Even less self-esteem after weight loss...

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  • PrettyGirlPayton
    PrettyGirlPayton Posts: 93 Member
    Please start doing strength training. Your whole body tends to build muscle. In other words tone it up girl. You will notice a shape. And you may lift your bum- :)
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
    I don't know if anyone else is struggling with this but I am having a hard time accepting my new body. I was 12st 4lbs (I'm 5 foot 3), and I've lost 3 stone so far...... but I feel worse about my body than I did before. I guess that before, I liked my breasts and my bum and I felt curvy. Now those things are gone, my bum is flat and I have lost 2 cup sizes and I don't feel curvy anymore. I am still carrying a lot of fat on my stomach and it makes my chest look even smaller. I really can't shift this belly fat.

    I just don't feel attractive at all and I'm having a really hard time accepting my body. Clothes look so different on me now, all the old styles I use to wear look terrible. I have no money and can't afford to buy new clothes, I just have to stick with the old ones from when I was a teenager and old second hand clothes people have given me.

    Part of me massively regrets losing weight but then I know I am so much healthier and stronger now.

    Is anyone else feeling this way too?

    That is why it's important to lift weights. You need to develop your lean body mass so it will be pretty for when the weight is gone. It takes longer to build muscle than it does to build fat. The body is not pretty with no muscle tone. Cardio only gives you limited muscle tone, you need it for your cardiovascular system and it's good for you, but it is not enough.

    Lifting weights is KEY. I recently had my DXA scan done and at 51.5 years of age I have the bone density of a super athletic 30 year old. That is a direct result of lifting for over 30 years. Now if that is not scientific proof that lifting weights keeps you younger I don't know what is! Also I believe it is why most people think I look much younger than I really am.

    Start lifting now, lift heavy and change it up often, find a lot of weight routines with free weights, make it fun, embrace it, make it part of your life. Only 3 days a week is all it would take. Crank up your tunes and learn to love it, because your body will love it and it will make your quality of life better in many ways, especially when you get older like me.

    Because of this I don't have to worry about osteoporosis. If you wait until you are older and your bones start to deteriorate it's a bit too late, you can't get back what you lost, you can only start a resistance routine that will prevent further damage.

    If you are female you don't have the hormones to get big naturally. I lift heavy and I'm still really tiny. My lean body mass is only 104 lbs and that is fairly heavy for a 5'1" female, and quite a bit of this is due to my having very dense bones from 30 years of lifting, not all muscle, and I'm still quite tiny.

    My muscles really are not that big, but they show a lot of definition because I'm quite lean. If I gained some fat then I would have a softer more toned look (which is OKAY too!). Then if I gained more fat I would look bulking and hefty like I did most of my life until last year. YOU CAN HAVE WHATEVER YOU WANT. Lean and ripped, soft and toned, or hefty, it all depends on how much fat you leave on your body. Calories are the only thing that changes fat. Exercise is for changing or maintaining your lean body mass only. Lifting weights will give you the best bang for your buck for shaping your body. I finally changed my shape by putting lifting first and cardio 2nd. You cannot out exercise too many calories.

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