Didn't see progress, Lost motivation, Fell off track.

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Flufferoon
Flufferoon Posts: 14
in Health and Weight Loss
For about a month I was counting my calories, doing exercises, nothing too *intense*, but enough to make me tired. Did mostly cardio walking/jogging, mild and basic ab exercises. Hitting between 900 to 1200. For about a month. Saw little to no progress, lost motivation, stuck with counting calories but gave up on exercise for a while, now it feels like I'm back to where I started, so easily. Didn't feel like I was making much progress to begin with anyway.

I'm not really sure what to do. Part of me wants to start cutting down on food dramatically. But food makes me happy, and I'm always hungry anyway. I don't know what exactly I should do at this point. I have been getting whole grains, fruits, vegetables, protein, water water water, and counting every day. I don't see how exactly I could just go back to where I was before when I haven't been surpassing 1200 ( i don't think ), since 3500 equals 1 pound. I'm disgusted with my body and i don't even want to step on the scale, I'm going by how I look in the mirror, and i hate it.

5'3'', 18 years old, anywhere roughly between 105 and 115.

Yes, i know you're going to tell me I don't need to lose any more weight. But I'm not *THIN*. I *don't* have a flat stomach, I *don't* feel skinny. I don't have any exercise equipment nor the money to afford a gym membership. I gave up on brisk walking for a while because I didn't see it making a difference and I gave up on my routine of crunches, bicycles, planks, and leg lifts for a while too because they weren't helping either and I hate doing muscle workouts anyway.

I don't know what to do. I'm sick of feeling sick of myself. And I'm sick of not getting any results no matter what I do. And i'm sick of craving food. Sick of being hungry. Sick of eating and feeling guilty. Sick of this not being simple, Sick of being sick of this.
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Replies

  • Jynus
    Jynus Posts: 519 Member
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    u have body image issues, seriously. go see a doc.

    if you are remotely serious, stop with the cardio, hit the gym and lift very heavy things. its the only way you're going to see the toned low fat body type.
  • bonniejo
    bonniejo Posts: 787 Member
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    My advice would be to eat healthy, but don't obsess over calories, and focus on exercise, especially weights and pilates. You'll be a lean, mean, fighting machine!
  • Flufferoon
    Flufferoon Posts: 14
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    My advice would be to eat healthy, but don't obsess over calories, and focus on exercise, especially weights and pilates. You'll be a lean, mean, fighting machine!
    Aren't pilates just for stretching or something? Do they actually tone your body?
  • kmhenry84
    kmhenry84 Posts: 96 Member
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    You probably just have skin that needs to tighten, which can take longer to happen than losing weight.

    Also it feels discouraging because you see other people losing weight, but we have more weight to lose! For someone who is at 250, for example, the body doesn't want to be at that weight, so it takes to the change easier, where as your body senses that it is close to where it needs to be (if not where it needs to be).

    Worry about your health 1st, and the numbers and image will come :-D.
  • bonniejo
    bonniejo Posts: 787 Member
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    Pilates builds up muscle with your own body weight I think. I'm sure it's different depending on who you take a class from/which DVD you watch.

    If you can afford it, I'd buy Chalean Extreme used off of amazon, mine was like $25 or something, and a resistance band (around $5). They're really great weight lifting DVDs, and they're only 30 minutes or so which is really doable. They're also pretty fun! (And there's like 6 DVDs included with a couple workouts on each so there's variety too!)
  • bhbarros
    bhbarros Posts: 101
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    I have never more muscle soreness than when I did Pilates, and my body has never looked better, either. Looking to start it again. You should definitely try.
  • bonniejo
    bonniejo Posts: 787 Member
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    I have never more muscle soreness than when I did Pilates, and my body has never looked better, either. Looking to start it again. You should definitely try.

    I'm starting yoga-lates on Tuesday. Should be interesting change from Zumba and Step lol :)
  • BelindaDuvessa
    BelindaDuvessa Posts: 1,014 Member
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    My advice would be to eat healthy, but don't obsess over calories, and focus on exercise, especially weights and pilates. You'll be a lean, mean, fighting machine!
    Aren't pilates just for stretching or something? Do they actually tone your body?
    Pilates is more strength and stretching. Yoga is stretching. Pilates will definitely tone your body. You'll get more results the more varied the routine is, but yes, it'll do it. To me it sounds like that's what you really need to do. You're what people call "skinny fat". You don't weigh a bunch, but you have alot of fat on you because it's not toned. You don't need to lose weight, you just need to tone yourself.

    Does that make sense?
  • alzaman5925
    alzaman5925 Posts: 64 Member
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    Woah! I'm 4'10" an would look very, very slender at that weight. I can't imagine what it would look like on a 5'3" frame! But as the previous poster said, in your case you probably just need to tone up. I would say don't focus *too* much on cardio and take up weight lifting. It will tone you down completely, probably without your actually losing that much weight. In fact, at this stage I think you should completely ignore the scales.
  • kmhenry84
    kmhenry84 Posts: 96 Member
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    My advice would be to eat healthy, but don't obsess over calories, and focus on exercise, especially weights and pilates. You'll be a lean, mean, fighting machine!
    Aren't pilates just for stretching or something? Do they actually tone your body?
    Pilates is more strength and stretching. Yoga is stretching. Pilates will definitely tone your body. You'll get more results the more varied the routine is, but yes, it'll do it. To me it sounds like that's what you really need to do. You're what people call "skinny fat". You don't weigh a bunch, but you have alot of fat on you because it's not toned. You don't need to lose weight, you just need to tone yourself.

    Does that make sense?

    Really not trying to be ugly towards you, so please don't take it that way... but lets please not call her 'skinny fat' without actually seeing.... She may not have any fat on her. Might be skin like I said earlier or could be anything.
    105 is a pretty small weight... ;-)
  • Jemmuno
    Jemmuno Posts: 413 Member
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    Believe it or not, but you prolly need to be eating more than 1200 cals a day, and I would suggest Jillian Michaels to start getting some definition. I have both the 30DS and the six week six pack, I bought them at walmart for like 8-10 bucks each. Also, I would suggest taking pics before you start and measurements, then taking pics and measurements again in a month. I had a person trainer one time and she told me that it takes about a month to start seeing a physiological change in the body. There is a thread on here I could prolly find it for you, but his woman posted pics of herself at 130lbs not doing much weightlifting, all she did to lose weight was cardio, then she ended up gaining some weight back, and then when she went to lose her weight again she incorporated weightlifting and when she got down to 130 lbs she was actually 2 pant sizes smaller than when she had been at 130lbs from just doing cardio. What I'm trying to say here is you probably shouldn't be worried as much about a number as how you really want your body to look.

    Okay the thread is called, "How Wrong I Was! 600 Days of MFP. Lotsa Pics."
  • gramacanada
    gramacanada Posts: 557 Member
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    It's muscle work you need. You're not going to get the results you want without it. Like some others have said. Some DVDs are cheap and exercise band are really cheap. You can do almost any exercise at home with these and a yoga mat. It takes sticking with it and effort. There is no other way.
  • Flufferoon
    Flufferoon Posts: 14
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    Thank you guys for all of your responses. I honestly don't want to start taking in more calories, I actually want to cut back a couple hundred. I lose my motivation easily because I'm impatient. I can try looking up some pilate videos and such, But I think what I need to do really is probably get that cheap membership they offer at my college. Muchhhh cheaper than an actual gym membership. Only problem is, I'm really not sure what kind of weight lifting to do. All I had in mind was working the treadmill or bike.

    Honestly, I don't want to cut out cardio and only focus on weight lifting. I have a feeling that doing some cardio such as brisk walking or just walking in general may help to an extent. I can't manage to run for more than a few blocks, maybe 4 at the most if I really push myself, So I don't know how people go on saying they ran a mile, or ran for an hour or even a half hour, cause I can barely do it for a couple of minutes. So that's why I focus on brisk walking with jogging in between the blocks when I feel my legs can handle it. I definitely WANT toning, but I feel like if I lost a few more pounds first it would show even better results than not losing some weight at all. I don't want to lose a large amount of weight or anything, I just want to look skinny, fit, and toned.

    If you need a picture of what I look like now for reference, just tell me and I'll take one and post it.
  • freckledrats
    freckledrats Posts: 251 Member
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    Your weight sounds pretty small already, so if you're feeling unhappy, I would switch to toning instead of a big calorie deficit. Eat more protein, do some pilates or Jillian Michaels or something. Lift weights if you like doing that, but make sure to eat enough protein to support muscle development. Good luck :)
  • bonniejo
    bonniejo Posts: 787 Member
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    It sounds like you're going to ignore us no matter what we say. If you cut from 1100 calories and keep up the cardio, you're starving your body. Your cells need those calories and nutrients to function, and it will take the food you eat and save as much of it as it can in fat because it thinks it's starving. You will (and likely have) lost energy and might even get depressed.


    If you like biology, watching this video might be a good idea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8WJ2KENlK0&feature=edu&list=PL3EED4C1D684D3ADF

    Good luck!
  • MelanieSkittle
    MelanieSkittle Posts: 43 Member
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    Thank you guys for all of your responses. I honestly don't want to start taking in more calories, I actually want to cut back a couple hundred. I lose my motivation easily because I'm impatient. I can try looking up some pilate videos and such, But I think what I need to do really is probably get that cheap membership they offer at my college. Muchhhh cheaper than an actual gym membership. Only problem is, I'm really not sure what kind of weight lifting to do. All I had in mind was working the treadmill or bike.

    Honestly, I don't want to cut out cardio and only focus on weight lifting. I have a feeling that doing some cardio such as brisk walking or just walking in general may help to an extent. I can't manage to run for more than a few blocks, maybe 4 at the most if I really push myself, So I don't know how people go on saying they ran a mile, or ran for an hour or even a half hour, cause I can barely do it for a couple of minutes. So that's why I focus on brisk walking with jogging in between the blocks when I feel my legs can handle it. I definitely WANT toning, but I feel like if I lost a few more pounds first it would show even better results than not losing some weight at all. I don't want to lose a large amount of weight or anything, I just want to look skinny, fit, and toned.

    If you need a picture of what I look like now for reference, just tell me and I'll take one and post it.


    The reason people are saying to eat more calories is that you WONT build muscle if you don't! You can exercise all day long, but if you have too great a calorie deficit you wont see any results. You body won't become toned, you won't look thinner or fitter. Your body needs calories for muscle building/toning. That is also the reason you can't run; your body doesn't have enough fuel to run. Read runner's blogs. They eat extra calories so that they can run 5ks, marathons, etc. They eat extra calories and their bodies look awesome. Figure out how many calories you need to fuel your running and weight lifting. Your body will burn it off, you won't gain weight, and you'll lose inches.
  • Flufferoon
    Flufferoon Posts: 14
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    Thank you guys for all of your responses. I honestly don't want to start taking in more calories, I actually want to cut back a couple hundred. I lose my motivation easily because I'm impatient. I can try looking up some pilate videos and such, But I think what I need to do really is probably get that cheap membership they offer at my college. Muchhhh cheaper than an actual gym membership. Only problem is, I'm really not sure what kind of weight lifting to do. All I had in mind was working the treadmill or bike.

    Honestly, I don't want to cut out cardio and only focus on weight lifting. I have a feeling that doing some cardio such as brisk walking or just walking in general may help to an extent. I can't manage to run for more than a few blocks, maybe 4 at the most if I really push myself, So I don't know how people go on saying they ran a mile, or ran for an hour or even a half hour, cause I can barely do it for a couple of minutes. So that's why I focus on brisk walking with jogging in between the blocks when I feel my legs can handle it. I definitely WANT toning, but I feel like if I lost a few more pounds first it would show even better results than not losing some weight at all. I don't want to lose a large amount of weight or anything, I just want to look skinny, fit, and toned.

    If you need a picture of what I look like now for reference, just tell me and I'll take one and post it.


    The reason people are saying to eat more calories is that you WONT build muscle if you don't! You can exercise all day long, but if you have too great a calorie deficit you wont see any results. You body won't become toned, you won't look thinner or fitter. Your body needs calories for muscle building/toning. That is also the reason you can't run; your body doesn't have enough fuel to run. Read runner's blogs. They eat extra calories so that they can run 5ks, marathons, etc. They eat extra calories and their bodies look awesome. Figure out how many calories you need to fuel your running and weight lifting. Your body will burn it off, you won't gain weight, and you'll lose inches.

    The thing is, I'm not going to have enough time to do some *serious* muscle building. So i'm not very sure how I'd calculate how many calories I'd need if I'm not even sure what kind of muscle building I can get into every now and then. And I don't run hardcore or anything, it's mostly brisk walking like i said, with some jogging sprinkled in between when I can manage it. And it's usually only for about an hour that I do it, anyway. But like i said, i slacked off a lotttt... for quite a while... And I'm just not really sure when I'll be able to start exploring that gym. I'm also very hesitant when it comes to uh, public exercise.
  • sanmansan
    sanmansan Posts: 7
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    You don't need to lose weight.

    You need to tone up. Weight isn't every thing. Sounds like you're skinny-fat. You weigh less but have excess skin.

    Just maintain your weight and exercise more. Start lifting more weights to tone your body.

    Weight isn't everything, you have to look at stuff like Body Fat %, hip-to-weigh ratio, etc.

    Your weight is perfectly fine, even thin, if you consider BMI.

    You don't need to lift heavyweights. Just lift lightweights under 10 pounds and do a lot of reps.
  • Flufferoon
    Flufferoon Posts: 14
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    You don't need to lose weight.

    You need to tone up. Weight isn't every thing. Sounds like you're skinny-fat. You weigh less but have excess skin.

    Just maintain your weight and exercise more. Start lifting more weights to tone your body.

    Weight isn't everything, you have to look at stuff like Body Fat %, hip-to-weigh ratio, etc.

    Your weight is perfectly fine, even thin, if you consider BMI.

    You don't need to lift heavyweights. Just lift lightweights under 10 pounds and do a lot of reps.

    Any specific weight lifting? I've never been to a gym and don't really know anything about lifting weights or resistance training or anything, at all, really. What should I be doing? Like, everything? Or only specific exercises?
  • sanmansan
    sanmansan Posts: 7
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    Here some links to exercises to do: http://www.livestrong.com/article/157942-weight-lifting-exercises-for-skinny-women/

    http://www.livestrong.com/article/406465-weight-lifting-exercises-to-tighten-the-stomach/?utm_source=undefined_R1

    http://www.livestrong.com/article/514404-ab-exercises-for-skinny-people/?utm_source=undefined_R1

    http://www.livestrong.com/article/499510-butt-exercises-for-skinny-women/?utm_source=undefined_R1

    I would suggest starting off low weights. Something like 50% of your body weight for benching, 75% for squats. And use 10 pound weights for dumbbells.

    Also, if you can't afford the gym or weights. Yoga and Pilates are good exercises for toning up.
    Here are some exercises without weights to tone: http://www.livestrong.com/article/507603-toning-exercises-for-women-at-home-with-no-weights/

    Since you're 18, I'm assuming you're in college? College gyms usually have all the workout equipment you need and they're usually very affordable, sometimes even free if you live on campus.

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