Weight Loss Thread

Rezz_sl said:

I'm incredibly skeptical about anyone who is legitimately eating 1000 calories and doesn't sleep 15 hours a day being unable to lose weight.

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Yup. No weight loss over 30 days with 1k calorie intake and 140min cardio a week? Definitely eating far more than 1k calories daily. Either log your intake better, Lindz, or just keep dropping your target intake level until the scale agrees with you.

Note: this advice is assuming you're overweight. If you're an anorexic 78 pounds then please disregard.

It's all about the fast metabolism diet! weight just rolls off.

Not over weight, no. I'm like 135 right now. Gained 10 lbs in the past year that I want to lose.

Besides working out daily, life is pretty sedentary tho. Besides kids and taking care of the house, I'm at the computer for work or in a chair reading.

No muscle mass could be an option. Like i said, I can visibly see changes. Like waist slimming and such. Belt is a hole tighter. That's why I'm doing resistance bands as well, because I know my muscle mass is abysmal.

Another thing to factor in is just hormonal crap. Like I swapped from an IUD to birth control pills and that can sometimes have an effect as annoying as that shit is. I swear I'm going to get my tube tied soon to get off hormones all together.

Listened to him again; I'm going to say that these girls who are dieting at 1000 (he says 800 at one point) and working out for 2 hours a day? Are either lying about their calories over the course of a week or not really aware of what they are eating, regardless of how "damaged" their metabolic rate is. Then he starts talking at 1600 calories and I go "OK, this is probably right!" But the 1000/800 calorie girls not losing weight? They are not accurately reporting their calories/outright fabricating their intake.

I mean it is probably an issue with people who have weight that fluctuates between normal and low body fat%, but if you are legitimately consuming 1000 calories a day and not a sloth? Something is wrong about the numbers being reported.

Edit - Probably came out a little harsh~ I feel like the most likely situation in lindz (and literally every one of those people who report they can't lose weight on 1000 calories + cardio every day) is very similar to Brahmas. It is not understanding the amount of food/calories you are actually consuming on the daily over periods of time. If you only consume 1000 calories in a day and spend 20 minutes a day doing -any- light exercise? If you are above 3 feet tall and 80lbs, you should feel fatigued as shit all the time, ketosis or not, as well as feeling incredibly/debilitatingly hungry. Like, to the point where you have issues doing daily activities. So odds are, you aren't consuming just 1000 calories, and you should spend some time accurately cataloging what you eat each day and try to more accurately calculate your daily caloric intake based upon that catalog. It makes it a lot easier to give meaningful advice.

If you -are- legitimately consuming 1000 calories a day along with even light activity and unable to lose weight? I would recommend seeing a health professional that specializes in dietary nutrition, because you are an incredible outlier that standard science has issues explaining, regardless of what a personal trainer might say.

I am still running, but decided to go back to some weight lifting last night. I was surprised I was lifting where I left off, as if I didn't skip a beat, even though I haven't lifted for over 3 weeks. My squat is at 115 pounds now (I was squatting 105 before I started focusing on running) and my body weight as of today is 149 pounds 18.4% fat on my Aria. A rather small goal, but I wanted to squat 1 plate on each side so I'm gonna reach that soon.

lindz_sl said:

No muscle mass could be an option. Like i said, I can visibly see changes. Like waist slimming and such. Belt is a hole tighter. That's why I'm doing resistance bands as well, because I know my muscle mass is abysmal.

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Then stop all the running, it's eating what muscle you have, and start lifting heavy (for you) weights.

"Will Women Get Big and Bulky From Lifting?
Women are extremely unlikely to get big and bulky from lifting weights because they produce very little testosterone, which is an important hormone for muscle growth. Conversely, women are more likely to slim down because lifting weights is excellent for burning fat and giving the coveted "toned" appearance. Elite natural lifters such as Jennifer Nicole Lee, Jamie Eason, and Marzia Prince are thin, lean, and "toned."

The lean yet big and bulky women use steroids."

Leadsalad_sl said:

Then stop all the running, it's eating what muscle you have, and start lifting heavy (for you) weights.

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Energy source hierarchy is glycogen -> fatty acid -> amino acid. If she's sedentary outside of her daily workout routine, it's unlikely she's burning all her energy reserves and eating at her protein. Not knowing her full situation, I can only assume the 10 pounds she gained is pretty much all fat, and if she's not losing weight, she's not eating into her proteins yet. I am not saying she won't benefit from lifting weights, but the highlighted part is wrong.

EDIT: Just to explain more, Lindz is not on a 1000 calorie diet. That's 100% bullshit. Either that or her 45 minute routine is bullshit. I am on a 1400-1600 calorie diet (and occasionally 1800-2000+ when I drink or go out) right now. I feel starved all the time running 20-30 minutes (different intensities) 5 times a week. Which reminds me, I need should eat more for my 4-5 hour hike tomorrow.

You're right, I'm just being lazy and generalizing. Regardless, a cardio routine is pretty worthless unless it's hard.

Leadsalad_sl said:

You're right, I'm just being lazy and generalizing. Regardless, a cardio routine is pretty worthless unless it's hard.

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Generalizing, maybe. But, not wrong. Ever look at a crowd of long distance and marathon runners? Bean poles.

Hard cardio DOES eat at muscle long term, if that's all you're doing. Gotta find that balance, as in all things. I absolutely have to do cardio to help cut and keep fat off. But, even during cut months I never go over 30% or 40% of energy expended, via cardio. Still have to hit weights.

But, that's me and is relevant for athletes (it needs to be stressed that it took almost 2 years to get where I am. NONE of this shit happens over night). Someone who's looking to lose weight now and considers themselves "over weight" will need to do between 60% and 90% cardio.

Burren_sl said:

Someone who's looking to lose weight now and considers themselves "over weight" will need to do between 60% and 90% cardio.

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Or... just eat less food?

Cad_sl said:

And lift

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And drink more water. Lots of water, and celery, which is mostly water. God damn I hate celery.

Fucking celery!

Dandai_sl said:

Hey, if cardio is your thing then rock out as much cardio as you want. But cardio is not required to lose weight, and I dare say not more effective than lifting weights and being generally active.

I'm gonna guess that someone who is looking to lose a lot of weight is someone who also hates cardio (or they wouldn't be so dramatically overweight). In general I think "more cardio" is bad advice, not only because it implies that you must "punish" yourself to lose weight, but because you can lose weight just as effectively by eating less.

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I wouldn't consider 5'7'' and 135 lbs dramatically overweight. You all have seen pictures of me. I'm not an itty bitty person or anything, but I'm just that plus 10 lbs right now.

I actually like cardio, because I read manuscripts on the elliptical. Get work done + exercise = two birds with one stone. As far as counting calories, I definitely could be off some days, not saying that I'm always 100% accurate because after like 6+ months of using myfitnesspal, I stopped tracking. I kinda know the calorie amount of everything I eat. I do weigh things tho, it isn't like I'm eyeballing. Restaurants are where it gets tough.

My days usually consist of no breakfast, salad for lunch (one those prepackaged ones from the grocery store that claim to be 210-290 calories) though I don't use all the dressing, cheese stick for a snack if I have one at all or berries, and whatever I make for dinner (which I weigh). If I'm cooking shitty food for the kids, then I just eat a quest bar (it's what TJ's carries and has almost no sugar). I've cut out sugar as much as possible, - though I realize things like salad dressing have it so it's not entirely gone - and don't eat breads.

I do typically have a crap day on the weekend, where I know I'm hitting about 1600 calories (and it is a bad 1600 because we'll have pizza, chinese, or something like that - tho I'm still tracking as accurately as I can) and I only workout 6 days a week.

And honestly I'm not hungry like ever, which I thought meant I was eating too much. But even on days where I run out of time to much of anything at all besides a protein bar, I'm not feeling hungry.

Regardless, I can do better which is essentially what ya'll are saying. Lift more, track better. Avoid the family pizza days and eat cleaner.

Curious if anyone has experience on the hormonal side - like is that something that can cause a plateau that I just have to work harder to break through?

If you aren't uncomfortable, you aren't changing. Just the way it is.