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You could be more wrong. Trust me. Not that you are, but don't beat yourself up too bad. It's one giant learning process for all of us. But yes... in general you want to bring calories up and start rounding out your exercise with some resistance training.

You're not alone. Some serious flaw perceptions are born in the world of dieting. It's a byproduct of really deceptive marketing and tons of pressure to fit a very idealized and often time unattainable (at at least unsustainable) standard.

You really do have to let it all go. In fact, I'd argue this is your priority number one. And it's no easy task. Once thought patterns, beliefs, and perceptions take root... they're hard to get rid of.

Some general things to remind yourself everyday:

1. It's not a race. It's like anything else that's worth having in life... it requires a lot of work and time. Mostly time.

2. Less is usually more. It's mostly about coaxing the fat off more than it is about beating it off with deep deficits and excessive cardio.

3. It's not about making huge commitments to huge actions. Rather it's about making consistent commitments to minor actions. It's the small daily behaviors that drive us to where we want to be. Process over outcome focus!

4. If what you're doing today isn't something you can see yourself doing, in some form or fashion, forever... you're likely doing it wrong.

5. Self-compassion is immensely important. I find the way people talk to themselves breeds an abuse relationship with their bodies. The things they say to themselves and the demands they place on themselves aren't anything like they'd do to someone else. Be easy. When you get too serious, take a step back and reassess. Learn about mindfulness/meditation. And just be kind to yourself.

These are all things I need to work on. As I work on number 5, I think it will become easier to work on the other 4.

I've encountered folks who have eaten extremely low calories for years. No joke. You're not "in too deep." Especially seeing as how you had some time off from it around the holidays. That's a good thing. If you were my client, I'd likely suggest ramping calories up over the course of a couple weeks. Maybe 100 calories every 2 days or so.

At 144 lbs, your maintenance is likely in the neighborhood of 2000 calories per day. If you're still eating 1200, you could be up around 2000 in a matter a couple of weeks. This is just a matter of getting yourself back to a clean slate. Give your body a break and prep it for a more reasonable fat loss push. Not to mention the fact that it will give you the opportunity to find your true maintenance.

Once you're at 2000, park yourself there for a week or so. If your weight remains stable, you're at maintenance. If it declines, you could actually stand to go north of there. If it rises, it won't be anything drastic. And it's mostly water, so don't freak.

I will give it a go, even though the idea of eating 2000 calories a day terrifies me. It sounds like so much after spending so long thinking I only should eat 1200. I'm glad you told me not to freak, I needed to hear that!

From there, you can start venturing back into deficit territory. I'd start at 1700.

A deficit at 1700 would be amazing. I thought I'd have to eat that or less even just to maintain.

While ramping calories up, I'd nix the intense cardio. Just do some incline walking or light jogging. Once you start dieting again, you can add "regular" cardio sessions in as needed.

And as far as strength training goes... do you have any experience whatsoever?

Not really. Squats, lunges and little 5 pound hand weights are all I've done. I have a gym membership. so I have access to anything I should need. It's overwhelming to me though because I have no idea what to do with any of the equipment other than cardio machines.

blues4miles wrote: »

stroutman81 wrote: »

It needn't be years. Heck, I've lost 20 lbs in the last 3 months and totally overhauled my own physique. But I'm also internally motivated, don't have emotional/relationship issues with food, and am willing to put the work in daily. I'm also "light on my feet" when it comes to nutritional indiscretions. Meaning, I might eat a meal out that totally doesn't align with the plan for the day... but that meal is in isolation. It doesn't leak over to the next meal and the next. It doesn't cause guilt or grief. It just is, so I accept and enjoy it and then move on.

Do you mind if I ask what balance of nutritional deficit versus exercise you used to achieve this weight loss? I am curious because you stated early on I believe that women in particular have a tendency to overdo it. So I'm curious in what way you made sure you weren't overdoing it, or if you're saying due to the hormonal difference that wasn't something you had to worry about and therefore you were able to go all out. Thank you.

stroutman81 wrote: »

lescaryle wrote: »

Hi, I am currently cutting down trying to get rid of some stubborn fat areas. I'm 5'5 148lbs and I'm pear-shaped. I have definition in my arms and abs but my lower half carries all of my fat. Some of it I accept but I think I should be able to improve it. I have spent the last 2.5 years lifting progressively and have made some decent gains and I'm cutting on 1300-1400 calories still lifting with some cardio. I train 6 days a week. I train all my lifts twice a week and do one day of crossfit which is more cardio focused and usually about 15-30 minutes of some kind of cardio on my lifting days. Thanks in advance!

Hi neighbor!

Sorry, that sounds stalkerish. But in context of the world wide web, we really are neighbors.

It's good that you accept some fat on your lower half. You ARE a woman. And women ARE genetically hardwired to keep some extra stores on the bottom half. Yay baby makability!

Do me a favor... please split out your actual daily training schedule. I don't mean exercises, sets, and reps and all of that detail. But what do you generally do on each day of the week?

And how long have you been eating your current calorie level?

stroutman81 wrote: »

bonniejo wrote: »

stroutman81 wrote: »

bonniejo wrote: »

stroutman81 wrote: »

bonniejo wrote: »

I'm planning on starting a weight training program this week (I'm going over squats and deadlifts with a trainer first so I don't hurt myself). I'm currently losing well on 1650 calories per day and one cheat meal per week (this week is sushi, yum!), protein between 110-130g/day. Should I change anything on the eating side for weight lifting? Or keep everything as is?

Impossible to say based on the info you've given. What's your age, height, and weight? How active are you outside of the gym? How many days per week are you training? What forms of training are you using besides lifting?

Also, I feel obligated to state that you don't NEED squats and deadlifts to optimize your physique. I mean, if you want to include them, they're certainly great exercises. But I see a lot of people thinking they're NECESSARY for physique optimization and that couldn't be further from the truth.

If you don't feel comfortable with one or both, don't be afraid to find alternatives.

I'm 24, 5' 4" and 133 lbs. Bf around 26%. I walk 10-13,000 steps per day (walking the dog, etc), but I sit quite a bit as a student. I do a step and strength class (50% intense step, 50% body weight/high rep weight training) 3 days a week, and a pure step class once a week. I really like my step classes and don't plan on changing them. I also do some balance work assigned by my physical therapist most days to strengthen my knees and ankles, but she has given me the all clear to start lifting as long as I am sure about my form.

I'm planning to start the following program. I picked it because it only works each muscle group once per week, so if I work that group again in my class I won't be overdoing it. I can also always use lower weights in my class as well, or do an alternate exercise. The teacher is really flexible.

Day 1 (all sets 8-10 reps)
Flat Bench Press – Warm-up sets and then 3 working sets
Incline Bench Press – 3 working sets
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press – 3 working sets
Dips – 3 working sets to failure (use the assistance machine if necessary)
Triceps Pushdown – 3 working sets
Seated Triceps Press – working 3 sets

Day 2
Barbell Deadlift – Warm-up sets and then 3 working sets
Barbell Row: 3 working sets
One-Arm Dumbbell Row – 3 working sets
Close-Grip Lat Pulldown – 3 working sets
Alternating Dumbbell Curl – 3 working sets
Barbell Curl – 3 working sets

Day 3

Seated Barbell Military Press – Warm-up sets and then 3 working sets
Barbell Upright Row – 3 working sets
Side Lateral Raise – 3 working sets
Bent-Over Rear Delt Raise – 3 working sets
Barbell Squat – 3 working sets
Leg Press – 3 working sets
Barbell Lunge – 3 working sets
Romanian Deadlift – 3 working sets

Sorry for the long post! Thanks for the feedback

It's hard for me to really comment here since I have no clue what your classes are really like. That said, I'm thinking they're more cardio than anything else. If you're doing timed calisthenics... it's really closer to cardio than it is strength training.

I mean, let's face it... walking or running is resistance training. You're training and your body weight is providing a resistance. But walking certainly isn't providing the same stimulus at the muscle level that progressive strength training is providing.

Take myself for example. I do 5 full body strength sessions per week. I also go backpacking once per week and walk most days. I don't cut back my leg training simply bc I backpack and walk. Granted, if I was doing intense cardio that was neurologically and muscularly challenging, I'd have to rethink it.

But that would beg the question of, "Does that high intensity cardio suit my goal?"

Which brings me to a very important point that needs addressing before I get ahead of myself (which I likely already have). Context ALWAYS matters. The value of any given program can't be assessed without knowing what the end user is hoping to obtain from said program. Put differently, what are your goals?

And does your current training match your goals?

Specificity also ALWAYS matters.

One of my biggest goals is to have more energy and not get out of breath while hiking, so I think cardio is important for my training. It's also great for my mental health, since it's very meditative to me and I just generally enjoy it. My class often includes doing 50-100 pushups, 2 minute wall sits, 3 minutes of body weight or 10 lb dumbbell squats, 2 one minute sets of tricep extensions, or 2 one minute sets of bicep curls. Often 4-5 minutes of cardio followed by 4-5 minutes of these types of exercises, rinse and repeat for one hour

I'm mostly just wanting to try something new, to be honest. I am making some progress but it has been slow, although the holidays might have something to do with that! According to a BIA scale, my muscle mass has stayed consistent since September while I've lost about 6lbs, so I'm going in the right direction but hoping to speed things up. Just wondering if I should adjust calories or keep them the same. I'm eating about 1650, losing .5-1 lbs per week on average but they're in spurts (same for 3 weeks, then 1.5-2 lbs down, then same for 3 weeks, etc). Everyone on here talks about heavy lifting helping to reduce fat and increase muscle especially in newbies, so I wanted to give it a try!

Edit: Are you saying that I shouldn't try strength training since my goal isn't really to be stronger? I think I'm confused.

I'm definitely NOT saying you shouldn't try strength training. I firmly believe that in almost all cases, be it for performance or physique, strength training should be at the epicenter of your programming.

And yeah, your classes are the typical circuit sessions most of these classes are about. A lot of women tend to gravitate toward them since there's camaraderie. More importantly, I find, in general, that women enjoy beating the poop out of themselves more so than men. Women are much more inclined to leave it all on the gym floor. The closer they can push themselves to being a lump of flesh on the floor, sweating and breathing rigorously after pushing deep into the realms of muscle burn... the better in their minds.

Sorry for the generalizations!

For many of them, though, this feeling is the objective of their workouts unto itself.

And that's fine if you're not concerned about optimizing your training for some physical goal. Like you said, you seem to care more about mental health than the physical outcome. And I'm sure you're getting a conditioning effect, which will help on the trails (big hiker here myself), though I don't train much for it in the gym.

I'm only bringing this above for others who might be reading this (there seem to be a lot of people reading this thread). And when your goals are centered on physique optimization, you need to be more deliberate with your exercise decisions. The objective of your primary workouts should be to train your muscles rather than to chase some feeling.

As for your particular results, you're doing good. Maintaining muscle while losing fat will always net improved performance and better physique. So if you're happy, keep rocking the program you're following. And yes, if you want to add some strength training into the mix... I definitely advocate it. I'm not sure I'd keep the volume of cardio you're doing in the mix while also dieting and doing sufficient strength training. But you'll have to experiment to see what you can and can't handle.

Remember, progress comes from applying a stress AND recovery from said stress. And recovery ability is dampened while eating a deficit.

And if you want faster results, you likely want to turn to the nutritional side of the coin! Strength training will help maintain/add muscle. But it's certainly not magical in terms of fat burning. It's just part of the puzzle of optimal fat loss training, is all.