I am a constant runner, 30 mins a day four or five times a week, weightlifting 3 times a week and dance two times a week. I am constantly active and I have not lost ANY weight in the last month or so. It's a constant fluctuation of about 5 lbs. of what I can only assume is water weight. If anyone has any suggestions, tips, anything, I'm desperate!

I follow a 25-30 carb a day regime and I am all out of ideas.

Try upping your carbs. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but with that much exercise, your body is probably begging for more carbs. Also, try increasing your calories significantly for a couple of days, then eating to satiety again on subsequent days. A rest day every week may also help.

It sounds to me like you're stalling a bit, and these are some of the best stall breakers I've found for very active people like us. It may or may not work, but it won't do you any harm, and it should be work a try!

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out! Your experience will be helpful to others here too.

I'll give it a try, thanks for the input.

Try switching up your workout! your body gets used to 30 minutes a day, and it's probably too easy for you now! Upping carbs may not be necessary...I run anywhere from an hour to 2 hours a day in addition to weight lifting (training for a marathon) on very little carbs. or try doing some speed workouts. You would be amazed at what an extra 20 minutes on top of your normal workout can do to your bod.

Interesting idea. I have heard the term speed workout but I don't really know much about it. Please elaborate. I am a student so time is very limited but I during the weekends running longer is something I really enjoy. Thanks for the advice, I'll give it a try.

I would try doing a nice long run on the weekends to mix up your current routine, and then on you normal runs during the week, try making it harder by making it a "fartlek" run. funny word, but it's a real running term. basically, during your run you jsut pick up your speed for a short distance (say, the lenght between 2 telephone poles) and then go back to your normal pace. You normal pace will feel hard, but soon your breathing/hearrate will return to normal. you can really fine tune the workout to your own needs. short, really fast intervals or long, medium fast, or you can go by time. Say every 5 minutes you are goign to pick it up for a minute. You will really feel a difference the next day and it can be really fun to push yourself in this way. I like to pretend I'm finishing a race while I'm doing the faster segments, and imagine people cheering me on!

Hey,

I tried the fartlek and I really did feel a difference in the way I ran and how I felt afterwords. I hope this mixing it up makes a difference. Running 4x a week and lifting 3x a week and eating right I feel like I should see the weight just falling off me! But perhaps there is something in my diet stalling me. I have been around 20-30 carbs a day and I am thinking that that may be too few for long periods of time. Any imput on that anyone? Perhaps a refeed is in order.

Thanks.

Hi Amazonann7! Well I work out just as much as you except I do an hour on the treadmill and 2-3 times a week weights and I was at a stall last week, plus all the low carb treats I had to cut out to see if that helped. So on Saturday I did a refeed that night and had Chinese food, some jelly beans and a couple of girl scout mint cookies and OMG I was stuffed! So the next morning I weighed in and gained 1 lb. I started induction again on SUnday and on Tuesday I lost 2 1/2 lbs and as of todays weigh in I lost another 3lbs! WOOHOO! I stopped my stall. You should give it a try. Good luck to you and let us know what you did....Have a great weekend!

I might just have to try that for an evening. I hear high carb, low fat is the way to go. True? Shpgrl03 do you intend to stay on Induction for the two weeks or start upping again soon?

Yeah, I could only do 1 evening as opposed to 2 full days like I see a lot of these people do here on these forums. It was hard enough mentally, well and physically in that I felt sluggish the next day and headachy for a couple thereafter. Yes indeed, I am planning to stay on induction. I'm doing pretty well right now I don't want to mess it up. We work too hard to go backward again. You know what I mean? You know you can stay on induction for 6 months if you want, however, with our workout programs I think we'll be needing to up our carbs soon! Good luck to you and let us know if you did the refeed thing and how it went for you! Have a great weekend!

Another thing to try is to take a week off from the exercising (walk instead of running, no weights). This lets your body fully recover from any minor injuries. When you start again, your body will be more energetic and burn more calories.

Well, thanks for all the advice on everything. I have been adding the spurts of energy and on my extended saturday run outside it was GREAT. I really felt my muscles after the run, something I haven't experienced in a long time. I am trying a refeed today (sunday) and then going back to induction and cutting out the fake sweets. I think one of my problems is upping carbs in a good way, I only eat a small portion of salad or veggies and cheese, those are usually my only carbs and I have a feeling I shouldn't bring the cheese levels up. Any suggestions about ways of slowly upping the carbs other ways?

Thanks again

Well I bit the bullet and did it, I gained like 3 lbs on thefirst day off, monday, and I still have a lot of it on today, tuesday, when are the lbs supposed to start shedding? It's a bit scary but I did have a good workout on mondy. Hope this thing works. Do any other runners have a problem with the fake sweets?

Shpgrl, did you cut out all the fake sweets while you were on induction?

Thnx

Hi Amazonann7! I know what you mean! It's very scary when you see the poundage go up! THat's why I only did a refeed at dinner and could not continue. I started back on induction Sunday and by Tuesday I saw what I gained shed. I cut out ALL "fake sweets" such as Carbo Rite chocolates and Atkins bars. Now that was last week (1st week back on induction). This weekend when I got hungry and wanted something different I did get a Atkins bar but I limited 1 a day. I have not gotten back on the scale but will on Friday. Last week I lost 5 1/2 lbs. I hope this week will be the same or better! I read somewhere also that runners may want to switch workout routines so that our bodies don't get used to the same old thing so this week I'm trying that. Instead of doing my weights 2-3 X's this week I'm cutting it out to mend my muscles and instead of running I will speed walk on the highest incline and do my Pilates instead of the FIRM upper and lower. Let's see how this works and I will go back to my routine next week. Let me know what happens.....

Well, I did the refeed a week ago and I havent changed a bit. Not a bit of change. This is very frustrating. Any ideas on changes to the exercise routine or the diet don't seem to make a difference. Perhaps there is some missing supplement or exercise I have not yet tried. Here's hoping I'll find it soon.