Newbie. I got reasonable questions! Can you help me?

waxwingdesign
waxwingdesign Posts: 17 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all, I'm new here. I've been reading posts for inspiration and feeling very motivated. I work out doing weights and cardio 6 days a week for 30 minutes, sometimes twice a day if I'm feeling good. I know that the new muscle and water could be adding to my numbers, but..I'm not seeing any weight loss. I'm following my calorie rules, eating back what I exercise off, eating pretty clean as well, with the occasional chocolate indulgence (I can't NOT eat it, it is my only vice.) i have a couple of questions and am hoping someone can help.

First, about 10 years ago I did the south beach diet and lost 18 lbs in a month and a half. I have kept most of it off. Did this damage my metabolism? Over at IIFYM I see references to damaged metabolisms and I'm wondering how that happens.

Second, is it my age (almost 44, F) that is making it SO hard to shift these pounds? I see plenty of people on here over 40 who are losing without issue, so I can't help but wonder if it's something I'm doing wrong. I AM doing weights (leg extensions, triceps push, barbell row, back extensions, sometimes the circuit at my gym), nothing outrageous, but trying to get closer to 1 rep. weights. I'm not afraid of bulking up, and I am pretty strong, but perhaps that's why I'm not seeing a change in the numbers? Which leads me to question number three:

Here at MFP, my daily recommended calorie intake is 1310 (That is minus 500 calories per day for a pound a week weight loss) and then eat back what I exercise. BUT over at IIFYM, they suggest my calorie intake be closer to 1740 for "aggressive" fat loss whether I am working out or not. Should I keep on with the MFP plan or try the IIFYM plan?

I am starting to feel frustrated, it's been 3 weeks (I know that's nothing in the scheme of things) but it would be nice to see some changes to help keep up my momentum. Am I just not going at it hard enough? Should I spend more time at the gym? More weights? More cardio? I don't want to sound like a pity party, I just feel like I'm pushing really hard and it's not budging...

Any thoughts, questions, advice is appreciated. And please be gentle with me!

Replies

  • shellywelly123
    shellywelly123 Posts: 159 Member
    Are you weighing your foods or guesstimating? It makes a lot of difference. Do you drink 8 glasses of water a day? Believe it or not it does help with loss.

    You must remember that everybody's journey is different and you need to go by your own results not the results of other people. Have you tried measurements rather than scale results? It could be you are toning up due to the weights so losing inches rather than lbs. How much cardio vs weights do you do?
  • jwdieter
    jwdieter Posts: 2,582 Member
    Will want to use a food scale, if not doing so.

    Also, if you haven't read this, it's worth reading:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    As others have said, weigh your food, if you're not already.

    Also, how are you calculating your exercise burns? MFP's database notoriously overestimates caloric burns. In this case, eat back about half of those calories. If going by machine, I'd day maybe like 75%. If you wear a heart rate monitor then you can eat them all back.

    And definitely read the sexypants link. There's lots of GREAT info in there!
  • aNewYear123
    aNewYear123 Posts: 279 Member
    Also take pictures and measure, sometimes those change when the scale doesn't.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Here at MFP, my daily recommended calorie intake is 1310 (That is minus 500 calories per day for a pound a week weight loss) and then eat back what I exercise. BUT over at IIFYM, they suggest my calorie intake be closer to 1740 for "aggressive" fat loss whether I am working out or not. Should I keep on with the MFP plan or try the IIFYM plan?

    They aren't that far apart...what did you put for activity level on IIFYM? The difference between MFP and IIFYM is 430 calories...depending on what you're doing to workout, that's really not much if you're adding back exercise calories. With the 1740 your exercise is included in the activity level so you wouldn't eat them back in that case...it's just averaging out that activity over the course of a week rather than looking at it day to day. If you're doing MFP's method you have to be really careful in estimating those burns though...people think they're burning a gazillion calories because a database says so but they don't really perform any kind of reasonableness test to determine if the number they're getting is remotely accurate...so they log a 900 calorie burn of an hour of recreational swimming and wonder why they're not losing weight.

    Where your lifting is concerned I'd actually switch that up to an actual tried and true routine that has, at it's foundation, compound lifts and progressive overload...that will garner you far more results than leg extensions and what not.

    Also get a food scale if you don't already have one and use it religiously...you'd be surprised. Being successful with calorie counting requires as much precision as possible as well as consistency.

    I seriously doubt that you damaged your metabolism with SB. I did SB years ago and dumped a ton of weight in a month as well...a great deal of that weight was water because that's what happens when you dramatically cut carbs. If I had to wager, probably 8-10 Lbs of that was water.
  • hearthemelody
    hearthemelody Posts: 1,025 Member
    Where your lifting is concerned I'd actually switch that up to an actual tried and true routine that has, at it's foundation, compound lifts and progressive overload...that will garner you far more results than leg extensions and what not.

    If you are looking for just such a program, here is a useful link:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/560459-stronglifts-5x5-summary
  • skullshank
    skullshank Posts: 4,323 Member
    Are you weighing your foods or guesstimating? It makes a lot of difference. Do you drink 8 glasses of water a day? Believe it or not it does help with loss.

    You must remember that everybody's journey is different and you need to go by your own results not the results of other people. Have you tried measurements rather than scale results? It could be you are toning up due to the weights so losing inches rather than lbs. How much cardio vs weights do you do?

    completely agree with weighing/measuring food.
    completely agree with inches of loss vs. lbs.
    completely disagree with 8 glasses of water.
  • PikaKnight
    PikaKnight Posts: 34,971 Member
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

    http://body-improvements.com/2013/05/24/undiet-your-diet/

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1122891-9-reasons-fat-loss-is-always-slower-than-you-d-like

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1105036-article-on-flexible-dieting-by-armi-legge?page=1#posts-17068746
  • waxwingdesign
    waxwingdesign Posts: 17 Member
    Thanks to everyone! Today I'll be getting a food scale, a heart rate monitor and some sexypants.
    I'll post updates when I see some action!
    Thanks for all the links, I'll check it ALL out.
    You rock!

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