I feel like missing a puzzle piece on my journey / Overcoming a plateau

squats_and_lipsticks
squats_and_lipsticks Posts: 14 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Hey everyone!

Where do I even begin, I feel like this gonna be a long one. So first, lemme introduce myself: my name is Alexandra, turning 31 soon and starting from January 2018 till January 2019 I lost around 110lbs by eating in a caloric deficit and doing at home workouts.

I am coming from a weight of 290lbs and was eating 1600calories a day for a year - no matter how hard I worked out. The result: having health issues like practically no digestion, feeling like passing out a couple of times etc and of course a weight loss plateau. I learned from my mistakes and after couple of month of eating my maintenance calories starting February 2019 and even eating in a surplus for a couple of weeks I tried to resume my weight loss journey in September 2019 again and also starting a gym membership.

But here is my first problem: I don’t lose any weight. The scale is going up 4lbs, then going down the same 4lbs again. Which on one hand is great, considering that I was eating in such a huge deficit for such a long time. So much for the backstory.

So, Let‘s say - I finally wanna lose the remaining weight after not losing / gaining any for a year. For my nutrition: I do the best when I eat everything but just staying within my calories. I tried to restrict my carbs while being on caloric deficit for a short period of time. but not only it was so restricting and time consuming - trying to calculate everything, it also was hard for me mentally. I just need carbs to be happy 😂

My daily deficit is somewhere between 850-1000 calories on days I do go to the gym (3-4 times a week) and on days I don‘t I either do refeeds or have just a small deficit, because learning from my past I now don‘t eat under 1800-2000 calories a day, otherwise I run the risk of stomach issues. I burn roughly 2200 on days where I do nothing (working from home) and roughly 3000 when I workout. I just aim for a weekly deficit of 5000 calories but I‘m not strict about it, if it‘s under it‘s under I‘m fine with that - I just make sure of a weekly deficit of 3500.

But why don‘t I lose any weight?? Should I reconsider my eating habits? I always was a huge advocate of eating what you wan’t, not restricting yourself cause it only would cause mental pressure resulting in eating anyways and feeling bad about yourself not having any will power?

So now let‘s talk about my problem. My problem is my body (shape) - I‘m fine with being me and I‘m very proud of the way I already have behind me. But thanks to genetics I look like my father - my shoulders / chest are wider than my hips and after losing that amount of weight I now have great legs, thin underarms and shoulders while all (not all all but you know what I‘m trying to say) the fat is sitting in my mid back and especially belly. Sometimes when I look into the mirror I laugh, because it looks like a bag that was strapped to my midrift. I did that fat percentage calculation with the Navy method, turns out thanks to my belly, my fat percentage is somewhere around 50%, mind you I‘m 5-6 and currently weight 184lbs. I know you can‘t lose fat in a specific region but how can I maybe somewhat boost / ignite the process?

Now let‘s talk about my workouts. Since I‘m working out for pretty much 2 years now, I do have a certain level of fitness by now. I worked my butt off at home (got an elliptical, a bench, a barbell, various dumbbells, resistance bands at home) but stepped back a little from that constant beast mode since signing up at the gym. I signed up there for various reasons, one of them being to finally get out of the house (as I said - I work from home) and I really enjoy the gym and it‘s not about losing motivation, cause I don‘t. I consider fitness a part of my lifestyle and I love every single part of it.

But here is the thing, I need to figure out HOW to train properly. Since I wanna burn calories by keeping my heart rate high I can do two things, I either run on an elliptical for 1.5hours or I train with weights because we all know, training muscles is more effective for burning fat than just a plain cardio. I know I know, I interchange my training routine, depending on how I feel that day and all that. My main problem is the weight training - since I‘m already at a certain level I do not even become sore in my legs after pushing 180lbs (3x15) on the leg press, but here is the thing, I don‘t even wanna push so much, because as I said, my genetics gave me a „manly“ type, so I also tend to build muscles like a guy and I certainly don‘t wanna look like that. I once was training my shoulders and realized while looking in the mirror that I get that bodybuilder neck, you know that raised bump between your shoulders? I don‘t want that. Surely one day when I reach my weight goal, I wanna build and shape my body but for now I just wanna lose fat without losing muscles I‘ve gained and not gaining more muscle volume (if that makes sense).

How do I do this? I feel like missing a little puzzle piece typing everything together and it is so so so frustrating but I did not come that far to quit. I‘m interested in every opinion and tip that might help me finally overcoming that stupid plateau. Thanks a lot for reading that immense amount of text, really appreciate it!

Replies

  • puffbrat
    puffbrat Posts: 2,806 Member
    Duck_Puddle wrote: »
    Congratulations on the loss, finding your fitness and in learning to fuel your body appropriately! That’s all fantastic!

    Now-if you’re not losing, you’re eating at maintenance. Can I ask where you are getting your TDEE (the 2200 and 3000)? Those number seem perhaps a little high.

    How much more are you trying to lose?

    You don’t need to change what you’re eating (unless you want to). You do need to find the right number of calories to eat where you are fueling your body appropriately but still eating less than maintenance.

    You won’t get bulky or manly lifting weights. Not even if you keep lifting heavier weights. You will get stronger (which is not the same as bigger) and you will preserve more muscle as you lose-which can help body composition (so your final result is leaner).

    Doing cardio is also important for health and fitness-your heart is a muscle too.

    I don’t think there’s anything really “wrong” with what you’re doing. I think you just need to tweak your calories a little. And embrace the idea that lifting heavier weights doesn’t make you manly/bulky/bigger (really).

    The bolded is my question as well.
  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,590 Member
    Go to the doctor and have bloodwork done. Thyroid, iron levels, all that stuff. Explain to your doctor what you have been doing and what the results are and see if s/he can find a reason that can be medically corrected or a behavioral reason that you can fix.
  • squats_and_lipsticks
    squats_and_lipsticks Posts: 14 Member
    Duck_Puddle wrote: »
    Congratulations on the loss, finding your fitness and in learning to fuel your body appropriately! That’s all fantastic!

    THANK YOU SO MUCH!
    Duck_Puddle wrote: »
    Now-if you’re not losing, you’re eating at maintenance. Can I ask where you are getting your TDEE (the 2200 and 3000)? Those number seem perhaps a little high.

    How much more are you trying to lose?

    You don’t need to change what you’re eating (unless you want to). You do need to find the right number of calories to eat where you are fueling your body appropriately but still eating less than maintenance.


    Would love to lose another 50lbs, but I‘m not rushing. I‘ve been overweight (even obese) my whole life so one-two extra years of being chubby won‘t kill me :)

    I‘m wearing an apple watch from pretty much the beginning of my journey, which AFAIK is pretty much of an exact fitness tracking tool, besides a breast belt thingie which I don‘t own. Let‘s compare two screenshots: One from an active day with a gym sesh and a total of 2.9k burned calories; and the other one is from an inactive day with total of 2.2k burnt calories. I ate 2.1k calories on my active day and 1.4k calories on my inactive day. Which makes 800 and 700 calories deficit on both days. So let‘s say my watch is wrong by let‘s say 200-300 calories (which I also have been considering in the back of my mind). Still a 500-400 calories deficit.

    5cqfgt6g12cw.jpeg
    5qrecnvl19m9.jpeg

    Duck_Puddle wrote: »
    You won’t get bulky or manly lifting weights. Not even if you keep lifting heavier weights. You will get stronger (which is not the same as bigger) and you will preserve more muscle as you lose-which can help body composition (so your final result is leaner).

    Doing cardio is also important for health and fitness-your heart is a muscle too.

    I don’t think there’s anything really “wrong” with what you’re doing. I think you just need to tweak your calories a little. And embrace the idea that lifting heavier weights doesn’t make you manly/bulky/bigger (really).

    So hard, I‘m really afraid of that and all I see is my legs getting thinner which makes me look kinda unbalanced in proportions if that makes sense.

  • squats_and_lipsticks
    squats_and_lipsticks Posts: 14 Member
    gothchiq wrote: »
    Go to the doctor and have bloodwork done. Thyroid, iron levels, all that stuff. Explain to your doctor what you have been doing and what the results are and see if s/he can find a reason that can be medically corrected or a behavioral reason that you can fix.

    Thanks! My last bloodwork was on thyroid, came back pretty much great, but I should probably give it another go, especially checking iron and stuff!
  • squats_and_lipsticks
    squats_and_lipsticks Posts: 14 Member
    Duck_Puddle wrote: »
    Which means that we just have to cut calories a bit (or increase activity - or a combo) to start loosing again. I don’t think you need more activity (unless you want to). I think you might be eating much closer to maintenance than your watch is leading you to believe.

    I‘d rather do extra rounds at the gym than eating less. Food is bae 😂 But yeah I get your point, you‘re probably right, I just need to find the perfect balance between being gazillion hours a day at the gym and starvation. Thanks a lot, appreciate you took the time for me :) I‘m on the right way again, just needed a kind of approval and getting it all of my chest!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,788 Member
    Let me start by saying that I began at about the point where you are now: I'm 5'5", was 183 pounds, and had been very active for a dozen years while obese. If you're truly at 50% body fat (which may or may not be accurate, based on the method and your description of your body configuration), and 184 pounds, then you'd be at 92 pounds of lean mass, which is really not off-the-scale muscular for someone our size. (Don't get me wrong, it's not bad or low or anything.)

    You can expect to lose some lean mass as you lose weight. Lean mass includes some things a lighter body won't be needed, so this is not some kind of dire prediction. If we kept the same blood volume and water weight in tissues while losing 1/4 to 1/3 of our bodyweight, we'd be like overfilled water balloons or something! :lol:

    I'd also say that you're believing some things that are not strictly accurate, and that that may hold you back in some ways.

    * Generally, cardio burns more calories per minute than weight training. While a pound of muscle burns more calories than a pound of fat (around a (non-)whopping 2 more calories per day), it takes a long time to add a pound of muscle. It's possible that the muscle repair process, which is likely to be higher with weight training than cardio, burns a few extra calories over the course of recovery, but the number is small, and for reasonable-length cardio, doesn't offset the larger per-minute cardo calorie burn. So, cardio for calorie burn.

    * 180 pounds on the leg press isn't a huge number, especially if we're talking the normal horizontal or near-horizontal press machines. You're doing fine, but this is not a sign of disproportionate muscularity or strength. Think about it: Your body weighs 184 pounds (and formerly weighed 290). Every time in daily life when you squat down to pick up something from the floor or a low shelf, you're basically doing the vertical equivalent of leg-pressing your body weight.

    * Strength training is good for a body, and you said you want to keep your existing muscle to the extent possible, so you want some strength training in the mix. Look for well-designed full-body programs that focus on strength rather than adding mass (hypertrophy). There is a good thread about strength training here, and you can ask follow-up questions on that thread:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

    Beyond that, virtually no one (not even young men, the most advantaged group for it) is going to add large amounts of muscle mass in a calorie deficit. Strength increase is likely, a little water retention so some plumping/definition in muscles is possible, but actual substantial amounts of new muscle tissue are very unlikely.

    * Some women gain muscle faster than others, so I'm not going to tell you "women don't get bulky" in the absence of any idea what you consider "bulky". I can assure you that all female bodybuilders work very hard over a long period to build that type of muscle mass, and they lose to very low levels of body fat in order for it to really show. Some of the most muscular women use performance-enhancing drugs, on top of everything else. That kind of body doesn't happen by accident to any woman, with a moderate, strength-focused lifting program. Usually, your best bet early on will be a full-body 3 times a week program, but 2 times a week may be enough to hang onto existing muscle well, and will certainly minimize actual gains.

    * The weight loss is about calories. You are much younger than I am, but even so, the 3000 calorie TDEE is quite high for someone our size. What is your work and home life like (you mention working from home, and I think of most work-from-home jobs as fairly sedentary)? Do you have any idea of how many steps you get daily, on average? How often do you work out, doing what, and for how long? You don't say what you're doing at the gym. 800 calories is perhaps possible for a very intense 90 minute elliptical workout; how often do you do that? (I could get there on a rowing machine at my old weight, but not at an intensity I could sustain for a full 90 minutes on any kind of regular schedule despite being a seasoned rower, so I think of that as pretty high.) Weight training burns only very moderate numbers of calories, way lower than that.

    How do you measure your calorie eaten: Food scale? Cups/spoons? Package per-serving data? Eyeball/estimate? Using only your own recipes, or some generic or other people's homemade entries? Etc. Your diary is not open, so I can't give an opinon on your intake logging (it may be perfect :) !).

    My generic advice would be to
    * log eating carefully, strive for good nutrition for health (with adequate protein for muscle maintenance),
    * use a standard method of estimating your exercise for consistency,
    * do steady-state cardio you find fun at an intensity/duration/frequency that fits into your life well while not leaving you exhausted/draggy or messing up your good overall life balance,
    * weight train with a strength-focused (not mass-focused) program 3 times a week, 2 if you're ultra-worried about mass
    * manage stress (which can exaggerate water weight fluctuation and obscure weight results over shorter timespans)
    * stick to a calorie goal doing the above for at least one full menstrual cycle, or more ideally two, then
    * adjust your intake as needed to hit a sensible loss rate target based on your results.

    FWIW, I lost most of around 50 pounds eating 1400-1600 plus all exercise calories. While I'm older and lighter now, my calorie needs are unusually high for my age, so before exercise now close to what common TDEE formulas would estimate for someone of your current age and size at sedentary. I still lose very, very slowly at 1850 plus all carefully-estimated exercise calories, but only at half a pound a week or less. It's very hard to see it without a weight trending app (I use Libra, since I have Android; Happy Scale is the common one for iOS).

    Without knowing more details about you, my suspicion is that you're eating at or close to maintenance now. WIthout knowing more about your routine or your logging, I can't say anything more specific or helpful.

    I don't think you can do much to re-evaluate your underlying body shape until you've lost more weight; I think staying fit and active while you lose is the best current strategy. Once you know what you look like at goal weight, you can consider strategies for changing shape within the range of possible.

    Best wishes!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,788 Member
    One minor additional comment: Muscle soreness is not a sign of strength/mass progress, nor a sign that one isn't achieving it, necessarily. You'll see strength gain in performance measures if you're getting stronger . . . and see mass changes over a very long time period in photos, or in the relatively expensive types of body composition tests, assuming you'd want more accurate insights into mass.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,363 Member
    edited January 2020
    I would not suggest eating less--yet.

    I do not think that your burns are extraordinary given your activity and current weight.

    But, I will caution you that over time you do become more efficient with your exercise. The metrics your watch detects are based on mean values. Not everyone tracks directly on the population average.

    I will caution you that unless you are weighing everything on a scale and have good skills at selecting correct entries from the MFP database or avoiding misleading labels... chances are fairly good that you're eating a bit more than you think which often accounts for a level of discrepancy between the expectation and reality of weight loss.

    I will caution that our weight changes due to water weight faster than it changes due to fat changes. A weight trend app can be useful in helping us figure out what is going on!

    If you enjoy exercise, which it sounds like you do, I strongly encourage you to start thinking about strength training.

    I've noticed you saying a couple of things that are registering on my little antennas. I could be off--I could be "on". Take my conjectures for what they are if they don't apply to you.

    Long term it will be extremely hard on you (mentally and on your body) if you're exercising just to eat.

    It is one thing to exercise for health and performance. It is another thing to be exercising desperately to avoid starving. You reset your "super low" calories-in; but you have done this re-set in the context of high exercise.

    Take a day or two off intense exercise (maybe substitute a gentle walk instead, though walking too, as I have reason to know, can serve as a vehicle to burn calories). And try to see if you are genuinely as hungry when you are doing less exercise. Sometimes we are in loops where we are both eating more and WANTING to eat more BECAUSE of excess exercise.

    Now. IF after several weeks of perceived caloric deficit you have not seen trending weight scale changes, and if there is no confounding sources of water weight that you can figure out... then yes, if you want to achieve weight loss you will probably have to somehow reduce your average calories.

    It is not inconceivable that you're a person who will have to proceed more slowly and with more frequent re-feeds and diet breaks than your average snowflake! On the plus side... hey if you're stable or trending down you're already winning since (if I understood correctly) you have already achieved a 10% weight loss from your highest! Every year you keep that 10% or improve on it in a healthy way... you are realizing true benefits for your health!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,788 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »

    (snip for length)

    But, I will caution you that over time you do become more efficient with your exercise. The metrics your watch detects are based on mean values. Not everyone tracks directly on the population average.
    (more snip)

    Mmmm . . . dunno.

    I mostly agree with your post, but I think the effect of "efficiency" on exercise calorie estimates by current trackers is arithmetically pretty small (especially as a fraction of TDEE), depending on the tracker in play . . . much smaller than the probable error from mis-estimating certain exercise types/pacing strategies systematically inaccurately, or from relying on age estimates of max heart rate that are inherently inaccurate for a fair fraction of the population. :lol:

    I agree that there's likely to be a bias toward over-estimating calories for less-fit people, or underestimating them for more-fit people. The question is what the device uses as its underlying average (how much fitness is "average"), and how much - if at all - it's algorithmically affected by the device's fitness-assessment metrics (which are themselves questionable, of course).

    For example, mine has the delusion that it can estimate my VO2max. Does it then use that quasi-information in some way in estimating calorie expenditure? I don't know. All I know is that it isn't vastly far off in its exercise calorie estimates for the only well-metered steady-state exercise I do, weight-adjusted C2 machine rowing, at my current fitness level, whatever the heck that is. (Off in its exercise calorie estimate? Yes. Vastly? No. Pretty trivial in the big picture.)

    Apologies, OP: This is pretty much a minor side-quibble with PAV that you should ignore. The main thing I'd say to you about it - and the reason I even brought it up - is that I wouldn't like you to think that with increasing fitness you burn lots fewer calories doing the same activity at the same intensity for the same duration at the same bodyweight. You don't, in any major calories sense for most common types of exercise. But the "muscle confusion" advocates will try to sell you that kind of nonsense, to get you to buy that you need to "switch things up" into the latest & greatest exercise programs, equipment, etc.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,363 Member
    edited January 2020
    Not going to disagree <too much>; though I am sure @psychod787 would quote us a lot of studies :wink: <don't Mr. D! Don't do it!>

    There is increased skeletal muscle efficiency. Assuming intensity doesn't increase which is a lame assumption. Assuming you don't counteract the increased efficiency with strength training.

    And yes, in the context of a complete day it is a pretty minor impact.

    It is much more likely that other factors such as heart rate and VO2 Max and other sources of inherent error in the calculation of EE by the devices* will impact on the calculations.

    *In any case HR remains only a proxy for EE (energy expenditure) or calories burned and in terms of estimating burned calories a quick google of 2017 and newer studies points out that devices continue to have 0 to 20% errors of estimation of calories burned during activity (and vary) depending on the type of activity and the characteristics of the individual wearers. With different studies finding different results for the same device at times.

    And all this doesn't stop them from being better (or at least more impartial and consistent) than our own logging of the activity, and close enough in their estimations to allow most of us to come to informed enough decisions (once we have enough solid data) whether we need to modify our plans!

    And I note, as Ann said, that the EE from exercise is only a (smaller) part of the total daily energy expenditure.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    edited January 2020
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Not going to disagree <too much>; though I am sure @psychod787 would quote us a lot of studies :wink: <don't Mr. D! Don't do it!>

    There is increased skeletal muscle efficiency. Assuming intensity doesn't increase which is a lame assumption. Assuming you don't counteract the increased efficiency with strength training.

    And yes, in the context of a complete day it is a pretty minor impact.

    It is much more likely that other factors such as heart rate and VO2 Max and other sources of inherent error in the calculation of EE by the devices* will impact on the calculations.

    *In any case HR remains only a proxy for EE (energy expenditure) or calories burned and in terms of estimating burned calories a quick google of 2017 and newer studies points out that devices continue to have 0 to 20% errors of estimation of calories burned during activity (and vary) depending on the type of activity and the characteristics of the individual wearers. With different studies finding different results for the same device at times.

    And all this doesn't stop them from being better (or at least more impartial and consistent) than our own logging of the activity, and close enough in their estimations to allow most of us to come to informed enough decisions (once we have enough solid data) whether we need to modify our plans!

    And I note, as Ann said, that the EE from exercise is only a (smaller) part of the total daily energy expenditure.

    @PAV8888 .... you're safe today..😁
  • Onedaywriter
    Onedaywriter Posts: 326 Member
    Congrats on how far you’ve already come in your journey!! Most of the advice already given here is great.

    Just one comment about weightlifting. Weightlifting is great for fat loss. But if you are pressing 3x15 reps you are in a zone that is meant to cause muscle growth (hypertrophy). If you don’t want big muscles, you’re probably better off using higher weight but less reps more like 3x5. The lower reps are generally used for strength gain. This will help you lose body fat without the muscle size increase. Also, at 15 reps you might be getting a “pump” which means your muscles may retain water for a day or two making them appear larger.

    Lots of info on MFP about this subject.
    Keep at it!!
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    Do you use a food scale? I might have missed that point. If not, get one. Check out these threads. I think the second one may really apply to you.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10697068/how-i-stopped-kidding-myself/p1


    Second, I'm a huge proponent of lifting heavy weight. Here's an oldie but a goodie of a thread. You may need to go into the later pages to see more pictures. Some of the picture links have broken over time.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/977538/halp-heavy-lifting-made-me-supah-bulky#latest
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    Do you use a food scale? I might have missed that point. If not, get one. Check out these threads. I think the second one may really apply to you.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10697068/how-i-stopped-kidding-myself/p1


    Second, I'm a huge proponent of lifting heavy weight. Here's an oldie but a goodie of a thread. You may need to go into the later pages to see more pictures. Some of the picture links have broken over time.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/977538/halp-heavy-lifting-made-me-supah-bulky#latest

    Mama said, "Cardio's for the Devil!" 👿
  • slbbw
    slbbw Posts: 329 Member
    Great advice from some seasoned folks on here. I want to touch on your stomach issues and your calorie levels. Have you played around with your macros and fiber much. The easiest thing to assume if you are at a plateau is that you are over underestimating your consumption or over estimating your calorie needs. It is possible that too little fiber or fat was the culprit to your stomach woes, but this is from my own experience and not a doctor.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,887 Member
    Have you adjusted your Apple watch settings to reflect the weight you have lost?
  • squats_and_lipsticks
    squats_and_lipsticks Posts: 14 Member
    Oh boy, so much to catch up on! Thanks a lot to everyone taking their time to reply - really appreciate this! So as a general conclusion I figured that my deficit was lower than I always thought it was. Well if you come to think about it - sure thing: the less you weigh, the less calories you need. But I kept thinking that with an increased activity level I was burning more that I obviously do. So yeah, gonna adjust that for sure!

    Although I would prefer to train more than eating less. Because if I eat less than a certain amount of calories a day my body strikes as it remembers being in a war mode for a very long time. That's what I meant by "starvation", I'm not depriving myself of any food; nor do I work out to eat - I REALLY love working out. But by working out a good amount I can ensure that my body gets exactly what it needs without being in a calorie surplus. This also has been a part of my journey - learning to understand what my body is trying to tell me. And although I might not know exactly what holds it back now, I surely do know how much I need to eat :)
    Onedaywriter wrote: »
    Congrats on how far you’ve already come in your journey!! Most of the advice already given here is great.

    Just one comment about weightlifting. Weightlifting is great for fat loss. But if you are pressing 3x15 reps you are in a zone that is meant to cause muscle growth (hypertrophy). If you don’t want big muscles, you’re probably better off using higher weight but less reps more like 3x5. The lower reps are generally used for strength gain. This will help you lose body fat without the muscle size increase. Also, at 15 reps you might be getting a “pump” which means your muscles may retain water for a day or two making them appear larger.

    Lots of info on MFP about this subject.
    Keep at it!!

    Thanks a lot! Question on that one tho: What if I reduce the weights but increase the reps? E.g. instead of 3x15 deadlifts with 40lbs on the barbell, doing 1x75 reps with 20lbs?
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    Have you adjusted your Apple watch settings to reflect the weight you have lost?

    YEEESS! Adjusted a couple of weeks ago - the numbers weren't adding up! It was a long thinking process tho to come to that conclusion :D



    PS because some of you asked: I do own a food scale which I am using, don't worry about that :D My obvious problem was to think I needed more calories than I actually do, instead of measuring it out wrong!
    Once again, thank y'all so so so much!
  • Onedaywriter
    Onedaywriter Posts: 326 Member
    I’m no expert but I think if you go to lower weight with more reps it will still result in hypertrophy.
    Maybe some endurance gain from the high reps but if you want to avoid muscle growth while reaping the fat loss benefits, less reps at higher weight seems to be the way to go.

    Probably a post on the fitness and exercise board will yield more knowledgable answers than I have!

  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    Onedaywriter wrote: »
    I’m no expert but I think if you go to lower weight with more reps it will still result in hypertrophy.
    Maybe some endurance gain from the high reps but if you want to avoid muscle growth while reaping the fat loss benefits, less reps at higher weight seems to be the way to go.

    Probably a post on the fitness and exercise board will yield more knowledgable answers than I have!

    Hypertrophy will happen with high weights or low weights. It's all about progressive overload.
  • Onedaywriter
    Onedaywriter Posts: 326 Member
    Thanks for clarifying! I agree.
    I should have phrased it “more hypertrophy.”
This discussion has been closed.

Categories