overtraining misery/ what to do?

[wavywoman]

... tired

Well, I managed to slow down a *little* in todays workout. Not by much though-- just about 800 instead of 900. I did weights, mostly upper-body, at higher weights and lower reps. I can really feel a dramatic difference compared to yesterday, when I had a "milder" workout (5-6 mile run, maybe 600 calories at the most). Today I'm in a state of "brain fog", feel really tired, apathetic, bitchy. I have a take-home essay test I have to work on, and have no ambition to work on it. For some reason, I keep thinking about food, but I rarely get hunger pangs. My folks are planning on having veal sausage for dinner, and I'm allready becoming psycho-calorie watcher, figuring just one sandwich with a big refined white roll and sausage will equal 500+ calories, and the idea of eating it is pissing me off already! What is it with our culture that demands that we eat processed meats WITH refined bread? I'm mentally so warped that I'm already trying to think of ways to avoid eating the whole thing. People look at you like you have three heads if you eat a hamburger without the bun! Oh man...
Well, the yogurt I eat is nonfat, and I think it has aspertime instead of sugar for the most part... I guess I should check it out... Oh man, I could sleep for 10 hours. Thanks for the info, everyone!
PS: Yes, I did eat the entire sausage... would have eaten five of them I think, I did leave half the roll there.

 

[keiko]

I don't think it's our culture that's so off about eating carbs, fat and protein together. That's actually not a bad combination. Most cultures eat some variation on that same theme--some great amounts of carbs, some great amounts of protein, some, likethe Inuit, greater amounts of fat.

It's good that you're paying attention to your workouts, but here's a radical thought--

When was the last time you took a couple of days or even a whole week off? Walked, biked for fun, swam, surfed, etc? Ate whatever caught your eye? Didn't pay any attention to the cals, the fat %, where it was whole or skim, real sugar or fake?

If a week is too scary, why not try taking a day off--no gym, no diet, just fun?

 

[new@gettinbig]

First of all you need to sit back and RELAX!!! You are far to concerned and you are putting way to much energy into all of this. Everything is very simple and basic, and you must keep it like that. Personally I do not think you are taking in enough food, protein is a MUST!! Its good for you, and it will not make you FAT! You should be taking in at least 1gram per lb of bodyweight. Nutrition is the only way any of your workouts are going to give you the results you are looking for. Otherwise you are just running your head into the ground. You are doing way to much cardio for the amount of food you are eating....lay off a little, take a break and read the boards for a few days and get a different perspective on the whole situation. You should maybe look to hiring a trainer to show you exercises and techniques to help you build a solid program. You must have protein to build anything......Keep positive and take your time, this is a lifestyle change and it takes a while to learn and let go of those old habits society seems to lead all women too. Dont obsess over this, and throw away your scale...i rarely weigh myself now, maybe 1 time a month, i go by the way my clothes fit, and how i look in the mirror, scales are so discouraging and they are of no help, WHO CARES HOW MUCH YOU WEIGH.....numbers mean nothing....its how you look and feel!!!!!!

 

[wavywoman]

Great replies! Thanks!

Thank all of you for great ideas and comments!
Well, it's ironic that new@gettinbig and keiko told me to take a day off, since that's precisely what I'm doing today. Well, one of my major reasons is to get this essay test done, and I know I won't be able to if I'm in a state of total brain fog.
As far as taking a mini-vacation from working out goes, I rarely do. Every once in a blue moon I might take two days off in a row-- but this upcoming weekend I'm going up to Boston and know I won't be able to keep up my workout obsession. First of all, if the weather goes well, I'll be riding on the back of a bike :frolic: and won't be able to pack my sneakers!
Yes, I agree with all on the "Throw out the scale" mantra. The only reason I've weighed myself lately is out of morbid curiosity, knowing that I've lost too much and wanting to find the extent of my "damage" and to prove to myself that enough is enough . I stopped my daily weighing when I started to gain last winter, knowing it F(&cked with my mind too much to do it more than every once in a while.
I have to say though that I think I've learned a lesson or two. Last year I was this thin, and felt like shit. Very little sex drive, dreaming about food, oddly no physical stomach-growling appetite, going to bed early like an old woman and waking up too damn early.
One thing that irritates me about fitness and healthy diet is that there seems to be no hard scientific concepts about it that apply to everyone evenly, even if all you want to do is find out how much food you need to "maintain". One one hand, some sources of nutritional info make it sound like I'm doing everything "Right" while others tell me I'm doing it all "Wrong", and unfortunately the overriding message in all nutritional books/sites is "eat less less exercise more more more" ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU'RE FEMALE but no one defines when enough is enough and it's time to move on. I've seen some so-called legitimate websites telling women to eat 1200 calorie diets. :eyeroll: I have to admit it's hard to ignore the social message I've got coming at me from all sides: Beautiful=Stickbug thin, 20lbs underweight and my boyfriend stares at the flaming bulemic girl with the spindle-legs in a miniskirt. Anyway, why is it that guys have such a hard time recognizing eating disordered women? Why are anorectic legs so attractive to them? Point to Kate Moss and half the guys out there would say "She's not too skinny!". Whole other topic, maybe doesn't apply to any of the (real) men on this board.
Thanks for the info all, and for reading my rambling posts! I'll be parooosing the diet boards, checking out some good info after I'm done w/ my essay!

 

[Phemomena]

yes, society is a big overall contradiction when it comes to women... you just have to look inside yourself and see what your goals are... if you want to be rake thin with no muscle structure and no energy, i'm sure someone on this board can help you get that together (follow every fashion and most of the fitness magazines recommendations and see where that gets ya).... but i'm assuming you don't and that's why you're here

speaking of fashion magazines... i was reading muscle and fitness hers the other day (the one for us ) and i actually saw a little blurb that a healthy diet should contain 1200 caloires... i almost laughed up my 500 cal shake.... i'm going to write them in complaint... for active women who aspire to have muscle rather than fat, 1200 calories is just over half of the cals you need...

i take in well over 2000 cals a day, even when i'm cutting my count never dips below 1700-1800... but as you said everyone is different, stop counting calories period for a while... eat to fuel your body, so it can what you want it to do... then, once you finally feel like you are eating enough, your energy is up and your workouts are progressing, see what your calorie intake is... and tweak it from there...

oh and the scale, whenever you weigh yourself, drink as much water as you can in the half hour right afterwards and weigh yourself again... now, that number has probably moved a pound or two... does that mean your a lb or two fatter??? NO, just means your hydrated and your bladder is (or soon will be full)...
once a week i will weigh myself before and after my cardio, just to make sure i've gotten enough water... that number really doesn't mean SQUAT when you have muscles...
(okay, now i said the bad s word... my legs hate me from my workout last night and i think i'll go take a bath )

 

[wavywoman]

women's magazines are lousey

One of my bigger problems now as far as food intake goes is that I can't recognize my actual hunger. I've been eating every two or three hours in semi-equal amounts, though. Sometimes I feel woozy or lethargic and I have a hard time justifying to myself that I need to eat. When I start feeling bloated/full I'm convinced that I've 'gone overboard'. I wish I "knew" for a fact how much I could eat every day and maintain what I want. Impossible wish without a lot of time investment and record-keeping, I guess.
Yes, believe me, I'm not weighing myself every day. I think it's funny how the concept of "water weight" eludes so many people... Read up web boards and you'll find teenaged girls freaking out "OHMIGOD I gained 5 pounds over the past two days!".

 

[keiko]

Back in the dark ages, I used to write for a well--known fashion magazine.
Here's the big, open secret:

They keep you fucked up so you buy stuff.

If you 're convinced that you 'll never get laid and/or married without longer eyelashes, better smelling body-parts, tanned skin, silkier hair-- then you'll buy the products advertised and recommended in the edit pages. And what's new is always better that what you got last month.

Every picture you see is either air-brushed or Adobe Photoshopped. Even Kate Moss has marks removed, etc. I'd say most models and or celebs are very disappointing in real life--they photograph well, and that's it. The current Vogue has an article about some salon in New York that gets rid of cellulite by electric current. The author allegedly saw a difference before and after the sessions--but there weren't any pix (not that I'd believe them, anyway.)

You need no special knowledge of healthy, beauty (most mag employees don't look particularly great , although Vogue today is an exception because that's how Anna Wintour hires) to work for one of these publications (and I'd say even the more fitness-oriented ones are the same). There's no research, there's no fact-checking, there's no accountability. They can print that you need 900 cals a day and who's going to challenge them?

I don't think any beauty publication actually takes into account what men like (otherwise Hugh Hefner would publish one). But men get bombarded by the media just as much--look how many men's publications tell guys they need a very thin, big-boobed blonde or they're losers.

 

[wavywoman]

beauty mags are trash

I totally agree with the beauty magazine bashing... They are trash-- and yes, I do think they have the goal of making women feel inferior so they'll buy more products. Most of them are the same ads and articles recycled over and over and over again.
Unfortunately, I think A LOT of guys buy into that stick-but-plastic-breasted thing without really thinking about it... All of the major men's magazines I see now have super thin, very tall, very large breasted, heavily made up women on the covers. Of course, this makes women want to buy more stuff to make themselves beautiful. Most of this stuff doesn't work, either. Good hair cuts and good nutrition makes your hair look good, not tons of hair dyes and products and treatments... Acne can't be cured by using a product bought in CVS for the most part-- generally you need a dermotologist if it's recurrent. Cellulite isn't special fat that can be zapped with a cream. Man, I wish women didn't buy into that stuff....

 

[wavywoman]

So what should be my first step?

So, I'm wondering here-- how should I go about cutting back on cardio and/or increasing calories? Should I cut 100 calories from my workout and increase about 100 (where I need it) in my diet a week? I recognize that I need to change both, I'm leery about slicing my cardio time in half while adding several hundred calories every day-- I don't want to wind up with ten pounds of lard on my small body from calorie overkill.

 

[Sassy69]

WW -

DON"T COUNT THE CALORIES IT SAYS YOU BURNED DURING CARDIO. An efficient metabolism will continue to burn calories efficiently.

Yes it is true that for ex, maintenance is calories in = calories used up. But also important is the type of calories you are providing for your body. You want the kind that will fuel good cardio & training, not the kind that sit on your butt. (E.g. more protein, fewer empty carbs).

You should change up your diet according to some of the suggestions already given - replace the yogurt with some chicken and vegetables or something. Make sure you're getting enough good quality fats - this will help fuel you and keep you from getting "fog on the brain" if you are carbs are low. Make sure you are getting at least 1 g of protein for each lb of body weight. Lay out such meal plan and count up the calories - if you check out some of the threads on the diet board you will find how you can determine the number of calories required to maintain your current weight (based on your basal metabolic rate, etc - no time to search for those threads for you right now).

Then cut back on your cardio and replace some of it with weight training - like 3 days / week - split it up - either upper body one day, lower body next, maybe do 3-4 times per week, every other day. Or break it up legs, back & biceps, chest & triceps - just enough so you aren't working the same muscle group without giving at least 24-48 hours rest between sessions. Mix cardio in on the off days. To get the most out of your cardio sessions (so you aren't doing l o n g sessions), do it in the morning on an empty stomach or immediately after your workouts for best results.

PLEASE don't get paranoid about changing up some of your cardio - too much of it is the reason you posted in the first place. You will burn fat doing the training as well. If you keep your intervals between sets short, like 30-45 sec, you are getting a bit of a cardio workouto anyway. Equivalently, don't stand around and chat between your sets on the weights or machines.

If nothing else, just try replacing some cardio with lifting sessions for a week or two and see how you feel. It may take up to like 3 weeks to see a difference, but just changing your current routine may spark some new energy into your system!