Am I in starvation mode?

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  • ascotton80
    ascotton80 Posts: 56 Member
    Normally I tell people to greatly limit the amount of cardio they do if their focus is fat loss/lean body mass preservation.

    That...makes no sense whatsoever. Certainly you don't need to do hours of cardio to lose weight, but at the end of the day, cardio burns calories. And calorie deficits result in weight loss.
  • ascotton80
    ascotton80 Posts: 56 Member
    How long have you not been losing any weight? A week? A year?
  • ascotton80
    ascotton80 Posts: 56 Member
    Normally I tell people to greatly limit the amount of cardio they do if their focus is fat loss/lean body mass preservation.

    That...makes no sense whatsoever. Certainly you don't need to do hours of cardio to lose weight, but at the end of the day, cardio burns calories. And calorie deficits result in weight loss.

    Not to mention cardio conditioning is essential for good health.
  • projektai
    projektai Posts: 107 Member

    One more thing. I would suggest lowering the reps to no more than 8-10 and upping weight. Remember, weight is relative to the person. So when I say heavy, it means heavy enough that the last 3 reps are difficult and even if you wanted to, you couldn't do more than 8 -10 reps (lower the better). If you want, add another set (even if it's just 6 reps). This will help bring your muscles to failure. In generally, I would aim to do 4-6 sets. And each set doesn't need to be the same. For example, if you are doing bicep curls. You can do; standard bicep curls, in and out's, concentration curls, squat curls, twisting or tornado curls), etc... Make it interesting, it makes it easier. Also, write down your reps/weight and the next week, try to increase the weight. It will also make things easier and more interesting if you make it into a game.

    Alright, I can do that. I'll keep a small journal with me to track my progress too. Thank you for all of your advice, it's been very helpful. :)
  • projektai
    projektai Posts: 107 Member
    How long have you not been losing any weight? A week? A year?

    It's been about a month.
  • needamulligan
    needamulligan Posts: 558 Member
    Maybe I'm looking at this all wrong. If you are tracking your calories and creating a deficit you are intending that to be measured by a weight loss and not a loss in inches. Correct me if I'm wrong but there is no true measurable correlation between restricting calories and losing inches. As opposed to a 3500 calorie deficit should equal 1 lb of weight loss.

    Because you have no baseline of starting weight or what you have really lost you really don't know if you are at a plateau. You could be retaining water or building muscle Just as we often need to have a non-scale measurement of our progress when the scale stalls, you need a scale measurement at least as a baseline.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,431 MFP Moderator
    Normally I tell people to greatly limit the amount of cardio they do if their focus is fat loss/lean body mass preservation.

    That...makes no sense whatsoever. Certainly you don't need to do hours of cardio to lose weight, but at the end of the day, cardio burns calories. And calorie deficits result in weight loss.

    I would suggest looking at some of the links i post. It's not all about burning as many calories as you want. Also, when you burn tons and tons of calories, you have to acquire energy from some where, so you either eat 2x more food of your body will start to catabolize lean body mass. This is why you hear from long distance runners that many smell ammonia after a long run. The smell is from the body converting the amino acids in their muscles into energy. There are greater fat loss properties when you concentrate on weight lifting and if you want a cardiovascular effect, then you just have to make it anaerobic where you would combine lower and upper body moves together (compound moves). My heart rate gets up the 160's when doing some anaerobic exercises as your lower body requires a lot of blood and oxygen which increases your heart rate.


    Also, he isn't suggest eliminating cardio, but if you want more fat loss and less muscle loss, then it's highly beneficial to limit cardio and increase weight training.
  • auntiebabs
    auntiebabs Posts: 1,754 Member
    Some people swear by frequent small meals so that your body always knows there is more food coming
    Some people zig zag their calories to keep there metabolisms on their toes.

    Zig Zagging is what worked for me.

    I was sooooo much happier once I gave myself a range:
    This saved my life when I was losing.

    ROCK BOTTOM: 1200 cal
    TARGET: MFP Calories for lose 1 lb a week (when that hit 1200 I changed to lose 1/2 lb per week)
    TOP OF RANGE: Maintain Calories for my GOAL Weight.
    (SAFETY VALVE: Maintain Calories for CURRENT Weight - remember to keep updating this number as you lose)

    I naturally tended to do 2-4 days between 1200-1300 cal then a day at about 1500-1600 cal then back to the 1200-1300 cal. (No hard science here, but I credit the zig-zagging calories with preventing plateaus.)

    --As long as I stayed under the top of my range I should continue to lose, even if it is at a slower rate.
    --As long as I don't go past my safety valve I shouldn't gain.

    When I was losing as long as I kept in my range I lost slowly and fairly consistently.
    The problem being that your range gets smaller as you get closer to your goal.

    Now that I'm trying to maintain. It's a challenge to come up with a livable plan that works....
    At 50 years old I get 1600 calories a day to maintain 140lbs.
    So I shoot for 1550 so that I've got an extra couple of hundred calories to play with on the weekend.
    Any other approached out there from folks who have been maintaining longer than I have?
  • CharityEaton
    CharityEaton Posts: 499 Member
    wow, just wow!
    I am a cardio junkie! LOVE it! If I"m not moving fast, and dripping with sweat I don't feel like a got a good workout! I also know the importance of strength training and I do that 3 days a week along with a cardio workout. So yeah, I workout for about 2 hours a day. I average around 1300-1400 cals consumed per day and an average of about 500-600 calories burned during workouts. It sucks because I have to work like a mad woman to get a 500 calorie burn. What used to be a 200 calorie workout has now turned into about 100 calories. The more in shape you gte the harder it is to get a high calorie burn without lifting heavy, or working really hard.


    That being said, I still have very few days that I eat back workout calories...sometimes I do but not often. I still have decent biceps that have a visible "muscle bump" my legs are firm and toned and I am not losing inches at all nor is the sclae moving at an incredible speed BUT at the end of every month I am sill dropping a pound and my strength is building I can lift more and do more push ups etc. So, I agree keeping track of your workouts is important...is cardio better or worse for you...NO it's a balance of both. cardio with weights feeding your muscles and providing your body with the fuel it needs to do its job properly. If you are hungry EAT if not then don't eat..it's really that simple...just make sure that what you eat is going ot be good for you and an occasional splurge on not so healthy stuff is fine too.....Just relax and keep on keepin on!

    P.S. it's not all just about the amount of calories in versus calories out either its mostly in the QUALITY of said calories!
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
    Normally I tell people to greatly limit the amount of cardio they do if their focus is fat loss/lean body mass preservation.

    That...makes no sense whatsoever. Certainly you don't need to do hours of cardio to lose weight, but at the end of the day, cardio burns calories. And calorie deficits result in weight loss.
    Your last statement is what matters - being in a calorie deficit which can simply be established by eating under TDEE and engaging in moderate to heavy weight training. Psulemon explained why cardio should not make up the majority of the deficit because too great intensity or duration will tap into lean body mass. Additionally, when the person is one who has chronically restricted calories to the point they have likely lost lean body mass, the last thing they need is to engage in activity that results in further decreases of lean body mass.

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