90 minute Q&A - All fitness and weight loss related please

Donnarose82

Bumping to read later

stroutman81

I just joined a week ago i planned to loose 2lbs and have been eating all my calories including my exercise calories and only lost .8lbs is there someone who can look at my food diary and help me figure it out...what am i doing wrong . I did notice my sodium is high. but I am drinking alot of water and excising every single day

1. What is your current weight?

2. What daily calorie intake are you shooting for?

3. How active are you in and out of the gym?

4. Would you say your sodium is abnormally high right now? It's not really sodium per se that leads to big water weight gains... rather it's when sodium intake goes above what you customarily consume.

5. Most importantly. It's been a week. You can't label something as working or not working in that amount of time. Weight loss isn't as MFP suggests where you can pick a calorie intake and reliably lose a given amount of weight each week. Not even close. It might take someone years to reach their goal weight and physique. Now think about how powerful a single week is in isolation...

Not very.

elisabeisme

... By and large, most people come to be with weak glutes and core and kyphotic thoracic spines (look up upper crossed syndrome and lower cross syndrome)...

Thanks for mentioning these terms as I had never heard them before. I have rounded shoulders and have been working on back and shoulder exercises/stretches to help. After a bit of Internet reading just now, I recognize that I have upper cross syndrome. This gives me a search term to use when gathering information to help with this issue. Thanks very much!

http://chungleedc.com/upper_crossed.html

Also, it occurs to me that when girls say they want a thigh gap, they are really asking how to give themselves self-induced lower crossed syndrome. Some thigh gaps are genetic, but many are created by standing posture -- rolling hips back and sticking the butt out. It seems to me that the recommended exercise plan to achieve this look would be the opposite of the plan to correct it. Or lots of hamstring exercises (deadlifts, good mornings) and lots of hip flexor strengtheners (knee lifts, front leg lifts) while avoiding exercises that work the glutes and front/lower abs. Why anybody would want to PURPOSEFULLY give themselves spinal issues, I haven't a clue. But then, thigh gaps are a "thing" these days in some circles.

http://chungleedc.com/lower_crossed.html

m1nd_body_spirit

For 9 months, I stuck to pretty rigidly to 1200 calories a day and consistently lost 1lb a week. At almost my target weight, I got a Fitbit which started crediting me with extra calories for all the activity I did during the day (just walking around, housework etc cos, at that point, I wasn't working out) and I stopped losing weight. I've since started working out and am burning about 500 calories a day through activity........so, if I continue to want to lose weight, should I stick to consuming 1200 calories, even if I'm burning an additional 500 calories per day as this gives me a Net Calorie Intake of 700 cals - is this safe? I'm pretty confused - it was easy when I wasn't working out and was completely inactive!!! It has been weeks since I've lost anything, however, this could also be muscle gain, right?

I'd remove yourself from the neurotic concern about the right calories intake.

Try this.

Start at 10 cals/lb

Then adjust accordingly based on what's happening.

People bombard me with questions claiming, "I eat XXXX cals per day and I burn XXX cals per day and I want to lose XX lbs... is that calorie intake right?"

Here's the problem. People have an idea of what they're spending and what they're eating... but that idea isn't fixed. It varies by the day. And even without the variability, the accuracy of most peoples' estimates are suspect at best. Very few people are meticulously tracking with a digital food scale and we even have research showing the dietitians have a very hard time assessing their intake.

Point is, throwing all of these numbers out there does little. It's about a process of fine tuning your intake based on how your body's responding.

Check this out:

http://body-improvements.com/resources/eat#calories

I suggest the entire article, which is really a book, but this part specifically applies to your question.

Thanks this helps me!

myrealname

bump to read later

joyce0624

Bump to read later!

Toblave

bump

YogaNikki

Bump.

RockClimber69

Bump for later.

ncahill77

Fantastic stuff man, thanks for the links, I plan to go through your site extensively this weekend. I have never heard anyone put the recommended calorie intake in a calories per pound format, I like that and it makes a lot of sense.

karabasik

Bump

syedsaad

bump for later

tiggersgirl173

I may be late but I started reading through everyone's posts and I have to admit, I started over two ago and I have yo-yo'd a bit and I know it's my eating habits. I started at 150-something over two years ago and I am now at 135. I am 4'11'' and I, unfortunately, have 33% body fat. I began going to the gym four times a week since the beginning of April and/or doing P90x workouts at home when I am unable to get to the gym. I have tried counting my calories but when you look at my overall graph (weekly, monthly, whatever) I tend to be erratic.

My question is this, I would like to get to a healthy BMI, but considering I'm a latin girl who would like to put on muscle I don't think that would be the best way to set my goal. I was thinking it would be better through body fat percentage, right? Also, is there ANYWHERE i can find example menus of simple things to make to stay under 1200 a day so I can follow a better diet? I hate the idea of "dieting" but I really need to tweak my caloric intake. Simply staying under 1200 before helped me lose the weight I needed to get to 135 but I wasn't following a diet - just keeping my mouth shut when I didn't want to go over. Now I have a harder time saying no when I get hungry. (Hence the reason I turned to focusing on the gym). I just need some guidance. I really want to focus on lifelong health rather than just "getting skinny."

stroutman81

I may be late but I started reading through everyone's posts and I have to admit, I started over two ago and I have yo-yo'd a bit and I know it's my eating habits. I started at 150-something over two years ago and I am now at 135. I am 4'11'' and I, unfortunately, have 33% body fat. I began going to the gym four times a week since the beginning of April and/or doing P90x workouts at home when I am unable to get to the gym. I have tried counting my calories but when you look at my overall graph (weekly, monthly, whatever) I tend to be erratic.

My question is this, I would like to get to a healthy BMI, but considering I'm a latin girl who would like to put on muscle I don't think that would be the best way to set my goal. I was thinking it would be better through body fat percentage, right? Also, is there ANYWHERE i can find example menus of simple things to make to stay under 1200 a day so I can follow a better diet? I hate the idea of "dieting" but I really need to tweak my caloric intake. Simply staying under 1200 before helped me lose the weight I needed to get to 135 but I wasn't following a diet - just keeping my mouth shut when I didn't want to go over. Now I have a harder time saying no when I get hungry. (Hence the reason I turned to focusing on the gym). I just need some guidance. I really want to focus on lifelong health rather than just "getting skinny."

It sounds to me as if you have an issue of excluding the middle. Put differently, you tend to focus on the extremes of the spectrum rather than the middle. The problem is, the middle tends to be where people find their sweet spots. By that I mean, they find methods of eating and exercising that jive with their lives. They find sustainability and if they're persistent enough, they learn to love a lifestyle that garners health and a good body.

Extremes work in the sense that they'll get the ball rolling initially. They'll lead to weight loss and such. Often times though, after some time has passed, they either leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere feeling desperate and directionless or they leave you rebounding back to where you were before... or worse.

I'm not knocking the approach you've taken to get here... not at all. I commend you actually. You've lost some weight and you're working towards figuring stuff out. Just realize that you're in the midst of a process of experimentation. It's really the only way to go about it if you're truly going to custom tailor an approach to YOU.

Why do I say you exclude the middle.

1. You yo-yo diet, which is a telltale sign.

2. It's either eating really low calories or it's exercising by the sound of it... not more subtle combinations of both.

The latter one is where you need to focus. If your goal is more fat loss, which sounds like is the right focus, stick with something like 1300 calories. Don't deprive yourself. Don't think of it as a diet. In fact, if you want to be as loose as possible while still doing likely enough to generate positive physique changes... eat 130 grams of protein, 3-4 servings of fibrous veggies, and a piece or two of fruit per day. Maybe throw in some healthy fats like fish oils, nuts, avocados or whatever. Let that stand as your baseline target each day. Beyond that, do you. Eat whatever the heck you want. Is that a perfect approach? Nope. Perfectionism is the root of failure though.

Forget about BMR and don't sweat your body fat percentage. Dial in your diet as I suggested and focus on being consistent. If, after a few weeks things aren't heading in the right direction, you adjust. Maybe knock your calories down by 10% or so. Maybe you add in some conditioning work.

I'd keep resistance training in the mix for sure, as that's one of the only arrows we have in our quivers for helping preserve muscle while losing weight. Do you need 4 days per week? Absolutely not. A handful of full body sessions per week would cut it... maybe just two.

Welcome to the middle.

Will_Thrust_For_Candy

I may be late but I started reading through everyone's posts and I have to admit, I started over two ago and I have yo-yo'd a bit and I know it's my eating habits. I started at 150-something over two years ago and I am now at 135. I am 4'11'' and I, unfortunately, have 33% body fat. I began going to the gym four times a week since the beginning of April and/or doing P90x workouts at home when I am unable to get to the gym. I have tried counting my calories but when you look at my overall graph (weekly, monthly, whatever) I tend to be erratic.

My question is this, I would like to get to a healthy BMI, but considering I'm a latin girl who would like to put on muscle I don't think that would be the best way to set my goal. I was thinking it would be better through body fat percentage, right? Also, is there ANYWHERE i can find example menus of simple things to make to stay under 1200 a day so I can follow a better diet? I hate the idea of "dieting" but I really need to tweak my caloric intake. Simply staying under 1200 before helped me lose the weight I needed to get to 135 but I wasn't following a diet - just keeping my mouth shut when I didn't want to go over. Now I have a harder time saying no when I get hungry. (Hence the reason I turned to focusing on the gym). I just need some guidance. I really want to focus on lifelong health rather than just "getting skinny."

It sounds to me as if you have an issue of excluding the middle. Put differently, you tend to focus on the extremes of the spectrum rather than the middle. The problem is, the middle tends to be where people find their sweet spots. By that I mean, they find methods of eating and exercising that jive with their lives. They find sustainability and if they're persistent enough, they learn to love a lifestyle that garners health and a good body.

Extremes work in the sense that they'll get the ball rolling initially. They'll lead to weight loss and such. Often times though, after some time has passed, they either leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere feeling desperate and directionless or they leave you rebounding back to where you were before... or worse.

I'm not knocking the approach you've taken to get here... not at all. I commend you actually. You've lost some weight and you're working towards figuring stuff out. Just realize that you're in the midst of a process of experimentation. It's really the only way to go about it if you're truly going to custom tailor an approach to YOU.

Why do I say you exclude the middle.

1. You yo-yo diet, which is a telltale sign.

2. It's either eating really low calories or it's exercising by the sound of it... not more subtle combinations of both.

The latter one is where you need to focus. If your goal is more fat loss, which sounds like is the right focus, stick with something like 1300 calories. Don't deprive yourself. Don't think of it as a diet. In fact, if you want to be as loose as possible while still doing likely enough to generate positive physique changes... eat 130 grams of protein, 3-4 servings of fibrous veggies, and a piece or two of fruit per day. Maybe throw in some healthy fats like fish oils, nuts, avocados or whatever. Let that stand as your baseline target each day. Beyond that, do you. Eat whatever the heck you want. Is that a perfect approach? Nope. Perfectionism is the root of failure though.

Forget about BMR and don't sweat your body fat percentage. Dial in your diet as I suggested and focus on being consistent. If, after a few weeks things aren't heading in the right direction, you adjust. Maybe knock your calories down by 10% or so. Maybe you add in some conditioning work.

I'd keep resistance training in the mix for sure, as that's one of the only arrows we have in our quivers for helping preserve muscle while losing weight. Do you need 4 days per week? Absolutely not. A handful of full body sessions per week would cut it... maybe just two.

Welcome to the middle.

Quite possibly the best thing I have ever read on this site. Thank you!

T0FatToB3S1ck

Saving for later.

becajb

Is there any way to tone bat wing arms after weight loss besides surgery?

thanks for this question, i want the answer too :happy:

bspikes86

i know it's way past the deadline, but maybe when you get some free time.... i heard that if you eat too much protein your body stores it as fat. is this true? i have 150 more pounds to lose. how much protein should i be shooting for? i usually try to get in 100g per day. is that too much? thank you

scopetrek

I'm just starting out. My goal is to loose fat and get more muscular. I'm a bit confused on food labels. When reading and weight food labels, are those serving sizes considered cooked or dry measurements?

For e.g oatmeal serving size is 1 cup, so I usually measure a dry cup and cook that in water with no additives. But you know oatmeal soaks up the water and appears to be more that a cup after cooking. I think I'm eating more calories that I expect.

DrDrea411

Bump!