Frustrated With My Body

[UnknownSld]

Here is my input on this, although I am working on gaining muscle size, weight and strength. Either way you look at it, caloric intake is a MAJOR part of reaching any goal when it comes to getting your body the way you want it. I am no personal trainer but I do a lot of studies on this subject. In order to gain weight, or stay at a certain weight while exercising you want to stay at or increase your caloric intake. As mentioned before, weight lifting, doing heavier weights with lower reps and more sets builds muscle and size. Decrease the amount of weight, aim for higher reps and lower sets. This will help with toning your body. In order to lose the body fat you will have to increase your cardio. Double the amount that you do in the gym currently. One day work just cardio the whole time you are there. The next day aim for weights to tone your body. Cutting out complex carbohydrates eating only the simple carbs and LESS sugar really helps. I do not know how much water you take in at this point in time but decrease it a little. Still take in the recommended daily intake for water as it is essential to stay hydrated.

Going on diets is not necessarily unhealthy, just depends on how you go about dieting. Many of these diet products out there do not work and if it says you can lose 20 lbs in a few weeks, ABSOLUTELY DO NOT USE IT. That is very unhealthy and can cause more problems than it solves. Eat foods with less fat in it, such as salads. Try not to take in high amounts of proteins and carbohydrates since the excess that your body does not burn becomes fat stores for later use. Also as stated above, 3 months is just the beginning. It takes a while to really gain weight and to lose it in return. If something you want was handed to you on a silver platter, there is nothing special about it right? Just work hard, change your routine up periodically and never give up. Stay confident and over time the progress you are making will really start to show.

I mean, take it from me, I have been working out for years and have never completely reached my goal but have come close. Due to things that come up, I take time away from the gym and have to start all over again. Lucky for me, everything I read and the advice I get from others help me a lot. When I first joined a gym a few years ago, I went from 140 lbs to 170 lbs in just over 2 months but hit a plateau. My goal was 195. Point is, it will happen, just takes time but it is very much worth it when you reach that goal. I hope this helps and the best of luck to you. I have faith in you.

[AirbenderAang]

Body composition is defined by how much muscle you have and how much fat you have. It sounds like you are doing well with the muscle component. Even if you are not any smaller it is likely that you have more muscle mass. That is a good thing. Also, exercise by itself is great for your health.

In terms of losing more fat it sounds like you need to examine what you are consuming and how you are eating. Then make a change, that you can live with of course, that will result in consuming less calories. Great ways to consume less calories is to eat more fiber, eat less sugars, eat less refined carbohydrates, don't drink juice or any time of sodas, eat more vegetables, eat smaller meals more often... Never starve youself, that is the quickest way to lose muscle and probably sabotage yourself.

I disagree pretty heartily with UnknownSid on a couple of points.

"Cutting out complex carbohydrates eating only the simple carbs."
Maybe UnknownSid made a typo or something, but that is the absolute worst dietary advice. Complex carbohydrates have more nutritional value and they also keep you satiated longer. I think maybe it is a typo because he goes on to contradict himself. Sugar is a simple carb and that is something of course you want to avoid. Simple carbs are refined carbohydrates, like food made from white floor, or white rice. Complex carbs are whole grains and vegetables,

Also you don't have to do more cardio. You do have to burn more calories than you consume. You can solve this equation by doing more cardio and eating the same number of calories. Or you can solve it by doing the same amount of cardio and eating less calories.

In terms of water, I am curious why you told her to drink less water. Generally the more water you drink the less water your body stores. Also staying hydrated ensures you burn more calories when you exercise merely because you have more "juice".

"Eat foods with less fat in it, such as salads. Try not to take in high amounts of proteins and carbohydrates since the excess that your body does not burn becomes fat stores for later use. "
You are confusing the issue. You gain weight by eating more calories than you burn off. Also salads should always be eaten with fat. If there is no fat in your salad you won't absorb many of the nutritients inherent in the salad. Also fat is a key component of satiation. You will stay full longer when you eat foods with fat.

Lastly never starve yourself. You never want to put your body into starvation mode. Starvation mode slows your metabolism to a crawl, your body starts eating away at your muscles, and then the next time any caloric extra is going to be stored directly as fat. You want to give yourself a periodic stream of calories(this ensures greater satiation and als and you never want to try to lose weight too rapidly. Also you still must run a calorie deficit if you want to lose weight.

Finally, just eating a plate of lettuce or some other vegetable for a meal is effectively starving yourself. Most vegetables by themselves do not provide the required calories. You need to have a basic level of calories for each meal.

The secret is to cut out empty calories. Eat foods that you will provide more satiation (meaning foods with higher fiber content, more protein, and fat while still controlling for calories). Oh and eat breakfast.

[UnknownSld]

Airbender, just out of curiosity where do you get your info from? You said,
[QUOTE=AirbenderAang;684377 "Maybe UnknownSid made a typo or something, but that is the absolute worst dietary advice. Complex carbohydrates have more nutritional value and they also keep you satiated longer. I think maybe it is a typo because he goes on to contradict himself. Sugar is a simple carb and that is something of course you want to avoid. Simple carbs are refined carbohydrates, like food made from white floor, or white rice. Complex carbs are whole grains and vegetables,"[/QUOTE

After doing some research I have found out that Carbohydrates were ONCE grouped into two main categories. Simple carbohydrates included sugars such as fruit sugar (fructose), corn or grape sugar (dextrose or glucose), and table sugar (sucrose). Complex carbohydrates included everything made of three or more linked sugars. Complex carbohydrates were thought to be the healthiest to eat, while simple carbohydrates weren't so great. It turns out that the picture is more complicated than that.

The digestive system handles all carbohydrates in much the same way�it breaks them down (or tries to break them down) into single sugar molecules, since only these are small enough to cross into the bloodstream. It also converts most digestible carbohydrates into glucose (also known as blood sugar), because cells are designed to use this as a universal energy source. What the body does not break down and use it stores or gets rid of.

[QUOTE=AirbenderAang;684377"Also you don't have to do more cardio. You do have to burn more calories than you consume. You can solve this equation by doing more cardio and eating the same number of calories. Or you can solve it by doing the same amount of cardio and eating less calories."[/QUOTE

You burn more calories during a cardio workout than you do weight lifting. You are right that you have to burn more calories than you consume. Like you said, it can be done by doing more cardio and the same amount of calories or the same amount of cardio and less calories. By doing the second of the two, that would constitute eating smaller portions or less meals a day. I would suggest staying at the amount of food that you intake now and doing more cardio considering you burn more calories during a cardio workout. Here are is some info to help back this up:

The theory behind strength training burning more than cardio comes from the idea that one pound of muscle uses more calories per day than one pound fat does, while this is true, it is not enough to trim you down. Take a look at the numbers:
182 calories are burned per day for each pound of kidney your body houses.
110 calories are burned per day for each pound of brain that your body houses.
6 calories are burned per day for each pound of muscle that your body houses.
2 calories are burned per day for each pound of fat that your body houses.
During strength training you burn less calories, and the additional calories you burn due to the gain in muscle in your body is barely enough to make a difference, your time would be much better spend doing cardio where you would burn more calories during the workout (and less after).
If you're interested in boosting your metabolism to lose weight, aerobic training such as running and walking is a better investment than strength training. All you need to do is look at the numbers to see why:
40 minutes of moderate cardio (running 8:30 pace) vs. 40 minutes of moderate strength training-
Cardio: 522 calories burned during the activity, 30 calories burned in afterburn, 0 calories burned from gained muscle
Strength Training: approximately 136 calories burned during the activity, 20 calories burned in afterburn, 30 calories burned from gained muscle
Cardio leads by 366 calories.
So there it is, if you want to burn more fat do more cardio, the numbers are simple. However, I won't necessarily replace all strength training with cardio, it is good to have a mix of both-this way you will burn fat and build muscle which will keep you strong and healthy and prevent against injury, not to mention provide you with sleek and sexy muscles. It is also important to keep diet in mind, exercise alone won't do it (and neither will diet alone)

[QUOTE=AirbenderAang;684377"In terms of water, I am curious why you told her to drink less water. Generally the more water you drink the less water your body stores. Also staying hydrated ensures you burn more calories when you exercise merely because you have more "juice".[/QUOTE

After going back and doing some digging, I believe you are right about this. Everything I have heard for body building and drinking lots of water led me to believe the more water you drank in one day, the more weight you would gain. I also was under the impression body fat was comprised of more water than it really is, only 10% to be exact. So I have to thank you for helping me get this correct.

[QUOTE=AirbenderAang;684377"You are confusing the issue. You gain weight by eating more calories than you burn off. Also salads should always be eaten with fat. If there is no fat in your salad you won't absorb many of the nutritients inherent in the salad. Also fat is a key component of satiation. You will stay full longer when you eat foods with fat.[/QUOTE

That is actually not fats that keep you full longer but carbs, proteins and water.

[AirbenderAang]

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I have gotten my information from a combination of multiple sources. I have gotten most of my information from readings Men's Health magazine for years, browsing forums for physical trainers, and reading exercise books. When I combined these wide ranging sources, I looked at where there was consensus and where there was debate. There is a hell of a lot of consensus out there on the basic fundamentals of what is healthy. I am no expert. I consider myself a reasonably knowledgeable individual and I am someone who has merely synthesized a lot of health information out there.

"The digestive system handles all carbohydrates in much the same way�it breaks them down (or tries to break them down) into single sugar molecules, since only these are small enough to cross into the bloodstream. It also converts most digestible carbohydrates into glucose (also known as blood sugar), because cells are designed to use this as a universal energy source. What the body does not break down and use it stores or gets rid of."
I agree completely with what you said. All carbohydrates get broken down into sugar. Yet they get broken down at different rates. You want to avoid the carbohydrates that are broken down faster(foods with a high glycemic index [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index]Glycemic index - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/url] ). If you shifted from eating high GI foods to low GI foods most likely you would lose weight because you would be less hungry and eat less. An interesting tid-bit about carbohydrates is that they induce an insulin response in our body. The higher the GI, the greater the insulin response. Also, insulin tells our body to store energy(ie: gain weight). Insulin also induces hunger.

"Insulin stops the use of fat as an energy source by inhibiting the release of glucagon. When insulin is absent, glucose is not taken up by body cells and the body begins to use fat as an energy source or gluconeogenesis;"
-This is the third sentence about Insulin on wikipedia [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin#Physiological_effects]Insulin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/url]

Now I am certainly not saying to avoid carbohydrates, but many people could benefit tremendously from eating less carbohydrates and or eating carbohydrates with low GI. Fruits and vegetables are excellent nutrient dense foods that are great for our body.


"That is actually not fats that keep you full longer but carbs, proteins and water. "
I think I get what you are saying, but I think you made another typo. Proteins, water, and fiber keep you full longer. Carbohydrates with high GI will quickly get convirted to sugar and your body will naturally produce a lot of insulin to deal with it.You want to avoid high GI diet. In fact a low GI diet -> most fruits and vegetables, legumes/pulses, whole grains, nuts, fructose and products low in carbohydrates is incredibly healthy. Basically, I am discriminating against some carbs (most of the carbs in the typical American diet).
The reason why I mention fats is that our body needs and craves fats. I believe that fat keeps you full longer, but I may be wrong. I do know for a fact that fat does deliver a satiated feeling after eating. Plus our body needs and craves fats. I think the low fat craze has wrongly stigmatized fat in the American psyche. Don't go crazy on the fats, some fat is very good for you.

[smackie9]

You are doing it wrong.......you need to do cardio first like running before you do your weight training. As for weight, muscle mass weighs more than fat so stay off the scale, it's not important at this time. As for diet, stop eating pre packaged foods that claim to be low fat or low calorie. Basically you should not be eating anything processed. You should be eating food in it's purest form. Stay away from juice, eat fruit instead. Broil, grill or bake meats....never fry anything including eggs. And don't drink diet soda or anything else that says "diet". they still react to your fat cells just the same as regular sugar.

[smackie9]

BTW you will not see anything dramatic. It's a very gradual process and you will start to see some results after about 6 months. Also it depends on how hard you push yourself. You need to increase your weights and reps more at each workout to the point is hurts and you still have to push yourself even harder even tho you want to stop. Maybe try boot camp workouts to break up your routine.

[UnknownSld]

No problem Airbender. I actually get my sources in many of the same places as you including talking to personal trainers, nutritionists, body builders, nutrition books, body building books, weight loss books, as well as many many magazines and websites. I was considering becoming a Personal Trainer and have helped a few people from my gym reach their goals when they were at a stand still on their gains.

It seems like we are starting to get on the same page. I agree that there are certain carbohydrates someone losing weight would want to eat less. After talking to people though, most people do not eat as many fruits and vegetables as they should. I know myself that I don't as well as many of my friends. Fresh fruits and vegetables are recommended when losing weight, however the majority of people I have learned eat canned foods or take out foods from restaurants more than healthy home cooking.

You are right I did mean to say Fiber as well. However fats are not what keeps you full longer, I think I read fiber being the one that does that but I could be wrong. I will have to look into that again. Now fat's are good for you, at least the right kind of fats. One of the biggest problems with fats is if you eat a lot of Trans Fats and Saturated Fats that is very bad for you and detrimental to your goals. Along with that, you would be at a higher risk of cholesterol blockage in your arteries, heart disease and problems. Remember having a healthy heart is very very important in working out.