Desperately need advice! Gained all weight lost ..

awillz101

Metformin + Curves Workout 3 times a week + 1200 calorie diet = And I lost 20 pounds in 1 month!!!!!

Just remember when you lose weight you are more likely to become pregnant So now my daughter is 4 months and today I'm going back to Curves!!!!

Pregnant??? :huh: Haha but I'm happy for you!! 20 pounds is fantastic!

jonnythan

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make when trying to lose weight is slaving over cardio, day in and day out. It's absolutely not necessary and is genuinely counter-productive.

You shouldn't be doing something you hate in order to lose weight and get in shape. It's not necessary, and the mental state it puts you in is poor for your health, motivation, and weight loss. This is why people yo-yo with their weight. They do crap they hate and deny themselves things they enjoy. They lose weight, but then they get sick of it, and their bad old habits creep back in and they gain the weight back. It's madness.

The reality is that you don't need 7, 10, 15 hours of cardio every week to lose weight. It's much more important to find something you ENJOY doing and do it 2 or 3 times a week for 30-60 minutes. That's all you need for good cardiovascular health. The other side of the coin is muscles - you really need to do HEAVY resistance training at least 2 times a week. A good weight workout can be less than an hour. But losing weight DESTROYS your muscle mass unless you work it hard, and muscle is what keeps your metabolism cranked.

A couple pounds of muscle mass burn more calories in a week than all that cardio.

Just run a calorie deficit, work those muscles, and get some FUN cardio a couple of times a week.

Absolutely, you're right! It's become a chore rather then something I enjoy doing. Beautifully said! Thank you! I'll definitely down size it to 2-3 times a week and add the strength training! How long do you recommend doing strength training?

Well.. forever Adults lose muscle mass at something like 1 lb a year. It's hard to keep that mass, and the only real way is to use those muscles. All these silly cardio things I see people doing, like getting on the elliptical with 2 lb dumbbells in your hands or whatever, is a total waste of time.

It's important to separate cardio from strength training. Let me tell you why:


CARDIO.
The entire point of cardio is to force your body to use oxygen, which stresses a variety of systems in your body:
1) The ability of your lungs to transfer oxygen into your blood and CO2 out
2) The ability of your heart and cardiovascular system to effectively move that oxygen and CO2
3) To burn energy and eat into energy stores such as glycogen

That's really it. That's the goal with cardio. It really doesn't matter how you do that; whether it's running, tennis, cycling, swimming, whatever. Anything that makes you move enough to get your heart thumping counts as cardio. That should be the goal of cardio.

STRENGTH.
The entire point of strength training is to damage your muscles. Seriously, that's it. You get stronger and build muscle mass by lifting things that are so heavy you cause microscopic tears in muscle tissue, which then rebuild themselves as larger and stronger.

You can't do that with light weights. It just doesn't work. The only thing a hundred side raises with 10-lb dumbbells is going to do is wreck your shoulder ligaments. You need to work with heavy weights. The thing with weight training is that it takes skill. You can't just walk into a gym and improvise an effective strength workout.

The plus side is that a lot of people have come before you, and have worked out concise, simple, highly effective routines. You can be in and out of the gym in less than an hour having done a highly effective barbell workout.
The minus side is that, for whatever reason, women just don't do them. They are scared of barbells and think the rules don't apply to them anyway since they want to be "toned" and not "muscular" even though those terms are completely meaningless.

So, in reality, and I mean no offense to you, the chances of you actually beginning a remotely effective strength training program are very close to zero. But you should. You really really really should. You should be working with a barbell 2-3 times a week.

I promise you that if you do, the results will absolutely astonish you.


Anyway, that's why these "fitness" plans like Insanity or P90x or whatever are completely sub-optimal. They mix cardio with lightweight "strength" training in an ineffective way. They are designed to make you feel exhausted, but that's it. Don't mix the two in the same workout. Every day should be either a cardio day, a strength day, or a rest day. And yes, you absolutely need rest days; at least one a week. Your body needs recovery.

cordianet

So let me ask you... If eating 1200 cals a day and working out 5 days a week didn't work last time, why on earth are you going to do the exact same thing? Instead, try eating TDEE - 500 and make sure to incorporate strength training into your exercise routine.

nurseceejai

like above posts you are not eating enough calories.i find when i lower calories to try to lose weight it is counterproductive.if i stayat 1600 and exercise 3 days a week i lose.i dont lose at a fast weight as i am older but i consistently lose 1-2 a week hope this helps

awillz101

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make when trying to lose weight is slaving over cardio, day in and day out. It's absolutely not necessary and is genuinely counter-productive.

You shouldn't be doing something you hate in order to lose weight and get in shape. It's not necessary, and the mental state it puts you in is poor for your health, motivation, and weight loss. This is why people yo-yo with their weight. They do crap they hate and deny themselves things they enjoy. They lose weight, but then they get sick of it, and their bad old habits creep back in and they gain the weight back. It's madness.

The reality is that you don't need 7, 10, 15 hours of cardio every week to lose weight. It's much more important to find something you ENJOY doing and do it 2 or 3 times a week for 30-60 minutes. That's all you need for good cardiovascular health. The other side of the coin is muscles - you really need to do HEAVY resistance training at least 2 times a week. A good weight workout can be less than an hour. But losing weight DESTROYS your muscle mass unless you work it hard, and muscle is what keeps your metabolism cranked.

A couple pounds of muscle mass burn more calories in a week than all that cardio.

Just run a calorie deficit, work those muscles, and get some FUN cardio a couple of times a week.

Absolutely, you're right! It's become a chore rather then something I enjoy doing. Beautifully said! Thank you! I'll definitely down size it to 2-3 times a week and add the strength training! How long do you recommend doing strength training?

Well.. forever Adults lose muscle mass at something like 1 lb a year. It's hard to keep that mass, and the only real way is to use those muscles. All these silly cardio things I see people doing, like getting on the elliptical with 2 lb dumbbells in your hands or whatever, is a total waste of time.

It's important to separate cardio from strength training. Let me tell you why:


CARDIO.
The entire point of cardio is to force your body to use oxygen, which stresses a variety of systems in your body:
1) The ability of your lungs to transfer oxygen into your blood and CO2 out
2) The ability of your heart and cardiovascular system to effectively move that oxygen and CO2
3) To burn energy and eat into energy stores such as glycogen

That's really it. That's the goal with cardio. It really doesn't matter how you do that; whether it's running, tennis, cycling, swimming, whatever. Anything that makes you move enough to get your heart thumping counts as cardio. That should be the goal of cardio.

STRENGTH.
The entire point of strength training is to damage your muscles. Seriously, that's it. You get stronger and build muscle mass by lifting things that are so heavy you cause microscopic tears in muscle tissue, which then rebuild themselves as larger and stronger.

You can't do that with light weights. It just doesn't work. The only thing a hundred side raises with 10-lb dumbbells is going to do is wreck your shoulder ligaments. You need to work with heavy weights. The thing with weight training is that it takes skill. You can't just walk into a gym and improvise an effective strength workout.

The plus side is that a lot of people have come before you, and have worked out concise, simple, highly effective routines. You can be in and out of the gym in less than an hour having done a highly effective barbell workout.
The minus side is that, for whatever reason, women just don't do them. They are scared of barbells and think the rules don't apply to them anyway since they want to be "toned" and not "muscular" even though those terms are completely meaningless.

So, in reality, and I mean no offense to you, the chances of you actually beginning a remotely effective strength training program are very close to zero. But you should. You really really really should. You should be working with a barbell 2-3 times a week.

I promise you that if you do, the results will absolutely astonish you.


Anyway, that's why these "fitness" plans like Insanity or P90x or whatever are completely sub-optimal. They mix cardio with lightweight "strength" training in an ineffective way. They are designed to make you feel exhausted, but that's it. Don't mix the two in the same workout. Every day should be either a cardio day, a strength day, or a rest day. And yes, you absolutely need rest days; at least one a week. Your body needs recovery.

So glad I posted this, I'm learning way more than expected! Thanks for taking the time by the way. I have been strength training - but with little ol' 5 pounders so I guess that's not cutting it? I have seen a difference in my arms though! I'll definitely have to look more deeply into strength training properly! And get some heavy weights ..

awillz101

Be patient! Slow and steady wins the race. It's tempting to cut your calories back to the bare minimum and exercise like a madman to blast the weight off, but it's not really sustainable in the long term, and your body will slowly force you to give up. Instead, focus on making measured, reasonable changes to your diet, find exercises that you enjoy, and let the pounds drop off one at a time. View yourself as a work in progress. Doing it this way can help you make permanent changes to your lifestyle, which *keeps* the weight off.

And if you have a bad day and eat exceptionally poorly, or you can't be bothered to exercise (and that happens to all of us), forgive yourself, forget about it, and get back on the program the very next day.

:happy: Beautiful! Thank you! Great advice.

jonnythan

So glad I posted this, I'm learning way more than expected! Thanks for taking the time by the way. I have been strength training - but with little ol' 5 pounders so I guess that's not cutting it? I have seen a difference in my arms though! I'll definitely have to look more deeply into strength training properly! And get some heavy weights ..

Yeah, keep the 5-pounders in the closet, they're not going to do anything at all meaningful for you. And honestly a set of home weights won't do a whole lot for you. If you can lift them now, they'll be too light for you in two weeks. The strength limitation for novices isn't their muscles - it's their nervous system training. People who have never lifted just don't have the CNS training to effectively use all the muscle mass they have, so they make enormous gains in the first few months even though their muscles themselves aren't getting much stronger.

If you're not willing to go to a gym, I highly recommend picking up a book called Convict Conditioning. It's full of strength exercises you can do at home with no weights, and it's appropriate for everyone from the absolute beginner like yourself to people who are thoroughly jacked.

imchicbad

Your not eating enough. That's the problem believe it or not.

awillz101

So glad I posted this, I'm learning way more than expected! Thanks for taking the time by the way. I have been strength training - but with little ol' 5 pounders so I guess that's not cutting it? I have seen a difference in my arms though! I'll definitely have to look more deeply into strength training properly! And get some heavy weights ..

Yeah, keep the 5-pounders in the closet, they're not going to do anything at all meaningful for you. And honestly a set of home weights won't do a whole lot for you. If you can lift them now, they'll be too light for you in two weeks. The strength limitation for novices isn't their muscles - it's their nervous system training. People who have never lifted just don't have the CNS training to effectively use all the muscle mass they have, so they make enormous gains in the first few months even though their muscles themselves aren't getting much stronger.

If you're not willing to go to a gym, I highly recommend picking up a book called Convict Conditioning. It's full of strength exercises you can do at home with no weights, and it's appropriate for everyone from the absolute beginner like yourself to people who are thoroughly jacked.

I'm willing, a membership is just a little to pricey for this gal! Thanks for the book idea though! I'll have to Amazon that! You've really been a huge help.

atamrowski

This may have been covered already in this thread but perhaps someone can enlighten me. I may come across as ignorant but just need to understand:

Why is eating more calories (than 1200) going to help you shed weight faster?

jonnythan

I want to add a note here for everyone else regarding strength training. There are five exercises that are key to virtually every effective strength program in existence. They are:

The Squat
The Bench Press
The Deadlift
The Overhead Press
The Row (or pullup)

These five exercises, when done properly, work every major muscle group in the body. You only need to do each one once a week, meaning you can do a "split." A common split is the squat and bench as workout 1 with the deadlift, overhead press, and row as exercise 2. That's it. Literally 5 lifts, each once a week.

I mentioned Convict Conditioning. This is a bodyweight-only routine, but if you look at the actual core exercises in the book they look familiar:

The Pushup
The Squat
The Pullup
The Leg Raise
The Bridge
The Handstand Pushup

All of these exercises is an attempt to replicate, using bodyweight only, the Big Five I listed earlier. The pushup is the bench press. The squat is still the squat, although this is a bodyweight squat. The pullup is the row. The bridge and leg raise are the deadlift. The handstand pushup is the overhead press.

Notice there is no mention of machines in this post. All those plate-loaded machines with fixed levers and rotation points are total junk. They are completely useless unless you're a bodybuilder specifically trying to exercise a single specific muscle. They don't exercise large muscle groups like freeweight exercises do. They don't strengthen joints and soft tissue the same way. Stay away from them.

jonnythan

This may have been covered already in this thread but perhaps someone can enlighten me. I may come across as ignorant but just need to understand:

Why is eating more calories (than 1200) going to help you shed weight faster?

She's trying to push a caloric deficit that's far too large. The human body will only withstand so much starvation before it just starts shutting down.

The human body is programmed for survival. It's astonishingly good at it - we can literally go weeks with zero food. There are all kinds of fail-safes built in to keep us from starving to death. If the body senses it's being starved, it will slow down major metabolic processes, consume muscle mass (muscle mass requires more energy to keep than fatty tissue), etc. This will make your metabolism drop and you will feel like absolute crap.

It's important not to push the calorie deficit too hard. A deficit of about 500 calories a day is sustainable. 1000 calories a day can work for some larger people, but not long term. Even at 500 calories a day, you need to take a few days or a week every couple of months to "re-feed" to keep your body from starting to shut down.

So it isn't that eating more will make her lose weight, exactly. It's that eating more will keep her body from going into starvation mode.

samanthachen

It may be possible that your body needs more calories than 1200. I was at 1200 and lost for a bit then stopped. I kicked up the calorie intake to about 1700 and now losing weight again. It sounds counter-intuitive but it does work. Just a thought.

That is what I am doing too! It was a difficult decision to make, but a good one! It stinks to see the weight loss projection go from 2lbs/week to 1lb/week, but it is worth it in the long run. You won't plateau because you have an intake you can adjust to your weight loss. At 1200 calories, there is no where to go when you get stuck! MFP has an area that allows you to calculate your BMR. I guarantee it will be over 1200 calories. That is the amount your body burns fully stationary, in a coma! Mine was 1650! MY goodness!!! I was eating less than a comatose ME needed. THat is scary. You should eat more than your BMR but less than you burn in a day with your daily functions (TDEE for most people is around 2300 +/- a few hundred). This is the number you should eat because it will adjust as you lose weight. Find a happy area between your TDEE and BMR. In 6 weeks or so, recalculate if you are losing weight, and adjust your intake accordingly! This prevents the plateau and you don't have to burn yourself out on working out more and more and more and more and more!!! You can only do so much exercise! Take care of your body, and it will take care of you. Good luck with the decision. We are all here to help you!

samanthachen

It may be possible that your body needs more calories than 1200. I was at 1200 and lost for a bit then stopped. I kicked up the calorie intake to about 1700 and now losing weight again. It sounds counter-intuitive but it does work. Just a thought.

That is what I am doing too! It was a difficult decision to make, but a good one! It stinks to see the weight loss projection go from 2lbs/week to 1lb/week, but it is worth it in the long run. You won't plateau because you have an intake you can adjust to your weight loss. At 1200 calories, there is no where to go when you get stuck! MFP has an area that allows you to calculate your BMR. I guarantee it will be over 1200 calories. That is the amount your body burns fully stationary, in a coma! Mine was 1650! MY goodness!!! I was eating less than a comatose ME needed. THat is scary. You should eat more than your BMR but less than you burn in a day with your daily functions (TDEE for most people is around 2300 +/- a few hundred). This is the number you should eat because it will adjust as you lose weight. Find a happy area between your TDEE and BMR. In 6 weeks or so, recalculate if you are losing weight, and adjust your intake accordingly! This prevents the plateau and you don't have to burn yourself out on working out more and more and more and more and more!!! You can only do so much exercise! Take care of your body, and it will take care of you. Good luck with the decision. We are all here to help you!

And I have to say that I am glad I found this so early in my time with MFP! Tough decision, but the best one for you

brenn24179

I lost 40 bs two years ago, I have gained 10 back since Xmas. Thank Goodness I only gained 10 back but trying to get that off. My mistake was I was eating all these healthy foods, sound good right but I was eating too many. I thought oh that doesnt have that many calories and I messed up. Too many healthy foods added up. This is what happened to me.

Oh yea I had a mean girl I was working with and I did not confront. I am not good at problem solving when I did probem solve, got my guts up and confronted I was then ready to work on this weight. guess that was that emotional eating. So solve problems

Marthaamaya8

Yes it was a happy surprise! But now is time to start taking care of myself again!!! Going back for 20!!! Just started yesterday and so far Im suffering but I now is worthy!!!