions or if you don’t want to post your exact diet & routine. I’m no expert but will help if I can.

PeterD

6

You didn’t mention anything about your diet. Diet is the most important factor.

7

Everyone - thanks so much for the advice so far. PeterD - my before photo is a little worse than yours, but I’m stuck about 80% of the way towards your after photo! This is the problem!! I’m want that last 20% (I don’t look like I’m pregnant anymore, but I still have that bicycle tire and a little paunch up front). Can you really get rid of it without lipo?

The diet has probably slipped a bit the last few months (maybe why I leveled off), but here’s the general idea (sort of Atkins-like and Men’s Health Abs-diet like):

Breakfast: Usually 1c of oatmeal with 1c milk, a protein plus bar, or 2-3 scrambled eggs (usually one of the above, rarely two).

Morning snack: handful of dry roasted almonds (~30)

Lunch: SouthBeach lunch box (usually about 250 calories and 25 gm protein). 2 days a week this goes to pot when the office gets lunch (goes to about 800 calories those days).

Afternoon snack: sometimes a two-scoop protein shake (GNC), maybe sneak a handful of M&Ms from the office candy jar

Dinner: Wife cooks, usually fish, lean meat or chicken - nothing fried, little carbs (small amount of rice or pasta on the side), mix of steamed veggies, beans. The total volume of what I eat is about 2 fists-worth.

Night snack: was nothing for a long time, now I find myself downing 2-3 of those 100 calorie snack bags.

In there somewhere I’ll often throw one more thing per day (a banana with 1/4 cup of peanut butter, a cup of low-fat cottage cheese, something like that). All drinks are zero-cal (decaf coffee, diet soda, water).

Given that my weight has been totally stable, and based on a bunch of metabolic rate calculators, I’m probably eating and burning about 2600-2800 calories per day.

8

Your diet isn’t horrible but to take your body to the next level your going to have to clean up the diet.

Keep your hands out of the candy jar, drop the protein bar, pass on company lunch.

I feel like I refer everyone to this article, but it works. Read it, read the discussion thread. Internalize it and follow it.

http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1615551