Ask me anything about fat/weight loss....

BusyBeBe

What is your view on CLA supplement? Is it something you recommend to your clients?

TheOfficialEpic

Should I NET my BMR or eat up to it?

Elaborate. If you just ate up to your bmr everyday, you would still lose in the long run so long as your counting was spot on. Bmr assumes you're not doing ANYthing. So time you move out of bed, brush your teeth, and walk to the car, you're already ahead of it.

Phoenix_Angel

I've got a challenging question for u

We know that cortisol causes midsection fat.
We know that genetics play a big part in where u store fat.
We know that u can't control where fat falls off first.

Genetics say I should be super heavy on top. But I'm not... Maybe I was adopted idk. Lol
So here's where it gets tricky. Let's say I lowered my bf% to like 15%. And I personally want to be more like 18%. Yeah I know it sounds backwards. It's not a typo. I am a highly stressed person so I'm sure my cortisol has been out of whack most of my life. I've been doing things to lower stress like eating clean foods with good fats and low sugar, drinking green tea instead of coffee, even gonna quit smoking (bad me!).

So now let's say I'm ready to put on the extra fat to get my womanhood back and look less like a muscle machine. How possible is it that my new clean pure diet and destressed lifestyle might just put some weight on top instead of all to my thighs?

I know about strength training those areas and working on that too. I would absolutely love to hear your input on this. U seem very knowledgeable and very accurate with your answers

cabaray

First - thanks for doing this!

My question: I started out at 330 lbs and since December I've lost 33 of them. I do strength training 3 days a week and cardio on those days plus 2 more for a total of 5 days at the gym (for about 1 hour each day.) I was losing 2-3 lbs a week and I was eating between 1500-1900 calories depending on my workout for the day.

Then at the end of March I decided to alter my strength training a little bit and do less on the machines and more with my own body weight and/or dumbbells. More squats, step-ups, push-ups, crunches with a medicine ball, and arm work with dumbells. It felt great and was so much harder than my normal workout. But my weight loss came to an abrupt halt. I even started gaining. After 4 weeks of hovering betwee 299-305 I stopped doing those workouts and went back to what I had been doing, thinking maybe I had too much of a calorie deficit to be strength training that hard and would need to up my calories to build muscle but not end up losing fat. Being the weight that I am, I feel like I need more weight loss right now.

Now I am into week 7 since my last weight loss and I still haven't lost anything. I've tried a week of eating more and I've tried taking a week off of working out, but that didn't do anything one way or the other. I fluctuate between 299-306 every couple of days. My food has not changed and I still work out 5 days a week. Is there something I can do to jump start my weight loss again? I am afraid of tinkering with my routine without knowing what I'm doing.

^^This

TheOfficialEpic

I am currently on a high protein, (30 grams for breakfast, 20 grams for lunch, and 20 grams for dinner) low carb (about 20-30 grams per day)... I have lost 10 pounds in the first week.... What is your take on this type of lifestyle???.... I got this plan off the 4 hour body.

Who cares about my take! If you're losing and happy, then keep rocking out on it. If you're miserable then it's probably not the plan for you. Sounds like you're doin' pretty good so far though.

cmccorma

bump

mes1119

I've got a challenging question for u

We know that cortisol causes midsection fat.
We know that genetics play a big part in where u store fat.
We know that u can't control where fat falls off first.

Genetics say I should be super heavy on top. But I'm not... Maybe I was adopted idk. Lol
So here's where it gets tricky. Let's say I lowered my bf% to like 15%. And I personally want to be more like 18%. Yeah I know it sounds backwards. It's not a typo. I am a highly stressed person so I'm sure my cortisol has been out of whack most of my life. I've been doing things to lower stress like eating clean foods with good fats and low sugar, drinking green tea instead of coffee, even gonna quit smoking (bad me!).

So now let's say I'm ready to put on the extra fat to get my womanhood back and look less like a muscle machine. How possible is it that my new clean pure diet and destressed lifestyle might just put some weight on top instead of all to my thighs?

I know about strength training those areas and working on that too. I would absolutely love to hear your input on this. U seem very knowledgeable and very accurate with your answers

no answer, but I think this is an interesting question. I've always heard that cortisol and stress does that so I was wondering if there was a way to reverse it. everyone says you can't "spot reduce" fat but it seems like your body can spot where it puts it!

TheOfficialEpic

Hi! I just want to make sure I understand this clearly. MFP set me to 1200 cals a day to lose 2lbs a week. My TDEE is 2800 and my BMR is 2100. So basically I should eat 1200 and not eat exercise cals back netting me about 700 cals a day? Is that what you're advising or are you assuming 1200 is after a cut we took from our calculated TDEE? Full disclosure...I'm a card carrying member of the Eat More to Weigh Less group here on MFP. I may be completely wrong and the result you've gotten speaks for itself but netting 700 cals a day seems like a bad idea, long term, to me. Thank you for your time!

Oh GOD no!! Do NOT net 700 calories a day or you'll be a stick figure by the end of the month! That's just a WEE bit more than a 500 calorie deficit.

MoreBean13

What advice would you give to someone who is struggling to stay motivated in the face of sloowwww results due to hypothyroid? Or any insight on how to make the process a little faster? I'm not looking for a quick fix, but it just seems like the end is nowhere in sight at 2lbs a month....and this is with medication!

Link up with people with the same goals. At this point, I couldn't get out of shape if I wanted to. All my friends now are other personal trainers, dancers, yoga practitioners, kickboxers, models, etc. If every time you turn around somebody is pushing food in your face or saying things like "You don't need to change, you look fine".....then it's always gonna be harder for you. Stay active on sites like this one also. Create a favorites list on Youtube with tons of inspirational vids. Lastly, just learn to love it. They're not workouts anymore for me. It's my passion. It gets me up in the morning, and I fall asleep thinking about it.

Hmm I have a feeling this is someone else's intended answer....

This is the best thread I have read in a long, long time. It's like rapid fire knowledge!

TheOfficialEpic

I'm gonna be on and off here most of the day, so I thought I'd try to be of help to anybody with questions out there. Train hard, and live shredded.

Is there such a thing as your body's "happy weight?" I have been stuck between 152-157 for the last 11 months. In those months I have tried going to the gym 5-6x per week (cardio machines & strength training), incorporating long walks throughout the week, completing the 30 day shred, biking, palying golf & basketball, and i'm currently on day 41 on P90X...

YES, I have continued to lose inches, (and i'm really quite happy at this weight but was ideally hoping to lose about 10 more) but i'm really just curious if my body is perfectly content at this weight, should I be too? Or is there something MORE I should be doing?!?!

*I eat anywhere from 1400-2000 calories a day depending on exercice...(i'm a little over 5'9")

I guess you could call it happy weight. I can usually maintain 175 without any effort whatsoever, but to go up ten pounds or down ten pounds, I DO have to work a little. Try dropping the calories to 1200-1600 for a week or two. See what happens there.

19kat55

Thank you for doing this. I am an older female that wants to start strength training. I believe dead weights are better than machines. But since I will not have a spotter, would you recommend I start with machines or just jump in and do what I am able to do with dead weights?

Neither are better. They're both just tools we have. Both have pros and both have cons. If you're new to the game and do not have a spotter, then YES, definitely use machines. Nothing wrong with that.

Thanks so much for answering this question. I have been stressing about it.

jeaninemckinney

Well where to start! I was doing greag when i first started and nowmive been stuck for over a month! Ive been reading so much about how u should eat more to lose and eat a certain amount of carbs and protein and fats lol this is all so confusing to me! I just want to get back to losing weight again! I dont workout hardcore but im building myself up and am hoping to join a gym soon! But im atleast doing a jillian dvd everyday!injust need simeone to tell me what to eat every day lol...imnot picky i love all veggies n fruits im just so confused and cant get back fully on track to see the results i want! I feelmmy muscles getting bigger and stronger i just need to get the fat off of them haha! Thanks for any input!:sad:

Start with the app. Set your goals. Make them realistic. Track your calories, and make sure you're consistently in a deficit. Hold yourself to no less than one pound loss a week. Rinse and repeat.

Thank you!!! And sorry for the misspelling geeze! Damn touch screen! Ok i swear im so slow with this im sorry...i get i need to be at a deficit but i dont think i fully understand how to get there! My calorie goal is 1200 a day and if a burn a few hundred atleast a day should i eat back my cals to make my net 1200? Im happy with losing 1 pound a week i just need it to happen consistantly ya know! Im a lil taller then 5'3 and weigh 162 and and pretty active im a sahm of 3 and am trying to atleast workout once a dat sometimes i get do do an hour walk and 2 of jillians dvds those r my fav days! But how many calories do u feel i should be eating a day? In ur opinion? I really appreciate this as to where im just trying to figure out what is best for me! I want to make sure im eating enough for what i want my results to be!:bigsmile: Thanks again for answering all these questions!

TheOfficialEpic

On your diary page, you can see your totals for up to 5 different items daily. What 5 items do you think are the most important to keep track of?

Right now I am watching carbs, fat, sodium, sugar and protein. I was watching fiber intake, but I always eat fiber rich.

Me personally? Calories and protein before anything. Fiber helps keep you full and with digestion. I bump my carbs up if I'm starting to bonk(usually once a week), and I bump my protein intake a bit if I'm not recovering well enough. Sodium you need, but too much will make you retain water. Fats I keep moderate for the most part.

TheOfficialEpic

I think what he's saying is to figure out your TDEE accurately, then don't eat back exercise VS marking as sedentary in MFP and then eating back the calories in the database, which are oftentimes way off. My issue is with how you figure out your TDEE correctly. This one seemed the most fine-tuned, but it also seems kind of on the high side.

http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced

thanks for the link, and answering the question... and I hope you are right, but OP - can you please clarify what you meant by not eating back caloric deficit created by exercise?

**EDIT - nevermind, OP answered it 2 posts above. Thanks. I was worried people may read it and do DOUBLE deficit... thanks for clarifying and once again for fielding all these questions

Lol. Yeh you would DEFINTELY lose weight on a double deficit, but you'd lose everything else too!! Glad we got that clarified yeh.

InnerFatGirl

Another question;

I am 5"5, 182.5lbs, 18 years of age and have 35 more lbs to lose.

I do currently exercise, but I am sporadic. Sometimes, I'll have weeks when I go to the gym every other day. Then some weeks, I won't go at ALL.

However, I work 4 days a week at Starbucks. It's active work, and I only get to sit down for max 40 minutes (which is split) per 8hr or more shift.

When calculating my TDEE, I put it as lightly active - is this right?

Secondly, my TDEE is apparently 2303. I subbed 500 to get 1803. This is what I am on now. Is this okay? Will I almost definitely lose with this number?

If I eat 1803 today, burn 400, how much of that can I eat back, if any?

Also, for last week, I had a deficit of 5110 calories. But I lost 2.5lbs. How is this possible?

theartichoke

Hi! I just want to make sure I understand this clearly. MFP set me to 1200 cals a day to lose 2lbs a week. My TDEE is 2800 and my BMR is 2100. So basically I should eat 1200 and not eat exercise cals back netting me about 700 cals a day? Is that what you're advising or are you assuming 1200 is after a cut we took from our calculated TDEE? Full disclosure...I'm a card carrying member of the Eat More to Weigh Less group here on MFP. I may be completely wrong and the result you've gotten speaks for itself but netting 700 cals a day seems like a bad idea, long term, to me. Thank you for your time!

Oh GOD no!! Do NOT net 700 calories a day or you'll be a stick figure by the end of the month! That's just a WEE bit more than a 500 calorie deficit.

Thank you! This is what many ladies here are doing (netting insanely low) and what they're asking you. At 1200 do I eat my exercise calories back? Good Lord YES! You have wonderful advice and thank you for helping us!

KCharron20

bump!
Thanx for all the great advice!

TheOfficialEpic

First - thanks for doing this!

My question: I started out at 330 lbs and since December I've lost 33 of them. I do strength training 3 days a week and cardio on those days plus 2 more for a total of 5 days at the gym (for about 1 hour each day.) I was losing 2-3 lbs a week and I was eating between 1500-1900 calories depending on my workout for the day.

Then at the end of March I decided to alter my strength training a little bit and do less on the machines and more with my own body weight and/or dumbbells. More squats, step-ups, push-ups, crunches with a medicine ball, and arm work with dumbells. It felt great and was so much harder than my normal workout. But my weight loss came to an abrupt halt. I even started gaining. After 4 weeks of hovering betwee 299-305 I stopped doing those workouts and went back to what I had been doing, thinking maybe I had too much of a calorie deficit to be strength training that hard and would need to up my calories to build muscle but not end up losing fat. Being the weight that I am, I feel like I need more weight loss right now.

Now I am into week 7 since my last weight loss and I still haven't lost anything. I've tried a week of eating more and I've tried taking a week off of working out, but that didn't do anything one way or the other. I fluctuate between 299-306 every couple of days. My food has not changed and I still work out 5 days a week. Is there something I can do to jump start my weight loss again? I am afraid of tinkering with my routine without knowing what I'm doing.

Deficit Deficit Deficit, and an occasional refeed. The initial weight you "think" you put back on was probably muscle. You freaked, and then started eating more. This is great in the short-run to stoke the metabolism, but you still have to have a net deficit in the long run. Lastly, realize you WILL have hiccups along the way. These are lessons. Through these you learn your body. Enjoy the ride. When you get there you will know YOUR body, rather than have a cookie cutter approach that doesn't take into account all the what-ifs. Hope this helps yeh

TheOfficialEpic

Overtraining.

Yes overtraining will severely screw up your efforts. Train smart and make sure you're recovering. If you're overtraining, not only are your workouts getting less and less efficient, but your hormones are getting screwed up too. The body is trying to protect itself and will lower your metabolism to do so. Train hard, but always make sure you're recovering.

As far as TDEE and BMR. These are good things to know of, but easier still is just slowly reducing the calories on a weekly basis till you begin losing at the rate you want. Back in the day, I would go to aggressively with the caloric deficit someone else told me to do, and I'd notice myself losing fat very fast, but muscle mass just as fast! And when I would bulk, I would take in too many calories. Yeh I would add muscle good, but I also just added a ton of body fat! Take it slow and steady and your body will reward you a lot better.

Thank you! In terms of recovery what would you say is an appropriate thing to do? Take 24 hours rest? Eat more protein?

And as for eating below BMR would you recommend bringing calories back up and then taking the amount down? Or slowly bringing the calories up and then back down?

All this is dependent on the person and activity. Some people need more recovery time and others less. I have friends who train legs twice a week, but if I tried doing that, I'd be snapped up by the middle of the third week yeh! Learn your recovery schedule this might be 12 hours for one activity and or muscle, and then 72 hours for another. This might mean 80 grams of protein a day or 150. We're all different.

reedkaus

thanks for doing this boss. lots of good information on here, and you are one shredded mother****er