Journey, Not A Destination
- Thread starter Steve
- Start date
hello handsomehow are you this saturday?
Lena
Hi Lena, my entire weekend was great.... I was away on a fishing trip.
Hi Tammy! I hope all is well.
Stopping in to say hello
So, what would you REALLY do for some beads?
Just teasing!
Hi, and welcome to my journal.
Your muscle mass will certainly come back after a good bit of the right approach. Right now, your tactics should be geared toward getting the fat off. What kind of cardio are you doing and how are you doing it? What kind of resistance training are you doing it and how are you doing it? Are you doing these on the same days some of the time? If so, what do you do first?
Most importantly, how are you eating? That is the biggest factor in not only your physique success, but also maintaining/gaining back the muscle that you destroyed during anorexia.
Long story short, while you are getting the fat off of you, I like to say the best you can do is maintain the muscle that you currently have. Gaining muscle and losing fat simultaneously, in general, is not possible. One requires an energy (calorie) deficit while the other requires and energy (calorie) surplus.
That said though, really deconditioned people and noobs to the weight room can SOMETIMES do both simultaneously. However, this magic won't last long.
I look forward to hearing from you.
be_gone_soon
New member
Good morning Steve! hope the day goes great!!
So, Your Steve. I recently joined and made a diary. One of the members had said that Steve would probably suggest I eat more calories. (not worded exactly like that) Every since, I been wondering (even posted) Who is steve?
Been thinking to myself and what does he know. Well after finding your journal. (finally) It appears that you are very knowledgeable.
I have read as many threads you wrote, that I could before my eyes glazed over.
I AM Steve. Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing! Well thanks very much for taking the time to read through some of my posts. I hope you learned some new ideas. And welcome to the site and my journal.
That's a lot of mountain dew. All of those excess calories would certainly make a prime condition for weight gain. Congrats on cutting back so drastically and quitting smoking! That is excellent.
You are exactly right about starting slow/low and building up intensity in exercise. I talk a lot in here about optimal behavior for losing weight and maintaining muscle. However, I don't say this enough: I don't expect ANYONE to pick up with exactly what I preach and start doing everything tomorrow. If anything, you would be better off starting at your own pace, and working toward the optimal behavior. So I am glad you recognized this fact.
What do you mean when you say, "I assume I can't rid it all"? You certainly can. Just as the fat has come on, it can/will come off. It takes a lot of hard word and consistency, but if you stick to your guns, progress will follow. I am the last person to tell you that this is easy. It isn't. But it is certainly well worth the effort and then some!
Muscle training as you put it, I like to call it strength or resistance training, is an integral part of any weight loss plan, IMO. It facilitates muscle maintenance. Anyone with half a brain knows that maintaining muscle is a good thing. However, very few do what it takes to preserve their lean body mass while dieting.
To lose weight, you need an energy (calorie) deficit, right? Well, our body still needs to operate how it always has in the past, and sometimes even more so than it has in the past (like your case where you are going from couch potato to exerciser). To meet the demands of the body on while in an energy restricted state, our body breaks down tissue which in turn, creates energy. This breakdown of tissue consists primarily of fat and muscle. You can avoid a lot of muscle loss by 1) eating right and 2) lifting weights.
Did you join a gym? If not, what do you have at your disposal for use in terms of exercise? Would you ever consider joining a gym?
As a general rule of them, 14-16 calories per pound of bodyweight is maintenance caloric intake.
Do you have any idea how many calories you were consuming before you started dieting? With the soda alone, coupled with the foods that you ate, I am sure it was on the high side. Just like exercise, with dieting, I find it better to start out slow. Meaning, you should not go from eating 3000+ calories per day to eating less than half that amount overnight. Gradually work yourself into a diet.
The bigger you are, or I should say, the more weight that you have to lose, the deeper of an energy deficit your can create and be OK with physiologically. Psychologically, that may be a different story, which I tend to find as the usual case.
I would like to see you start with a calorie intake around 2000-2250 per day coupled with exercise. Does your current caloric intake (1500 I think you said) satisfy you? Or, put differently, could you stand to eat more?
Thanks very much for saying so. I think you will find that most people here are "awesome." I am no different than anyone else around here. But I appreciate your words. I will try and peak at your diary sometime soon. I am really busy today as I just got back from a trip. Hope to hear from you soon.
Hi Bruce, good to have you here!
Generally speaking, I like to tell people that you can't gain muscle and lose fat simultaneously. You are much better off focusing on one goal at a time.
Oh yea, and congrats on the weight loss thus far. That doesn't seem like too much weight to lose in that time period, given your original size and when you started (1/1/07 if I read you correctly).
How did you lose it? How did you eat? Did you exercise? If so, how?
If I were you, and you truly believe that your current weight is your optimum weight, then I would shed down 5-10 more lbs of fat and then initiate a "bulking" strategy where the goal is to pack on weight, mostly muscle if done properly.
However, again, if I were you, I would probably initiate a calorie surplus NOW and try and gain strength and muscle for softball with little worry about physique. I also know that often times a properly initiated strength training routine will work wonders for achy backs and knees. Do you have any problems with these areas, or are they just achy?
Do you follow what I am saying so far? Did I trigger more questions? If so, fire away!
Fishing was excellent, thanks for asking Mal. I actually did not get back until this morning. I had internet access, checked in here a few times, but was too tired to post.
I was trout fishing, and caught some of the largest fish ever in my life. So it was a successful trip. The weather did not cooperate too much. It ended up being a lot colder than they had suggested, plus, the water temp was 42 degrees. That said, we are standing waist deep in the stuff, with waders on obviously, but still, your body temp tends to drop when you are surrounded by that much coldness.
But coldness aside, I had an excellent time. Thanks for asking.
I am always flattered when someone stops in to tell me they are reading my diary. Thanks so much.
I am extremely happy to hear that you are taking good things away from it! Hopefully it will translate into good progress and your friends will catch on. Positive results usually translate into contagious actions.
Mind you, the deeper you get in my journal, the less informative it becomes. There was a time when I primarily stuck to my journal and nothing else on the forum. Now, I travel around into many journals and threads, so much of my advice is spread around. And my journal is sometimes more of a "hang out" spot than an informative thread.
If you need anything, you know where to find me.
Hey - having fun is important too and also very informative -we've learned all sorts of fascinating things in the funness
but i'm still behaving so I won't go into details.. you still have plenty of information in here -it's just interspersed with commercials 
Crazybecka88
New member
Wedding dress in 6 months
Hello Steve-
I think you are a celebrity on this website! Well, I noted that you had a thorough knowledge of fitness so I figured that it wouldnt hurt to rack your brain for a few minutes...
I've been working out for what feels like my entire life but have never obtained my ideal results. I have had three personal trainers, all of whom have given me routines that were unsustainable. The most recent trainer had me lifting extremely heavy weights and only doing 8 reps to "build dense muscle." And while, theoretically, his explanation exuded some degree of rationality, everything I had known about fitness prior to this interaction contradicted what he was telling me. I stressed that I need to be in my wedding dress in six months so I wanted to tone, not build any more muscle and he assured me that my muscles would not enlarge, etc.
Alas, within eight weeks, I looked in the mirror one day at the gym and saw She-Ra staring back at me. This is not to say that I have any problem with well-built women, but for my strapless wedding gown, i wanted my arms to look smaller and toned, rather than like a female wrestler. I have changed routines and have been following the 'Buff Brides Workout' which emphasizes the old addage of 'low weights; high reps'. And my fiance is a British Commando, so he keeps emphasizing that I just need to do cardio [besides playing sports, cardio is my evil nemesis- its just so boring!]. Basically, I'm at a point where I feel quite discouraged, despite the fact that I know it takes months to see results. I'm worried that these newly grown tanks that I previously knew as my arms will not decrease in size!
The strangest part of all of this is that this last personal trainer gave a fairly similar routine to my 50 year old mother. Then, we watched him again give the routine to a middle-aged man who we overheard telling the trainer 'wanted to build more muscle mass.' WHY DO TRAINERS DO THIS and why arent they trained correctly these days!?
Hello Steve-
I think you are a celebrity on this website! Well, I noted that you had a thorough knowledge of fitness so I figured that it wouldnt hurt to rack your brain for a few minutes...
I've been working out for what feels like my entire life but have never obtained my ideal results. I have had three personal trainers, all of whom have given me routines that were unsustainable. The most recent trainer had me lifting extremely heavy weights and only doing 8 reps to "build dense muscle." And while, theoretically, his explanation exuded some degree of rationality, everything I had known about fitness prior to this interaction contradicted what he was telling me. I stressed that I need to be in my wedding dress in six months so I wanted to tone, not build any more muscle and he assured me that my muscles would not enlarge, etc.
Alas, within eight weeks, I looked in the mirror one day at the gym and saw She-Ra staring back at me. This is not to say that I have any problem with well-built women, but for my strapless wedding gown, i wanted my arms to look smaller and toned, rather than like a female wrestler. I have changed routines and have been following the 'Buff Brides Workout' which emphasizes the old addage of 'low weights; high reps'. And my fiance is a British Commando, so he keeps emphasizing that I just need to do cardio [besides playing sports, cardio is my evil nemesis- its just so boring!]. Basically, I'm at a point where I feel quite discouraged, despite the fact that I know it takes months to see results. I'm worried that these newly grown tanks that I previously knew as my arms will not decrease in size!
The strangest part of all of this is that this last personal trainer gave a fairly similar routine to my 50 year old mother. Then, we watched him again give the routine to a middle-aged man who we overheard telling the trainer 'wanted to build more muscle mass.' WHY DO TRAINERS DO THIS and why arent they trained correctly these days!?
First, don't base your knowledge on what you learned from a few personal trainers. I will be the first to tell you that most trainers are boobs. Why? To become a personal trainer, all you need is a weekend course that basically trains you enough to pass "their" test. It is impossible to teach someone enough over the course of a weekend to be competent in the sciences of the human body. Hell, a year wouldn't be enough time.
Then you have to factor in knowledge above and beyond book knowledge. A good trainer has a lot of empirical evidence to base his/her ideologies from. They have tested time and time again on a variety of different people giving them hands on experience of what works and what doesn't work.
Fortunately for me, I have found that much of the book smarts I have translates into real world success.
This said, high reps light weights is a bogus fallacy for toning. How do you "tone" a muscle? A muscle either grows or it doesn't. It is that simple. Toning is a function of fat loss. Fat loss is a function of energy balance. Weight training really doesn't factor into that equation. You can't tone with weights.
Resistance training is a stress. You stress the body lifting weights hoping for a positive response. That response is either muscle maintenance or muscle growth. Maintenance and/or growth is not dictated by the weight you lift. Rather, it is dicated by the fuel you are providing your body nutritionally speaking.
The problem with light weights while dieting is simple. You are not giving your body a reason to hold onto the muscle. You see, building muscle is very expensive, energetically speaking. The tissue itself is energetically expensive to maintain compared to the other tissues of the body, plus it is not an optimal fuel for the body in times of energy deficiency.
Your body "knows" this. So, when you begin to diet (and by diet I mean invoke an energy deficit) the first place your body wants to cut down on is your muscle. It says to itself, hell, this stuff is energy costly and it looks like we are not going to be getting enough food, so let's minimize this stuff. This if very rudimentary, but you get the point. And these "rules" are not cut and dry. The more fat you carry, the more the story changes.
So if you are really in an energy deficit, and lifting weights (I don't care if they are light, heavy, whatever) you are NOT going to add any appreciable amount of muscle mass. Why in the world would, or even how in the world could it add muscle, which itself if very energy costly to maintain and even more energy costly to build.... all while you are not eating enough to begin with to maintain what you've got. You can't create something out of nothing. If you do, your body has found a way to work around the basic laws of thermodynamics.... something that I HIGHLY doubt.
So what you are telling me happened with your last trainer who was telling you to lift heavy leads me to believe one of two things:
1. You lost fat exposing some muscle, which created an optical illusion that you gained muscle. Believe it or not, this is a common occurrence.
2. You did not track nutrition clearly enough, and were in a calorie surplus while lifting, which led to an increase in muscle mass. This too is a possibility, were you tracking your nutrition?
This said, even if you were in a surplus, females do NOT have the hormonal disposition to go into a gym, eat in a surplus (required for muscle growth) and build muscles significantly or quickly. You just are NOT pre-wired biologically to do so, hate to tell you. The women in the fitness magazines, not the ripped women, but the buff women, 9/10 times are supplementing with hormones to allow for such muscle growth.
Your old trainer was right. You should be lifting heavier (relative to your strength) weights. Heck, most of the people who are following routines of mine around here are lifting 5 reps, haha.
But remember, resistance training is only one factor of the equation.... a small one at that when it comes to fat loss. Nutrition is primary.
Crazybecka88
New member
Hey there,
Thanks for the reply. I never considered that perhaps this exposure of muscle mass was down to 'fat loss' and it makes sense as I have lose weight and my body fat percentage has decreased. I just hate my arms! As far as nutrition, I was definitely not intaking more calories throughout this time period, as due to a history of an eating disorder, this is not physically possible for me... I intake between 1250-1400 at most which is apparently less than some of these websites believe I should be consuming. The endless contradictions surrounding exercise and nutrition are both exhaustive and discouraging to the general public. Every day you are told something different and at the end of the week, you are uncertain who to believe and 'what will work.' I will take heed of your advice and thanks again for taking the time to reply. 6 months until the big day- lets hope the fat loss continues and my arms do not overpower my fiance's at my wedding
Thanks for the reply. I never considered that perhaps this exposure of muscle mass was down to 'fat loss' and it makes sense as I have lose weight and my body fat percentage has decreased. I just hate my arms! As far as nutrition, I was definitely not intaking more calories throughout this time period, as due to a history of an eating disorder, this is not physically possible for me... I intake between 1250-1400 at most which is apparently less than some of these websites believe I should be consuming. The endless contradictions surrounding exercise and nutrition are both exhaustive and discouraging to the general public. Every day you are told something different and at the end of the week, you are uncertain who to believe and 'what will work.' I will take heed of your advice and thanks again for taking the time to reply. 6 months until the big day- lets hope the fat loss continues and my arms do not overpower my fiance's at my wedding
Hey there,
Thanks for the reply. I never considered that perhaps this exposure of muscle mass was down to 'fat loss' and it makes sense as I have lose weight and my body fat percentage has decreased. I just hate my arms! As far as nutrition, I was definitely not intaking more calories throughout this time period, as due to a history of an eating disorder, this is not physically possible for me... I intake between 1250-1400 at most which is apparently less than some of these websites believe I should be consuming. The endless contradictions surrounding exercise and nutrition are both exhaustive and discouraging to the general public. Every day you are told something different and at the end of the week, you are uncertain who to believe and 'what will work.' I will take heed of your advice and thanks again for taking the time to reply. 6 months until the big day- lets hope the fat loss continues and my arms do not overpower my fiance's at my wedding
What does your resistance training program look like currently?
TomO
0
This should be a sticky somewhere. You've said all this before many times, but each time you say it, either you do it more clearly, or I understand it better. Either way, this post is a gem.