MFP Mythbusters! Losing weight fast, exercise calories, girl

MFP Mythbusters! Losing weight fast, exercise calories, girls getting bulky, etc. (In case the title gets truncated.)

I've seen a couple people say stuff like they lose weight faster if they don't eat their exercise calories, or alternately that the scale isn't moving like they want it to. Everyone wants to lose weight fast, and they think the way to do that is to cut calories big time and/or not eat calories burned from exercise.

Last time I lost weight, I did it all wrong and just cut calories way too much. I thought I'd lose weight faster that way... actually, I just thought that was how you lost weight. I never thought I'd have progress aiming to lose just a half pound a week. That sounded ridiculously slow... who the hell would want to wait two and a half months to lose just 10 pounds!?

Well, I did lose weight by cutting calories a lot. Eventually. Ironically, even though I was trying to lose 1-2# a week, I usually lost less than a half pound a week. But instead of thinking, "Maybe I'm doing this wrong?" I'd think, "I just have a slow metabolism," and thought that eating even LESS would be the only way to lose more. Like I said, I did it all wrong.

So eventually, I reached 130# and wasn't happy with the results. I was happy to buy a pair of size 8 jeans, but not happy that I still had a muffin top and back fat rolls. Believing my options were "eat very little to try to lose or to stay at this size" or "eat what I want and weight 15-20# more," eating what I wanted won. Which, as luck would have it, was the better choice of the two, since I would have ended up malnourished, destroying my metabolism, losing even MORE lean muscle mass, and/or with an eating disorder if I'd kept it up much longer.

This time around, eating between 1800-2000 calories during most of my weight loss (1500 + exercise calories. I'm currently maintaining around 1700 net), I wasn't so much focused on losing weight because I didn't think I could, based on past experience. I was looking more at my fitness level and being able to run, then lifting to reshape my body and improve my running performance.

I'm currently around 130# again. And these are those size 8 jeans I was so happy to be able to wear LAST time I weighed 130#? They're a bit big. Actually... a lot big. They come off without unzipping them.



These are those size 8 jeans, with the size 5 juniors jeans I'm wearing now. (Curvy cut because I'm not a straight up and down teenager.)



So... yeah. Giving the choice between weighing less or wearing smaller clothes? I don't give a DAMN what the scale says anymore.

And as far as lifting weights goes... A year and a half ago, I was embarrassed that my arms were kind of chunky. Shirts that fit in the torso were too tight on my sleeves. If someone told me then that I should lift heavy weights, I'd have laughed because I thought my arms would burst through my seams like the Hulk.


(August 2010, around 150#)

Now, they fit in sleeves perfectly... but I love them so much I just hate covering them now. And I'm getting really close to being able to do a pullup with those "massive" pythons. I can do them (well, maybe one or two) with just 10# of assistance, but usually do 25#, having started with 70# of assistance in July.


(This morning, around 130#)

No, you don't HAVE to lift heavy. But if you want nice shape to your arms, and/or you want arms that can help you climb a rope or rappel down a cliff (can't WAIT until this year's Warrior Dash!!!) you're going to need more than 3# dumbbells.