199.2

While this is a bit of a success story in that I finally broke into Onederland, this thread isn't about me. It's about you.

I started on MFP, I think, back in September and the program put me on ~1400 cals. And while I wasn't working out everything was fine and I lost between a pound or two per week as scheduled. Well it wasn't long before I got impatient and decided that if I joined a gym and worked real hard I could do even better.

The good news is I was able to work real hard and burn between 700 and 1400 cals on any given day just with my workouts. I was thankful my body would let me go that hard. My stamina improved and so did my flexability. The bad news is the scale quit moving. And I mean it flat out REFUSED!

What's worse is that if I had a "cheat day" on a weekend or something I would actually gain weight SUPER fast. It was almost as if everything I touched may as well have been added straight to my gut. And this went on for over 2 months. My resolve is pretty strong because I still never gave up, I just worked harder occassionally adding morning cardio to my routine of afternoon cardio plus weight training.

Now this last week has been quite interesting. I found the courage to approach a super fit young woman at my gym to inquire about training. It turns out she's a fitness competitor and recently won. That quickly explained why I had seen her so much at the gym. Lucky for me she turned out to be super nice and agreed to help me and my fiance.

After one meet at her place and one training session with her the changes began again. I could just feel it. She recommended following the Canada Food Guide rather than just counting cals. It's much more of a lifestyle change than a competition type diet. Not wanting to give up MFP I kept entering my food faithfully and the cals worked out to almost dead on 2000 per day.

Less than a week later - 199.2

I KNOW it seems counter intuitive to think I can eat more and lose weight. I know you think if I eat less and work harder I can lose more. The simple fact is, you can't. I tried! Trust me, I tried. To say I failed would be an understatement. You've GOT to eat all your cals. I've even stopped congradulating people for being under their cals for the day. Everyone seems so focused on that and IMHO thats not the goal. Eat ALL your cals. Thats what the program is designed for. It WILL work and you can't lose weight faster by starving yourself.

Even if you're sitting there thinking, "but I'm not hungry and I only eat 1200 cals". Try it. I was on 1400 and thinking I'm not hungry. Now I'm around 2000 and I'm hungry almost constantly.

I've also shut down the cardio to 25 mins per day. Which is less than half of what I was doing. You CAN over train. Especially if you don't eat enough. Running is great for stripping but the down side is, it strips everything, including muscle if you over do it. Kenya builds great runners but none of them look like Bradley Cooper. You need muscle.

There have been posts like this before. I read some. Ya think I listened? Ha ha ha, No. Don't be a fool, like me. Avoid 2 months of zero results and just eat your cals.

Good luck people. Oh ... and drink your damn water too!