a45cal Member

Just wanted to check in and thank everyone who's responded. I'm battling a sinus infection today that's making it hard to think, let alone make any sort of intelligent reply, but I wanted to let everyone know I'm paying attention and appreciate the information.

Well, just to add my two cents on the grunting/screaming and weight dropping, I've got two stories from my previous gym that go against the "no one's doing it on purpose" perspective: There was a dude there, maybe 6'2" and pretty lanky who was just generally bad at gym etiquette (stuff like not unloading his weight after…

Hey, I used to be an ex-pat American in Scotland! (Now I'm an ex-pat American in Canada). But my Thanksgivings there were do-it-yourself affairs that were always as traditional as I could make them. Did you add black/white pudding and haggis to yours to make it extra Scottish-y or something? (For anyone who's unaware of…

That's fair if it's the case (and no real need to be shy about saying it; I don't usually bite ;) ). It's just that what OP has said thus far has given me the impression that she probably hasn't been on a progressive lifting program before and probably (though I could be wrong) hasn't really been challenged in that way to…

When you say that you doubt you'll be able to lift heavier than 22kg per hand, do you mean that you don't think you'll ever have the strength for that, or that you won't ever have access to heavier weights? I don't know what your bodyweight is, or what sort of movements you're making with 20kg weights one-handed, so I…

I'm not too familiar with workouts specifically designed for kettlebells (though just like dumbbells, they can be used to a certain point as a replacement for a barbell in exercises like squats and deadlifts). It's just that the "progressive" part of progressive overload means that the program continues to be challenging…

I've been having something similar as well (also on the website). I set a custom goal a while back and then decided for curiosity's sake to go through the guided setup and see what my recommended calories for a 1 pound loss currently were. No matter how many times I go back through it (or whether I try to set it to…

Perhaps this is just ignorance on my part, but weight lifting with a progressive overload doesn't strike me as the sort of thing that would lend itself to the follow-along-to-a-fitness-video format. On the one hand, it's such a simple concept (e.g. put x amount of weight on a bar, squat the number of times you can, rest,…

Dude, that's a) judgy and b) hypocritical. All most people are saying is "It's a special occasion, I'm not restricting myself today and will be back at it tomorrow". Which is what it sounds like you're saying in the latter half of your post, except for doing it on the day after the holiday. As for me, I've been off plan…

The problem with trying to figure out an "ideal" waist measurement based on the idea of waist-to-hip ratio is that ratios can work with any numbers. They're the difference between whatever numbers you're working with. So this chart for instance:…

There's a lot of good advice here; I just wanted to add something regarding the negative thoughts and being "hard on yourself". A technique that a lot of therapists suggest to patients with negative thoughts is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It boils down basically to this: When a negative thought about yourself comes to…

Totally true, but you also need to have muscle to be able to see it when the fat's gone. And since OP has lost over a hundred pounds without resistance training, she's most likely lost a significant portion. I'd normally suggest lifting weights, but since you want workouts you can do at home, I'll say that body weight…

Losing your leg and butt sounds like an extreme way to drop pounds to me. Seriously though, I've got two tips. 1) Weight loss is about 99% what you eat. It's easier to avoid eating a calorie than it is to burn that same calorie off. So dietary deficit is the way to go to cut down fat. 2) If it's "toning" you want, then…

I've never worn an allergy mask and don't run, so I'm probably not your ideal candidate to answer here. But I find it uncomfortable just to wear one of those paper face masks to do something like painting. They always steam up inside and get too hot to feel like I'm breathing comfortably. I can only imagine that it would…

Don't know if this relates to your illness or not, OP, but I've always heard people say that it's fine to work out with a head cold, but not a chest cold. Personally, I think those people are full of *kitten*. The last time I tried to work out while almost recovered from a head cold, I thought I was going to pass out…

Mm, perhaps we should try it. (Guess there's nothing lost by asking.) But as @k9education was saying above, I think there's a time limit to file a chargeback dispute after the initial payment is made. If so, then we're pretty far beyond the maximum of 120 days.

I hadn't thought of the Better Business Bureau. Thanks, I'll look into contacting them. As for a class action, it's a good idea, but I'm not really too certain about where to begin with something like that. I figure since it's a smaller gym and, likely, my husband and I are among the few people who've paid a significant…

I don't own a FitBit, but given that almost all of your responses so far are from people who do and who love it, I thought I'd put in my two cents to say that you're not alone in feeling like a hundred dollars is a lot to spend on what's basically a pedometer. If someone gave me one as a gift or something, I'd probably use…

I hear you. I think one of the more frustrating aspects to me is that this gym was so well established. It'd been there for years, at least since back when my husband was in college, and the members were the very loyal, regular type. So we didn't even think twice about signing up for a long membership with it, since it was…

Thanks very much for this information. Unfortunately, we're in Canada, so I don't know if there's anything similar in place here. But now that you've given me the idea, I'll have a look around to see if I can find any information in regards to what sort of recourse we might have. I think it's almost certainly past 120 days…

I second what the others have said about people not noticing, and a progression of bodyweight -> goblet -> empty bar -> weight, but I wanted to add: If you're going to lift more than just dumbbells at some point, then you'll eventually have to go in the free weight area anyway. And if you're to the point of starting to…

A lot of us have this, and it goes both ways. I've been a healthy weight and looked in the mirror and thought I was fat, and I've been 40 pounds overweight and looked in the mirror and thought "I don't look so bad". Body dysmorphia's a *kitten*. One thing that might help is to look at before and after pictures instead of…

I thought it was pretty unnecessary, as "*eyeroll*" is the treatment I was saying that they gave to me. I had been told to ask them for something when I arrived by their staff at the previous airport, and when I tried, the woman at the desk cut me off repeatedly to say "I can't do anything about that" in a snippy tone. I…

Sorry to hear that, Sue. Hope you feel better soon. And sorry for hijacking your thread, OP. I still think you're going to be fine and have nothing to worry about. Just enjoy the vacation.

The original post said that the flight attendant said "You are too fat" in a very loud voice. And no matter how I look at that, I have to ask "What's the purpose of that?" Telling the man that he's obese surely isn't a shock to him. And it isn't going to magically make him slim to let him know. The only reason I can see to…

OP, ignore the stuff above about "starvation mode". In the sense that that poster mentioned it, that doesn't exist. But at 995 calories a day, you are starving yourself, and not getting enough nutrients. When we eat in a calorie deficit, we tend to lose muscle mass unless we strength train to maintain it. At such a steep…

But we teach our children that it's rude to call attention to others in a way that causes embarrassment for them. While yelling out "That man has a funny nose!" might be true, it's going to embarrass the man being talked about for no good reason. An adult woman working in a position that is nine-tenths customer service…

I took a flight that had a layover in Iceland a few years back, and this was the sort of treatment I got from Icelandair's desk staff at Reykjavik airport as well. Not about my weight, just a general *eyeroll* sort of attitude when I went to ask a question. Everyone I saw working for the airline was very pretty, so my…

It's not possible to spot reduce. Meaning, we don't get to pick where we want weight to come off from and then do an exercise or wrap it in cling film to make it happen. If you're currently over a healthy body weight for your height, then eating a caloric deficit and doing strength training/weight lifting will reduce your…

On the reduction diet point, it said this to me: Am I reading that wrong, or did something called "Smart" BMI just tell me I'd go into starvation mode?