What am I doing wrong?

I am 37 about 6ft2 with a broad shouldered body.I have been active for about last 15 years, trying to train 5 times a week.
I am trying to loose about 14-20 pounds after my weight has slowly crept up over last 5 years.

I like to think I eat a good diet as I always have done for last 10-15 years.

I have started to watch my calorie intake over the last week using this site and my android phone. My daily average calorie intake is 1598 with my daily exercise 3100 including resting and deskwork.

My exercise regime consists of cardio 3-4 times a week and weight training one day (4 sets of 15 upper body)

My only vice is a couple of beers at weekend but going not over RDI. My evening meal is normally at 8:30 - am i eating too late?

Looking at my Calorie distribution average is Fat: 64.97g, Protein: 78.36g, Carbs: 165.27g

Question is what am i doing wrong. I exercise and eat a balanced diet. Why am i not loosing weight yet? Should I cut down on carbs and replace with more protein? Do I need to ditch the resistance training totally?

I am assuming my RDI is 2500 does this sound correct?

Should I cut down on carbs and replace with more protein?

Yes. That appears to be the only problem with your diet. I have no idea what kind of carbohydrates you are taking in but with 165 g I assume its a lot of grains. try to limit your carbohydrate intake mostly to vegetables and legumes, and you should see almost an immediate change.

Sounds like you are doing a solid job. My biggest suggestion is to not be to caught up with what the scale says. I have been working out like a banshee as of late and being very consistent with a steady well balanced diet and I have yet to really be impressed with what the scale tells me.. However, I am down 3 belt loops and I look a heck of a lot better. According to my BMI I am considered overweight, but the BMI does not take your body frame into play when running the numbers and I happen to be broad shouldered like you, so albeit on the scale it says i'm overweight, I am more likely just about where I should be. My best suggestion is to throw your metabolism a cheeseburger and fries every once in a while. Our metabolisms tend to become accustomed to caloric intake after a while and learn to balance the amount of calories we have coming in against the amount of energy it wants to expend (in calories). Having a bulge day will get that metabolism juiced back up and keep it guessing. I have one bulge day once a week and has always kept the numbers consistenly moving off the scale. Don't go nuts, but try to at least meet or slightly exceed your RDI.

Oh, and make sure that the number carbs you eat in that late night meal are minimal.

Well, first of all, it's only been one week, so you might not see a lot of change right away. I would, however, recommend eating a little more. If you average about 3100kcal burned every day, you should be averaging 2100kcal/day of food intake. I would personally up these calories in the form of protein since you seem to be consuming very little of that.

But you honestly need to give it more time than just 1 week. If you don't see any improvements 2 weeks from now, well then I would recommend switching things up. Maybe doing more weight lifting and less cardio will work for you? And at that point I would go ahead and lower the calorie intake slightly but for right now, with the amount of exercise you're getting, I wouldn't stray below the 2000kcal/day mark.

Also, it doesn't matter what time of day you consume your food but it does matter if you pig out one day and completely undereat another. Keep it consistent and make sure you weight yourself only once a week, same time of the day. I would recommend in the morning, with as little clothing as possible.

Weight fluctuates a lot. Drink one bottle of water (16oz) and you'll weigh a lb more...

And one last note: Your carbs are already at a good place. You're not on a low carb diet and you workout a lot, so I wouldn't worry about the carbs.

On a given day, where are your carbohydrates coming from?

I agree with Kokusho. If you really are burning 3100 calories a day, a deficit of 1500 might be counterproductive. Your body needs substantially more fuel than you're giving it. Eating 500 calories more will probably make your exercise more efficient, and keep your metabolism moving faster.

It's also true that you can't tell much from one week. A speedy weight loss plan will drop 2 pounds per week. And yet your daily weight fluctuations can (and likely will) be larger than that. Now that I'm exercising more often, and with more intensity, I've seen my weight fluctuate up to 6 pounds during the day, depending on my hydration, and how much undigested or, uh, unpassed food I'm carrying around.

So you could be losing weight quickly, but if you happen to step on the scale at the wrong time, just not seeing it.

Give it time. You may want to consider weighing yourself more often, so you can see how much you do fluctuate during the day, and then look for the long-term trends based on whatever you're at when you weigh first thing in the morning, before breakfast.

Kokusho makes a lot of excellent points, however, it is still important to note that you keep your carb intake balanced at night. Not saying eat less, just saying don't eat the majority of the carbs in your diet at night. You should eat slow digesting protein such as cottage cheese, milk, peanut butter (In moderation) or vegetables. Avoid high carbs, especially simple carbs. And he briefly touched on consistent diet which I agree with, but once again if you stay to consistent your metabolism adjusts and expects less, thus working not as hard. Have a day once a week or 2 weeks where you increase your calorie intake significantly. If you're working out as much as you say, you should be trying to eat at least 1 gram of protein for every lb you weigh. I weigh 177 lbs, I try to (never make it) eat at least .75 grams of carbs for each lb I weight. Protein shakes are great low calorie/low fat/low carb ways to get that extra protein your body needs while working out hard (try to get one with BCAA amino acids to help rebuild those muscles quicker and stronger) Optimum makes some really good products.. Especially that extreme milk chocolate whey protein. num num num

Hmmm, perhpas a thyroid issue is at hand. A trip to the doc might be in order to rule this out.

That's true and while I would normally recommend this, you're only trying to lose 14-20 lbs... so it's not a big deal. I doubt you'll stall before you hit your goal, especially if you increase your overall food intake so that you're not "starving" your body. And as for eating carbs at night... I have doubts that it makes a big enough difference to matter.

Wow, way to jump to the worst possible conclusion right away.

Good point

I don't agree with any of them. If you want to lose weight and belly fat cut your net carbs to less than 100g a day. Since you want to know what you're doing wrong I'll tell you what I think you're doing wrong:

1. Stop eating spaghetti.

2. On Saturday you ate an entire pizza. Are you f'n kidding me?

Do you honestly believe you can eat these things and lose weight?

3. No white bread

4. No peanut butter.

5. No juice

6. No sweetened granola bars

7. No rice

What should you eat?

Lean meats. Chicken breasts, tuna, salmon, turkey breasts. Broil or bake your food instead of frying it. Salsa can replace a lot condiments. Fresh vegetables. Avoid high carb fruits.

Desk work is not exercise. If it doesn't increase your heart rate don't list it - you're only fooling yourself.

You're obviously putting in some real exercise. Cut back the carbs and increase the protein. Try and beat your sedentary RDI by 1000 a day (2 lbs a week) and you'll do fine.

I think gonna try and just eat protein after 6pm. Drawing back on the carbs. I did have a degree of success a while back with this - it just gets a little boring sometimes.

I've had omlette with a green salad this evening.

I do have some protein shakes. I'm just weary of putting weight on. Should i be using these as a meal replacement or snack?Or immediatley post workout?

I admit FredMugs Saturday was a bad day, Pizzahut for kiddies party!

Thanks for the advice guys really helpful. I know a lot of this is trial and error. I'm just frustrated because i have pretty done the same for last few years and weight has began to creep up.

Reference the thyroid issue: my father has suffered with this both underactive and overactive. But I have been tested a few times including recently and all is ok.

Most of my carbs come from cereal, rice, cous cous, occasional banana, and potatoes or sweet potatoes.

As for the exercise how do know how many calories i have consumed during the day if I don't try to include everything?

I drink my protein as a meal supplement. It is 120 calories per scoop mixed with 8 oz of skim milk and 5 oz of cold water. So between the 2 scoops and the milk it is 320 calories and very filling... Not to mention the Amino acids and high protein. Alot of what Fred said is true, but hey we all slip. Eat whatever you want, HOWEVER, monitor the calories you take in and try to keep a good Protein/carb/fat ratio. If I want a full pizza I am going to eat a full F'ing pizza. The rest of the day I will be eating salad w/balsamic dressing and working out like a mad man later. Find what works for you. My ratio is 50% Diet 50% exercise. Hell you could be 10% Diet and 90% exercise, as long as you are cutting the calories you will lose weight and inches.

I'm going to try and eat 100g + of protein and keep the carbs below 100g.
I've got 2 x pitta bread with tuna for lunch, a protein shake for pre gym and salmon with veg for dinner.

Will see how this goes.

Excellent! Keep me posted elgoochio!

Protein shakes give me a bloated / gaseous feeling plus they are a pain to make. I eat either Met-Rx Big 100 meal replacement or Snickers Marathon Bars. The 50g bars don't cut it. I know that when I'm hiking one of those with a liter of water goes a long way.