Journey, Not A Destination

Britta Bear said:
How many sets of 4-6 reps?
I have t-shirts that I hand out to my groupies, would you like one?
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Depends what they look like. I am picky. ;)

Number of sets is completely dependent. There is no set answer to that.
 
i have to agree with mal on this one! no groupie shirts for you! :)

and i have a quick question (of course!:)) i have been eating 1200-1500 calories the past 2 months and have lost 20 pounds with that and exercising. how do i know when it is time to up the calories? when i do, should i expect a weight gain or pause in weight loss since my body won't be used to it?

thanks!
 
daiseeangel said:
i have to agree with mal on this one! no groupie shirts for you! :)

and i have a quick question (of course!:)) i have been eating 1200-1500 calories the past 2 months and have lost 20 pounds with that and exercising. how do i know when it is time to up the calories? when i do, should i expect a weight gain or pause in weight loss since my body won't be used to it?

thanks!
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This really depends. It depends on things like current weight, how much weight you have to lose, etc.

I am guessing that 1200 is low for you. What made you choose this number?

Are you still losing? There is no right or wrong answer here. People with a lot of weight to lose are able to go into a deeper deficit than I normally advocate, without slowing their metabolism and without losing too much muscle. In layman's terms, the more fat there is, the more of certain hormones that exist that keep you out of starvation mode, even with calories are low and also, the more your body will shed fat and not muscle.

This said, I do not advocate very low cal diets. My best advice is find a way to eat as much as possible while still losing weight. This will create a happy atmosphere where goals are able to be reached, slowly but surely, and long term, consistent adherence can occur.

By eating 1200, you will surely lose weight. Your body doesn't have a choice. Eventually, and again, this all depends, but eventually, by eating so little, your weight loss will slow and even plateau. Is this the right time to correct your metabolism? Maybe.

Or maybe it is now.

Whenever you choose to do it, in most cases, weight loss stops. For some, weight gain happens, but this is hopefully minimized with a good plan of attack.

I am sure this is not the answer you are looking for, but this is the one you are getting for now. :)
 
Quote of the day

"Deciding to commit yourself to long term results, rather than short term fixes, is as important as any decision you'll make in your lifetime."
 
Steve said:
This good news Lee. I want to make a very big effort to have a huge meeting with everyone from your site who attends, as well as another forum I frequent. I knew so many people there from the web, but only had the opportunity to meet a handful.
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Did you see Falco and TonyMars? We need a nice trip to AC or something, that would be cool. Lee did your momma come yet so we can hit up the Sun?
 
tonymcclellan said:
Did you see Falco and TonyMars? We need a nice trip to AC or something, that would be cool. Lee did your momma come yet so we can hit up the Sun?
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No, I am not sure if Tony made it there or not. Falco called, but I was too hung over at the time, and then I actually visited friends outside of the city Saturday night.
 
i actually really liked your answer, and here's why:

i'm not wanting to up my calories, so i am glad that you didn't say it was necessary. i just thought it was something that i had to do. i had read that once your body is used to something, you have to up them to "shake it up" a bit to continue the weight loss. Especially since my workouts are involving more now than they did before.

i began eating 1200 when i thought less calories=more lost. but then i found this wonderful place, learned some about starvation mode, and that eating too few isn't good. i have actually been eating more around 1400 now, and i am happy with that. i don't feel hungry, i don't feel too full, and i find that i am able to still enjoy eating. occasionally i'll go over into 1600-1800 on the weekends only, but that isn't often at all. i didn't think 1600-1800 every now and then is bad. it isn't, right?! :)

just a bit of info that may help:

i am 5'7
189 pounds, wanting to reach 150.
i began this year at 210, so i've lost about 20 pounds so far.

thank you so much! you are awesome!! :)
 
hello steve :) i just wanted to thank you for inspiring me with some post you made here and also with one about how we don't need to starve ourselves. every once and a while when a little thought pops in my head about wasting time (that's a little worm i call emotional addiction towards food) i seem to stumble upon someone's motivational post. so i thank you :D

Lena
 
Steve said:
Thanks very much for the kind words, and glad you find me to be an ass.

I mean asset!!! :p

First, congrats on your weight loss to date. You should be extremely proud!

How exactly did you go about losing that weight. And are you still losing? Plateaued?

Nutrition is still the primary focus. Of course exercise is important too, it just sits in the backseat when compared to your nutritional strategy. I am glad to hear you bumped up your cals. That actually isn't too far off from where I would like you to see, speaking in terms of caloric intake. How has the ramp up treated you? Any weight gain?

You are doing a lot of LISS (low intensity, steady state) cardio. I would rather see you throw in a session of HIIT (high intensity interval training), if you are conditioned enough to do so. If not, stick with one to two sessions of regular interval training until you are conditioned enough to add in some HIIT.

Also, do your cardio AFTER you train with weights.

Ideally, you should be doing one session of HIIT per week (and this is specific to you and no one else reading this) and one to two sessions of LISS per week.

With regards to weight training, I am really not a fan of machines. They just aren't optimal, and in some instances, can be detrimental. And high rep stuff sucks. I imagine you are doing it thinking high reps "tone." This is very important for you to understand: There is no such thing as toning through direct stimulation exercises. Actually, I like to say, "There is no such thing as toning, period." You mentioned you do hip adjunction machine. I think you mean, hip adduction. And I bet you are doing that to "target" your thighs. Right? If so, that is not going to work. The only way to firm up, tone up, or whatever else you want to call it is to lose more fat. Doing so exposes the muscles you have under the subcutaneous fat.

You see, weight training either builds muscle, or it doesn't. And fat does not turn into muscle. And muscle, even if you are building more, will remain under the fat until you expose it through fat loss. AND, you can't build muscle unless you are in a caloric surplus. AND, you can't lose fat unless you are in a caloric deficit.

Haha, a lot of lessons to be learned in just a few short sentences..... so let this sink in and then, ask some more questions. I am sure you will have more.
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I lost by eating 1200 cals or less a day and walked...and walked...and walked.

I am not sure if I hit a plateau or not, because since I have upped my calories and it had been too cold and slushy outside to walk, so decided to join the local Y. I hope to loose some more though, to about 120#. I have only been working out for a week and half, and to be honest, I havent weighed myself since. I will weigh myself tomorrow and see!

Give me an example of HIIT of exactly what to do? I think I would be up for it. I read Tom's post about it, and it is just to complicated for me to figure out what to do on my own.

You are so right about why I am using the machines. So, now that I am thinking about this, I should loose the fat before anything else. I plan on going to the gym 6 days a week.

Here is what I am seeing... tell me if I am way off...

Monday
Treadmill 4mph set at a 2% incline for 1 hour

Tuesday
Weights
Elliptical for 30 minutes

Wednesday
HIIT (I need some clarification on this one)

Thursday
Rest

Friday
Treadmill 4 mph set on a 2% incline for 1 hour

Saturday
Toning Class 1hour

Sunday
Weights
Elliptical for 30 minutes

I eat nutritiously most of the time. I have been getting protien in with every meal, and after I work out I have been getting protien in. How many g of protien should a person be eating?

Am I off??!
 
daiseeangel said:
i actually really liked your answer, and here's why:

i'm not wanting to up my calories, so i am glad that you didn't say it was necessary. i just thought it was something that i had to do. i had read that once your body is used to something, you have to up them to "shake it up" a bit to continue the weight loss. Especially since my workouts are involving more now than they did before.

i began eating 1200 when i thought less calories=more lost. but then i found this wonderful place, learned some about starvation mode, and that eating too few isn't good. i have actually been eating more around 1400 now, and i am happy with that. i don't feel hungry, i don't feel too full, and i find that i am able to still enjoy eating. occasionally i'll go over into 1600-1800 on the weekends only, but that isn't often at all. i didn't think 1600-1800 every now and then is bad. it isn't, right?! :)

just a bit of info that may help:

i am 5'7
189 pounds, wanting to reach 150.
i began this year at 210, so i've lost about 20 pounds so far.

thank you so much! you are awesome!! :)
Click to expand...

You are certainly pretty low on calories given your weight. Put it this way.... if you came to me having never have dieted before at your current weight, you would be eating around 2400 cals to lose weight.

Given the fact that you have been dieting for a while at a much greater deficit, things are a little different now.

I would also like to say this: The number one reason people gain the weight back is simple. They created to deep of a deficit and really caused some inefficiencies in their metabolisms through hormonal disruptions.

Is it possible to come out of the starvation response with such a deep deficit? Certainly. Easy? No.

I should also add that exercising more and more and eating less and less is NOT the answer.
 
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