Struggling to lose weight

[Coatman]

Hello all.

I'm currently struggling to shed extra fat. I guess the post title is a little misleading as I'm more concerned with losing fat than with weighing less.

I currently cycle 3-4 times a week, clocking in an average of between 60-100miles per week. I also incorporate 2-3 sessions of fairly intense weight training every week after work as well as a lighter kettlebell workout every morning before breakfast.

Diet wise I take a multi-vitamin and cod liver oil tablet every morning with a glass of water before my kettlebell workout, followed by a boiled egg and bowl of either fruit and fiber cereal or porridge with cinnamon and a little honey. Other meals during the day vary more, but work lunches tend to consist of leftovers from dinner, or chicken/fish with a lot of spinach and salad leaves and maybe a sweet potato. Dinner varies greatly but is almost always home cooked with fresh ingredients and and very very rarely contains any sort of processed food.

I also take a scoop of protein powder after my cycle and evening weight sessions to aid recovery time - I was finding I was constantly sore without it!

I have notices physical changes in muscle size and tone and my fitness and overall health has definitely improved, but I have yet to see any real difference in the amount of fat I am carrying on my frame.

I've been doing this routine/lifestyle for around 3-4 months now.

Any tips on how to trim the excess fat?

[Smc79]

I would change your exercise as our bodies get use to the same exercise & you stop losing weight I've been doing a DVD T25 it only 25 a day over 6 day the great thing is it a different exercise every day

[Coatman in reply to Smc79]

Sound advice but I've found that this sort of thing doesn't generally work for me because I get bored of the exercise, which encourages me to skip it :/.

Cycling is wonderful because I'm outdoors and seeing new scenery and can keep pushing further and further afield which staves off any boredom.

I'm also pushing to cycle more because I enjoy cycling and want to get involved with doing charity races and long distance rides, so the cycling is training for that as well as just exercise.

[jenwriter]

I've seen a documentary on tv one says that vitamins are unnecessary unless advised by your dcotor. You should have enough vitamins in your diet and if you have too much of the vitamin in your system you will just pee it out.

"Spot reducing fat - It's impossible to isolate fat loss; the body loses fat from allover the body, so instead of wasting your time with exercises or products that claim to melt fat from a certain area, focus on total body strength training, various forms of cardio, and a healthy diet, in order to lose fat from allover the body, including those trouble zones." That's from fitness blender, I've been using their advice and their amazing workout videos to lose weight.

Everyone is different, a certain amount of fat on your body is healthy so why worry? I think it takes longer to lose the fat on your body.

[Coatman in reply to jenwriter]

I'm taking the vitamin supplements on the advice of a trainer as an aid to recovery from workouts.

As regards the 'a certain amount of fat on your body is healthy so why worry?' comment - my problem is I have a LOT of excess fat on my body (around a 40" waist). I'm 5'9" and weigh 17.5 stone.

[jenwriter]

Fair enough I'm no expert. I can only go by my own experience and what I've read. I'm not sure if your a healthy weight or not but you don't need to be stick thin. Check you BMI and it will tell you. I've been on an exercise and calorie counting plan thing for nearly a month and I've noticed a change in my muscle and I have a smaller stomach but it's slow going and it's not a huge reduction.

I was exercising previous to this month but I wasn't eating less or being consittant. I'm sure your trainer could give you advice.

[Coatman in reply to jenwriter]

I'm an extremely unhealthy weight according to my BMI - I'm obese, but borderline to being extremely obese. Though I am carrying a lot of muscle which, being denser than fat, skews the BMI result as it doesn't consider this. Regardless, I can tell by looking at myself that I am too fat - I have quite the 'spare tyre'!

[Coatman]

I'm measuring the body fat by visual examination (read: looking in the mirror).

Cycling exhausts basically all muscle groups. I also try and hit all the muscle groups during my weight training, using a lot of compound exercises.

I haven't tried replacing my protein powder with real food, and I'm open to suggestions for this - I just know that without the protein supplement post workout my recovery time is terrible.