Why am I still flabby?

Unbelievably, I have been going to the gym three times a week for 2 months, eating 1500 calories per day (used to be 1000 but it made me irritable), doing mini-workouts, walking everywhere, taking supplements like blue-green algae and chromium, drinking herbal teas, avoiding sugars, saturated fats, gluten and dairy, I'm borderline vegan - and yet I'm still untoned and flabby, and have put on half a stone. Up to 10st again.

This just seems really unfair. It's extremely disheartening that despite so much effort and sacrafice I'm still everyone's obligatory "fat friend".:sigh:

What am I doing/not doing wrong?

Muscle weighs more than fat so as you're working out so much the weight gain is probably due to that. If you have flab in the form of excess skin then that can take up to a year to catch up with your body when you lose a lot of weight in a short space of time.
I think you're probably being a bit hard on yourself though at 5' 6" & 10 stone, you're far from fat, you have a very healthy BMI. Maybe take a step back and stop obsessing about it so much? That may sound a bit unhelpful but i'm 5'6" and used to be 10 stone (before my kids) and when i was that weight i STILL used to look in the mirror and see a flabby fat person - i look at pictures of me back then and i now realise i was far from fat - i just had a very bad self image.

TankGirl said:

This just seems really unfair. It's extremely disheartening that despite so much effort and sacrafice I'm still everyone's obligatory "fat friend".:sigh:

What am I doing/not doing wrong?

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Maybe your body wants you to stay at a nice healthy weight. We all have body setpoints and I reckon yours is spot on :clap:

It could be that it doesn't want you to be underweight and is fighting against it.

It may also be that you see your body in a different way than others see you. I would hazard a guess that you aren't the 'fat friend', though you perceive yourself as that :hug99:

if fat is your problem, like me, then its more about the exercise than the eating.

your body burns fat at different rates at different times. e.g. if you done cardio first thing in the morning, your body uses energy only fat. but if you done cardio at like in the evening, your body uses up energy from carbohydrates and less from fat.

or so i have been told my various people.

and i have been told to continue doing a decent amount of weight lifting as well, which i am doing. but i know weight lifting can be an issue for females, because they dont want big solid arms.

but yeah if fat is the problem then burning fat is the answer. anything that makes you sweat, do more of it.

Thanks, everybody! I guess you're all right in a way.
It is still unusual for me though, since last time I was a gym member I lost half a stone really quick and developed a tight body to boot. Now I dont seem able. It's bizarre I tell you!

There was an article in the Daily (take with a pinch of salt!) Mail earlier this week arguing that going to the gym could make you gain weight. It said basically that pushing yourself on the cardio machines could in fact make your body burn lean muscle for energy and that it was better to do a just 30 minute walk after each meal to stabilise your blood sugar. It also said that free weights were much better than the machines as the weight machines don't build core stability.

I go to the gym 2/3 times a week to tone up and lengthen my ability to jog for more than about a minute so I don't really know what to do now. It is just worth bearing in mind that the theory is out there, but you need to research it more before you make a decision on the best way forward for you.