The healthier I try to be the worse I feel

cormac705

About two and a half years ago, following years of being overweight I decided to overhaul my entire diet and lifestyle in a bid to to lose weight, become fitter and live a healthier life in general. Initial results were fantastic, I lost about three stone, become much fitter and much more informed as regards nutrition and healthy eating. Everything was going great and I was within I'd say 6-7 pounds of my goal and then everything stopped. No amount of exercise, dieting etc could shift those extra pounds. That was about a year and a half ago and to this day I'm still trying to lose those last few pounds.

I'm 21 years old, about 5 foot 8/9 and I currently weigh roughly 11 stone 8 pounds. I'm in no way unfit and would be in fact fitter than the majority of my friends. I run at least 3-5 times a week for various distances of 10/15/20km each time depending on how I am feeling. I play soccer once a week and do a good bit of walking rather than taking public transport. My diet at the minute consists mainly of meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, nuts and small amounts of fruits. I'm effectively on a paleo style diet as I'm trying out not eating dairy or gluten in a bid to see if it makes me feel any better.

Despite making all of these sacrifices as regards my diet and exercising frequently, I still feel the last few pounds are weighing me down and I feel like I'm carrying around an extra stone. I feel sluggish and bloated especially around my mid-section where the majority of my remaining excess fat is and it makes me feel very uncomfortable at times when I'm running or exercising so I am desperate to lose it.

It's soul destroying for me to think that despite working hard and making all of these sacrifices, I seem to reap none of the rewards. The harder I push myself, the more I sacrifice and the more I feel like this time it's going to work the worse I feel when nothing happens like usual.

I'm not interested about reaching any number on a weighing scale its more about how my body looks. I'm also not after some super ripped body but rather a body that I feel reflects my lifestyle as opposed to one that seems to contradict it.

Any tips or advice anyone could offer me would be very much appreciated because at this stage I am running out of ideas and I'm getting sick of trying and failing.

SunnyDub1

The last few pounds/stone is always the hardest. You should give yourself credit for not putting any of the weight back on.

Your body isn't going to dramatically change over night or in the short run.
It sometimes takes weeks if not months to see a results.

If you post a typical days diet, I'm sure someone here
with more experience and knowledge will be happy to help.

cormac705

That's the thing though, this has been something I've been battling for nearly a year and a half not just something I've started in the last few months or weeks. Granted I have not always been as strict with my diet as I am at the minute but I'm always very careful with what I eat. It's the fact that I've tried so hard for so long and have seen nothing change that gets to me. I can definitely tell that my fitness levels go up because my endurance and speed increase but my body dose not seem to match my fitness levels and is in a way holding me back from going on further and being the absolute best that I could be.

Typical daily diet at the minute would consist of

Breakfast - 3/4 egg omelet depending on size of eggs with maybe two lean, grilled rashers
piece of fruit
handful of nuts
water

Lunch - grilled chicken/turkey/lean steak with loads of roast/stir-fried vegetables
maybe some nuts and a piece of fruit
water

Dinner - roast salmon with roast vegetables or prawn stir-fry with vegetables as well
water

Snacks - small piece of fruit/peanut butter on apple slices/sometimes I might have rice cakes with peanut butter/ occasionally a soy yogurt

That would be an average day. It's not the same everyday but it generally revolves around meat/fish/vegetables and nuts for the most part.

cmyk

At first glance that's a pretty healthy looking diet. I'd guess, depending on your portion sizes you may simply just be eating at maintenance or thereabouts.

Have you tried weighing portions and plugging them into a calorie tracker like fitday or similar?

Edit: For instance I put your breakfast in alone...between 6-700cals

Tom_Cruise

What kind of body are you aiming to achieve? Is it just to lose to few remaining pounds?

Have you tried resistance training of some kind?

Emeraldy Pebbles

Well, OP, you're a healthy BMI using even 5'8" as your height. Why do you feel like you are carrying too much weight?

Col_Loki

I would imagine you are eating at maintenance. Your Diet looks good and very clean, try to reduce the amount of nuts you are eating, maybe replace the morning nuts with an extra egg. You are eating quite a lot for breakfast and nuts being calorie dense it is easy to over do it on them.

Have you thought about doing weights? Don't need to get massive or anything but a bit of muscle helps give you a better shape and also helps burn those calories!

cormac705

I've done quite a bit of resistance and strength training over the years so I do have lean muscle but I just can't shift those last few pounds to show up the definition. I'm not after some supper ripped body but rather one that shows up the definition in my stomach/chest etc.

As I said before it all seems to be located around my midsection and often I feel like I'm wearing an inflatable ring/spare tire around my waist that leaves me feeling bloated/sluggish despite the fact that I'm fit and healthy.

As regards portion size, for my dinner tonight I had two salmon darns baked in the oven with carrot and parsnip mash so it would be quite a sizable meal.

I'm also thinking of cutting back on the nuts as they are very easy to snack on but as you say Col_Loki, they are very calorie dense.

In a nutshell (no pun intended!), I feel over the last two and a half years I have worked very hard to overhaul my entire lifestyle in relation to eating and exercise to the point now where I am seen by all of my friends as the healthy one who is an example to the rest of them.

However I also feel that my body is betraying me by holding on to these last few pounds and not allowing me to reach the goal I set out for myself two and a half years ago and despite me doing everything that I should, it refuses to cooperate.

That is why I'm desperate to find a solution because I am running out of ideas at this stage and it is hard to stay motivated when it feels like all my efforts are futile.

Col_Loki

I think you are really close to achieving what you want, I think a slight adjustment to your Diet and that should do it. A couple of things I would change around and see if it works for you....

1) Reduce the amount of nuts. Also make sure they are not the salted/dry roasted kind.
2) Reduce the amount of fruit. Fruit is high in natural sugar which can raise insulin levels. Cut back to 1 piece a day.
3) Think about including beans into your Diet. They are very handy, healthy and keep you full for a long time. I used to get Bachelors Baked Beans (make sure its NO Added SUGAR) & Bachelors Mixed beans cans....great with Fish/Veg to keep you full. Also they go with Eggs/Bacon in the morning (could have half can in the morning, rest of can with Dinner). Beans were a saviour for me when cutting down on Carbs. I was always nice and full, great Diet.
4) Peanut butter is also something you have to be careful with, massive calories and its easy to have to much without knowing it. Its nice and healthy, just watch the amount.


I am not sure how those suggestions catch you but sure let me know!


As a by the way I have went through all of this, spent a ~9months trying to get rid of the extra few pounds until I made a few tweaks (4months later I am very happy). When i say extra i mean ~5-6% Body Fat btw.

cgarrad

Try green juice, its remarkable