Need help starting
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just keep on keeping on.0
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Feeling down about myself lately. It didn't help that I woke up sick and felt worse and worse throughout the day. Need to stay off instagram! While I am happy for people who have been successful, its very discouraging right now. I'm sure some of this feeling is hormonal, but its not like I expect to have a perfect body, i just want to be slightly less fat and not have such a big gut.0
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It's hard to feel good about anything when you are sick. Put on a movie, get a blanket, curl up on the couch and just go get better. Step away from instagram!0
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Reset: gained 17 pounds and 8 1/4 inches
gained over 1 month getting to tdee & a 2 month reset
Cut 1:
Week 1: -2.2 pounds
Week 2: +0.4
Week 3: -0.2
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Yay!0
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Hope it's not just deflated muscles from not lifting
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Lol0
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Oh no - out of if for really that long?
As long as not bed ridden - it takes longer than that to lose muscle, especially if not in a diet.0 -
It's been almost a week. I plan on lifting tomorrow though.0
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Let us know how it goes
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You can do this! The big gains are seen when you're willing to put yourself and your best health first! Calories are not all created equal. Grains aren't always the best. Some can handle them, but seriously... how do you think they fatten up the cows we eat?? That's right. Grain! Your best bet is to stick to whole foods, non processed items, and focus on non-starchy veggies and lean proteins. Not everyone can give up sugar and grains and I know that. I have a lot of will power. I'm so tired of being heavy and I've never been smaller than a size 13 in my adult life and I am going to get to 25% body fat the healthiest way possible or die trying!! Ok hopefully not really..lol
But even making small swaps to get started really helps your body to work better. Get rid of soda and go with something like True Lemon juice flavor packets. Some are sweetened with Stevia like the lemonades.
Eat what you want, but choose from an unlimited menu of greens and lean protein. I challenge you to start meals with a 3 cup salad of greens and a little dressing and then see if you've got room for anything else.
Make sure you're taking a good whole foods vitamin if you're not getting enough veggies and fruits.
I've also been taking extra vitamin C and magnesium before bed to help flush stuff out and muscles to relax (including bloat!)
Vit C has been proven to reduce inflammation/bloating in the body more and more in recent studies.
Bloat. That "poofy" feeling. You can get a lot of when you're strength training intensely. Your muscles are growing and your fat cells are shrinking, but in the middle of all that the muscles are sucking up water and so are the fat cells trying to resist change! Sometimes you'll get a "whoosh" and feel suddenly really light and skinny when your fat cells finally give up trying to stay big with water and your muscles realize they don't need the extra retention
Stay strong and keep at it!! Keep increasing the weights as you can. Even if the major change you notice is strength gains for awhile. The inches and pounds lost will come as your body adjusts to your new composition!
Walk the walk and know sometimes you have to kick your own butt to see results. I'm far from the "20 mins a day" type of person. I can't do anything, but maybe maintain with a regimen like that.
I do 25-30 mins of pyramid strength training (rotated between upper/lower body every other day) plus at least 60 mins of cardio (including 4 mins of tabata on my stationary bike) every single day. Not everyone can devote the time, but you'd be surprised how much time you can steal back from sitting and watching tv, or something. How much time do you spend doing that? Walk in place, get a stationary bike or treadmil and do it while you watch. The minutes add up! Throw in tabata for HIIT.
Most people probably aren't as metabolically deranged as I am and maybe don't need as much exercise or dedication to get the body recomposing, but sometimes.. you do! You'll know if you're one of them..
You'll follow what you think should work, but aren't seeing the results you want to see... you might have one of the super high energy efficient bods like mine and need to use more of that energy than others do!
Stop counting calories, starting eating whole unprocessed foods, and start doing the work!
If you stick with the strength training, you WILL get stronger, and you WILL burn more just by sitting. Sneak in as much cardio as you can handle in any way shape or form. (I'm not talking doing P90X. I'm talking go for a 2 mile walk, a 30 minute bike ride, etc as often as possible). Stay consistent and you WILL get there!0 -
Reset: gained 17 pounds and 8 1/4 inches gained over 1 month getting to tdee & a 2 month reset
Cut 1: (start 172.6)
Week 1: -2.2 pounds (170.6)
Week 2: +0.4 (171)
Week 3: -0.2 (170.6)
Week 4: + 1.0 (171.6)
Month 1 total: -1 pound, -2.25 inches (unless human error).
This weigh in was a little off due to doms and Tom, I should go back down to where I was hanging- 170.6, which is 2 pounds down total.
A little annoyed, although technically I did lose .5 pounds a week.
Will continue on cut until my vacation as planned. I may change from having 4 weeks at tdee after that to 1 or 2.0 -
I'm going to go for a slightly bigger deficit this month. I will probably eat higher Cals, maybe up to tdee on one day a week.0
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So what are you thinking? 1900ish? I feel lately I can't keep my calories under control. Ugh!! so I feel I need the opposite and need to make my deficit smaller and increase my cals a little. Your plan sounds good. :-)0
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I think it will average out to 1800.0
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Just to confirm because I didn't see it mentioned specifically. And I've got ones that forgot this little fact.
When your weight increases - your TDEE increases. Not only BMR a little, but moving more mass around all day long.
So are you basing your deficit on a TDEE estimated prior to the 17 lb increase?
Or did you get up to estimated TDEE that was based on the increased 17 lbs?
If the former - you have a bigger deficit than you think - and you should have lost weight if body was unstressed, eating at lower weight TDEE.
If the latter - good job adjusting.0 -
The difference on the calculator was only 20 calories.
I definitely feel a lot of pressure from a lot of different places.
I will continue lifting so I should be able to maintain muscle. I plan on eating one day a week at tdee and taking a diet break when needed.0 -
Good plan. And as long as you have all three legs of retaining-muscle stool to a decent degree - no problem retaining it.
Reasonable deficit - enough protein - resistance training.
And 1 or 2 better there can offset another not done so well.
Like when people eat at maintenance (or surplus) with no resistance training and perhaps not great protein levels, very little muscle mass lost except through effects of aging.
And body builders have proved out they can take short big deficits with enough protein and lifting to not lose muscle mass.
But for life and stress and goals - nice balance between them seems to work best for adherence.
Sounds like that is your attempt.0 -
I cut for 8 weeks, then a tdee break, started cutting again- 10 weeks cumulative and I am down only a pound. How the fudge is that possible?0
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How were the last few weeks of the reset prior to the deficit being taken - no weight changes?
Did activity level change during those deficit weeks compared to prior?
How has lifting progress been feeling, like harder to his similar weights/sets/reps?0 -
retirehappy wrote: »
My measurements always seem to change, so I wonder if I am juat not consistent. My clothes fit the same...How were the last few weeks of the reset prior to the deficit being taken - no weight changes?
Did activity level change during those deficit weeks compared to prior?
How has lifting progress been feeling, like harder to his similar weights/sets/reps?
My weight was increasing.
Not that I am aware of. I didn't change anything up until after several weeks of cutting. Then I changed my workouts, with still not much to show for it.
And before vacation I was progressing fine. Increasing in both weight on bar and reps. When I last broke my squat PR I added 5 pounds and 2 more reps.0 -
Saranharm, what kind of changes are you seeing in your measurements?
One thing I've noticed with eating and lifting was that certain parts got bigger (chest, shoulders, buttocks) and certain got smaller. The clothes started fitting differently, tops got tighter in the upper area but loser at waist. Weight was the same, size was similar, but proportions were different.0 -
I'd suggest if at end of reset your weight was still increasing slowly - you were eating above TDEE, well of course you were.
If reset was long enough and that was still happening, I'd suggest you were eating above potential TDEE then, not still suppressed.
Sounds like from reset time to now, the proof is in the pudding that your estimated TDEE figure is too high.
And while you could slowly gain muscle and fat weight to eventually make that TDEE be correct - why?
Because you can also start with better TDEE estimate and still lose fat weight and gain strength and transform body at the same time.
There is no additional benefit of eating more than you burn if body has sped up all it's going to.
A TDEE estimate is just that - an estimate - and should eventually be adjusted for what reality is showing.
I've seen far too many that could really benefit from losing the lbs on their joints earlier rather than later, even if they are becoming strong in the meantime.
Now - if really close to healthy weight by 10 lbs and no health issues from it - then perhaps not that bad eating at maintenance and lifting. It'll take years to trade that fat weight for muscle (if ever), but that's not that bad.
40-50 lbs though - that's a different story on the heart and joints and other systems - and that much muscle will never be gained. Even if the strength to carry it is improved.
Plus the ability to lose fat while gaining some muscle is possible at the start of lifting and with enough fat to lose - it won't happen later.0 -
TerezaToledo wrote: »Saranharm, what kind of changes are you seeing in your measurements?
One thing I've noticed with eating and lifting was that certain parts got bigger (chest, shoulders, buttocks) and certain got smaller. The clothes started fitting differently, tops got tighter in the upper area but loser at waist. Weight was the same, size was similar, but proportions were different.
Up a half inch or so, then down a quarter inch. I suppose some of that could be muscle retaining water? And that's why it seems to move around a lot?0 -
I'd suggest if at end of reset your weight was still increasing slowly - you were eating above TDEE, well of course you were.
If reset was long enough and that was still happening, I'd suggest you were eating above potential TDEE then, not still suppressed.
Sounds like from reset time to now, the proof is in the pudding that your estimated TDEE figure is too high.
And while you could slowly gain muscle and fat weight to eventually make that TDEE be correct - why?
Because you can also start with better TDEE estimate and still lose fat weight and gain strength and transform body at the same time.
There is no additional benefit of eating more than you burn if body has sped up all it's going to.
A TDEE estimate is just that - an estimate - and should eventually be adjusted for what reality is showing.
I've seen far too many that could really benefit from losing the lbs on their joints earlier rather than later, even if they are becoming strong in the meantime.
Now - if really close to healthy weight by 10 lbs and no health issues from it - then perhaps not that bad eating at maintenance and lifting. It'll take years to trade that fat weight for muscle (if ever), but that's not that bad.
40-50 lbs though - that's a different story on the heart and joints and other systems - and that much muscle will never be gained. Even if the strength to carry it is improved.
Plus the ability to lose fat while gaining some muscle is possible at the start of lifting and with enough fat to lose - it won't happen later.
I had stabilised. Then went up another 100 calories just to test, gained. When I went back down I was still inconsistent and my weight did not go back down at all.
So maybe more deficit?0 -
So the 100 cal increase, if truly above a good TDEE estimate - would have taken 35 days to slowly gain 1 lb.
Was that indeed what you saw?
If it was faster or more gained with just 100 cal increase over short time - you may not have actually reached potential TDEE, and that was just muscle carb stores topping off with water, something like that. Indicating not quit there yet.
But, if merely 100 cal under potential TDEE - I'd also expect body to NOT be so stressed that it does not allow a deficit and fat loss.
So it could be the potential TDEE is even higher than 100 cal.
Do you use Fitbit or similar that could give some outside validation to TDEE estimate?0 -
If I remember correctly, I seemed to gain several pounds at once every other week or so.
I have no Fitbit of any kind.0 -
That could have been some stress effects, or workout effects, combined with eating closer to potential TDEE, which may indeed have been higher than estimated.
Was it getting warmer for your workouts during the fast gain, or workout length increasing?
Just trying to think of other valid reasons for water weight increase, because several lbs still sounds like a bit much for eating around TDEE.0
This discussion has been closed.