Female friend's fat-loss stagnating. Help!

[BlueCorsair]

Hey guys,

I joined the site years ago, a scrawny wee boy, and have put on lots of muscle since thanks to the great advice here; even as a busy university student, I still find that most of the core exercises and diet tips I learned here help keep me sane

Anyway!

I have a female friend of mine who's having a real struggle losing weight; she's genetically predisposed towards being heavier, is my guess, although not really big (borerline endomorph?). She was at one time (four years ago) 180 pounds during her last year of highschool (when she knew little of fitness or healthy eating), and is now down to about 140 thanks to good lifestyle changes, but is still visibly carrying a fair bit of 'baggage', especially around the legs and buttocks (she's 5 feet, 7 inches tall).

She eats very healthy (i.e. whole wheat everything, healthy fats only, decent protein intake) and I have her working out five days per week at the gym - three of them are intense 30-minute cardio sessions (usually on the rowing machine, I like the total-body aspect, myself) and the other two are weight-lifting days, but also including things like push ups, weighted sit ups, dips - anything and everything intense.

She's lost only three pounds in the last two months, and while you can never cheapen progress, that doesn't seem like very much. Five days out of seven is pretty active, and her diet is impeccable, so I find myself at a loss as to why the results are crawling by so slowly. I'm not a professional, but I have turned myself into quite the buff fellow, and all thanks to information I learned here. I thought sharing those secrets with her would help, but they seem to be having minimal impact.

Maybe this is a gender thing that I don't understand, since I'm a guy. Is there anything "generally speaking" that I should make sure she is (or is not) doing? I realize typing out her exact lifting routine might help, but I know enough to know that that part is sound. If anything, she might eat too little, or go too long between meals, so a slowed-down metabolism is my main guess at the moment; I'm not sure how to jump-start it if that's the case, other than ensuring she spaces meals better, but could that really cut her gains down to the slow crawl they're at now?

Providing she's being honest (I trust her entirely), she's working out very hard and being very careful about her diet. All this effort for so little recent gain has to be discouraging, and I'd hate to see someone 'lapse' because of a perception of wasted effort.

Any thoughts/suggestions welcome, I'm sure I can learn something for myself here.

 

[tucker01]

Hard to say really. What has her diet been like over the past few months, Variations in Calories?

A breakdown in her diet Meal by meal, and cals would help.

I am not any expert in training, but breaking down her training routine over the past couple of months, and progress with it.

 

[Tatyana]

Fat loss will stagnate if you eat the same amount of calories, do the same sort of cardio or training for a long period of time.

Our bodies will adapt, it is just a survival mechanism, we like to store fat.

Women in particular like to hoard fat. Where she is hoarding fat is not an unhealthy place to store it, however, I totally get wanting to cut fat from this area.

When the upper and lower body have a difference in the body fat percentage (as often happens with women), consider an essential fatty acid deficiency.

Often people diet with 'low fat' in mind, and this can aggravate that situation.

Has she tried carb curfews or carb tapering? This is a great way to get all of the macronutrient in each day.

Stop eating starchy carbs at night, eat fibrous veg with some oil on it, and vary the fats, so it could be a small amount of nuts, seeds, olive oil, and omega oil combo, sesame oil (great for calcium).

You may also want to have her on the X-trainer or stepper, as this does work the glutes and thighs more.

Cardio first thing in the morning on empty is always a great way.

I know it is a difficult thing to do when you are focused on dieting, but one thing I do is that I make sure that I whack my calories up at least once a week, so I go from around 1800 kcals (on average, this is my 'cutting' diet), to anywhere from 2200-3000 kcals, still keeping it clean.

You may also want to introduce a weekly cheat meal if she is not doing it already, unless of course it sets her up for a binging cycle.


It would be great to see more of the specifics of her diet, also her bodyfat if possible.

And what Ian also asked for.

 

[BlueCorsair]

hmm... solid advice, mostly things I was aware of, but some I wasn't recalling - so thankee both of you.

An exact meal breakdown is a bit tougher; it would seem a bit odd to go poking her for a detailed list

More or less, to my knowledge, breakfast is about a cup of a 100% whole wheat cereal (shreddies, never heard anyone say bad stuff about that) some natty PB for healthy fat, possibly some fruit too. Lunch tends to be a sandwich of some sorts, lean meats only, lots of veggies, sprouted-grain (i.e. high fibre, no flour) bread. Dinner is almost universally with the family, and I can say her parents are great (and healthy) cooks, but the kind of food they eat each night, although healthy, varies widely in type and isn't something she can alter - eats fish fairly often or chicken, almost always some sort of salad, usually something brown rice-ish too. She normally heads to bed around midnight or 1am and tries not to eat carbs after nine pm, therefore. I've suggested a fibre supplement as a good part of a daily routine, as well.

My only criticisms so far have been a lack of water-intake; she gets about four meals per day; I am sure five or six would be better, it often is difficult to make a reality.

I seem to get the impression from the feedback I'm getting that diet is the most likely culprit here? Either not enough, too much, or not the right kind.