Week 11 Update
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MandaLeigh123
Posts: 351 Member
As before, if you want to read my journey from the beginning, the links are at the bottom of this post!
So I hit this really weird spot where my activity level has just changed drastically in the last two weeks. I am not in nursing school for the summer, which reduces my daily burn but quite a bit because that also means I am not walking to and from the public bus system with 40lbs of bags or working a day on the floor of hospital as a nursing student. I had intended to keep up with my gym sessions, which included 3 days of heavy compound lifts and 5 days of some kind of cardio. The day after school got out, I also injured my hip doing a squat. I have a chronic joint condition called joint hyper-mobility syndrome, and I think my hip popped out as I was lowering myself into squat position. I was squatting half the weight I normally do when this happened because I was working on correcting my form. I already see a physical therapist weekly because of my chronic condition, so now she's helping me deal with this acute injury I have. Can't bend over or transition between positions easily, although walking is fine. Been trying to keep up with upper body strength training as I can but lower body I have to be very careful with.
So anyway, my TDEE has dropped from approximately 2800 to I am guessing between 1800-2200 a day. It's a huge drop and it's been pretty tough. After struggling to up that high, now I struggle to back down that low. Its been very hard to really figure out where I am at because the 2800 was always kind of a mystery. I worked out alot. I was busy with school. But even with all of that, 2800 was pretty high. I even saw this week that concentrating burns about 50 more calories per hour than watching tv, so maybe with being in a very difficult nursing program, that was part of my really high burn. I had tried to start a cut right around the time school ended but with my calories already dropping so much lower because of an activity change, I'm thinking of scraping the idea for now. I've been doing it, but I haven't been super thrilled about it. The cut has only been 5-10% but eating under 2000 hasn't been good for my spirits.
So my struggles right now? So even though I just said I didn't like eating cut calories, this voice has come back in my head that says, "Just do a major cut, like down to 1200 because you aren't really moving your body and your just bound to get fat." I am not going to listen to that voice, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that it pops up it's ugly head. I just remind myself that I've lost weight two times before with high calorie deficits and have never successfully kept the weight off. I'm also pretty bummed out that my activity is limited with this injury. I made so many gains with strength so am worried I will lose them all because of this injury. Need to just keep reminding myself that I just need to keep doing what I can do, which is walking and upper body strength training. At the moment: I'm not losing inches. I'm not losing weight. I don't think I am getting stronger. My goal right now is to make it through this injury mentally and not back slide into old habits. I'm also really struggling with people telling me, well you just need to do "this ... this... and this" and that's how you will get the body and the mind you want. Stated like it's just so simple. It's not. I think people forget how long it took them to get to that spot mentally and reducing it something as simple as --- eat more and lift weights --- is dismissive of the reasons that I struggle with weight loss and diet. So it's something I am trying to keep in mind when I talk to new people about EM2WL.
On a final note....
People in this group seem to give cardio a really hard time and not acknowledge the benefits of it. Well here is my voice on the matter: Your heart is the most important muscle in your body. It needs to be worked out just as much as your other muscles do. I think that this fact is sorely missed. I think it's great that people can dead lift their body weight, but how do you evaluate the strength of your heart? I do it by keeping an eye on my blood pressure and my resting heart rate. Both of them continue to get lower, show me that my heart is pumping more efficiently. So remember when you are strength training, to try and strength train your heart too. You can make your heart stronger and more efficient. Walking is nice, but for cardio health, you'd better be walking pretty fast to get that heart rate up! Of course, in the beginning, any movement you can do is great! Recommendations from the American Heart Association:
"Being physically active is important to prevent heart disease and stroke, the nation’s (USA) No. 1 and No. 5 killers. To improve overall cardiovascular health, we suggest at least 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes per week of vigorous exercise (or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity). Thirty minutes a day, five times a week is an easy goal to remember. You will also experience benefits even if you divide your time into two or three segments of 10 to 15 minutes per day.
For people who would benefit from lowering their blood pressure or cholesterol, we recommend 40 minutes of aerobic exercise of moderate to vigorous intensity three to four times a week to lower the risk for heart attack and stroke."
Whats my activity level?
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10108212/5-6x-week-strenuous-activity#latest
Week 2 update
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10111627/two-week-update-for-anyone-curious#latest
Week 5ish Update
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10125614/week-5ish-update-em2wl-rip-the-band-aid-attempt-to-find-tdee#latest
Struggle hitting the 3,000 calorie mark:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10129033/the-eating-3-000-calories-a-day-woahs#latest
Week 6.5 update
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10134868/week-6-5-update#latest
Week 9 update
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10152864/my-week-9-update#latest
So I hit this really weird spot where my activity level has just changed drastically in the last two weeks. I am not in nursing school for the summer, which reduces my daily burn but quite a bit because that also means I am not walking to and from the public bus system with 40lbs of bags or working a day on the floor of hospital as a nursing student. I had intended to keep up with my gym sessions, which included 3 days of heavy compound lifts and 5 days of some kind of cardio. The day after school got out, I also injured my hip doing a squat. I have a chronic joint condition called joint hyper-mobility syndrome, and I think my hip popped out as I was lowering myself into squat position. I was squatting half the weight I normally do when this happened because I was working on correcting my form. I already see a physical therapist weekly because of my chronic condition, so now she's helping me deal with this acute injury I have. Can't bend over or transition between positions easily, although walking is fine. Been trying to keep up with upper body strength training as I can but lower body I have to be very careful with.
So anyway, my TDEE has dropped from approximately 2800 to I am guessing between 1800-2200 a day. It's a huge drop and it's been pretty tough. After struggling to up that high, now I struggle to back down that low. Its been very hard to really figure out where I am at because the 2800 was always kind of a mystery. I worked out alot. I was busy with school. But even with all of that, 2800 was pretty high. I even saw this week that concentrating burns about 50 more calories per hour than watching tv, so maybe with being in a very difficult nursing program, that was part of my really high burn. I had tried to start a cut right around the time school ended but with my calories already dropping so much lower because of an activity change, I'm thinking of scraping the idea for now. I've been doing it, but I haven't been super thrilled about it. The cut has only been 5-10% but eating under 2000 hasn't been good for my spirits.
So my struggles right now? So even though I just said I didn't like eating cut calories, this voice has come back in my head that says, "Just do a major cut, like down to 1200 because you aren't really moving your body and your just bound to get fat." I am not going to listen to that voice, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that it pops up it's ugly head. I just remind myself that I've lost weight two times before with high calorie deficits and have never successfully kept the weight off. I'm also pretty bummed out that my activity is limited with this injury. I made so many gains with strength so am worried I will lose them all because of this injury. Need to just keep reminding myself that I just need to keep doing what I can do, which is walking and upper body strength training. At the moment: I'm not losing inches. I'm not losing weight. I don't think I am getting stronger. My goal right now is to make it through this injury mentally and not back slide into old habits. I'm also really struggling with people telling me, well you just need to do "this ... this... and this" and that's how you will get the body and the mind you want. Stated like it's just so simple. It's not. I think people forget how long it took them to get to that spot mentally and reducing it something as simple as --- eat more and lift weights --- is dismissive of the reasons that I struggle with weight loss and diet. So it's something I am trying to keep in mind when I talk to new people about EM2WL.
On a final note....
People in this group seem to give cardio a really hard time and not acknowledge the benefits of it. Well here is my voice on the matter: Your heart is the most important muscle in your body. It needs to be worked out just as much as your other muscles do. I think that this fact is sorely missed. I think it's great that people can dead lift their body weight, but how do you evaluate the strength of your heart? I do it by keeping an eye on my blood pressure and my resting heart rate. Both of them continue to get lower, show me that my heart is pumping more efficiently. So remember when you are strength training, to try and strength train your heart too. You can make your heart stronger and more efficient. Walking is nice, but for cardio health, you'd better be walking pretty fast to get that heart rate up! Of course, in the beginning, any movement you can do is great! Recommendations from the American Heart Association:
"Being physically active is important to prevent heart disease and stroke, the nation’s (USA) No. 1 and No. 5 killers. To improve overall cardiovascular health, we suggest at least 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes per week of vigorous exercise (or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity). Thirty minutes a day, five times a week is an easy goal to remember. You will also experience benefits even if you divide your time into two or three segments of 10 to 15 minutes per day.
For people who would benefit from lowering their blood pressure or cholesterol, we recommend 40 minutes of aerobic exercise of moderate to vigorous intensity three to four times a week to lower the risk for heart attack and stroke."
Whats my activity level?
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10108212/5-6x-week-strenuous-activity#latest
Week 2 update
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10111627/two-week-update-for-anyone-curious#latest
Week 5ish Update
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10125614/week-5ish-update-em2wl-rip-the-band-aid-attempt-to-find-tdee#latest
Struggle hitting the 3,000 calorie mark:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10129033/the-eating-3-000-calories-a-day-woahs#latest
Week 6.5 update
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10134868/week-6-5-update#latest
Week 9 update
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10152864/my-week-9-update#latest
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Replies
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You know, I see/read/hear cardio being demonized in so many ways. For me, I have had to reevaluate what I see as cardio. To me it used to be more of a "lace up the sneakers, don on the fitness apparel and work out" but I find that as I get older, I don't enjoy (nor does my body) that kind of stuff. I enjoy things that I move but it compliments me -- I focus HEAVILY on NEAT activity and WALKING! Oh but I love walking. I enjoy PiYo because it does a trifecta of awesome for me with cardio (I come away from that mat with sweat dripping off of me), strength (no, I am not deadlifting my bodyweight but I am strengtheining up those smaller supportive muscles that will help me to eventually achieve that) and flexibility because my body is getting older and aches and pains show up when I don't expect them to anymore. Boo.
I agree with you. I think cardio is a very important part of the equation. As is strength. As is flexibility. It is a trifecta that I think is necessary for overall health and well-being.
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I love cardio too as it makes me feel like I got something accomplished. Getting better and strength training. I used to do T25 6 days a week. I cut back to two-three days-doing some of the strength/aerobics DVDS of T25, and then I walk every day. My dietician told me our ancestors used to walk everywhere before they had automobiles why can't you? And now we are having a 10K a day step challenge at work, so I figure I can do my aerobic/strength training video's 2-3x a week and walk the rest...and its working for me....I'm doing something I can stick to. I think that's half the battle is finding something we can stick with and enjoy.0
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skinny4me2be wrote: »I love cardio too as it makes me feel like I got something accomplished. Getting better and strength training. I used to do T25 6 days a week. I cut back to two-three days-doing some of the strength/aerobics DVDS of T25, and then I walk every day. My dietician told me our ancestors used to walk everywhere before they had automobiles why can't you? And now we are having a 10K a day step challenge at work, so I figure I can do my aerobic/strength training video's 2-3x a week and walk the rest...and its working for me....I'm doing something I can stick to. I think that's half the battle is finding something we can stick with and enjoy.
That's cool -- I need to get back to wearing my pedometer again
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I like the trifecta idea. I am pretty good with cardio and strength. Working on flexibilty as part of PT. My muscles tighten up to hold my loose joints in place so its a fine balance of developing muscle strength to hold my joints in place but also getting them to loosen up some!0
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Exactly! Me, too!!
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The mental game of weight is by far the hardest IMO. As I'm sure you've noticed by reading my progress journal (inspired by yours btw), I'm having much more mental struggles than physical ones. I applaud you for finding that your true TDEE (at that time) was so much higher than estimated, I don't think I'll be able to do that. I thought about it for a while, and with summer getting closer every day I just can't handle the mental strain of eating that much more to see if I put on fat. You're doing great with what you're doing, and taking all the steps you possibly can
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@MandaLeigh123 Keep up the fight! Stand fast in what you know is the correct process. It's not easy by any means, but we are all here to support you!0
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MandaLeigh123, Cardio is a very good thing. Works the most important muscle, none of the others can work without it
. I have used aerobics and other forms of cardio to lose hundreds of pounds in my lifetime! And you know what, I always found them again, and again and again. It is only part of the puzzle. That is why I am hear learning from the E2WL group. I want a higher TDEE, I want to remove the pounds and not find them back again in a couple of years.
You are working on finding out what works for you. You are being totally honest about your journey and that is the most important thing of all.
Keep you eyes on the prize, you will get there.0 -
Very good Mandy. It is hard to back down the calories when used to eating higher, isn't it.
Good job trying.
Good job wanting to figure out lower TDEE before taking a cut, just to get it closer to a better estimate and not go too low.
So true on cardio, lifting actually hardens the heart walls because of the stress of increased pressure from internal pressures going up. Same as the extreme marathon training regimen can do.
And so true walking at some point is no longer going to be a good enough workout to actually work the heart for improvements.
Doesn't need to be pounding sprints either as some fear.
That is a difficult trick to keep muscles loose to some degree, but not so much because you want lifting to have a good effect. Shows why stretching a lot before lifting isn't a good idea.0 -
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