Keep weighing yourself. While you don’t want to get stuck on the number the scale displays, it is another form of accountability. Obviously, if you haven’t lost any weight over a period of months something could be done differently.

I’d increase the intensity on the elliptical 2 levels. You’ll barely be able to do it and that’s the point. I’d also start the treadmill and start working different muscle groups.

As far as food goes, what are you eating?

My workouts have changed at the gym since I started working seriously in January.

Originally I would do 15- 20 minutes of elliptical on level 4 or 5 and then do an upper-body workout Mondays and Thursdays and a leg workout Tuesdays and Fridays. Wednesdays I would usually take off. I dropped below 350 after a few weeks of doing this, and then plateaued. About this time, the city announced they would be hiring firefighters (applicants had to past a written and then a physical test), so i began training for that.

In the middle of February, one of the trainers at the gym suggested that I do 15 minutes of cardio (either elliptical or treadmill) and then my weight routine briskly, and follow that with 20 more minutes of cardio work. I did this on basically the same Mon-Tue- Thu-Fri schedule and although my weight remained pretty constant (within 3 pounds of 340) I had to buy new pants because they were becoming too large. I did increase my elliptical intensity to 7 or 8 at this point after discovering your blog.

I passed the written and physical portions of the fireman test (the harder parts of the physical test involve wearing a 40 pound weight vest and carrying ladders and 150 pound test dummies around, as well as running up to the 7th floor of the training building)

After passing the physical portion I fell victim to a pretty serious infection and was unable to move around comfortably or work out for about 3 weeks. The physical test was in the middle of March, so I didn’t really get back in the gym until early April.

in April I decided it would be most helpful to focus on losing weight, so I cut back on the weight training and focused on doing elliptical or treadmill work 40-50 minutes a day every day. I had to start at 5 on the elliptical , but at this point I am up to 9. depending in my mood, I may do 40-50 on the elliptical or split the time with the treadmill. I do an upper body work out about once a week.

I also started biking to work in the middle of May- I live close to the 2 places i work, so its a quick 7 minute ride to one job or a 15 minute ride to the other. I tend to do 40 minutes of cardio the days I bike to work, otherwise the small hills in between are painful.

I have lost 4 inches from my waist size, and dropped from a 4x or 5x shirt to a 2 or 3x, but I haven’t lost any significant amount of weight since the middle of March.

As an aside, when I started it took 6.5-7 minutes on the elliptical to burn 100 calories, now I burn that many in just under 6 minutes and heart rate spikes up about a little less (145-150) when I work that hard.

JC

How’s your intensity increasing at the gym? What levels are on you doing on the elliptical? In that timeframe of several months you should have increased at least 5-6 levels. Have you?

Give us some more details about what you’re doing, what your stats look like, and I’d love to give you some advice.

Tyler

I welcome any advice for myself (from anyone)-
I started exercising back in January, and lost weight (I am not quite sure how much, I started higher then the scales 350 pound capacity, my last doctor weigh-in was about 370) I am down to about 340 now. I have plateaued something fierce and don’t seem to be losing any weight for the past several months, although my waist size has been decreasing and I have had to pants in smaller and smaller sizes.
I do 40-50 minutes of treadmill and elliptical 4-5 days a week, and weight training about twice a week. I’ve made some lifestyle changes- I try to bike to work a few times a week and have pretty much given up sodas…. but I seem to be stuck….