Another new person..... and terrified!
tenunderfour
Posts: 429 Member
I just joined this group because I've been doing the same things over and over expecting different results (isn't that the definition of insanity?)...... Anyway, I have been a chronic cardio person. I'm a distance runner. I also cycle, and occasionally do elliptical or stationary bike at the gym. I've dabbled in some body weight training and I am currently doing Insanity (completely different from the above reference. hehe)
Food-wise, I have also been restricting my calories to 1300-1400 ish. I'm at a stand still weight wise. I got the NROLFW on my Kindle and read most of it already. I think I'm ready to start heavy lifting and eating more. BUT - I am absolutely TERRIFIED of gaining weight. I recently (in the past 2 mos) lost about 5 lbs and now fit into my "skinny" pants that I was wearing a couple of years ago. The thought of having tight pants again makes me literally sick to my stomach. I intellectually understand the way this works..... but it is SO counter-intuitive. *sigh* I guess I just need to pick a date on the calendar, bite the bullet, and get started. I've read all the sticky's at the top. I guess I'm ready.......
Does it really work? really, really???? (I just need a lil pep talk) :-p
Food-wise, I have also been restricting my calories to 1300-1400 ish. I'm at a stand still weight wise. I got the NROLFW on my Kindle and read most of it already. I think I'm ready to start heavy lifting and eating more. BUT - I am absolutely TERRIFIED of gaining weight. I recently (in the past 2 mos) lost about 5 lbs and now fit into my "skinny" pants that I was wearing a couple of years ago. The thought of having tight pants again makes me literally sick to my stomach. I intellectually understand the way this works..... but it is SO counter-intuitive. *sigh* I guess I just need to pick a date on the calendar, bite the bullet, and get started. I've read all the sticky's at the top. I guess I'm ready.......
Does it really work? really, really???? (I just need a lil pep talk) :-p
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Replies
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Many people will gain weight at first, I did for sure, as their metabolism learns to trust them again. However, it doesn't last, and you will most likely lose inches in the process.
I hid my scale for the first month so I can adjust to the process and woo my metabolism into trusting me again... I've been starving it for so long I don't blame it for hoarding the food I'm putting into my system now!0 -
Do most people gain pounds, but lose inches at first? because I guess I don't really care so much about the number on the scale...... it's the tight pants that will put me into orbit!0
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I lost 4 inches from my midsection in the first week (between my bust, waist, belly button, hips and thighs).
(but gained almost an inch in my biceps/triceps!) 0 -
Hi! I'm pretty new to this too. I started MFP over a month ago....I had never counted calories before and I was never big on starving myself. MFP set me to 1500 calories to lose 2 pounds a week. I lost about about 5 pounds (the rest of my weight loss was from right before I joined & I was doing south beach) and then NOTHING.....for WEEKS! During those non-weight loss weeks I figured that I should eat less, and workout more. So I started going to the gym every.single.day and stayed there 2+ hours. I wore my HRM and would burn 1300-1500 calories a day. I was eating about 1300 calories a day and STILL not losing anything. My body hurt!
I kept running into these threads about eating more to lose weight and starvation mode and it totally made sense to me. I mean it obviously didn't make sense to me because anyone will tell you the way to lose weight is to eat less and exercise more. But on the physiological level it totally made sense! My TDEE is 2826 and my BMR is 1823. I started by upping my calories so that I was netting BMR. I did that for about a week or so. I still didn't lose any weight, just kept losing and gaining the same pound over and over again. Then I just went ahead and bit the bullet and upped my calories to TDEE -20% which is 2260 and I make sure that I at least net BMR on the days that I work out. I also stopped doing so much cardio. I was doing an hour 6-7 days a week and now I only do 30 minutes 5 days a week and have started weight lifting. I'm gonna start lifting heavy once I read the book!
Anyway......this is all still very new to me and I'm at the beginning of my journey, but yesterday I lost a pound and today I fit into a pair of jeans that I could hardly get over my hips a few weeks ago. My body is totally changing! I can see it and feel it, even if the scale doesn't seem to agree. My tip is ditch the scale for a little while and put your skinny jeans away for a couple weeks just in case you do get a little bloat.....it won't feel so bad if you don't try and wear them. There is no telling how your body is going to react to this change.....I didn't have a hard time adjusting, but I haven't been a yo-yo dieter or cardio crazy, or on a starvation diet (for more than a couple weeks) so my body didn't have to repair all that much. But I can tell you that I am 100% a believer in this process! It may take time, you may feel worse before you feel better, but you WILL feel better, and you WILL lose weight by fueling your body the way it needs! Good luck my dear! And feel free to friend me.....I always prefer friends who aren't starving themselves!
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Gina0 -
Can't answer you just started second day today
But wanted to say welcome! 0 -
Thanks for the welcome!
I don't know if it matters or not, but I don't have much to lose. I'm 5'9", 139, 22% body fat. I'd love to drop 5 or 6 lbs and hit 20%. So I'm just looking to eek the last little bit of fat off my body to hit my goal. Does that change anything? Expect slower results? Any change in terms of daily calories? TIA0 -
Thanks for the welcome!
I don't know if it matters or not, but I don't have much to lose. I'm 5'9", 139, 22% body fat. I'd love to drop 5 or 6 lbs and hit 20%. So I'm just looking to eek the last little bit of fat off my body to hit my goal. Does that change anything? Expect slower results? Any change in terms of daily calories? TIA
When losing those pesky last few lbs, you can always expect slower results, especially when you're dipping pretty low into bf%. Your body has a set point that is solely based on survival, and it will fight you if it feels that you are messing w/it's survival in any way, lol. When looking to lose the last few, you want to be in a deficit, but you want to start pulling other tricks out of your sleeve, like carb/cal cycling, a little extra cardio, etc. But these things work best if you are coming from a more stabilized point to begin with. So feeding your body properly is still essential, so that it will trust you when you throw in the extra little "tweaks"
Remember that w/a bf% of 22, you are well below "average" (25-31%), & technically already in the "fit" category (21-24%), and 20% puts you into "athlete" territory (14-20%), and athletes don't necessarily carry that low of a bf% all year round. So if you've managed to get your bf% that low, and still are not looking the way you want to look, you may want to look to actually adding a bit more muscle to your frame, if needed. Which could help w/the losing inches aspect. For instance, I predominantly strength train w/heavy weights. This past month I GAINED 3lbs, yet LOST 2 inches from my belly, which is where you find that gray area where the scale and tape measure collide.
Just some food for thought
~Kiki0 -
Thanks for the tips, Kiki!0
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I'm going on my 5th week of eating more and just last week I ended up gaining back the 2 pounds I lost but managed to fit into a pair of pants I haven't been able to fit into for months!!
In just the last month, I've lost a total of 5.75 inches all over (hips, waist, arms, thighs, calf and bust).
I rely more on my tape measure at this point!0 -
Last week was my first week and I lost 3.4lb! I'm a big girl so my BMR and TDEE are pretty high... I was scared to eat more so last week I started small with just an extra 200 calories or so and it made a difference!0
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I'm only on week 2, but wanted to say Welcome!0
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Hi & welcome! I've been eating more for just over a month & the scale has fluctuated up, down, up a bit, but inches are coming off & this weekend I also got easily into a pair of jeans that I hadn't been able to get over my thighs!
More than that the though is the difference I feel in myself, more energy & less stressed over things!!
Think of it as your new healthy way of life!!0 -
I had just gone through 4 weeks of "resetting". I was eating about 1400 cals, then upped it to 1500 and then to BMR at 1800... nothing was happening.. Until this past week when I jumped up to my TDEE-15% and I current have lost 3 pounds. I havent taken my measurements this week, but I dont expect any change in those in 6 days.
Once I let the mental block disappear, I was able to trust in the process and let things go. I wont ever be eating under BMR again, thats for sure!0 -
Hi! Just introducing myself. I started upping my calories a week ago. No noticable change except that I'm not starving! I'm doing Jillian Michaels Body Revolution and my body is definitely changing but 1200 calories was killing me. Not to mention no weight loss! Anyway, so happy to read your post because I feel the same way. It's a mental game right now. It all makes sense but I find myself thinking "oh good, I'm below my goal!" I feel like a crazy person! Why up the goal if you're happy when you don't meet it! lol!
The thinking part of me tells me that I still subconsiously think that I need to eat fewer calories! I'll keep fighting! I would love to friend you girls but don't know how! I'm new to MFP. I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually but if you can easily friend me, I'd love it! Thanks, Jen0
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