Slow Down, or Suck it Up?

I say slow down! We have become such an on demand society. Sure you can say suck it up and do it but like most you'll probably end up getting burned out and stop all together.

Slow and steady wins the race. Minor course corrections along the way, your body adapts slower that we all would like them to.

swagoner94 wrote: »

When I first got my gym membership, I went 3-4 times a week to the gym. I dedicated some days to toning my arms, another to legs, and another to cardio. Sometimes I would break up the muscle groups even more, but even on days I wasn't focused on cardio, I would do some form of it. Originally, I avoided running and stuck to the stairmaster. When I wasn't seeing the results I wanted, I changed my workouts.

I began going 5-6 times a week. I added some classes offered by the gym as well (GRIT Strength on Wednesdays, Cycle classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays). When I still wasn't seeing the results I wanted, I added running to this mix (and started focusing on my nutrition more). When I still wasn't seeing the results I wanted - and this is where I'm at now - I began to run even more and have even doubled up at the gym some days. Yesterday, for example, I went at lunch time and did some running and the stairmaster. I then went after work and did my GRIT class. Today, I'm tired.

I didn't even bring my gym bag to work because I just straight up don't want to workout today. I'm exhausted, my muscles are tired (which is normally a feeling I chase), and despite having had 8 hours of sleep, I feel a bit like a zombie today. I know some schools of thought are that we ought to slow down and take rest days. But I know others are more hardcore and would say, suck it up! You want results!? Do work!

Basically... should I go home at get my gym bag?
What else can I do to achieve the results I want - other than just being patient haha.
It's not my nutrition. I watch that closely now. I'm below my calories and I'm getting them from healthy sources (85% of the time).

Sounds to me like you're heading for injury. You have to listen to your body, give it a day (or a few) of rest. Simply stay in your calorie goals and it won't hurt a bit as far as weight loss/maintenance is concerned.

What results are you looking for? Your profile shows you are wanting to lose weight, so I assume you're in a deficit? Killing yourself at the gym isn't likely helping all that much unless it's simply cardio. For me, cardio helps with weight loss in a deficit, and in maintenance or surplus of calories, weight training helps with muscle (and weight) gain. It's completely fine to do weight training while losing weight (and you probably should to an extent) but remember, you're not going to gain a ton of strength or muscle in a deficit. You'll gain some, but not a lot. So working harder at weight training may not be helping you in the long run.

Also, if you're going 2x a day 5 days a week, I'm assuming you're doing that to earn more calories for your intake? It's too much. At the most I did 90 minutes a day 6 days a week 1x a day, and I did it solely to improve performance and increase my calorie deficit all while earning more calories to eat (I'm a tall/big guy). I've since dropped it to 4-5x a week for 60-90 minutes and guess what.. no real change in loss/gain with one exception, I've gained more muscle in the last several months of less days a week than I did when I was exercising 6 days a week. That's because I wasn't giving my body time to recover and rebuild. My muscles were staying in a worn out state and it was counter productive. Adjust your calories if necessary, but I'd suggest dropping to no more than 5 days a week 1x a day for the gym. Try to spend no more than an hour there. Just my opinion. It sounds like you need rest plain and simple.

swagoner94 wrote: »

I don't eat my calories all back. Sometimes none at all.

Are you confident you know your TDEE (including exercise)? How much of a deficit are you in each week? It's possible, that by not eating back your exercise calories or a portion of them, that you're in too high of a deficit. Regardless it comes down to this, listen to your body and rest for one, two, even three days or more if needed. If you watch your caloric intake during those rest days you won't gain weight from it, and even if you did a few days isn't going to do any lasting damage. Sometimes your body even needs the extra calories to repair itself. After you rest, go back to doing what you felt was working.

rybo wrote: »

Doing more of what already isn't working, doesn't work. As you are seeing. I'm also guessing you haven't given any of this process that much time to see the obscure results you want either. Be patient.
Follow a real lifting program (Strong curves is suggested repeatedly around here), do a moderate amount of cardio (don't bury yourself with it), eat half your calories back, and hold no more than a pound/week deficit. And be patient. Give it time, 4 weeks minimum, preferably 6 or 8.

Pretty much what I was going to say so I'll just belabor the point...

If you have less then 20 pounds to lose, probably not the right advice but if you have more then that maybe your in the same boat then me:

When I work out (intenst strenght training + cardio program), even in a deficit, I barely see the weight go down.

My fastest lost was when I counted calories and walked 40 minutes minimum a day. I was literally melting.

I have no idea why, but sometime I think the intense work out was stressing my body? No idea.

I'd reduce the gym and focus on calories.

You've lost 6 Lbs in under a month...if you feel as though you're not getting results I would suggest that your expectations are a little out of whack. That's very solid progress on the weight loss front...I think you need to have more realistic expectations, particularly with only 30 Lbs to lose.

You are working out to the point where you are feeling poorly and not making any progress. It's time to dial it back since you are not benefit from the strategy you are currently trying. Rest more and make sure you are properly fueled.

swagoner94 wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

You've lost 6 Lbs in under a month...if you feel as though you're not getting results I would suggest that your expectations are a little out of whack. That's very solid progress on the weight loss front...I think you need to have more realistic expectations, particularly with only 30 Lbs to lose.

I'd say that in late December I weighed 169. I got down to 165 in a week and a half, and then then first week of January I was up to 166. For two weeks after (I weigh-in once a week) I was 166, and 166.4. It wasn't until this week that it went down to 163.2. I think I was thrown off and frustrated by plateauing at 166 for three weeks. I'm worried that I'll just be stuck at 163.2 for the next few weeks as well.

That's kind of how it works...weight loss isn't a linear function as much as we'd all like it to be...weight loss, and weight management in general is about watching trends over time which is why I use a separate app that provides me with a really nice graph with trend lines.

It's very normal to dump a good chunk of weight early on as you are consuming less calories, you start dumping glycogen and water...you also have less inherent waste in your system. It's very normal to just level off and from that point, given natural body weight fluctuations, you will find that some weeks you won't lose, some weeks will be smaller losses...some weeks will be bigger losses and some weeks will show a gain...but like I said, it's really about the overall trend over time, not the actual numbers.