Question about losing calories and fat-loss

[xblackheartx]

Okay you know how they say that if you dont eat your metabolism slows down therefore you gain weight cause your body holds onto everything it gets ... Well how do u lose weight then. When you go to bed does it pull energy from the fat stores or something? And how do u know uve burned everything off? Do u start to feel hungry again ??

thanks

[Mr. Aries]

the problem is.. and I've learned about your situation..

When you drop your calories intake so much like you used to do while upping cardio tremendously, you basically work yourself into a corner..

1) metabolism slows down due to reduced food intake
2) if you increase food intake now, your slowed metabolism cannot support a higher intake and will store bodyfat.
3) you cannot increase cardio because you are already doing it at a high level..



What I'm trying to say is you've worked yourself into a jam.. you are in a corner grinding a tire against quicksand.. There is no easy solution to this and you must slowly wedge yourself out inch by inch and regain your metabolism..

This is why it is sometimes very hard for obese women to lose weight.. They are obese, yes, and then you look at their diet and they are eatting like 1500 calories.. how the heck did that happen? they've worked their metabolism into a jam... It's so low that even at 1500 calories, they can support a mass of over 300lbs..


I'm 252 and I need 5200 calories per day to maintain.. to get down to 6-8% bf, I drop my calories to 4000... See the difference in metabolism?

[xblackheartx]

yup, i understand. so once i get my metabolism working better, my body wont store it as fat? How long does it usually take for itto start working proper again ?

[Mr. Aries]

once your metabolism returns to it's normal standard, you will be able to eat more than you do now and still be just as lean, if not leaner, than you are now.

how long? it's anyone's guess.. the more consistent you stay with your diet and workout regimen without huge dips and ridiculous sacrifices taht risk everything you've gained so far, the faster it will regain it's former glory.

Do not worry about such fine details.. Just know that from now on until forever, the answer to fat loss is not 8 hours of cardio and 600 calories per day..

That's not a lifestyle.. That's a life-sentence!

[xblackheartx]

Thank You. So as long as I stick to a healthy eating plan and quit the yoyo dieting, ill be fine?

[Mr. Aries]

yes ma'am.. slowly your metabolism will go up as you gain muscle..


it is very important to gain muscle through resistance training. People with a higher lean body mass has a much higher metabolism than those who do not.


John Lee

[xblackheartx]

okay, thank you. And when im doing weights i shouldnt do more than 10 min of cardio right

[Mr. Aries]

I'm not gonna say should or should not...

It's not necessary on the days you train, FOR NOW>. when you hit a plateau, yes.. it might become necessary at that time.

[imperfectly_lou]

Good advice.

It took me about 3 years to get my metabolism back on track after suffering from anorexia. My biggest mistake was doing too much cardio. If I had just let myself gain some muscle, I am sure I would have saved a lot of time.

[White Knight]

Don't know the history but wouldn't a carb cyling diet kick start the metabolic rate?

[Mr. Aries]

Don't know the history but wouldn't a carb cyling diet kick start the metabolic rate?


or it might confuse a system that has already suffered from too much inconsistency.


carb-cycling diets are best for preservation of an existing high metabolism. It does not do very well to raise it after years of abuse.

carb cycling diets are best used pre-contest to slowly rid of bodyfat while maintaining metabolism.

[barnetjs]

What about instead of carb cycling - do higher and lower calorie day - like three days lower then two days about 200 calories higher.

Inregard to cardio and dieting - for over 1 year I have worked my ass off and stayed the same weight or gained a bit - until just over Christmas I took a week off - only walked for 30 min three days - this week I have only done cardio 2 times and weights 2 times (slowing getting back after week off - next week is full on) and I have lost weight - 4 pounds including a major drinking fest over NewYears (water weight went up 10 pounds for two days) now it is back off. When I start next week back full time I have decided to not include as much cardio to begin with to see if maybe that has been the problem all along - like I backed myself into the same corner that was being discussed in the beginning of the thread.

(I was doing cardio 6 days a week for 45 min - HARD AND FAST- SWEATING AND BREATHING HARD.) Lifting weights 5 days a week.

[terracotta]

Except, that in the case of the original poster, she is recovering from anorexia. Thus, your two cases are different. She has to get her metabolism up to an acceptable level before rotating carbs or calories.

[xblackheartx]

Thank You =)

[Helene]

Inregard to cardio and dieting - for over 1 year I have worked my ass off and stayed the same weight or gained a bit - until just over Christmas I took a week off - only walked for 30 min three days - this week I have only done cardio 2 times and weights 2 times (slowing getting back after week off - next week is full on) and I have lost weight - 4 pounds including a major drinking fest over NewYears (water weight went up 10 pounds for two days) now it is back off. When I start next week back full time I have decided to not include as much cardio to begin with to see if maybe that has been the problem all along - like I backed myself into the same corner that was being discussed in the beginning of the thread.

(I was doing cardio 6 days a week for 45 min - HARD AND FAST- SWEATING AND BREATHING HARD.) Lifting weights 5 days a week.

I think that's a great plan!
LIft heavy, eat clean and you'll see that you can lose fat without the painfull cardio.

[Amris]

Don't know the history but wouldn't a carb cyling diet kick start the metabolic rate?

You want to go onto a NORMAL calorie intake diet for AT LEAST a month before going onto a cycling diet. That's tremendously important. As Mr. Aries said, an arleady confused body needs consistency for a period of time. And the longer it has been confused, the longer it needs to recover.

And during that time, you must take special care not to OVER exercise yourself, or you sabotage the caloric intake.

[xblackheartx]

You want to go onto a NORMAL calorie intake diet for AT LEAST a month before going onto a cycling diet. That's tremendously important. As Mr. Aries said, an arleady confused body needs consistency for a period of time. And the longer it has been confused, the longer it needs to recover.

And during that time, you must take special care not to OVER exercise yourself, or you sabotage the caloric intake.

Thank you. I took in 1867 calories today =)

[terracotta]

congratulations Ashley! :D :D