cafeaulait7 Member

If it fits with your lifestyle, you could try low carb at 1400 for competitions. Low carb is supposed to drop glycogen water weight. And avoid sodium. I'm glad you are trying to eat more to deal with the binge/starve cycle :) Good luck!

We're twins! Except I'm shorter :) 5'6" with a wide frame and shoulders are very wide. I had to lift a lot to get back to 38+ for my bum. I'd lost down to 36-something, and the shape of my bum doesn't work that small with my other parts at the above measurements. The top part of it gets too flat, lol. I really had lost…

I did/do two measurements, one where it goes in the most (right under ribs here) and one at the navel. Maybe do one right under your ribs, too, even if it's not smallest yet. And the navel, which is an easy landmark :) I lost weight in much different ratios between the two. I'm dead skinny at top now and get fluffier as…

Used dumbbells with plates are pretty cheap on craigslist, etc. To not have to have every increment, I increase reps in my sets for a pretty long while before trying for low reps with the next increment up. And hard bodyweight exercises can definitely get you through to the next increment, too. It's easiest if you have a…

I'd hope that VA covers physical therapy (Dad gets various things covered, others not :( ). I've had physio for months-long sessions for years for an upper body issue. It's really pretty fun, pain notwithstanding. They also use various techniques for pain which can be great. Best of luck! Isolation exercises are often…

She needs to try another med, imho. Maybe a new shrink if the shrink hasn't suggested that already. I have biochemical depression, and different medicines mean a world of difference for me. Some just don't work. Maybe your wife isn't aware that a new one could change her mood so much! Then some of it comes down to people…

Good luck, OP! It's a great step. It can absolutely be an eating disorder that involves overeating (without purging). Good for you!

If calories eaten are held constant, calories added through new exercise will make a deficit, sure. I've done it before, like last summer at maintenance. I didn't 'mean' to increase my activity, but I garden tons in non-winter seasons, so I get thinner in gardening weather :) That's only when I don't go grab a milkshake…

Oh, I'm from Chicago as a teeny kid! I'm a Southerner but lived in Chicago for a few years when I was small. I used to ski down my backyard hill and that's about all I remember, lol.

Maybe it's like "living with a single parent" in the US? Something about the sociological aspects of it are what would be going on if there's something there. Single parents are busy, so convenience foods come into play. Maybe older Chinese generations still feed as if there's a lot of manual labor (God knows my American…

I have to work out my injured muscles today (wish me luck, lol). Rhomboids, middle and lower traps, and deep neck flexors. Trying to avoid upper traps and superficial neck muscles as they do all of the work usually so I'm way out of balance.

He didn't say it here, but he has 1000 calorie days. A 6ft dude only eating 1000 calories is bound to feel it the next day or two. Then apparently want to binge on tacos (that was his thread), which is also unsurprising. I do think he needs to even out his calories and not go too low. Or OP, you might like intermittent…

But you shouldn't try to burn those off. The lethargy is from too few calories. So if you ate some more you'd get to enjoy more, you'd have enough energy to lift and keep your muscle, and then you'd get another snack after, too... while still losing the fat. It's actually pretty awesome.

The 'new' muscles are always the most exciting part for me :) That's just fun, lol. I have an important new goal for one aspect of my lifting: getting my scapulas closer together after a chronic pain problem has them moved apart. I've been doing a new strength regime for those muscles for 3+ weeks now (physio really…

^^^Yeah, lentils don't take nearly as long to cook, either. You don't have to soak them or anything. They are great for dinner. I do usually add meat but you don't have to for them to be yummy. Just make sure to have spices in your kitchen for bean meals (well, all meals ;) ). Chili mixes work great, too for beans if you…

When you see her, tell her that you'll be using the squat rack for X minutes and ask her when a good time for that is in the next half-hour (or whatever) so that she can get her bench out of it when the time comes (say that). And tell her which dumbbells you'll be taking and how long you'll have them. Just state what you…

Pre-cooked dinner sausages are yummy. Kielbasa and pre-cooked brats and things like that. They go great with beans, too, imho**. My local stores have sales on various ones all the time, and I don't have to buy pounds and pounds of meat like most sale meats here. My freezer is little. **ETA: For example, this week I made a…

Leg day is my favorite! But I have an upper back/neck problem, so that makes sense ;) I really do enjoy lifting pain. I just hate pain pain :grin:

Fire hydrants, too, because it's a great angle. And moves done with your legs turned out like in ballet (so things like plie squats, kickbacks using turnout, etc). Don't force turnout far or you could hurt yourself. Be comfortable. If the strap isn't good, you can also just try to get your leg higher and hold up there…

Hamstrings, inner thigh muscles and back (like forward bends). Yoga is excellent if you really concentrate on the asanas that stretch those parts. For high kicks, you also need to kick often to get them really high. It's great fun, imho, so go on and do stretching and kicking every day. Do do the stretching before the…

You are short, so your TDEE is just lower to start with. 1 pound a week is more realistic. If you got a lot of steps in you would have a better chance. Anything to up your daily activity (unless your job is already an active one). I don't mean crazy amounts of exercise, just things like walking more often throughout the…

Absolutely! I hate having to cut a bunch of things out of my diet indefinitely. I just have to space them out (or eat less per day) so that the numbers come out right. Easier said than done, but still it's wonderful how simple it is.

They probably mean starchy 'white' carbs if they separate carbs out from veggies. I'd call it a veggie dish unless it was mostly potato or something. I know people hate the 'white' category as used on food, but for veggies you do want to be eating different colors and not always white for nutrient reasons :) Different…

I go sprinting with my younger, fast girl. But she's easy and I just leash her up and go! At first I just picked up the pace while walking until we were running full-out, and now I can say, "Run!" and that means the sprints :) She slows down when I slow down, etc. It wasn't hard because she always wanted to run anyway. Now…

I took a seminar in another city and didn't know we'd be doing aerobic-paced ballet full-out literally all day long. Everything from the neck down hurt for a week! It was the attack of the killer DOMS, lol.

Check out their dumbbells and see how high they go (my local one went pretty high, I believe). There are specific dumbbell plans, or most plans do well with dumbbells up to a certain point. You can also supplement with machines, sure (imho). It's certainly better than not lifting, and you can think about how to arrange…

Can I jump in with a question for y'all since it goes off your advice? I can't do overhead pulls at all (long story), but I do do Lat Pull-Ins with bands, coming from a high angle. I also do dumbbell pullovers for lats (and other parts). I do other mainly isolation lifts for other parts of the upper body, but this is how I…

My big old dog does yoga! He does his poses after I do mine, before I take the mat up. He has about 2 or 3 poses, lol. His favorite is honest-to-God called 'Old Dog' (aka Thread the Needle). I didn't teach it to him. It was clearly named for what old dogs do to stretch :grin: But he figured out from watching me that you do…

(ETA: regarding the OP study) They didn't give the nitty gritty results in the abstract, so it's hard to tell if there was a control group or if there was self-reporting (even for the rest of the day, which would be my guess). Self-reporting may have its errors randomized in the control group as well, so it might not be a…

Avoidance for a while really helps me until I can be good about small portions again. Someone gave me a 5lb bag of m&m's! Aaaack. I was good for a while, but I've eaten way too many twice now, so I'm not allowed any for a long while. I do still eat something sweet most days still. I eat Yopa Greek yogurt with little Dove…