I'm 19 year old Female, 5'7, weight train 3-4 days a week, cardio 1-2 days a week, and over weight. Not obese.
Here is my story
Freshmen year in high school i decided to lose weight, i got a gym membership and would do crazy amounts of cardio. An hour everyday for a few months, i soon started to lose weight. But i realized i hated doing this cardio thing everyday, i had to increase it slowly just to get some results and it became too difficult. My father, being a military guy, he is a bit overweight himself though tried to "train me". He would make me do light weights with lots of reps. I could never lose weight and my father would scream at me saying that i was over eating and not working out hard enough. I stopped eating as much and started counting my calories. For 2 years i would eat 1200 calories, i lost about 20 pounds before i hit a plateau. This is around my junior year of high school. I then thought maybe i needed to work out more, so i would do about an hour of cardio with an hour of weight training with the 1200 calories, daily. I didnt lose weight. My father would tell me that i was doing something wrong, that i still ate too much and i didnt work out enough. He made me do 2 hours of cardio everyday with an hour of weight training. During my senior year of high school i think i had undiagnosed depression with suicidal tendencies. I wanted to die. I thought to myself, maybe im not eating enough? So i started eating 100 calories more for a few months then slowly increase. I went to a point of 1700 calories and i still didnt lose weight, in fact i gained all my weight, and more back. I lost my period completely at one point and started to get intense pains in my right leg just from walking. My doctor told me i was malnourished and that i had a developing stress fracture in my leg. My parents wouldnt let me go to therapy for my then diagnosed depression because they thought i was being over dramatic. At the end of my senior year, after loads of frustration, continuous intense workouts, and low calories, i came across EM2WL. It's then that i learned i needed to work out a lot less, with moderates amount of weight training and cardio, and eat 2500 calories just to maintain my weight. So i started to eat more at 2500 calories. I went to college and stopped counting calories, i would just eat whatever, and workout, i of course gained a few pounds but nothing much. Now that it's summer, i'm home and able to eat 2500 calories controllably with healthy foods and regularly workout. I love to weight train and i see myself improving everyday. I love how i dont have to do crazy amounts of cardio. And even though im heavier, im a lot more confident than i was before. My parents have really strong idealisms and keep telling me that im fat, that im worthless, that im not a daughter that they raised, if i was raised well i would have been skinnier, and that im not attractive in general. My father is looking at my weight training like it is disgusting and told me I need to stop weight training "like a man" and start doing cardio "like a woman". My mother is telling me i eat too much and that i need to start eating like i did before (1200 calories), and that i need to stop drinking so much water because i will get even more fat from it. I just have till the end of this month till i can cut down to 2100 calories (i have been eating 2500 calories healthily for two months now) and start seeing some fat loss (hopefully). I just know that i've gotten stronger (seeing myself lifting more and more), i eat more and i dont feel like im going to drop dead within the next min, and that im generally happier. But having to deal with parents getting upset with me for how i look is starting to get hard. I need encouragement to help me see that there is a future, that i can reach my goals. That i will drop fat by eating like a regular person and working out 3-5 times a week of mostly weight training and a couple days of cardio. My parents make me so fearful about my future and that all i will do is just gain weight and i can never lose weight this way.
Please tell me what im doing is okay, that its completely okay with weight training and i will someday lose weight... Thanks