90 minute Q&A - All fitness and weight loss related please

I was doing crunches, sit ups, planks, and leg lifts once a day for three weeks (along with other training) and I was seeing results.

Until my tail bone started to get injured (cut/scraped, etc)

I could no longer continue.

I was excited at my progress.

Do you have a suggestion on how to avoid this type of injury?

How much were you doing? Why are you only focusing on abdominal exercises? And if you're rubbing your tailbone against something that's causing injury, why not just use a yoga mat or some other soft surface to avoid irritating the area?

Yoga matt/pillow did not help (but area was already injured at that point)

I was up to 75 sit ups/95 crunches/ 60 leg lifts/ and 2 min plank (as fast as I can)

I was not only doing abs...just trying to work them 5 days a week.

What are your intentions with all the ab work though? Are you training all of your muscles 5 days per week?

no.... i was told abs every day

Told by who? More importantly, for what reason? What do you believe it's accomplishing? I'm not knocking you or your approach... I'm simply trying to learn if you're doing this for the right reason. I find many people who are blasting away on ab exercises, focusing much of their attention on it, because they want a toned midsection. Then I bring up something about spot reduction and they chime in, "Oh I know how that's not possible blah blah blah." Yet, they're still doing all of this crazy ab work trying to spot tone their midsections.

Follow me?

just in case you get extra time to answer more here goes one from me:

I hit my weight goal and still need to lose body fat. I am 5.2 ft and 116-117 lbs i am around 23% body fat and my goal was to be around 20-21 % max. I have been told that if i want to get to that i will need to be around 105-110 lbs. is that true?. can i not get to that body fat % being around 115 lbs? I am currently doing clx ( chalean extreme) and i am starting t25 on monday.

Here is the formula for calculating goal weight is: Current Lean Body Mass / (1-Goal Body Fat percentage as a decimal)

Your current lean body mass is approximately 90 lbs calculated by multiplying your weight by your percentage of nonfat tissues, that being .77.

So going back to the formula...

90 / (1 - .21) = 114 lbs

This is all theoretical, mind you. All it's saying is that in order to be 21% body fat, you'd have to drop another 3 lbs while preserving all of your existing muscle, which could be a stretch depending.

All of this begs a question in my mind though... what's so significant to you about being 20-21% body fat? Honestly, none of my clients track bf%. We simply go by feel and reflection/pictures. We're not doing this to be a certain number... we're doing this to look and feel great. Once my clients truly realize this and adopt it, there's an immediate release of anxiety. They're no longer focusing on their proximity to rather nebulous numbers and they're focusing on what actually matters to them... that being building a better body.

You could very well get down to 114 lbs and preserve all the muscle you currently have and think, "Wow, I'm really not that content... I want more improvement." Which is why the numbers are really rather worthless in this context. And by the way, if you wanted more, you'd have to do a cycle of surplus eating and focus on adding some muscle, right? We're only working with those two tissues - fat and muscle - when it comes to altering our physique. Well, unless you found a way to extend your bones or change the insertion points of your muscles, lol.

And we can only lose so much fat until we start looking sickly thin, frail, or worse... unhealthy. So for many folks it's about embarking on this process of fluctuating goals. At times they're working on losing fat and preserving muscle. At other times they're focusing on building muscle while minimizing fat gains. It's a touch concept for some people - especially women - to wrap their heads around. But it's the nature of the beast for many.

Hopefully this helps.

thanks so much for taking the time to answer me. i guess it's not so much about hitting that bf number but really in losing the body fat in general. I am content with my body except my lower belly , where it seems all my last bit of fat wants to stick around. So i need to lose more fat/ weight i guess in order for that last spot to start reducing. I had a flat belly all my life until i gained, so i know it's possible to get it back. Just didn't know the best way to get there..... when i look at pics it seems the 20-21% body fat is what i like and thought if i achieve that, i will have lost that last bit of fat on my lower belly... i am content with my weight but not that darn lower belly!

Fair enough. Couple thoughts...

1) First on, last off. That's generally how fat storage and burning goes. Problem areas are usually the first to start accumulating fat and they're generally the last place to start releasing it.

2) I could show you pictures of a dozen women at 21% body fat and some of them you'd think look great and others you'd think look not so great. It's just a number and everyone will wear it very very differently depending on their base of muscle, the length of their frames, their genetic fat storage patterns, etc.

All in all though, you're correct. If you want to lose more fat, you have to make sure you have things dialed in and from there, you need to be very consistent and very patient.

I was doing crunches, sit ups, planks, and leg lifts once a day for three weeks (along with other training) and I was seeing results.

Until my tail bone started to get injured (cut/scraped, etc)

I could no longer continue.

I was excited at my progress.

Do you have a suggestion on how to avoid this type of injury?

How much were you doing? Why are you only focusing on abdominal exercises? And if you're rubbing your tailbone against something that's causing injury, why not just use a yoga mat or some other soft surface to avoid irritating the area?

Yoga matt/pillow did not help (but area was already injured at that point)

I was up to 75 sit ups/95 crunches/ 60 leg lifts/ and 2 min plank (as fast as I can)

I was not only doing abs...just trying to work them 5 days a week.

What are your intentions with all the ab work though? Are you training all of your muscles 5 days per week?

no.... i was told abs every day

Told by who? More importantly, for what reason? What do you believe it's accomplishing? I'm not knocking you or your approach... I'm simply trying to learn if you're doing this for the right reason. I find many people who are blasting away on ab exercises, focusing much of their attention on it, because they want a toned midsection. Then I bring up something about spot reduction and they chime in, "Oh I know how that's not possible blah blah blah." Yet, they're still doing all of this crazy ab work trying to spot tone their midsections.

Follow me?

I follow you ...
but:

I was told abs every day 9in some form) by the head trainer at my gym (old gym) I was also participating in a cumulative ab challenge I saw online.

I do HIITS (ZGYM) 5 days a week and toss in extra ab work...

A lot of trainers say a lot of things. Yeah, I'm a trainer. I also consult with gyms helping to train their trainers - head trainers included.

I don't see the rationale but can't win them all. If you enjoy doing it who am I to tell you otherwise.

Best!

It's way past the deadline but I'm still gonna throw this out. My question is: Where can I hire a trainer like you? :flowerforyou:

Quality trainers are hard to come by. That's the unfortunate reality of the industry. There are very low barriers to entry and it tends to attract a lot of jocks who think they know how to reach people and get them to their goals simply because they were "good at football" or whatever.

You know it's bad when I hesitate telling people what I do at social gatherings... not because I'm ashamed... but because I don't feel like explaining how or why I'm a bit different than what they're likely accustomed to seeing.

To answer your question though, I wrote an article on my website under the industry section that explains how to determine if a trainer is quality or not. Of course this one of the very reasons why I started online coaching, which is obviously another avenue you might consider eventually.

I wish I knew what I was doing. Been on a plateau for about a year and a half now. Gained a teeny bit in the middle due to life stuff and not tracking, or caring, -at all- for a couple months. I have tried eating at 1200 calories all the way up to TDEE and the scale just doesn't move (up or down apparently). Trying to make the scale go down again and it's just not happening. Sometimes I think I should hire a professional, but then I hear horror stories of the crap that seemingly "professionals" tell some people and think I'd rather save my money.

Don't blame you. And it's hard to troubleshoot you without really diving in and getting to know your situation. But the knee jerk thought I have is, over the course of that year or whatever, what was the average intake. Maybe it's closer to maintenance than you realize? Or maybe you weren't as meticulous with tracking as you believe? Or maybe you were doing stuff that added muscle while you were losing fat which than masked any "progress" on the scale? Or maybe there's something going on medically that's screwing with water retention, metabolic rate, or whatever? On and on it goes.

Very hard to say.

It should be simple right? Eat less than you burn to lose weight? If only it were that simple in execution.

Honestly, I find that it is that simple. But I also find that very few people are patient enough to actually realize their goals. Or if they are, I find that of those, very few are actually consistent and accurate enough to ensure a deficit. Seems so damn simple, but you wouldn't believe the number of people I encounter who eat a supposed deficit, which we later find out wasn't a deficit, or it was such a small deficit that their rate of weight loss was immeasurable on a week to week basis, so they get frustrated and jack calories up, sometimes controlled, other times uncontrolled, then they go right back to trying again with that same supposed deficit and the vicious cycle continues.

I'm not suggesting this is the case with you.

But with some of my online clients, I literally don't allow them to track calories or nutrients. I give them a rigid meal plan, and only I know the nutritional breakdown behind the actual food. I ask them to please avoid logging. It's much easier for them to simply follow a preplanned list of meals than worry about the numbers. Wouldn't you know that in almost all cases, they lose the fat? Even though the deficit is almost always about what their supposed deficit has always been.

There's nothing magical here. I mean MAYBE they're seeing some optimization from my nutrient breakdown and such. More than likely though I'm removing their bias in their measurements. And maybe since they're paying me each month I'm providing some accountability and incentive to be consistent. I don't know. But over the years it's been very telling for me - it really shows me the reality of much of the research out there showing the erroneous nature of self reporting. It also tells me just how close most people are to really making a difference, they're right on the cusp, but they never quite get there because they think slashing calories deeper will put them in some sort of "danger zone," and yeah, on paper, based on their tracking, it might appear that they're too low, but in reality, the actual intake or caloric value of their consumption is optimal.

I'm rambling tons as I'm half asleep, lol, but again, this is pretty frequent in my experience with my clients.

No reflection on you and your issues at all as I know very little about your situation... but maybe some food for thought.