Weight Loss

I'm looking for a 130/120 club, but I don't see any topics started.

If anyone knows of the proper topic, would you mind letting me know?

Thank you :)

Morning ladies! I'm so glad to be in this group with you all! Looks like we just reached the 1000 posts mark!

Amazing self-control, Kathleen!

I feel like sweets are stalking me this week. My roommate just took off for spring break, and she left me a bag of homemade cookies! *sigh* I'm not sure I have the heart to throw them away. We'll see how I do with that...

My mom is coming to spend the weekend with me, which I'm really excited about (I love my mommy! hehe). I'm also glad that she's not going to tempt me to eat poorly, because she's gluten-intolerant. That should steer me away from a lot of danger zones, as long as I order healthy stuff at restaurants like she does instead of my typical calorie-laden fare. We're planning on doing a bunch of walking and hiking as well, so this might turn into a mother-daughter weekend health spa! yeah!

By the way, Margo, I really love your posts! You're always so uplifting.

Have a fabulous Friday, everyone!

Well I busted my plateau, it appears wednesday was just water weight,  yay!  ( I wont weigh in officially until next weds though.)

Speaking of sweets, it is friday so there is a big tray of donuts, sweet bread, danishes and scones from a very nice local bakery sitting in the hall as I type.  *I am eating my homemade protein bar and coffee instead*  And last night, my boss went to a meeting a brought me back a black'n'white cookie, (my fav) but which I politely declined.  It sucks to be the dieting person but I notice if I turn down 2-3 snacks people stop asking you, which makes it easier. 

And i made a request to my mom and mom-in-law this year NOT to get me any candy for easter this year.  I am actually surprised by their support, at first friends and family were resistant.   And it was really hard (they were always offer ice cream and stuff).   But when I explained it as a lifestyle change, not just to get skinny but to reduce sat. fats, sugar and processed foods in general, they become much more supportive.  (I have diabetes and heart disease running in my family)  I make a point of tellling them that I feel I need to eat properly in order to perform better at school, work, running and lifting.

Now, what had started as my just husband and me making a descision a year ago to re-haul our bodies has become a family affair.  All four of our parents and his brother are now dieting and exercising  (now the sisters are another story...).  It is really wonderful to work as a group to become healthier.   And it makes it sooo much easier (I really wanted to eat something bad the other day but there was NOTHING bad in the house).   It took almost a year for others to join us but it was worth the wait.  Hope you gals can experience the same with your families and this forum.

I binged :[ I had 1000 calories worth of mcdonalds today :[

 

JFjfjfhgugfd.

 

I havent even lost 1 pound since I started and have been doing everything right.

I binged :[ I had 1000 calories worth of mcdonalds today :[

 

JFjfjfhgugfd.

 

I havent even lost 1 pound since I started and have been doing everything right.

Heather - don't be too discouraged! Getting healthy is a goal that we're only going to accomplish if we're patient. If it takes us a couple years to learn how to stop our urge to binge, that's okay. I've messed up a lot lately too, but I'm confident that we're still moving in the right direction by trying to avoid fats, sweets, etc. Chin up!

Jen - I'm so glad you have support from your family! That's really great. I'm definitely thankful for my mom's commitment to improve her health...both for her sake and because it's contagious! Congrats on breaking the plateau!!

 

Can someone help me with a whole plan?

Like should I even do weight lifting if I want the scale to drop? Should I just do jogging for like 3 weeks w/out weight lifting then start? Should I just eat my bmr + the workouts? Should I do a low fat or low carb diet? What are healthy things to eat? 

I suck at this :[

Hi all!

Aww...thanks, Wonderswhy! So, glad to know that you feel that way. ;D I try...

Have a fabulous weekend with your Mom! Fun..fun! :D

Jen - So great to hear that you are doing well too! :D Excellent news about your family joining in on your journey to get healthy...:D Whoohoo!!

Heatherx33 - Acknowledging that you binged is a step forward....in a way...right? So..now I'd say just forge on and work at picking yourself up. :D

We all plateau at some point....and so try not to get too discouraged about not losing yet.....  Try to remember to focus on the calorie intake (I think I overestimate and even underestimate a lot....I have a hard time gauging too), drink more water or part water/juice or tea (hot tea even), all the usual stuff like more fresh fruits, veggies, and whole grains, proteins, fiber, etc. It's a battle and a struggle each day....but you CAN overcome this! :D

Try to limit your high fat/calorie, sodium intake and sweets.....:D

Have a wonderful rest of your Friday ladies! :D

Heather -- Here is my advice. 

1)_Diet is the first and most important part of the 4 major keys to getting in shape.  Duh. 

• But the most important things I’ve learned about dieting is that (1) high protein is necessary, (2) small changes in caloric intake must be used to adjust weight loss or gain at a controllable rate, (3) 5-6 meals spaced about 3 hours apart per day will not only keep your metabolism running full steam, but it will keep you from feeling overly full and lethargic, and (4) you need good fats. 

• Calculate calories burned at sedendary lifestyle on calorie count.  Subtract 300-500 this will give a good deficit to eat everday.  If you exercise then you need to eat more.  Do NOT net under 1200 calories a day, if you do you WILL stall your diet.  If you net under 1200 your body will try to protect itself from this deficit that is too large by halting the burning of fat (“starvation mode”).  Also, you may feel fine on that day, but I guarantee you will feel hungry and lethargic the next day or the day after, and most of the time you will have no idea why.  You can’t do any extreme changes when trying to lose weight, it’s not how the body works. In general (I have yet to see any case that says otherwise) if you are losing more than 2 pounds a week, something is wrong. A healthy goal is 1.0 – 1.5 pounds a week.

• Protein is needed for building/maintaining  muscle, so in order to keep muscle when you’re trying to burn fat, you have to lift heavy, and take in a lot of protein.  What’s a lot?  The very minimum on any  given day is 1.0 g per pound of bodyweight (1.0 g x 134 = 134 grams of protein minimum daily for me).  The suggested range is 1.5-2.0 g.  Proper protein intake is so important to me that if I reach my calorie limit before hitting the 134 grams of protein, I choose to cheat my calories to make the protein requirement (of course it has to be within reason). Now to take care of some nasty business.  Note: a high protein diets will often lead to constipation.  It is absolutely imperative that you get fiber daily.  Some good sources are fruits, grains, nuts/seeds and vegetables. 

• A macro ratio of 40 – 40 – 20 diet works well (40 % protein, 40 % carbs, and 20 % good fats).

• Drink 4 liters of water a day

2) Lifting

•  Frequency The frequency that you lift greatly affects muscle and strength gains.  Your body does its muscle growing during your rest periods.  Remember that.  You don’t grow muscles when you are lifting.  Studies have shown that in terms of muscleand strength gains, the best results occur when working each body part 2 times a week.  The next most effective is working each body part one time a week.  From that point on, your gains decrease if you lift more often.  Visually: 2x a week > 1x a week > 3x a week > 4x a week > … The difference between twice a week and once a week was small enough that I opted for a once a week per muscle set up.  It has worked well for me as it means I only have to lift 4 days a week (which is something I can imagine doing the rest of my life).      

• Intensity, Lift heavy!  Remember, you are fighting muscle loss here because of your calori deficit.  Use that as your motivation and you just may see gains.  You will certainly see strength gains. There is no point going to the gym and lifting light weights at half-a$$ intensity.   If you’re not talking on the phone or just hanging out you can do all your lifts in just over an hour.  That’s not too shabby.  I can’t stress this enough: lifting is just like college, what you get out of it is directly relatedto what you put into it.  Work out like you mean it!  I really believe that you have no business using the weights if you aren’t pushing yourself every time.  Believe me did it half-a$$ed for years and never got good results.  I’m happy with my results now.

•  More every session. This is really tied into intensity but it is important enough for its own section.  Since we are only working each muscle group once a week, your muscles should be fully recovered from fatigue every time you get to the gym.  And with the protein you are getting every day, your muscles are constantly adapting and  getting stronger (possibly even bigger).  Therefore, you must make increases every trip to the gym.  Those increases can be weight or reps.  Either way, ii you’re not moving up, something needs to change (diet, sleep, etc).  What I do is I have a set number of reps I consider my goal reps.  For example, on dumbbell bench my goal is 3 sets of 5 (after a light warmup).  Say I do 40 lbs and manage to complete all 3 sets of 5.  Since there is no 42.5 lb dumbbells, I would be increasing my bench by 10 pounds if I moved up.  Instead, I would increase  my reps the next week to 3 sets of 7 with the 40 lb dumbbells.  Then the following week I’d increase the weight to 45’s and go back to 3 sets of 5 (or maybe even 3  sets of 4).  Sadly, with the increments the dumbbells use, this is the best way I can see to increase your lifts on a consistent basis.  Remember… gains every session!

3) Cardio

• An important thing to realize is that cardio is mostly used to aid in reaching your calorie goals.  But remember that cardio does not exactly ‘erase’ calories.  Burning 2000 calories does NOT necessarily make up for eating a whopper.  Why?  Because 2000 calories of the nutrition you’ve given your body was garbage.  What’s to say the 2000 calories you burned doing cardio came from the‘crappy’ food supply?  So don’t think of cardio as a magic eraser.  Rather think of  it as an opportunity to give your body more healthy calories.  Also, I’ve found that even though I make up for calories I burn by eating more, the cardio is important to convince your body that it is in an active state.  It’s not all about the calories from what I can tell.

  

4) Consistency and duration

• The last thing I’m going to mention for now is the importance of consistency and duration, as well as their acknowledgement ahead of time.  This is not a fast change.  If it were, it would likely be unhealthy.  The self denial does get easier.  An important note is that you should allow yourself one day of ‘cheating’ per week.  It’s amazing how when you’re used to a 500 calorie deficit, a 200 calorie surplus (which represents a 700 calorie swing) can seem so big.  And if you  burn 200 calories off doing cardio, your cheat day is now just a break even day.  I call it  "a wash."  By consistency, I mostly mean monitoring your progress.  I recomend progress pics, tape measures and the mirror over a strict adherence to the scale.
  
  Sorry for the novel, hope it helps,
  
  Jen
  
  

All I can say right now is, Wow. :D

Lots of interesting info., Jen. It was good to read, though I know your message was addressed to Heatherx33.

A comment on the part about uping the lbs. of weight each strength training session....

I think I have a hard time w/ uping my weights each time b/c I don't feel I've had enough of a consistency....usually b/c one week something happens and I don't get any weight training in....or I'm sick and weeks go by before I work out,etc.

Though all in all, I'm trying to stick w/ the weights of course and I will work on  trying this...and see what progress I have in say...the next month....

Thanks again... :D

Great job!

-Margo

Thanks sooooooo much jen :]

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/fightthefat.h tm 

A good read about food and how all calories are not created equal.

Wow, that was a really informative read!  I didn't know that you were only supposed to weight lift the same area once or twice a week.  Well, I hardly know anything about weight-lifting anyway.  I want to take a class on it...sometimes I just feel like I'm making up moves, lol.

And, bad me--I forgot to enter my weight on Wednesday but I did weigh in.  I'm at 135, down from 139.5 the previous week.  Mostly, if not all water weight but it's good to see that number again.

Jen,

I usually do weight lifting monday, wednesdays and fridays.

I start out with doing my

Shoulders [overhead] - 4 reps of 15

Biceps [biceps curls] - 4 reps of 25

Triceps [kick backs] - 4 reps of 20

Chest [push ups] - 4 reps of 10

Quadriceps [squats] - 4 reps of 30 

Hamstrings [lunges] - 4 reps of 15

Butt - 4 reps of 30

Calves - 4 reps of 25

Abs - 4 sets of 30

Obliques - 4 sets of 30

w/ 5 pound weight in each hand.

 

Should I change it? Each week I up it like 5.

Always mix it up every 6-8 weeks (at the very least the order of things).  So what you are saying is you hit each muscle group 3X a week?  This is too much.  Split up body parts, I like the push/pull split of back/biceps, shoulders, chest/tri, legs/abs.  Make sure you go to fatigue at the last rep of EVERY set.  Do 3-4 different exercises for each muscle group and 3-4 sets of 6-14 reps.   Legs look good with # of exercise but do you know your tricep has three heads??? (hence its name) and different tricep exercises target different heads more than others?   So why are you not doing three tricep exercises??? Same wirth chest, though there are not three heads, you can target inner, outer, upper and lower with different exercises, so do this.  Same with biceps etc...  For exeercise ideas go here: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bbmaintrain.h tm (click ont he body part you want to work and they will give you a whole list)

My advice: do splits, increase weight so you  can not do more than 14 reps per set.  (this is why spotters are nice)  Eat 20g of protein  a half hour before workout, another 20-30g within half hour after.  Otherwise you will not rebuild your torn down muscles.  This is also an ideal time for carbs.  D

Do not do obliques -- do you really want to build those muscles??? (they will make you appear thicker) if you really want to do them continue doign them 3X a week or more so they do not have a chance to repair themselves.

So grab some bigger weights and focus on individual muscle groups each time you go.  Also consider adding drop sets, supersets, lifting slower or shorter rests, etc  in a few months as you become more comfortable and need that extra pump.

hope that helps, just ask if you have more Qs,

Jen

if you want inspiration and workout ideas go to http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php? t=2806201

it is "buffmother's" workout journal and she is buff, very postitive and uplifting while making me feel wussy at the same time. 

Wow Jen, thanks for all the info!

I use the weight lifting workouts in "The body sculpting bible".  I dont' go to a gym, I just use free weights and a weight bench in my house.  But I agree that strength training is important, just as important as cardio if not possibly more so.   Too many women neglect it!

So I just read a 5'5" person that is a medium frame should weigh between 127-141. So does that mean that I shouldn't try to be 120?

http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/english/books/ pg/pg155.htm

http://www.dietbites.com/Pyramid-Diet/recomme nded-weight-chart.html

but then it says like i would still be a healthy bmi if i weighed 120 on CC. and on the other BMI website it says i could be 112 and still be healthy. AH. 

 

And thanks jen for everything :] 

Hey Margo - thnx for the encouragement, I kicked some butt and weighed in at 126 today!  Whoo hoo!

Wow, Jen thank you for the information.  I am pretty much following your 4 key points to a tee already (because of all the awesome advice you have already given :)) besides the upping my weights/reps with each visit.  I also work one body part a week, but I haven't been upping the weights or reps each time.  I am glad you pointed this out.  I am going to incorporate this into my workouts and hopefully start seeing that awesome definition that I have been striving for!  Thank you!

Thanks for all the great info, Jen! PS - Check out my gallery...  hehehehe