posted April 05, 2000 11:12 AM            

But here are a few thoughts. One fricking month?!?!? Sheeesh. It ain't going to happen that fast.

One pound of muscle requires more than 10x the calories of fat to sustain itself. Build muscle and you will tend to loose fat. Weight training is the best long term tool for keeping in shape. Do not look at a scale!!! Muscle weights some 30% more than fat. Learn to use, or get your BF checked every month or so - at most.

No crying or whinning. You put the weight on over SEVERAL monthes if not years. It may take you that long to loose it.

Do not waist your money on anything from EAS.

Go to the Protein Factory's web sight and get some real protein.

Read my "Wite Death" thread, and then my thread on the "Stuff in the blue packets".

Then read every thread on the womens board.

Late

posted April 05, 2000 06:15 PM         

I'll get the protein. I've been wanting to boost my protein content, but I don't want to add a lot of extra calories or fat.

I calculated yesterdays intake and here's what I came up with. Carbs=116,Protein=123, Fat=17.5, Calories=1295 I wasn't hungry and I ate every 2-3 hours. Is this good? or do I need to change it around? I know, I know more calories. That really is scary to me.

I also suffer with Hypothyroidism, but they've got my levels straight and the Doc's say that's not my problem. It seems I've been cursed with a metabolism from hell or the damn thing is nonexistant.

As far as my workouts, well I'm busting my butt. Today was lower body, I worked my muscles til I couldn't take it no more. My legs were shaking in the shower afterward. I'll be feeling it tomorrow for sure.

What about the cardio? Will I get slower results because I don't or should I say can't do it first thing in the morning? I really work up a sweat when I do this and I'm usually still sweating after my shower. I know I'm working out at a good intensity, but I've also got to take it a bit easy on what exercises I choose. I've got tilted knee caps and they rub and grind if my outer quad is a lot bigger than the inner. Does that make sense. Needless to say, I've been doing therapy at night for that problem 3x a week. The squats are working against me though. My legs are looking nice, minus the inner thighs. Then to boot, I have a bone chip in my ankle. Doc says they don't have to operate, but I must wear an air cast when I do cardio and more therapy exercises.
Sometimes I wonder, why me!

Okay, enough bitching! Time to get busy trying some of your prior advice.

posted April 11, 2000 06:14 PM            

First of all, "diet" is not something that you do periodically as a punishment for prior behavior. ...it's a lifestyle. Consequently, I would have to say that powders, potions and pills are not something you should be spending your time and money on right now. You need to retrain yourself in the art of eating. The standard recommendation of 65%carb/15%protein/10%fat will allow you to establish average body composition (for women that's 18-23% bodyfat) if you consume the appropriate number of calories required to maintain that body weight at whatever activity level your operating. If you don't like that diet, then you can pick one of the other popular plans to find the one that works best for you. (I liked some of the stuff that Peter D'Adamo said in "Eat right for your type", and am now reading Duchaines "Body Opus") Once you focus on your eating habits and make an effort to clean up your act, you can't help losing weight when you are overweight. As you approach that 18-23% range, the efforts to get down between 12 and 18% are more difficult.

It sounds to me like you're working on a handful of issues revolving around your health, and have to remind yourself that undoing years of anything requires time. Warlobo is right on the money with his statement about keeping track of you %bodyfat. That's the only way to know when/if you're losing fat when the scales stagnate. Your muscle gains throughout your first year or so will surpass any natural gains you'll get through your second year and so on. That will absolutely throw the scales into a depressing spin.

You're on the right track: you're in the gym and learning about healthy eating habits. Now you need to do whatever you need to in order to keep your spirits upbeat and positive. Impatience leads to depression...which results in quitting. Give yourself a year and set some milestones.

posted April 11, 2000 08:13 PM         

I might have been misleading a little when I said I was only working out for 1 month. I've been working out on and off for a good 5 years now. This past month I've totally changed my workouts and eating habits hoping to get some results. As I said, I have tried almost everything in the past only to end in disappointment because I was expecting miracles.

Recently I spent an awful lot of time reading just about everything I could get my hands on and designed my own program. I'm getting ready to mix up my routine and try some different exercises to try and shock my body into changing instead of conforming to what I've been doing this past 45 days.

posted April 11, 2000 11:42 PM            

Good Luck,

posted April 15, 2000 08:46 PM         

Waiting for my son to wake up from his nap so I can drag him down to the gym in my complex and try to burn off some extra calories.

posted April 17, 2000 10:59 AM            

Late

Lobo

posted April 18, 2000 05:59 PM            

So proud of you girl, I was once in your place. Started out at 36% body fat 6 years ago and it has been a long hard fight to get where I am.

May I please just share a little bit of the info that has helped me.

It is best to do your cardio first thing in the a.m. on an empty stomach or right after your weight training workout. Reason being that because you have eaten and your carbs are not very low, when you do aerobic exercise you are burning your carbs and sugar you have taken in and not hitting the fat storage. When you are working on an empty stomach (cardio only) your body cannot use carbs for energy and must go directly to your fat stores to supply what it needs to get through the exercise. I would rely more on fat burners before working out than sugary carb drinks. Your meal before weight training is important because you need the energy to be able to lift and you need carb energy for that. If you do cardio right after weight training, you have burned up the carbs and go more into fat stores.

I might also suggest you change your routine up. Your body gets accustomed to a certain exercise and then it is no longer effective for you. When you periodically change the exercises you do, you shock your body into doing something different, thus burning fat and building muscle at a different rate. Your abs will get tight, but you must burn that layer of fat off before you can see the muscle underneath.

I am with you on this. I have three children and it is hard to fit it all in. It requires I get up at 4:30 every morning and go lift weights when they are in bed at night. Remember diet is the key. Try to take in at least 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight. Protein and eca stacks were my biggest help in losing a lot of fat. Hope this helps and sheds a little light on the subject.

posted April 19, 2000 10:24 AM            

I think you are doing all the good, first of all for taking the initiative and getting to the gym and working your butt off!!!! So don't think that you have been wasting your time. You have been building muscle after all the more you have, the better your body will burn fat. The Hydroxycut will really help, but you may find that you will have to bump up your doseage as your body will develop a tolerance to it. Even if you only have that month to do morning workouts, I think you will notice a dramatic difference because as I stated earlier, you will be hitting your fat stores, not your carb/sugar storage. Or you can try to hit the cardio directly after your weight training.

Your body has to dig into something to supply energy for your workouts and when it has no carbs to run off of, it goes straight to the fat storage. Kinda cool!! Like I said before, even if you are able to do this for just a little while, your body will begin to respond immediately.

Please keep me posted!!!