Disillusioned
 

guys.....ladies......i've been a terminal lurker for a while so I hope that will not preclude any good advice you have for me.
I am at my wits end. I absolutely love lifting weights but after the past three months I no longer fit into my clothes. I've put on 11 or 12 pounds, my estimate is that its 9-10 lbs of lean mass and 1 lb of fat. maybe i'm fooling myself with that as I have no reliable way of measuring bf % other than guessing...BUT my diet has been on track, not totally dialed in but....not erratic enough to gain so much as to be bursting out of my clothes.....LITERALLY! *sob*

I've been a size 6 for years and now my quads and butt are huge...not to mention my back and shoulders. people at the gym don't say oh you're looking good, they say um you look strong, or wow you're getting big. What can i do? I like being strong but this is ridiculous. my strength has shot up also which is nice and i really very much like being strong but i absolutely refuse to buy a new wardrobe in a larger size. I've started doing loads more cardio and short of wiring my mouth shut and living on the treadmill....what can i do? and is it the case that doing low-rep heavy weights will *not* add mass?
i'm ready to abandon weights altogether and stick with yoga and cardio. help me! plus i can't afford a trainer so that is out.

I did one full challeng body for life style and then switched up to one body part per day and then tried some of the lean and fit workouts from dave drapers site. my problem is clearly something i've been doing wrong, but i really don't want to live on skinless chicken and broccoli ad infinitum and feel like a complete failure at this point. everyone says that women don't bulk up so why am i?

Hi Ebe! You've not bulked up, so to speak, you've just built some great muscle! Now you're like me, ready to do more sculpting and shed the fat covering all that great muscle.

You may want to change up your lifting routine to a more endurance oriented regime, rather than muscle building. Meaning, more sets w/more reps and do them w/out much of a rest inbetween. For ex: if you currently do 3 sets of six bicep curls w/25lb dumbells, drop your weight to maybe 15lbs and do 5-6 sets of 10-12 reps w/less than a minute rest between sets.

You could work several body parts a day and maybe work each muscle group twice a week.

Also, consider adding more lean protein to your diet and try to eliminate processed carbs, add more vegetables and fruits.

No offense Jennifa, but my experience with calling EAS trainers does little good unless you really want to spend a lot on unnecessary EAS supplements. Better to rework your nutrition than waste money on stuff you don't need, IMO.

Hope that helps some!

i've been eating bfl style roughly since january with some forays into higher protein plans but basically the same idea, though in the past few weeks its all gone to **** on the weekends since i've been thinking dang i don't fit into my clothes why am i knocking myself out?

anyway, i think what i'm going to do is take a small break and do only running and yoga for four weeks maybe and then go back to lifting three times a week with no legs unfortunately...until i can get into my jeans at least. :(
must have been too much volume i guess. i really am just unwilling to pay 60$ to have someone tell me stuff....thats almost half of my food/gas/supplies... allowance for the week. sucks being poor.
ps. i'm 5 feet 8 inches tall.

REAAAL quick here...

I agree with Mindi on the EAS 'trainers'. They are there to sell supplements - that's it. (I have heard some pretty awful stories about the 'advice' they give...from the sound of it, they're reading off a tips sheet - always followed by 'such and such supplement will help you with this...')

The thing is...you've got to keep 'tricking' your body by varying your workouts AND your eating. I myself vary between heavy weights/low reps and lighter weight/higher reps. Also, every so often (once every 12 weeks or so for me) I take a week off from lifting and just do cardio.

Zig-zagging calories is a great way to 'trick' your body as well. If you've been eating the same thing every day, your body will adjust to that.

I posted the following last week, but I think it bears repeating here...you might find it helpful!

Originally Posted by :
The first place I always look when someone is having an issue with losing fat is their nutrition. [Y]ou mentioned cutting back on calories, etc, but my question for you is this ... when you eat "BFL-style", what does that mean, exactly? Are you eating a lot of fruits and vegetables and whole foods? Are you eating the exact same meals each day, or are you incorporating variety? Are you making sure to have a carb portion before bed? Are you taking a free day?

Believe it or not, for some people, the free day in and of itself can be the single most limiting factor. Some people thrive on free day and plunge towards their goals, others must eliminate it. Let's face it. There is no "free meal." Calories do count. And for a woman, especially so. Most women can only lose about 0.5 - 1.5 pounds of fat per week. At the low end, that is a net equivalent of 1,700 calories deficit. Keep in mind that one free day can accumulate close to 10,000 calories and totally negate that! So that is one place I would look as well.

The fact is, there is no magic formula or combination for fat loss - regardless of BFL, BodyRx, McDougall's, vegetarian, raw food, whatever, the same law applies - to lose fat, you need to take in less calories than you burn. So the problem must be tackled on two sides, one with nutrition, the other with training. Don't get too caught up in the calorie "count" for nutrition, because different foods have different effects. You can get away with more grams of protein than carbohydrate because it takes more energy for the body to process protein. You can get away with more omega-3 fatty acids than other types of fat because they stimulate metabolism. The list goes on and on.

If you are already eating a balanced, healthy diet, then the next thing to look at is training. One huge issue with people is simply intensity. For example, I know a lot of women who don't train intensely with weights because they are afraid of gaining too much muscle. If you fall into this category, RUN FROM IT AS FAST AS POSSIBLE! If gaining muscle were easy, there would be more female bodybuilding competitors. The fact of the matter is, building muscle is HARD work and you are not going to gain pounds and pounds of muscle over night. So if you aren't training intensely, weight training is one of the KEYS - you must train INTENSELY and really push those 10s to not only burn more calories during the session, but also to keep your metabolism elevated afterwards to burn more fat.

As for adding the extra cardio, sure, it can help. Heck, I'm up to 65 minutes of cardio per day in addition to my 3 weight training workouts. But I am keeping it balanced. I do 3 20-minute high intensity sessions, and the rest is simply uphill walking. The goal is to burn more calories, but not to burn myself out. If you suddenly add intense sessions or too much volume of jogging, you are risking injury and burnout. In fact, your body is so adept at adapting to new training, your best bet is to ramp it. Is your current load not working for you? Add a 20 minute session. Stick with it. Then wait a week or two, and add another 10 minute session .. like that. Ramp it up, don't jump into the extra cardio all at once.

There's really, from my experience, two approaches to weight loss. If you are eating a truly disciplined, clean nutrition plan and not taking cheat meals etc (and by disciplined, I mean ALL WHOLE FOODS - this means whole grains, whole beans, nothing in a package, nothing processed like bread, etc) then you probably could concern yourself less with calories and more with quality of exercise. If, on the other hand, you are taking cheat meals or eating processed foods (look at my diary - I eat packaged burritos, corn chips, etc, so I fall into the latter category) then sometimes it is critical to get a handle on your portions.

I can't tell you how many people I know think they're doing fine, but as I alluded to before, their fist or palm gets bigger when they're more hungry. Or they snack on one bite of a cookie because surely one bite won't hurt (but then you add that one chip that won't hurt and that one pretzel that doesn't hurt and suddenly you're taking in another 200 calories a day or 1400 per week!). Or they find the most convenient meal possible - say, cottage cheese and yogurt and chicken breast in a pita pocket, and then they eat that exact same meal each day. This in itself can wreak havoc. I know ... I'm eating fairly static from day to day, and therefore I must increase my cardio each week to make up for the deficit. When I'm eating more variety, lo and behold, my metabolism increases.

It's an individual game but the bottom line is that no one is special. I know that [it was] mentioned being "doomed to be fat." You can certainly be doomed, but it is you who are dooming yourself, not genetics. If your family is struggling with weight management, then that is a very strong answer for you - it's something psychological embedded in your brain. Unless you are a lottery winner, only 1 in millions of people actually have a genetic inability to effectively lose fat. The rest are accosted by a myriad of complications ranging from the availability of food, the levels of processed food in our typical diets, to the psychological issues that we associate food with happiness and think every social event should be marked by a "reward" of unhealthy food. I see the journals of progressive tiredness, frustration, etc, and it tells a tale - you are exhausted, you are struggling, you are tired of being trapped, and your faith in the process is faltering. Make no mistake, it is tough and this is the key to successful weight management, but you MUST have faith. It IS in your mind ... it is the psychological aspect working against you. The only solution is to FORCE A RESOLUTION and find that right combination of understanding and self motivation to DECIDE you will make the change and follow it through.

See, it is easy to get frustrated at lack of progress and then slip. I know, I struggled for 9 months before I finally made the decision that I would do 12 weeks WITHOUT SLIPPING. I had to do those intial challenges because no one is perfect ... we focus on progress. But for me, to progress required cleaning it up. It meant absolutely refusing to give in until free day, and then listening to my body on free day. It meant no longer stuffing myself until I couldn't walk and going out in search of unauthorized foods, but rather eating things I was tempted by - ice cream, etc - but in moderation and without overeating. It meant giving up alcohol for the entire 12 weeks. It meant deciding that health was more important than the temporary gratification of food, that when I went to a barbeque I wouldn't talk myself into cheating because "well, I've got to LIVE" because I changed my definition of living from beer and ribs to being healthy. It takes a lot, but you can do it, you've just got to KEEP TRYING until the time is right and it clicks, and the change WILL come.

Hope that helps. I went off on a tangent, but bottom line ... yes, extra cardio is sometimes warranted, but it depends on your situation and many times it is the nutrition, not the exercise, that needs to be set under control.

Jeremy

ah ha! i come crawling back. thanks for the help....yessssssssssssss as unpleasant as it was i had to face facts......
self i thought, beer and beef jerky is not a carb and protein.
pudding and graham crackers are not a carb and protein...even if the pudding is made with cottage cheese.
a 20 oz porterhouse is not quite on the level...
sooooo after a bit of a sulk and quite an immodest binge and a major diet overhaul i'm back on track. its been 1 week and no alcohol. i'm rather proud actually, that seems to be the biggest factor.
sigh.
unfortunately.
poop

no more :devil: beer/wine! :devil:

thanks again :)

Hit the nail on the head
 

I think you've found your answers. And yes, lifting lower reps at heavier weight is the prescription for mass building. I had exactly the same experience- I gained weight on my first challenge, though I did lose body fat. And some of my clothes are too small because of my arm and back muscles. I'm working now on peeling off that last 10 lbs. Super strict nutrition, 5 meals a day except on leg day, lots of super-sets and higher reps, less rest time between sets. And more cardio when I can fit it in. This will either work or be a major burnout :D

good luck, keep us posted!

mel

Just read through this thread - a lot of good points made here about nutrition.
I'll try to see if I can incorporate more whole food - I've added some, but still have regular pasta on occasion, or baked totilla chips, or sometimes even low-fat Pringles!
I am definitely in meal rut - eating pretty much the same thing at the same time of day for weeks.... only meals 3 and 5 ever change.
What are your thoughts on ground beef? I buy the kind that is 90% lean, and then I rinse with hot water after browning to remove as much fat as possible.
Cindy

Low Fat Hot Dog???
 

I don't see how you could possibly call a LF Hot Dog an unprocessed food. Didn't you say if God didn't make it, don't eat it? Any kind of hot dog is filled with sodium, fillers, and all the stuff that fell off the butchers' tables that you don't want to know about. Even the Hebrew Nationals which have at least been blessed by someone.

And Jennifa- I don't know to whom your post about not losing weight on this kind of plan was directed, but if it was ebe, she's probably not going to lose weight doing even the strictest, cleanest BFL. She's a size 6 at 5'8". As I said above, I GAINED weight doing BFL, with no cheats and 100% clean, natural food. But I lost fat and gained muscle. And I was a size 6 at 5'3".

mel

Hot Dogs -- FF and Otherwise
 

Wow -- all this talk about hot dogs brings back some memories for me! When I started losing weight for the last time, in June, 2001, I was fresh out of WW and still very much ingrained with the point system where all food was OK so long as you counted the points. So I was very much into processed low-point junk food like FF hot dogs and FF Pringles and Kashi cereal and diet bread etc. The trainer who was guiding my diet plan took one look at my first food log that had all these foods listed and just about had a heart attack. You can bet that we had a long talk about oatmeal and egg whites and chicken and tuna etc. and I started getting my eyes opened about nutrition.

I still get a chuckle out of going back to my very first Fitday journal pages and seeing what I was eating that I thought was so healthy!

Not trying to bash WW -- but my two gripes with it are that exercise is not part of the program (they don't emphasize exercise at all) and that they think that all calories are created equal. Both wrong.

Meg

Just throwing in my two cents right quick during my class break...

1) I totally agree with Mel and Meg - hot dogs are basically CRAP and not part of a healthy diet IMO. Even the Hebrew National ones...just because they're kosher or 'reduced fat' doesn't make them a health food. Don't get me wrong, I like a good hot dog on a free day occasionally (when we do buy them, we get a brand called Big City Reds that are sold at Draeger's) but I wouldn't eat them during a 'clean day' (or for that matter, any sausage-type meat) and expect to see progress.

2) I've stated this before, but there is NO SUCH THING as 'flourless bread' - bread BY DEFINITION has flour in it...according to Webster's:

Originally Posted by :
1 : a usually baked and leavened food made of a mixture whose basic constituent is flour or meal

I've checked a myriad of websites and EVERY SINGLE recipe I've come across includes flour in one form or another. Whether you buy the flour already ground or grind it yourself from whole grains - surprise! - it's been PROCESSED!

I'm sure it's better for you nutritionally than, say, your basic Wonder bread, but nevertheless it is STILL bread, and should be used sparingly. (If you happen to be one of those very carb-sensitive folks, then you're probably better off staying away from all bread except on Free Day.

Basically it all comes down to what results you want and how much you are willing to sacrifice to get those results. If you include stuff like bread and hotdogs in your menus, you'll get one result; if you instead have, say, a yam and chicken breast, you'll get another result.

Now I gotta run back to class...

My .02 cents now...:lol:

I had a hot dog, last week when hubby BBQ'd some and I hadn't had one in eons, maybe a year.... 1. It left a greasy feeling in my mouth. 2. I burped it ALLLLLL freakin' afternoon...... I think the more you eliminate those processed foods the less you want them and/or your body rejects them...

Explanation
 

Hmmm ... if anyone's wondering where all the bread and hot dog talk came from, there had originally been a post here about LF hot dogs and bread as a meal ... but apparently it was deleted, so the rest of the thread is kind of disjointed :?: ... so that's why the last four posts all veered in the direction of hot dogs and bread.

Personally, I'm in favor of a thread about champagne and chocolate. :D :D :D

Meg

Sounds great!
 

And dark chocolate is full of good flavinoids. I think you have to add some good brie to get a little protein into that meal, tho! :)

mel

OK, I'm in -- what are we going to put the brie on? Or will it be baked in puff pastry? (a complex carb if I ever met one -- have you ever tried to make a puff pastry??? very complex :lol: )

Meg