crossfit question/motivation

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Hi!

I was tired of being a cardio rat at the gym, seeing no results and losing motivation. So.....I decided to join Crossfit! I'm on my 8th week, I've been going 3x per week consistently. (I am not following the paleo diet.) I absolutely love Crossfit, I've been noticing my strength improving but I have yet to see any physical changes or the scale go down. Some people say give it 3 months at least, others say I should be seeing results by now. I was wondering if anyone else has had personal experience with this or a different input.


Thanks for the help guys! Just trying to stay motivated... :)

Replies

  • HereWeGoAgain7
    HereWeGoAgain7 Posts: 163 Member
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    Congratulations for drinking the Kool-Aid. Since late January when I started this journey with CrossFit being my exercise of choice, I have lost 17 pounds, just over 24 inches, dropped my body fat percent by 6.3%, and gained 5 pounds of muscle. Additionally, I have thrown my asthma inhaler away, gone for obese to overweight on the BMI chart, dropped two dress sizes, and wake up with energy. I do not eat anything close to the paleo diet (but am planning on a 6 week trial in September and October). I would say it took about 3 months for me to really notice a difference in my body shape and almost 4 months for the scale to get with the program. However, once the results started showing they showed big time. My hips and thighs have always been my biggest problem and I have lost most of my inches from them (6 from the hips, 4 from my right thigh alone). And unlike most of my attempts to drop weight in the past my...hmmm...Girls (?) have stayed put. Plus the fact that my husband (a self-acknowledged chubby chaser) has found a new zest for fit girls with squat butts. And the best part IMO is that my upper arms no longer continue to wave after I stop because there isn't enough skin/fat there to keep the jiggle going.

    To get through the lull of your body adjusting to the sport of fitness, I would recommend two things:

    1. Use a tape measure every week or two to measure certain spots on your body (make sure you have landmarks in the area to remind you where you were measuring). This is more motivating then the scale when doing exercise in my opinion because you can see the smaller changes that add up big time.

    2. Focus on gaining something from CrossFit that is not necessarily size related. Have you done CrossFit Total yet? (Max weight Back Squat, Shoulder Press, and Deadlift) That was my choice to focus on and in around three months I went up 20 pounds overall.

    Feel free to add me.

    ETA: Spelling...not my strong suit.
  • peechybabe
    peechybabe Posts: 7 Member
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    Hi! Thanks for the awesome response and advice. Congrats on all of your success, I wish you success on the rest of your journey!

    I have measured myself but no change. Although you're not following paleo what does your diet look like? I am pretty good during the week although on weekends I find it difficult to stick to clean eating.

    September will be my three month mark, I guess I just should keep at it and work on eating better?

    PS. I'm 5'10.5 175 lbs...I'm not overweight but I'd like to lose 15 lbs or just trim down.

    Thanks again talk soon!
  • micheleb15
    micheleb15 Posts: 1,418 Member
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    Crossfit or not, if there haven't been any changes at all (measurements, scale, etc) after 8 weeks, I'd pay much more attention to logging your food.
  • Sam_I_Am77
    Sam_I_Am77 Posts: 2,093 Member
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    Hi!

    I was tired of being a cardio rat at the gym, seeing no results and losing motivation. So.....I decided to join Crossfit! I'm on my 8th week, I've been going 3x per week consistently. (I am not following the paleo diet.) I absolutely love Crossfit, I've been noticing my strength improving but I have yet to see any physical changes or the scale go down. Some people say give it 3 months at least, others say I should be seeing results by now. I was wondering if anyone else has had personal experience with this or a different input.


    Thanks for the help guys! Just trying to stay motivated... :)

    Definitely give it a good 3-months before you make a decision. Your body needs time to adapt to the movements and to the caloric expenditure. Also, make sure your nutrition is in-order as well. I would calculate your TDEE and subtract 5% to 10% and go from there. The Paleo diet isn't horrible though it isn't great either; it can be very restrictive and you need to follow a nutrition plan that you can follow long-term and not just short-term. Some of the aspects of Paleo that are good focus on lean-meats, some fruits, vegetables, carb sources like sweet potatoes and red potatoes can also be used. It loses things like Black Beans and Brown Rice which there is nothing wrong with and Black Beans (for example) are a good source of anti-oxidants as well. The reference to our ancestors not eating grains is crap-ola. Take the good aspects of Paleo, commit to what you can, and maintain balance in your nutrition.
  • HereWeGoAgain7
    HereWeGoAgain7 Posts: 163 Member
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    Hi! Thanks for the awesome response and advice. Congrats on all of your success, I wish you success on the rest of your journey!

    I have measured myself but no change. Although you're not following paleo what does your diet look like? I am pretty good during the week although on weekends I find it difficult to stick to clean eating.

    September will be my three month mark, I guess I just should keep at it and work on eating better?

    PS. I'm 5'10.5 175 lbs...I'm not overweight but I'd like to lose 15 lbs or just trim down.

    Thanks again talk soon!

    My diet is pretty much a see food diet. If I want it I eat it but I try to keep an eye on how much. My diary is open, but you will have to look back a few weeks to see my basic eating. I spent a week in the hospital and haven't started tracking full time again yet. Weekends are my hard part too. Mainly because I don't follow my same routine and its harder to schedule meals. :bigsmile:
  • EmmieCar86
    EmmieCar86 Posts: 83 Member
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    Hi there. Just seen this thread. I have been doing crossfit for a little over 3 months now and weight wise I have actually went up 10 lbs, but the only clothing that has become tighter are my jeans in my butt and legs, but no where else! That's actually okay with me. I do try to eat right and not eat too many sweets or junk. I am 5'6 130 lbs now and have definitely gained a lot of strength. I went from a 1RM deadlift of 165 to 235 in a month!! Good luck on your crossfit journey!!