Weird thing happened.....

Hey fellow weight loss expeditioners.....

Thought I'd share a little tidbit of my experiences with this whole hit and miss nature of out fat loss journey.

First, let me start by saying I am not fat but not cut (yet) either. I have about 10-15lbs left to go before all my abs are showing hopefully.
I initially started this whole thing off with the kill it attitude. I have always been an avid weighlifter to begin with. So to supplement that, I started to do P90X and went on a calorie deficit.

For about a month and a half I virtually lost nothing in the way of fat. Constantly fiddled with calorie amounts and started getting frustrated thinking- I have been killing myself and not losing anything?

That's when I was searching around on this great site and luckily found Steve...many know him as Stroutman81.

After reading numerous posts from Steve, it was very clear he knew his stuff....probably helped he is in the fitness/personal training industry too.

After exchanging a few emails and telling Steve my story, he gave me some valuable pointers I have been overlooking.

He suggested I may be doing too much. By way of weightlifting, extreme cardio and calorie deficits, my body was likely rebelling in the form of starvation mode.
As he went on to say, weightlifting should be the basis of everything. I couldn't agree more. Then came the revalation that I was trying to beat my body into submission rather than "coax" it to lose fat.

Heeding this great advice, I drastically cut back from 6 days a week on my cardio to 1-2. Calorie deficit stayed the same ( only about 300-500 daily) sometimes even sneaking in a maintenance calorie level day and continued the weight lifting.

Within the last two weeks, I have dropped 5 pounds and it appears to be all fat. Pants got more loose and muscle seems to have been retained.

Moral of the story is, the more we over work our bodies whether it be from frustration or impatience, it will likely backfire. Not to mention that frame of mind and daily habit will not last.

If you are currently on a plateau or just generally crawling at way to slow a pace, consider the above strategy. It has worked for me with only a little to lose. Generally the hardest time to lose fat to say the least.

I can not take credit for this as it was Mr. Troutman who deserves my thanks and I feel it is my duty to pass this along for those who haven't been fortunate enough to come across any of Steve's posts.

Good luck everybody.....and thanks a million Steve.

Jay