Hard work, blood, sweat & tears .... for what!??

Wonderob

My husband goes through this too. To change his body. He will start eating more. And I mean a lot more, mostly meat and carbs and then continues with the heavy lifting. It makes him bigger. (muscle wise) It works for him.

I'm not eating more though - calorie neutral

LadyIntrepid

If nothing else (and this is no small nothing), you *stay* fit. It's hard work to maintain, especially as we get older. If you stop doing what you're doing, you will likely gain some weight and backslide some. Maintaining is exactly that - maintaining.

Also, if you're doing the exact same workouts all the time for year, it may be that your body is simply conditioned to it and not generating more obvious results. That's the thing with conditioning -- the more conditioned and fit we are, the harder we have to work (even though we're already working hard!) to see more results. Maybe change things up a bit and see what happens.

LadyIntrepid

P.S. If you do want to build more muscle, you might want to consider bulking and cutting rather than staying consistently calorie neutral.

GrammaBonnie

You keep working so you don't end up like me.

Someone who WANTS -- quite desperately -- to be able to work out. But my body won't let me.

Since March, I've had a stress fracture, a DVT (deep vein thrombosis/blood clot) in my leg, IT Band Syndrome and pinched nerves in my back, which causes shooting pain down the same leg that has had all of the other other issues.

It hurts to walk. It hurts to move my arms. It hurts to get out of bed.

I'll take the hard work, blood, and sweat in trade for what I have ... just the tears.

Sorry, I just came back from a very discouraging Physical Therapy session, and I'm feeling sorry for myself. At least we have that in common.

Wonderob

You keep working so you don't end up like

Whether I work out is never the issue. It's whether I workout till I drop!

Wonderob

hmmm.. you have your health, you are fit, your body didnt gain in a year....you have beautiful children...a beautiful wife n are happy.....hmmm yet your fed up... look at the good my dear...i am sure it outweighs everything.
life does sucks and I know...getting to a place where a person is maintaining healthy and happy can be trying... am there and know all too well.
Take a look at what you have... be thankful...evaluate your goals...redefine and if you want them...sorry to tell you...it will be hard work...
I guess looking from where i am at...your sweat and hard work... even though you remained the same, I feel is a BIG achievement and id be smiling and so happy to have my spouse and family to enjoy it with....but I guess I am looking at my own wl journey.

No not fed up, I'm happy

My point was really that I don't quite understand how this works. If I eat quite well and go through the motions at the gym I would expect to be ABOUT the same after a year. SO what are the tangible benefits of giving it my all?

benefits are you dont' gain weight. you stay healthy.

No the benefits of staying at maintenance calories is that I don't gain weight. The benefits of lifting weights and doing cardio is that I stay healthy. I want to know the ADDTIONAL benefits of going the extra mile when lifting

missym357

The whole point of your question has crossed my mind multiple times. It is what kept me from giving my all and working hard at my fitness in the past. I've always been thin, I've always had low body fat, so what is the point of workng hard???

I can tell you as a lean, thin person that has gotten past that mindset and found motivation from other places aside from vanity, that I have gotten even leaner in the course of a year and more muscular. I have, for the most part, eaten at maintenence- not going out of my way to eat past or under my hunger level. I get a great deal of satisfaction from meeting my performance goals, having visible muscles, feeling strong and healthy, and being able to do physical things at a level that I would not be able to do otherwise. I set a great example for my kids, my husband and my extended family and friends. I enjoy food without any thought about it being 'bad'. Those are all things that are worthwhile.