Ask me anything about fat/weight loss....

What's your thought on intermittent fasting?

And if you believe in it, when you break the fast, do you eat all the daily calories allowance?

Thank you.

Ps. Following the thread with interest. My main question has been answered

Nothing wrong with IF....nothing wrong with the South Beach....nothing wrong with Paleo....nothing wrong with 6-8 meals a day or just three square meals. Big picture is that you're not eating more than you're burning. This can be accomplished on all the above.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question

No prob. Happy to help yeh.

I lost about 40 lbs and got down to 135 last year about this time... I've gained 25 lbs due to meds... I cant seem to lose anything. I started to take bootcamp classes 3 days a week and hid the scale due to gaining weight. But recently, Ive gained 7-12 lbs in 3 months from meds.

Is there any way of getting this under-control? (believe me Ive talked to my Dr. they will not change meds yet)....Or should I just focus on TRYING to lose inches instead of weight?

First things first: 1) Have you been cleared for diet and exercise. 2) If so, how long have you been in a caloric deficit and for how many calories. If a person isn't losing, it's usually either they're not really on an effective deficit, or something extraneous is messing with their hormones like stress or medicines or both.

I have been on MFP for a little over a month now and lost the first 10lbs pretty quickly. I am now on my third week of no weight loss. My question is more related to calorie intake than anything.

I work out 5-6 days a week. Last week I started 2 a day workouts. 30 DS in the morning and swimming for an hour in the afternoon (usually burning between 500 - 700 calories a day).

I have had my calories set at 1200 and always ate back my exercise calories so I would net 1200 (eating about 1700-1900 calories to reach a net of 1200). On Friday I raised my calories to 1320 becuase I have stopped losing. SH\hould I be eating back all of my exercise calories so my net is 1320? Should I reduce my calories back down to 1200 and not eat back all of my exercise calories? Am I eating to little? SO confused and aggrivated about my lack of weight loss.

^^^This! I hope you get your question answered. I can't wait to read the response.

(Except I'm a bit heftier and am eating at 1,700 cal plus exercise calories after raising it and changing my protein to 40% prior to starting a free weight program. But I've had the same stall. Two weeks, no loss on scale or tape measure. And I swim, ride a bicycle, walk and lift weights ... some combination of those things 6 days a week.)

Already answered.

I've been plateaued for 6 months at 175 lbs at 22.6% bf. I want to get to 159 at 15% bf. I've been reading up on the eat more to lose more stuff, and I was on about 1800 cals a day plus eating back exercise cals. I currently lift 3 days a week and I am training for a half marathon, so I run for days a week, with having a super long run once every other week. My question is, what do you think about the eat more to lose more. With eating back my exercise cals, it works out to about the same, but I've jumped from 1800 to a consistent 2800. A little scary. Thoughts?

There's some truth to it, but yeh 1,800 to 2,800 is a HUGE jump for your body to adapt to fast enough. When I use to bulk, I would go extremely high with the calories, but then I would notice I was putting on more body fat than anything. Now when I bulk, I just slowly start increasing the calories weekly so that I don't add on too much fat.

Now for you, obviously you want your metabolism high, but when dieting it IS going to go down. Simple as that. But by making sure you're recovering, not dropping the calories to low to fast, making sure you're getting your necessary protein needs met....these things will keep that metabolism as strong as possible during your cut. I DO believe in an occasional refeed once a week to get the best of both worlds though. With this you still net a weekly caloric deficit, but you get a lil boost to the metabolism by the extra calories that one day a week.

What about the lean trying to get leaner?
I'm 22% bodyfat which is below average for a woman but want to get down to 18% or so to look ripped.
A few questions I have (as there is so many diff info around, hard to know whats true)
1. Do you have to go low carb to achieve this? (some have advised restricting fruit, oats etc)
2. Is it possible to lean out within 6 weeks?(when your already in ok shape)
3. By eating under the even the 500cal defiet, will this matter much if its is short term? (say 2-3 weeks or so)
Thanks

To add to my previous question ^^ - I saw you replied to someone saying it is essentially a calorie defiet. Does this apply to trying to become ripped and wanting to do so within a time period like 6 weeks?

Yes. But once again, it depends on how much a person has to lose. 8 pounds in six weeks, easy enough. 15?...that's pretty iffy.

Got a few questions...

Shin splints - I get them whether I run or walk (quicker when I run though). I don't understand why I constantly get them...I've Googled around and done some stretching beforehand, used heating pads / ice, etc...pretty much any suggestions I could find, I used. Any tips on how to avoid them? Am I just destined not to run? I once gave myself three weeks off of running (used elliptical and bike instead) when they got really bad because everything I read pointed to, "give your legs a rest,"...within 3 days of starting back up, they were back.

Wrist pain...I posted a thread last week about it and got one suggestion that I haven't tried yet. Besides what they suggested, do you have any other tips?
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/585156-wrist-pain
my original post -

I have a lot of pain in my wrists when doing bench dips and other exercises on my wrists.



Any tips?

Thanks!

Shin splints are usually caused by putting too much on your running too fast. I'd back off considerably and slowly work back up. Think of it as one step back in order to take two steps forward. You can always work back up, but not if you're on the sidelines all the time. As for the wrist pain. If bench dips give you wrist pain, then don't do them. There are tons of other exercises that will work the same muscles yeh. I've put exercises to bed in my life for the same reason. Our bodies are all unique. Some exercises that are wonderful for one person are a one way trip to snap city for another person.