OK….I’ve had enough. I am going to lose weight. I workout 6 days per week, and have seen some gain in muscularity and strength over the past 4-5 weeks of working out, but little fat loss as indicated both by the scale as well as the fit of my clothes. I am 5’5” and 190 lbs. Not sure what my bf% is, but I can grab a handful of flab on my stomach, so I think it’s pretty high.
Diet is the
"essential element" within a fitness plan:
The diet can
prevent muscle growth,
cause muscle growth,
prevent fat loss,
cause fat loss , and
effect a person biologically and psychologically.
It is the catalyst within a fitness plan that makes everything else that one should
"also attempt to make optimal" work.
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Education and appropriate personal application and review of this education can bring wisdom.
The mind can be a friend and/or foe, in either case you are in control of variances in the friend/foe equation
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Did you even realize the bodily position that you were in before you started diet and training?
For sake of argument lets say these things about you are in fact true:
a. You in fact trained with weights for 4 to 5 weeks, and it was progressive in intensity.
Did you keep a training log of: Weight, sets, and reps, on the type of exercises you were performing? This data can become an essential tool to combat plateaus--no matter what people tell you.
b. You "probably" didn’t weight train, regularly, prior to this 4 to 5 week period.
This is the "critical" element in your goal quest when first starting out and is an essential element now.
c. You specify muscle and strength gains, with little fat loss. And, this indicates that you believe you are carrying too much fat tissue weight now, and thought you were overweight prior to starting your diet and fitness training.
This too is a "critical" element prior to beginning your goal quest and is an essential element at the present time.
d. I don’t know the specifics of your diet during the 4 to 5 week period.
You didn’t relate much information on your diet during the 4 to 5 week period.
Did you keep a diet journal? Track your calorie deficits and/or macronutrients? This data can become an essential tool to combat plateaus--no matter what people tell you the contrary.
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A person that has not done any diet or fitness training in the past, but has taken the time to educate themselves on the "requirements" of fat loss/muscle gain, would know this when first starting out:
1. When the body has become accustomed to a rather irregular and possibly high caloric intake, which has caused unwanted tissue gain:
Basically any drastic change in diet to the opposite brings a "heightened" response from the body.
If the body is accustomed to a rather "high caloric content", and then "suddenly" the calories drop to the "deficit calorie side of the equation", the body can react rather strongly to this sudden calorie change. This strong response period is very brief, however. Over a period of time (and weight loss can continue), the body will "likely" adjust to this rate of calorie of intake (v. exercise) over time, and the fat tissue loss will begin to slow over a certain amount of time.
Sometimes when people read information, they don’t really READ well. They get too one track minded and leave their perception closed.
Most people not so new to diet and training, know that if one hasn’t dieted before, have rather high body fat/weight, and are used to a high calorie diet, their body is going to react strongly to a deficit diet (for most healthy persons).
Okay, lets look at this when deficit dieting, very briefly:
-->Lets take this in reverse. If one is deficit dieting for long periods (weeks), the body can in fact adapt. And, when one "suddenly" eats in a large surplus, this can have a positive impact not only on their body (replenish energy stores, etc) but on weight loss.
IN FACT, when I eat over my MT line after deficit dieting, I can feel "leaner" the next day.
IN FACT the reason I don’t keep my deficits the same, and eat over my MT Line every 9 days (in what I call a traditional approach to diet) is to prevent adapt and overcome situation with my body when it comes to the issue of fat loss (especially, sub 10%).
When I say I don’t keep my deficits the same I approach it two ways: 1. Strictly adjusting/manipulating calories through diet--only, or 2. Allowing fitness training to make the adjustment. Both therefore can make a calorie manipulation. THIS IS POWERFULL!
2. The body has adjusted to its environment and has "developed enough strength and/or muscle" just for that: Work, your life style and daily living activities.
Basically any drastic change brings a "heightened" response from the body.
Factors 1 and 2 presents an environment "primed" for both muscle and/or strength gains and fat loss at the same time, to one that is "educated" and applies the knowledge of fitness training and diet-correctly.
What some people miss with "new to fitness training" situation is the actual meaning of: gaining muscle/strength and fat loss at the same time. Doesn’t this mean that its possible that one could maintain body weight if muscle tissue growth and fat tissue loss is occurring simultaneously? Yes, it does.
However, the variances in diet and fitness stimulus will have a cause and effect on either side of the equation dependent on application, and this situation doesn’t last long and will likewise vary person to person.
You didn’t use this situation to your advantage, I believe. I personally have the opinion that if you are going to embark on a starvation diet thinking that this will improve your situation and do not care about the "gains" you may have made during the 4 to 5 weeks, by accepting muscle loss, and thinking you are optimizing fat loss, you were not that careful with your diet during the first 4 to 5 weeks of dieting and fitness training, and this effected your rate of fat tissue loss.
Appropriate education and application would have served you beyond belief if you had.
I personally believe with the knowledge I know about you at this time, that the diet was your killer in your fat loss attempt (I am assuming you did in fact "fitness train" for 6 days per week for 4 to 5 weeks), and the body was more in the position of improving its strength and muscle due to no "regular" fitness training in the past.
You introduced a new outside stimulant: Fitness training. And from your input, it was quite a change from what the body was used to, but your---diet suffered, BUT you were in the "new to weight training period" and didn’t suffer as much as another person who may have been training and dieting for a longer period of time.
With your history of not "regularly" training, you were going to improve your muscle and strength. The body had no choice but to react "favorably" to this sudden change in personal environment. At this time there is an improved probability of gaining good weight.
Education and application of this education is KING. Open up your perception and thought processes toward your diet and fitness training and decide how valuable it is to you, and what you will withstand to obtain your goal--this is the bottom line.
Feel free to laugh at me, but I’m getting ready to do the “slim fast diet plan.” I plan to drink 3 190 cal shakes per day and eat one 300-350 calorie lean cuisine/healthy choice TV dinner per day as well. I’m not sure what my MT cal level is, but I’m simply not willing to induce a mere 500 cal deficit per day or 3500cal/1 lb per week. I want faster results and am willing to get catabolic and lose some muscle to accomplish it. Therefore I’m planning on consuming 1000 calories per day with about 50 grams of protein.
If you dont know your MT Line is now, I think its safe to assume you didnt know it during the first 4 to 5 weeks you began diet and fitness and further adds to my belief you diet suffered from the beginning.
3*190=570. 570+350=920. Basically you are deciding to eat about 920 calories per day.
Whether you believe this or not, starving oneself removes the fuel from the fat burning furnace.
Good plain truth advice:
Don't EVER STARVE yourself especially at your young and youthful age (let alone a mature adult).
Your body will resist you. You are setting yourself up of biological, psychological, and physical, failure.
Wouldn't you rather enjoy more food and have fat tissue loss at the same time?
If you do then learn how to manipulate the almighty calorie in direct relation to fitness training.
If you do then learn how to manipulate the almighty fitness training in direct relation to calorie consumption.
Correctly applied, it will NEVER steer you in the wrong direction.
The POWER of CHOICE (within diet and fitness) is both a curse and a blessing. Proper manipulation of choice, and you will maintain your course. Improper manipulation of choice will compel you to low levels of personal despair. Right now you are making an improper choice toward your diet and fitness goals.
Being young, you have things going on in your body that REQUIRES adequate CLEAN food consumption OVERALL (entire body), don't starve it: This is a disservice to yourself and health I believe.
You appropriately handle "choice" within your life (when concerning diet and fitness), and you will become nearly unstoppable as you work down your goal path.
When you open up perception with things you read, learn about the biological and psychological feed back one obtains when dieting and fitness training, and separate the brain from the body--as the empowering tower, and learn how to "properly" master your "unique" self, the odds of the fire within your spirit burning out goes down tremendously.
1. A diet vs. fitness plan optimized for tissue loss.
A. Determine your MT Line.
B. Create a small deficit
C. Create calorie TARGETS each day
D. Track your calorie intake each day
E. Learn how to manipulate the calorie versus fitness activities.
F. Create an exercise program that is a FBW or an upper/lower split (when work and other life issues require such a split). Or flat develop "something" within the confines of what you have available to use (even marginally less equipment can get the job completed)
G. Create Diet and Fitness Training journals
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Some say dont track calories, some say do. Some that dont track calories are in the position of knowledge that they dont have to. Some are in the same position of knowledge want to eliminate the element of memory failure and track calories.
What ever you decide to do there is NO DOUBT what this information can do for you when its on paper--precisely--what you had been taking in calorie wise. It is a foundation base that CAN prevent heartache and weight loss plateaus......its underestimated IMO, because alot do not USE IT to their personal GOAL ADVANTAGE--properly, and this is TOO BAD.
I still track and count my calories to this very day.
Within this journal you would have information without a price tag. IMO.
I am going to assume you don’t have a diet journal.
Additionally, I am going to assume you don’t have a weight training journal. If you have one but not the other, shame on you. If you don’t have either, shame on you again.
The very problem you possess now could be better solved with:
1. Continued education and appropriate application of this knowledge
2. Data from: The Diet journal (and inputting goal progress per week, in fat loss)
3. Data from: The Fitness training journal
4. Periodic reviews and adjustments.
Watch, look, and listen, to your body:
Use the data from the diet and fitness journals along with appropriate application of knowledge learned to have the tools available to
"work with" to allow you to have a foundation to
"work from" to make improvements,
"when" complications come up during diet and fitness training.
THIS IS SMART.
If one is keeping a training journal, this essential journal can tell you many things: Your progress from one work out to the next (on individual exercises), and whether your progress is occurring good, or slowing down.
In addition, if one is keeping a diet journal per day along with the training journal, one can look in the diet journal per day and compare results in the training journal and in effect determine if its something in the diet or training and/or both is slowing progress.
Though its rather brief, this portion of my post is the heart and soul of my success--I attribute nearly all of my goal success to the 4 units listed in this section.
Personally I dont like tracking calories, and sometimes it seems I dont have the time----I MAKE TIME.
I know some of the reasons not to do something drastic like this, but I think I have a solution for each.
1) potential problem: simple malnourishment
solution: I will take mega doses of vitamins and flax oil.
Young man this is not smart. Taking "mega" doses of vitamins can be TOXIC to the body and can KILL YOU or severely damage an organ. This is plainly counter productive and intrusive on your health. Even if you take the appropriate amount of vitamins, it will have little to do with your overall fat loss results.
Second half next post, LOL......
Best regards,
Chillen