Eat more 2 weigh less! It works! (Thank God I took photos!)

jklabs

Great story...thanks for sharing!!

scorp7003

Looks and sounds like you are doing great, thanks for sharing.

Aeriel

Congrats and you look great!

gwen485

Way to go, looking great!!

Cheri_Moves

OP, we need to be friends because what I just read sounded so eeriely like my OWN STORY I think I have goosebumps!

Seriously, I have the same story... My profile pic shows my body comp changes from just April to now... and I gained one stinkin pound.

And I am not going to be ashamed to show my mid-drift on a fitness site either, even if I don't look like Ms. Hottie McHotpants.

EATERS UNITE! :drinker: :flowerforyou: :drinker: :flowerforyou:

roguestates

Great job! I am definitely a believer in having photos. I am so glad to hear though that you didn't see a change in measurements. :laugh: I haven't seen a change in measurements or on the scale since I have been eating more but I think I look better and am seeing more definition. People always say take measurements since the scale doesn't always tell the truth but honestly sometimes the measurements don't tell the whole story either!! Thanks for your post!

I've been feeling the same way. My measurements have gone up and down a little bit, despite how much I try to measure with consistency.

musiche

You look amazing!!! I've been doing the EMtWL strategy for quite some months without the success you have (I've gained, and starting to drop the gain but...), but I know it works, and your story proves it beautifully. Thank you for the added boost of confidence that it is the right thing to do - it's just a matter of finding the right numbers.

Your comment about it coming down to nutrition.... that is a great way to look at it, and I'm going ot keep it in mind rather than focus quite so much on the calories. Thank you for sharing! :drinker:

Hi!
Thank you!

I am sorry to hear you're having mixed results. I wanted to see if I could offer you any more tidbits of advice that might tweak things in the right direction and get you some more concrete results.

When I decided to start eating more, I had to console the part of my brain that truly believed that eating with a deficit was the only way (the part of me that had lived like that for years and years and years). I really just wanted to repair my metabolism and everything suggested eating more. To me, it seemed logical that if I had adapted to fewer calories, that more calories WOULD turn into fat and I obviously didn't want that. Many other articles suggested that the second best way to increase your metabolism was to increase your muscle mass. So, those two principles in hand seemed a fitting pair! Also, everything I read said that it is next to impossible to put on muscle with a calorie debt. So, I decided I needed to change my focus from losing weight, to eating more and building muscle.

I researched body building and learned a few key things, for example:

- eat more protein. Try to eat 0.5g of protein per pound of weight you have. I eat between 0.5 and 0.75g per pound. Don't limit your carbs, and I say this ONLY because eating that much protein means you are naturally going to cut your carbs anyway or else you would eat too much. Initially, I went protein crazy and was eating too much protein and not enough complex carbs and I got, um, backed up, if you know what I mean. I needed to increase my carb intake a bit and stuck strictly with complex carbs for 'bowel regularity', lol. Fibre keeps the system running efficiently and we want that for sure!

- zigzag your calories. Every day eat a different amount of NET calories. And have your higher calorie days on your harder workout day. Also, eat the majority of your calories before and after your workout. Before, so you can fuel an awesome, intense workout, and after to help repair and build muscle. Try to eat protein and complex carbs within 30 minutes of a good muscle-burning workout. When I say zigzag, I love this philosophy because plateaus are all about our body ADAPTING to our lifestyle. We need to keep it guessing. I ate a constant 1600 every day for ages and my body knew it and worked according to that. Increasing my calories and eating, say, 3000 one day, 2700 the next, 3200 the day after, 3000 the next, 2600 the day after, etc.. And TIMING those calories so my body has more calories to fuel workouts and become stronger, means that I am now telling MY BODY what I want it to do with those calories, and that is not to store them for later! Lol

- sleep enough. This is the predominant time that our body uses to build muscle. Make sure it has that chance

- with increased calorie output, our need for nutrients (the building blocks for creating new cells, i.e. muscle fibre) also increases. If you suspect at all, that you are not getting enough nutrients (and this can be possible with even the best of diets, because of day-to-day differences) then maybe consider a multivitamin. Take half in the morning, half at night because we can only use about that much at a time and after about 12 hours we've used up all that half-pill has to offer. If we're going to build, we need the tools to do it, not just the energy.

Oh boy, there are so many things I've learned... I wish I could remember them all! But these are some of the most important. Hopefully, with a few tweaks you can get EM2WL working for you efficiently! I am CERTAIN you can. Keep me posted!!

~ Krystal.

jazee11

Success!


You look amazing!

para999sal

WOW looking good

musiche

OP, we need to be friends because what I just read sounded so eeriely like my OWN STORY I think I have goosebumps!

Seriously, I have the same story... My profile pic shows my body comp changes from just April to now... and I gained one stinkin pound.

And I am not going to be ashamed to show my mid-drift on a fitness site either, even if I don't look like Ms. Hottie McHotpants.

EATERS UNITE! :drinker: :flowerforyou: :drinker: :flowerforyou:

Well, Ms. Hottie McHotpants!

I am super-pleased to meet you! That is so crazy that we've traveled the same path in life. YOU LOOK SOOOO GOOOD!!!

I friended you a while ago. So glad you managed to defy stupid dieting 'wisdom' too!

jennifermaffei17

Hard to tell the difference when you aren't standing in the same angle. I don't notice a huge difference, then again you did gain a small amount, but congrats anyway and good luck on your future progress...you can do it!

CricketLaw

OH friend me too!!!

For the last year and a half, I've been trying so hard to learn about nutrition and bodybuilding. I'm on bodyspace, and I just joined on here a few days ago.
I started with CronOMeter, and it was telling me to eat a certain amount, but when I plugged it in.... I could never seem to eat enough. I was stuffing myself. I hit plateau after plateau... and even gained weight.
I did a program I came up with on my own for 12 weeks (from research) and I lost around 15 pounds, but then I started the "Kris Gething hardcore 12 week" program... and went to failure on everthing... tore up my shoulders and almost had to have surgery. I ate the fistsize portions like he said to do, but my body wouldn't drop the weight. I stayed at 220.2 as my lowest ever.

After a 6 month lull of eating very badly and not working out due to moving, and recovering etc etc... I started the 12 week program again, but this time... going to burn and not to failure. I weighed in at 245 UGH
I learned that I had DOMS badly... I literally couldn't feel pain and over did my strength training the last time. I would feel it a couple days later though.
This go around, I ordered "Scivation's Xtend" for intra-workouts and my DOMS has completely turned around! I can actually feel my limits now when I weight lift.
I'm on the 6th week and have lost around 13 pounds now. I'm hoping I'm on the right track now... but I need to learn more about rotating my calories and when to increase them etc etc...
Thank you so much for making your post and YOU LOOK AWESOME!!!!!

musiche

I've been asked a lot of questions as this thread goes on. Mostly a lot of 'hows'. So, I put some thoughts in a blog for anyone that wanted some insight on how I made EM2WL work for me. There are soooo many skeptics out there and the negativity I find just unnecessary, but I guess you are doomed to get that when you put yourself out there. Take the good with the bad, right? Thank you to all the positive and supportive people, you make all the haters seem insignificant.

I want people to understand that if you just eat more and change nothing else about your lifestyle, you will probably gain fat. You can't change something about your lifestyle, throw off the balance and expect it to just fix itself without a bounce back somewhere else. Everything in life is a balance, and you must compensate in some areas when you make changes in others. For the most part, it was all about timing and adjusting how and when I did things, rather than a huge life change. All in all, the changes I made were positive, beneficial and easy because they were not restrictions like every diet out there is. It was just doing things differently, and the smart way.

Here's a link to the blog:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/musiche/view/making-em2wl-work-be-smart-about-it-412820

musiche

OH friend me too!!!

For the last year and a half, I've been trying so hard to learn about nutrition and bodybuilding. I'm on bodyspace, and I just joined on here a few days ago.
I started with CronOMeter, and it was telling me to eat a certain amount, but when I plugged it in.... I could never seem to eat enough. I was stuffing myself. I hit plateau after plateau... and even gained weight.
I did a program I came up with on my own for 12 weeks (from research) and I lost around 15 pounds, but then I started the "Kris Gething hardcore 12 week" program... and went to failure on everthing... tore up my shoulders and almost had to have surgery. I ate the fistsize portions like he said to do, but my body wouldn't drop the weight. I stayed at 220.2 as my lowest ever.

After a 6 month lull of eating very badly and not working out due to moving, and recovering etc etc... I started the 12 week program again, but this time... going to burn and not to failure. I weighed in at 245 UGH
I learned that I had DOMS badly... I literally couldn't feel pain and over did my strength training the last time. I would feel it a couple days later though.
This go around, I ordered "Scivation's Xtend" for intra-workouts and my DOMS has completely turned around! I can actually feel my limits now when I weight lift.
I'm on the 6th week and have lost around 13 pounds now. I'm hoping I'm on the right track now... but I need to learn more about rotating my calories and when to increase them etc etc...
Thank you so much for making your post and YOU LOOK AWESOME!!!!!

Hi!

The true measure of success to me, is not giving up and pushing until you find something that works. Sounds like you tried a lot and finally found what works for you!

PS - embrace the DOMS, it won't always show up, but when it does, you know you've worked damn hard and you should be proud. No matter how much it hurts, it IS a good pain and you should try to love it, lol.

I think maybe you could find some useful information in the post I just put in my blog, the link should be just above this reply. If you have more questions, feel free to ask!

Keep pushing, you sound like a very determined and strong woman and that's exactly who you need to be to get where you want. Be patient and stay positive, that's the hardest part by far!

rjlkat

Thanks, Krystal. I am going to PM you a full response, as I don't want to sidejack the thread But for here, I will say that most of what you mentioned I already do: higher protein (though that can be difficult), lifting, cardio, multi-vitamin... sleep can be an issue simply because of staying up too late to get too many things read/done, but I try.

Your approach to it being a matter of confusing your body so it can't anticipate what you're going to net in calories (like changing up exercises) is interesting and something to ponder. I'm finishing up week 2 of a hamstring injury that has sidelined me, so things are a bit off now, anyway.

Thanks, again!

musiche

Thanks, Krystal. I am going to PM you a full response, as I don't want to sidejack the thread But for here, I will say that most of what you mentioned I already do: higher protein (though that can be difficult), lifting, cardio, multi-vitamin... sleep can be an issue simply because of staying up too late to get too many things read/done, but I try.

Your approach to it being a matter of confusing your body so it can't anticipate what you're going to net in calories (like changing up exercises) is interesting and something to ponder. I'm finishing up week 2 of a hamstring injury that has sidelined me, so things are a bit off now, anyway.

Thanks, again!

No problem! I struggle with sleep too. Life is busy, barely anyone sleeps enough these days. But we keep trying!

Glad you are doing so many good things for yourself. If it takes maybe tweaking one little thing, who knows, that could be exactly what you need! You never know, and we can always be better, so always aim for more and better! In the mean time, stay positive and proud for all that you've done and continue to do.

Cheri_Moves

OP, we need to be friends because what I just read sounded so eeriely like my OWN STORY I think I have goosebumps!

Seriously, I have the same story... My profile pic shows my body comp changes from just April to now... and I gained one stinkin pound.

And I am not going to be ashamed to show my mid-drift on a fitness site either, even if I don't look like Ms. Hottie McHotpants.

EATERS UNITE! :drinker: :flowerforyou: :drinker: :flowerforyou:

Well, Ms. Hottie McHotpants!

I am super-pleased to meet you! That is so crazy that we've traveled the same path in life. YOU LOOK SOOOO GOOOD!!!

I friended you a while ago. So glad you managed to defy stupid dieting 'wisdom' too!

So, I changed my profile pic... I do that a lot, I bore easily But the one I was referring to (and another with all 3 views) are in my pics on my page. And THANK YOU! Its all that delicious nutrition and hardcore workouts that are doing it!

CricketLaw

Thank you SOOOOO much! I will definitely read your other article!!!!

Martina_Who

Wow, thanks for sharing :-)

MariaMariaM

Amazing! That is why I am constantly taking pictures. As you get closer and closer to your goal only pics will tell the story.