Confused

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justbee27
justbee27 Posts: 9
in Motivation and Support
Hello everybody,

I'm sooo confused. Maybe you know an answer!
I'm going to the gym 3 times a week for an hour (I do 30 min of cardio and 30min of weight training) and i also do the prevention fitness DVD once a week. I eat healthy and try to avoid sweets and i also cut down my carbs. I still get weight and my body fat increased by 1.5%!!! how can that be???? What am I doing wrong? Does anybody have an idea or advice? It is really getting me down as I'm trying so hard to loose the last 8lbs from my pregnancy and i just cant seem to get rid of them :cry:
Looking forward to your answers.
Thanks

Replies

  • jmeyer2952
    jmeyer2952 Posts: 8
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    What kind of cardio are you doing? If you aren't already, try Interval Training. One I like lasts 25 minutes.

    4 minutes at a natural pace on your workout equipment of choice (i.e. stationary bike, elliptical, treadmill)
    30 seconds as hard as you can go - really crank up the resistance or the incline.
    1 minute natural pace - crank the resistance back down or the incline.
    Repeat the 30/1 for 21 minutes.

    It really works!

    Also, everyone will tell you this (they told me) - make sure you drink alot of water. You have no idea how fast the weight will fall off.

    Hope this helps!
  • FalconSays
    FalconSays Posts: 62
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    Hi Justbee,
    I would say first, try not to let the frustration get the best of you. Stress will reek havoc on your attempts to shed any excess you are working hard to control.

    Next, I would say ramp up your work-outs. Looks like maybe you need to really kick-start your metabolism up. 3xs/wk at just 1hr I, personally, don't think is enough and your xtra dvd work-outs, I don't know how strenuous that is. It may feel like you are working it a lot and sweating. But try to sweat 6 days and give yourself a day of rest. If running around town to the gym is too much 6 days a week, keep your 3 days there, try to do more than 1/2hr cardio and do your dvd at home 6 days a week and really sweat the heck out of it.

    Next I would say be careful how much you 'watch' your food and cut it down or out. You may accidently be putting yourself in starvation mode and actually slowing down your metabolism and your body will hang on for dear life to everything you take in.

    Last I would say water water water.....helps to wash it all away and shed our womanly layers of pudge.
    I hope this helps - it works for me! I completed day 9 of P90X yesterday and this morning I weighed in at 3lbs lost. Yay P90X is x-treme sweaty cardio and strength training. I am about to be 40 and I am pushing myself hard and it's paying off. I FEEL my metabolism FIRING UP from morning to night cuz I have so much more energy now.

    Hang in there!
    ♥Karen
  • sroseber
    sroseber Posts: 197 Member
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    I read somewhere that you should do your cardio last. Doing your weight training first uses up your "carb" energy then when you do your cardio you are using up your fat stores and burning more body fat. Haven't tried this yet but I thought I'd pass it on. Maybe it will make a difference.

    I totally understand where you are coming from though. I feel confused as well, when I have a day that I feel like I've done everything right the scales go up and then I'll have a day that I feel like I've totally screwed up and they go down. So I think maybe I should be eating more calories and I start doing that and then the scale start going up. I have a trip for my 10th anniversary coming up in 4 weeks and I was hoping to be back to my wedding weight by then but that's 15 lbs! I'm starting to feel like it's not going to be possible to reach that goal in the amount of time I have left!! I'm trying the water, water, water thing and more sleep, sleep, sleep. I think those may be 2 things that are making my weight stall that I don't really think about how important they are to this process.

    Hang in there, we can do this! We just can't give up! Good Luck and let us know how things go!

    Sherell
  • justbee27
    justbee27 Posts: 9
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    Thanks for your answer and your supportive words. I will keep trying and i will let you know how things go! Let me know how you get on too please.
    I hope things work out for you too and that you have a great trip!
    We can do this, it might takes more time than planed but we will get there!
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    First things first. How do you know you are 1.5% increased in BF%? I mean, are you getting hydrostatically tested, or going into a DEXA machine? Because if you're using an electrical impedance scale or calipers, 1.5% is within the margin for error and not a valid number. Even hydrostatic testing and bodpods are a 1% margin for error, so really, that's too small of a change to really be statistically significant.

    As to gaining weight, with 10 lbs to go how much weight gain are we talking about? AND how long are you taking between weighing in. I'm a firm believer in the concept of muscle to fat ratio, and as such I put very little stock in someone's weight once they are close to maintenance, but I'm curious to know your techniques because this sounds a little fine toothed IMHO.

    IF (I stress if), these numbers are real, then I can tell you this, exercise is great (although I usually recommend separate days for cardio and weight training) but it's just a helper, the real tool to weight loss is eating habits, if you are exercising and eating healthy and still gaining weight, one of two things is happening.

    1) you are just plain eating more calories then your body uses. I find that a little hard to swallow if you are generally keeping on track with MFP.

    2) you have been eating too little for a very long time and have a depressed metabolizm, and have recently raised your calories to fit the MFP guidelines. if you are within the range of normal BMI and Body Fat %, you should be on about a 250 calorie deficit, that means even when you exercise you should be around 250 calorie deficit NET.
    Here's the kicker on this, everyone is a little different, if you are doing this, and it's been a few months, and you're still gaining or not losing, then you might want to think about going to get your metabolic level tested to know exactly how many calories you burn during a normal day. Then you can more accurately see how much you need to eat to do what you need to.

    Take note, it's a LOOONG journey once you are close to maintenance, don't expect things to happen in weeks, or even a month or two, it's going to take a long time to reach the final goals.

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