5 Months In, Here's What I Learned

I'm not much for posting on any social media, but 5 months in I wanted to share what I experienced. Maybe it can motivate others to continue on their fitness journey.

To start, I am a 5'3" medium frame female. I was an "average" level runner, doing 10 minute miles and running for at least 2 miles one or two times a week. At my heaviest I was 130, which was still in a normal/healthy range according to BMI charts and what not. But even though I never really had weight issues, I sought to become stronger and less flabby. In all honesty though, it was when I saw 5'0" Kacy Catanzaro kick butt on American Ninja Warrior that started me on this fitness kick. My goal became 124 pounds and able to do 1 legit, no kipping pullup.

How hard could that be? It's just 6 pounds and 1 measly pullup.
I read everything on the internet about weight loss and fitness. I found SO MANY conflicting ideas that I really didn't know if I was heading in right direction. Even though I was searching for the BEST program to give me the BEST results, I realized all I could do was to do what I could stick with.

Here are a few of the things I did for the last 5 months:
- Started with 1300 cals/day and then to 1200 cals/day
- Started working out 3 times a week and then to 5 times a week (30-45 minute sessions)
- Strength training twice a week
- HIIT or running three times a week
- Abs three times a week (either with my strength or HIIT workout)
- Logged all my calories, but not perfectly. No food scale.
- Went low carb.
- Started doing a cheat meal/refeed meal almost every week when I was 3 months into it.

So on paper, with all the calorie deficits added up and rounded low, in 5 months I should be much lower than my goal weight, but I'm not. Here is my result after 5 months going at it: 126.5 lbs and still can not do one pullup.

Through these 5 months I kept scratching my head at the numbers. I've ignored my pangs of hunger. I've stopped eating bread and dessert for the most part. I've drank so much water. I've hauled my butt to the gym almost everyday whether tired, headachy, or even feeling sick, but the numbers didn't add up. What was I doing wrong? And just a week ago, it hit me. My goals were wrong and, with that, the way I was measuring success.

Here are the results I wasn't measuring:
- Can run 8:20min miles for at least 4 miles each session.
- Can bench 50lbs for 8reps x 3 sets (I started at only 20lbs!)
- As for the pullup, still working on it. Can get myself half way there.
- Lost 2 inches on my waist and an inch from my hips (and also lost in bra size...unfortunately)
- Losing a couple inches everywhere meant a smaller clothing size (which meant new clothes!)
- Lower body fat percentage.
- Love working out now. No more forcing myself to go.
- Waking up earlier, have more energy, don't get sick, and just all around happier.

I have since become highly suspect at this simple "calories in/calories out" formula. Especially since I have a husband that does not have to try AT ALL to keep a flat stomach with abs showing. He doesn't eat bad per say, but he eats a lot more carbs, desserts, and goodies than I do, at all hours of the day, and has never gained a single pound. In fact the only way for him to gain weight is to build more muscle. I kept hearing "eat a deficit," and "500 calorie deficit for a pound a week." But it just wasn't adding up for me. The things Iearned:

- Was I really getting the calorie deficit I thought I was? No. My BMR is around 1590 cals/day, so eating a healthy minimum of 1200 cals/day was giving me a 390 cals/day deficit. This is just from food, not adding my exercised calories. Still even with a deficit, if I was only counting 300 cals/day deficit for 5 days a week for 5 months, I should have lost 8.5 lbs. Which I did not. In fact I keep fluctuating from 125 to 129, so it seems like I haven't lost much weight at all.

- Are muscles significantly heavier? And could I have gained THAT much muscle to counteract my weight drop? I don't know for sure. There are way too many conflicting articles about this one. The bottom line is I have more now than I did before and I like that.

- Have I been eating too many carbs? I hover at 80g to 120g of carbs a day. I've gone on stints of 80g a day for a week and other weeks of not caring (not indulging, just not trying to stick to 80g a day). You know what happened? Not much. However, I did realize that I felt more full if I had some starchy carbs like oatmeal and potatoes and so I didn't have to fight the urge to snack later on. I felt it was worth the carbs to not have to fight yourself later on.

- Am I an example of set point weight theory in action? Possibly. In my case, I cannot seem to reach my old 124 lb goal. The lowest I would get is 125 and it would fluctuate back up to hover around 126.5 and go up as high as 129 some days. Since I am not willing to starve myself to get to my magic number, last week I decided since the weight is not changing even with a calorie deficit, screw this whole calorie deficit thing! Actually I decided I would eat my BMR of 1590 cals/day and get my deficit from exercise. I'm still using MFP to count calories, but not to track weight loss.

- Was it easy the whole time? I am pretty disciplined, but not a monk. I moaned many times about being hungry, being discouraged, wanting to not try as hard, etc. It was especially annoying that my dear one never had to give a single thought about how much he was eating while I was counting calories and working my butt off at the gym. But man, does it feel good to stick to a plan and to keep caring about my health.

After reading the oodles of articles out there here is what I settled on being true from almost every nutritionist and health guru out there:

1. Get enough sleep.
2. Drink lots of water.
3. Eat as much non-packaged food (or as others like to call it, "real food") as possible.
4. Watch out for sugar intake.
5. Exercise regularly.

And here is what works for better health in my own experience:

1. Plan well. Plan your meals. Plan your exercises. Plan your cheat meals. Plan your restaraunt meals. Plan on what clothes you are going to buy when you're smaller. Plan, plan, plan.
2. Learn to love to exercise.
3. Wake up early (if circumstances permit).
4. Set goals other than weight. Be it your body fat percentage, your waist size, or feats of strength and endurance that you could not do before.
5. Be an example to others by encouraging them to get healthy and it will encourage you to continue.
6. Don't make excuses.

My new goal: Keep breaking my own records.
That's the end of my story for now. Best wishes on everyone's fitness goals!