Struggling in CrossFit After Two Years

[beittel59]

Hey everyone, so I have been doing CrossFit now for about two years and it has been very up and down as far as my progress goes. My running and endurance is no problem (well it used to be), my strength has slowly been creeping up for example the other day at my box in class we did a WOD where it was EMOM for 40 minutes with minute one being 12 cals on the rower where I got my cals done in about 25-28 seconds average, 50 DUs, and 5 Back Squats building in weight and got to 285 on the last round. My other strength movements like power clean is maxing out right now at 215lbs. Anyways my performance has fluctuated the last few months, I could easily attest it to my job but I recently quit to help my Crossfit box expand a unit they recently bought into a 24 hour gym so I have more time on my hands to get in better shape. Here's the problem though, I am a personal trainer I am studying to take my CSCS soon basically my life revolves around fitness, and S&C but I have struggled losing weight and improving my body comp, right now I am sitting around 205lbs and 20 percent BF (Im 5'9). I have been carefully watching my macros and I have tried every diet, low carb, high carb low fat, IF, etc. but I seriously can not seem to budge the scale at all and I can't figure out why I have been logging everything including my supplements and it has been very frustrating, so I was looking to see if any one on here had an advice to help improve body comp stats. Thanks in advance!

 

[alvanorichie]

@beittel59 You need an actual nutritionist, someone who has a degree in nutrition and is credentialed to help you if you want help. If you are not burning stored fat you aren't in a caloric deficit. You are at equilibrium or over. That's just math and that's how it works. No matter what nutrition strategy you want to implement you have to be eating less than you are using every day. You can calculate all you want, but the floor scale is the final judge of whether you are eating over or under your daily caloric equilibrium and by how much. Once you establish a workable calorie number you have to stick with it. There's just no way around it. It's the hardest thing I ever did health wise. I completely changed what I ate and why I ate. Now I eat for performance. I control it as much as anything I do at the gym.

You need to weigh everything you eat on a food scale and enter it into myfitnesspal or whatever tracking app you are using. And you need to be totally honest about it. Not measuring, not eyeballing, WEIGHING. Every bit of everything that goes in your mouth. No exceptions. A lot can slip through the cracks. Take olive oil for example 120 cals/TBSP. Did you measure it and add it in the app when you cooked your zucchini? Or a little bit of shredded cheese on your taco bowl that you guesstimated and didn't actually weigh? Or not measuring your peanut butter into your smoothie and having 2TBSP/200 cals instead of the 1BSP/100 cals you logged?

I just lost a 11 lbs in like 3 weeks. I'm 42 and 5ft 11in and was over 19% (DEXA)d. I've lost weight before so I have a pretty good idea how to do it with my body and I can switch to burning fat quickly and have a very extreme deficit and be ok. I was like 1200-1400 cals a day and since I am trying to be only fat burning it was almost no carbs. Not advisable by most people but I've been keto in big deficits before and it works pretty well for me so that's what I do.

 

[beittel59]

@alvanorichie This is very good advice I guess when it comes to the very small details like you’re describing I can improve there, so it is likely I am not in a deficit at all. I’m going to take your advice and start eating for performance and change my overall outlook on nutrition in general!

 

[dawn16]

@beittel59 I would recommend the r/fitness wiki. You say you've been watching your macros but have you been hitting your numbers? Are you weighing and measuring and just eye balling?

I'm going to suggest you try calculating your macros, and weight/measure your food for a full week. Record your calories everyday. Record your weight everyday after going to the bathroom. At the end of the week take average of your weight and average calories and readjust e.g. are you losing 1-2lbs? Keep on trucking - did your aver not go down by anything? Reduce calories.

 

[dadavid]

@beittel59 Bro, were the same. 5'7", 205 lbs, and I can't budge. I got to 195 and was so sick of feeling exhausted during the WODs I dropped the diet and ate at maintenance. Went straight back to 205 and I am content here. I have energy again and am pushing myself harder than I ever have.

Let me know though if you find something that works! I'll be following your

 

[gracelynn]

@beittel59 Don’t underestimate the ways that medical conditions (hormone imbalances, autoimmune disorders) can play a role in this. My weight seemed “stuck” and I discovered my testosterone was 3x the MAXIMUM amount it should be for women … which sounds appealing to men, but for women it means my cortisol and cholesterol were also sky high. Turned out I had an autoimmune illness that was being flared up by my diet (gluten, casein and sugars).

I’ll also add that even when I tracked my macros, I never paid much attention to ingredients. When you start to read food labels (everything from yogurts to crackers to oat milk) you will discover the incredible amount of sugar AND sugar substitutes in our food.

 

[beittel59]

@gracelynn I was curious about that so I did a complete blood work to see if my hormones were imbalanced at all and turns out my testosterone levels are only at 460 which is very low for someone my age (27) so I’m thinking that might have something to do with that as well

 

[revmo]

@gracelynn Same. 31F and too-high testosterone due to PCOS also made me hold onto bodyfat more than I should. Hormones are a huge deal.

 

[goodolchristiangal]

@beittel59 After reading all the comments I think you're all set with advice on food. Was wondering if I could add something different in. Maybe you've removed the intensity of crossfit wods by going too heavy all the time. I think it is quite common for very good athletes to forget to do a workout at 75lbs on the bar or genuinely push the pace on a 'basic' workout. Often everyone scales up everything because its "harder" but we lose a lot in that pursuit. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree.