I want your opinion on my approach....Would you change something?
AmyC2288
Posts: 386 Member
Hi Guys! I've been a lurker for a couple weeks now and have been researching and looking at tons of old posts. I think this community will definitely be a great resource for me moving forward.
I thought it would be fun and super interesting to have you guys evaluate what I'm doing- and to see if you were me- what -if anything- you would change. I'm not seeing the results that I would like to, so I'm looking to switch some things up but I'm having trouble trying to determine how I should do that exactly.
Background:
Female - 5'6'' - 197 lbs - 30 Yrs - 2 young children - Work a desk job Mon-Fri 8:30-5:30 - Hypothyroid that is well controlled and monitored.
Goal: Lose about 1lb per week without muscle loss
I'm about 2 1/2 weeks removed from Keto. I tried it based on my Dr.'s recommendation. I was very strict with it as well as my logging (not in MFP) for 3 months straight and while I did lose an initial 6 lbs in water weight- and a few inches I wasn't experiencing the weight loss I was looking for. I also was not exercising during this time. I decided to stop because I found the diet too restrictive and did not think it was something I could maintain long term. At the end of the day, I fully understand it is all about CICO and the specific "diet" you choose to eat is just about what makes you feel the best overall while still maintaining your needed deficit.
Since stopping Keto, I have very slowly tried to incorporate more carbs back into my diet (I have opened my diary) and I joined a gym. I've been going regularly(4 times per week) and have been experimenting with my gym activities. I have taken a few 60 minute kettlebell courses which I found very challenging but did enjoy. I've mainly just been doing a mixture of cardio(walking on treadmill at 3.0 w/ incline) for 30 minutes and hopping around to different machines with no actual purpose- just whichever ones were open and I felt like I wanted to work that area. Typically I'll do 3 sets/10 reps per machine. I do think I'd prefer to take a balanced approach as opposed to only doing cardio or only doing lifting but I'm open to one or the other if it would be more effective in my case.
MFP has me set to eat 1530 cals per day. On Keto, I was doing about 1100-1300/day (with no exercise). I understand from research on this site, that it is intended for us to eat back the exercise cals so I have been experimenting with that over the last few days. I have gained 2.5 lbs since stopping Keto, but that is to be expected with the reintroduction of carbs + the additional cals. Could this also be from me working out? I know the saying is "muscle weighs more than fat" but I have trouble believing I have worked out hard and long enough to put on actual lbs of muscle.
WOW. That was so much longer than expected! If you made it to the end...bless your heart. LOL. SO- if you were me, what- if anything- would you be doing differently?
***ETA: I did pick up a food scale a couple weeks ago and do use it for all of my meals at home.***
I thought it would be fun and super interesting to have you guys evaluate what I'm doing- and to see if you were me- what -if anything- you would change. I'm not seeing the results that I would like to, so I'm looking to switch some things up but I'm having trouble trying to determine how I should do that exactly.
Background:
Female - 5'6'' - 197 lbs - 30 Yrs - 2 young children - Work a desk job Mon-Fri 8:30-5:30 - Hypothyroid that is well controlled and monitored.
Goal: Lose about 1lb per week without muscle loss
I'm about 2 1/2 weeks removed from Keto. I tried it based on my Dr.'s recommendation. I was very strict with it as well as my logging (not in MFP) for 3 months straight and while I did lose an initial 6 lbs in water weight- and a few inches I wasn't experiencing the weight loss I was looking for. I also was not exercising during this time. I decided to stop because I found the diet too restrictive and did not think it was something I could maintain long term. At the end of the day, I fully understand it is all about CICO and the specific "diet" you choose to eat is just about what makes you feel the best overall while still maintaining your needed deficit.
Since stopping Keto, I have very slowly tried to incorporate more carbs back into my diet (I have opened my diary) and I joined a gym. I've been going regularly(4 times per week) and have been experimenting with my gym activities. I have taken a few 60 minute kettlebell courses which I found very challenging but did enjoy. I've mainly just been doing a mixture of cardio(walking on treadmill at 3.0 w/ incline) for 30 minutes and hopping around to different machines with no actual purpose- just whichever ones were open and I felt like I wanted to work that area. Typically I'll do 3 sets/10 reps per machine. I do think I'd prefer to take a balanced approach as opposed to only doing cardio or only doing lifting but I'm open to one or the other if it would be more effective in my case.
MFP has me set to eat 1530 cals per day. On Keto, I was doing about 1100-1300/day (with no exercise). I understand from research on this site, that it is intended for us to eat back the exercise cals so I have been experimenting with that over the last few days. I have gained 2.5 lbs since stopping Keto, but that is to be expected with the reintroduction of carbs + the additional cals. Could this also be from me working out? I know the saying is "muscle weighs more than fat" but I have trouble believing I have worked out hard and long enough to put on actual lbs of muscle.
WOW. That was so much longer than expected! If you made it to the end...bless your heart. LOL. SO- if you were me, what- if anything- would you be doing differently?
***ETA: I did pick up a food scale a couple weeks ago and do use it for all of my meals at home.***
2
Replies
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Yes, working out will also cause water retention along with the increased carbs/calories. You won't gain much, if any muscle while you're losing.
A mix of cardio and strength is the best option. But instead of jumping between machines, I would suggest picking a tried and true routine to do three days a week. You can look through those here: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you
My only other suggestion after looking through your diary is if you don't already have one, pick up a food scale and start weighing as much as you can on it. That's going to help you out the most.7 -
You are correct on your current reason for "weight" gain.
I agree with @malibu927. Both about the training program and about getting a food scale. Best weight loss tool I ever invested in.
Did you run across this thread already?
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p15 -
Thank you for the link and your feedback! Yes- I did finally pick up a food scale about two weeks ago and have been using it!
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My take away so far: you changed your plan up about 2.5 weeks ago and started exercising in that time? (feel free to correct me if I misinterpreted)
Yes, you may likely be experience weight gain from the exercise, not due to muscle gain, but when your body is adapting to new exercises your muscles often retain extra water for a time. It will drop off in a couple weeks.
For now, I would not change anything at all. Follow your plan for about 6 weeks, and see what the results look like then. If you are happy then keep at it, if not make necessary adjustments. Right now it is too soon to see if things are working or not because you have alot of changes that will be leading to temporary water weight gain.4 -
Yeah, stay the course. Keep doing what you're doing - which sounds about perfect, and keep good records for 4-6 weeks. Adjust only AFTER that amount of time of accurate logging.
It's an experiment. You've recently made changes so you are kind of starting over. Patience, grasshopper.3 -
quiksylver296 wrote: »You are correct on your current reason for "weight" gain.
I agree with @malibu927. Both about the training program and about getting a food scale. Best weight loss tool I ever invested in.
Did you run across this thread already?
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p14legsRbetterthan2 wrote: »My take away so far: you changed your plan up about 2.5 weeks ago and started exercising in that time? (feel free to correct me if I misinterpreted)
Yes, you may likely be experience weight gain from the exercise, not due to muscle gain, but when your body is adapting to new exercises your muscles often retain extra water for a time. It will drop off in a couple weeks.
For now, I would not change anything at all. Follow your plan for about 6 weeks, and see what the results look like then. If you are happy then keep at it, if not make necessary adjustments. Right now it is too soon to see if things are working or not because you have alot of changes that will be leading to temporary water weight gain.
Thank you both! This is great advice and I will definitely go ahead and nail down an exercise plan and stick to it for at least 6 weeks. 2 -
Good to see someone with a decent and balanced approach to start. You are on the right track so kudos.9
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Tacklewasher wrote: »Good to see someone with a decent and balanced approach to start. You are on the right track so kudos.
Thank you! 1 -
cmriverside wrote: »Yeah, stay the course. Keep doing what you're doing - which sounds about perfect, and keep good records for 4-6 weeks. Adjust only AFTER that amount of time of accurate logging.
It's an experiment. You've recently made changes so you are kind of starting over. Patience, grasshopper.
Thank you, that is very reassuring! 1 -
You've gotten some great advice here. Your good plan and strategy will come together. Kudos to you.
Happy to see 4 legs around the forum. 1 -
As above, There might be things that could do with tweaking, but give the program time to show results and begin forming basic habits(regular training/consistent food logging) before changing the details of what that training and eating looks like.
If you keep making changes, you're not going to know if it was the new detail that is reflected in your results or the simple fact of the change. Practices take time to bear fruit.3 -
You've gotten some great advice here. Your good plan and strategy will come together. Kudos to you.
Happy to see 4 legs around the forum.stanmann571 wrote: »As above, There might be things that could do with tweaking, but give the program time to show results and begin forming basic habits(regular training/consistent food logging) before changing the details of what that training and eating looks like.
If you keep making changes, you're not going to know if it was the new detail that is reflected in your results or the simple fact of the change. Practices take time to bear fruit.
Thank you both! I will keep on keeping on!
0 -
Great advice already, the folks here know their stuff
I would only add, have patience and trust the process-it works. Sounds like you are off to a great start, welcome! 2 -
amycollier88 wrote: »I've mainly just been doing a mixture of cardio(walking on treadmill at 3.0 w/ incline) for 30 minutes and hopping around to different machines with no actual purpose- just whichever ones were open and I felt like I wanted to work that area. Typically I'll do 3 sets/10 reps per machine. I do think I'd prefer to take a balanced approach as opposed to only doing cardio or only doing lifting but I'm open to one or the other if it would be more effective in my case.
@malibu927 was spot on with suggesting the link for choosing a program. I think there would be 2 pieces of advice I would put forth, the first being to choose a structured program. Just going in and hopping around from machine to machine willy-nilly isn't going to do much for you long term. You need to have a plan. If you were taking a long trip somewhere, would you just hop in the car and kinda wing it across the country? Or would you sit down and map out a plan and a path to get there?
Second piece, a lot of people on here will recommend only eating back a portion of your exercise calories. Most people (and most calorie burning estimators) give people way too many calories burned for any given workout, so to be safe its recommended that you only eat back some of those extra calories you get allotted, in most cases half would be the most I would do.
Good luck, and welcome!1 -
amycollier88 wrote: »I've mainly just been doing a mixture of cardio(walking on treadmill at 3.0 w/ incline) for 30 minutes and hopping around to different machines with no actual purpose- just whichever ones were open and I felt like I wanted to work that area. Typically I'll do 3 sets/10 reps per machine. I do think I'd prefer to take a balanced approach as opposed to only doing cardio or only doing lifting but I'm open to one or the other if it would be more effective in my case.
@malibu927 was spot on with suggesting the link for choosing a program. I think there would be 2 pieces of advice I would put forth, the first being to choose a structured program. Just going in and hopping around from machine to machine willy-nilly isn't going to do much for you long term. You need to have a plan. If you were taking a long trip somewhere, would you just hop in the car and kinda wing it across the country? Or would you sit down and map out a plan and a path to get there?
Second piece, a lot of people on here will recommend only eating back a portion of your exercise calories. Most people (and most calorie burning estimators) give people way too many calories burned for any given workout, so to be safe its recommended that you only eat back some of those extra calories you get allotted, in most cases half would be the most I would do.
Good luck, and welcome!
Thanks for this! You're right, it definitely makes sense to not eat back all the calories. The margin of error in my logging and assuming the amount of cals I've burned is way too big. A lot of the reason I'm just wandering around the gym and hopping from machine to machine is because I really don't know what the hell I'm actually doing and overall am still feeling pretty awkward about it all
. Choosing and sticking to a plan should help me in this regard so what I'm doing will be much more purposeful and I'll look (and feel) less lost. 1 -
re: workouts/exercise. One little thing that can actually have a larger than expected impact is something you can do when you are at work: fidget. Studies have found that people who fidget - bounce a leg, tap a foot, flick their fingers, pace rather than stand, things like that - are burning more calories doing the same sedentary activities than people who are not. Which makes sense, considering they are moving just a tiny bit more. A Mayo clinic study found you can burn up to 350 more calories a day, just adding in fidgety things like this. Although i'd guess that most of us would fidget 100-200 calories a day typically. :-)
Re: slow weight loss previously
1. Have you had your vitamin D levels checked? Low vitamin D levels are pretty common in folks with auto-immune disorders like hypothyroid issues; docs don't know why, at this point. But in a study in the British Journal of Nutrition, they found that women with low vitamin D levels tend to lose weight more slowly than those with normalized levels. So that could potentially explain some of your slow weight loss, if you were deficient in vitamin D, you know?
2. Have you been checked for celiac disease? You are in a higher risk category to have it, what with hypothyroidism. However, hypothyroidism (and diabetes, actually), can mask the symptoms of celiac disease sometimes. Because of this, some experts in celiac disease try to have all their hypothyroid or diabetes patients test for it automatically. It is not standard practice at this time, but it might be worth your while to get the blood panel.
One reason i mention this is because while it's not as well known in the general practice doctors, celiac disease can sometimes cause weight gain and difficulty in losing weight (most doctors only know that it often causes people to LOSE weight - it depends on how the body reacts to certain conditions, weirdly). I know a few folks with hypothyroidism who had real trouble losing weight until they got a celiac diagnosis and then bam, the weight dropped right away.
Good luck1
1 -
workinonit1956 wrote: »Great advice already, the folks here know their stuff I would only add, have patience and trust the process-it works. Sounds like you are off to a great start, welcome!
Ahhh yes! Patience.... Working on that!
Thanks!1 -
re: workouts/exercise. One little thing that can actually have a larger than expected impact is something you can do when you are at work: fidget. Studies have found that people who fidget - bounce a leg, tap a foot, flick their fingers, pace rather than stand, things like that - are burning more calories doing the same sedentary activities than people who are not. Which makes sense, considering they are moving just a tiny bit more. A Mayo clinic study found you can burn up to 350 more calories a day, just adding in fidgety things like this. Although i'd guess that most of us would fidget 100-200 calories a day typically. :-)
Re: slow weight loss previously
1. Have you had your vitamin D levels checked? Low vitamin D levels are pretty common in folks with auto-immune disorders like hypothyroid issues; docs don't know why, at this point. But in a study in the British Journal of Nutrition, they found that women with low vitamin D levels tend to lose weight more slowly than those with normalized levels. So that could potentially explain some of your slow weight loss, if you were deficient in vitamin D, you know?
2. Have you been checked for celiac disease? You are in a higher risk category to have it, what with hypothyroidism. However, hypothyroidism (and diabetes, actually), can mask the symptoms of celiac disease sometimes. Because of this, some experts in celiac disease try to have all their hypothyroid or diabetes patients test for it automatically. It is not standard practice at this time, but it might be worth your while to get the blood panel.
One reason i mention this is because while it's not as well known in the general practice doctors, celiac disease can sometimes cause weight gain and difficulty in losing weight (most doctors only know that it often causes people to LOSE weight - it depends on how the body reacts to certain conditions, weirdly). I know a few folks with hypothyroidism who had real trouble losing weight until they got a celiac diagnosis and then bam, the weight dropped right away.
Good luck1
I actually have been told years ago my Vitamin D levels were low and I had totally forgotten about that until you just mentioned it. Pre-keto I was taking a women's multivitamin that was helping with this but I stopped because I switched my vitamins focus to be keto specific (potassium, magnesium, etc...). I'll start back with taking my regular multivitamin!
I wasn't very familiar with celiac disease but after a quick google search I doubt this is something I have. During Keto I was pretty much completely grain & gluten free or at least SIGNIFICANTLY less than I had been previously so in theory I would have begun to feel much better and begun to actually lose.
Thank you for your suggestions!0
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