5 months in the gym and no results - help!!

[annie24]

You shouldn't weight lift.

 

It'll be hard to tell if you lost or gained it, because muscle ways a lot more than the usual weight

 

why do you say that? weight lifting helps you slim down because your muscles use up a lot of energy, even when you aren't working out. plus, lifting weights in women has been shown to offset osteoporosis later in life. yes, you weight more, but you look slimmer when you life weights.

 

If you are lifting a lot, then it becomes important to take measurements with a measuring tape, you will definitely see a difference there, even if the scale doesn't show it.

[leo_s84]

become a vegetarian, you will look and feel better.

 

milk/dairy- only makes you fat and has no nutrition in it. yes its proven, except the people who sell it lie.

 

meat makes you fat, yes it does.

 

drink a lot of water.

 

 

I'm sorry but that's some vegetarian BS...

 

Meat for example has vitamin B2...which you don't find in ANY vegetable... and dairy has no nutrition?? hmmm why would mother nature make us drink milk when we where born...

[Atticus90]

I'm sure it makes the person slimmer, but it'd be pretty hard to tell if you lost weight if you lifted weights.

[Phoenix_girl]

i wont do weight lifting right now - not till i drop some of the weight. my main issue is loosing weight (my doc says i need to start this) and i gain muscle extremely easily.

[Atticus90]

Well, make your own regime ( foods you'll eat, how often you'll eat them, excerisising, etc: ) and if you loose weight, then you can lift weights, cause you'll know you're already loosing weight and weight lifting can't do no harm.

[annie24]

i'm 5'2" @ 180 lbs

i do average of 30 min of cardio (usually burn 200 calories or more).

Typical diet:

breakfast - bowl of cereal

morning snack - grapes or a trailmix (nature valley) bar

lunch - sandwhich

snack - 3 cookies

dinner - stirfry

weekends i typically eat less. during the week i drink mostly water, and weekends usually juice and pepsi.

 

I'm 5'8 @ 180 pounds, and I need to lose 16 pounds to fall into a healthy BMI range again. For 5'8", it is 132-164 pounds. For someone who is 5'2", the healthy BMI range is 108-137 lbs. Now, I know that BMI isn't always accurate depending on your life style and bone structure, but I think at 180, your doctor is right, you really have to make some serious changes or you will have some serious consequences later in life.

 

For me, going to the gym isn't enough. I need to eat carefully. I think it is like that for many women.

 

Have you given some thought to joining weight watchers? I find that I do better when I have a sense of accountability and when there are other people there to support me. I have a hard time self-motivating and staying on track if there isn't a goal in place and if I don't have a support group.

[LostInMyThoughts]

PG: I think you'll need to do more than just get a gym membership.

 

What gym do you go to? It's possible that the personal trainers aren't trained with all the different combinations of body types and metabolisms.

 

That said:

 

Weight Loss is very simple:

 

Calories Taken In

 

Your doctor is being general. Weight isn't what you need to lose. You need to cut down body fat. It's true that excess muscle can hurt your joints, but if you

a) aren't short cutting by taking steriods and

b) using properform,

you will build the joint strenth to endure the extra muscle weight.

 

You should consider speaking with a nutritionist who is able to assess your daily caloric intake and can build a nutrition plan that is balanced for your lifestyle and body type.

 

I would not stop lifting weights. Muscle burns calories more efficiently, and the more muscle you have a) the more calories you burn, and the longer you burn them after you work out.

 

You just need to change your lifting routine. Stick with light weights and lots of reps.

 

Also add in things like jumping jacks, up-downs, bodyweight squats, drop squats, bodyweight lunges, drop-lunges.

[Shiranai]

I don't know if it'll work on you, but my routine really worked for me.

 

When I started I gained 8~10 lbs right off the bat, but now, 2 months into this, I'm 6 lbs lighter than when I started.

 

I'm 5'6", and my healthy weight range is 117~142, so adjust accordingly I guess.

 

I eat roughly 1400 calories a day, I make sure I don't fall below 1200 and don't go over 1600, otherwise, I eat whatever I want.

 

4 days a week I do: 10 min warm up, 30 min weights (light weight (10lbs~40lbs), lots of reps (15 reps, 3 sets)), 30 min of cardio (160 target heart beat), 5 min cool down, and 10 min of stretching.

 

When you're doing light weights with a lot of repetition, you're not really building muscles, you're mostly toning. When I do cardio, I work out as hard as I can on any machine of my choice, but I target roughly 350~500 calories in 30~45 min.

 

2 days a week I do an hour of Yoga or Pilates or any stretching toning exercise of my choice.

 

1 day a week I lay around and sit on my * * * * or walk an hour.

 

Some weeks I'm lazy, and I'll reduce my cardio and weights to:

2 days: 10 min warm up, 40 min weights, 10 min stretching.

2 days: 5 min warm up, 45 min cardio, 10 min stretching.

 

I'm consistently losing roughly 2 lbs a week. Although my body weight fluctuates anywhere from 2~6 lbs daily, I always take the lowest number of the day to make myself feel better. The rest of the weight are just the water I drank throughout the day anyway so who cares.

 

So.... first month I didn't gain any inches but gained 8 lbs, 2nd month I lost 0.5 inches and lost 14 lbs. I think I'm doing pretty good!

 

I hope it works for you too.

[Phoenix_girl]

What are you eating to keep to 1400 calories a day?

[Shiranai]

Anything I want, but I keep a budget in my head and when I eat something I cross it off in my head.

 

Typically I get a banana/apple/peach and a slim-fast for breakfast. A banana is roughly 170 cal, an apple is roughly 100, a peach is roughly 100, slim fast is 180. So, that's around 300 ~ 350 for breakfast.

 

Lunch I eat anything I want but I stick around 450 cal.

 

Dinner I eat anything I want but I stick to 450 cal again.

 

That gives me 100~200 a day to grab a piece of candy, or maybe I miscalculated and accidentally went over.

 

For candy (I love candies!!), I got breath mints that I like (I like the sour ones), so I eat those rather than chocolates.

 

I gave up on soft drinks, or if I drink a soft drink, ice tea, any beverage other than water, then I trade it with 180 to 250 calories of anything I have. Sometimes I will trade a lipton ice tea for a slim-fast if I absolutely must have tea that day or I will give up on my "life style."

 

If I get a star bucks, then I automatically assume a Tall is 350 cal, Grande is 450 cal, and I never get Venti. So, if I get a Grande... then goodbye lunch...

 

things like that.

 

I'm not too big on the don't eat carbs thing because I love carbs.

 

Slim-fast or any energy bar typically has 10~15g of protein in them so they really fill you up. Good option when you're starving, but remember to cross off 180~250 cal when you eat one.

 

 

***make that 2lbs a week, 2 lbs a day and I'll be one skinny skinny person by now.***

[Shiranai]

One trick I do with eating, is I eat something small 15 min before lunch/dinner and drink a ton of water. I might grab a piece of saltine cracker or a dose of fiber supplement, then I drink at least a cup of water.

 

15 min later when I'm about to start eating, whoa~ I'm pretty full already!

 

Sometimes I forget to do this, so I would just eat a sandwhich or something I know is 250~300 calories, and I wait 15 min before eating anything else.

 

It's kind of funny when you sit there with half of your plate still on the table but staring at your friends, and they ask you... "Uhh... are you going to finish that!?!?"

 

 

... right, before you can do this you must learn what 200, 300, 400, 500 calories look like on a plate. They're pretty small actually, it's quite shocking! Most of the time, something the size of your fist is 200 ~250 calories (half a sandwhich from Panero Bread, or half a 6 in sub from Subway), and of course, 2 fists is what you should be eating every meal.

 

I have pretty small hands so I cry a little inside everytime I see how little food I'm supposed to eat a meal.

[annie24]

What are you eating to keep to 1400 calories a day?

 

This was my day today on the weight watchers plan:

 

Breakfast:

1 serving special K cereal with skim milk, black coffee

 

AM Snack:

Coffee + cream + sugar (i like coffee

 

Lunch:

Spring green salad with spicy chicken sausage, bell pepers, white beans, and onions, with dijon sauce

Diet coke

 

PM Snack:

1 cup of yogurt + 1/2 serving of trail mix

 

Dinner:

1 slice of goat cheese + roasted tomato pizza

1 cup of homemade garden vegetable soup

 

And I still have more "points" left over for another snack tonight if I want one.

[greenmonster]

i been a vegan for a very long time now. i don't even eat rice or bread or cereal. thats disgusting me. theres many vegetarian/vegan dishes such as chicken, steak, burgers, nuggets etc. that you don't have to eat with potatoes or bread.

 

hold up...

 

vegetarian/vegan dishes = chicken, steak, burgers??

 

I think your missing the point or maybe you don't understand what you are...but if you are eating chicken, steak, burgers...then you aint a vegetarian or vegan...

 

Me personally...I think that it should be legal to hunt and eat vegetarians/vegans, because I'm higher on the food chain than they are.

 

 

but back to the OP...

 

1. don't drink any soda....ever

2. keep lifting weights...less weight...more reps...faster pace

3. cardio/arobic exercise in the mornings before breakfast 20-30 mins 4-5 times a week...lifting in the afternoon/evening 3-4 nights a week

4. stretch...stretch some more....then stretch after your done stretching

5. get a full body massage on a regular basis.

6. drink at least 1 gallon of water a day...2 if you can

7. find a way to get vinegar into your body...I don't care if you have to just drink some...its health benefits are amazing.

8. don't eat anything after 7pm

9. if your gym has a dry sauna then use it everyday for about 20 mins after your evening workout...

10. avoid the booze...one night out on the town drinking you'll end up dumping in about 2500 empty calories into your body...

[shes2smart]

If your doctor is pushing you to lose weight, I think you need to ask him/her what the reasoning is. Do you have a history of heart problems or diabetes in your family? If you do, then I could understand your doc's concern.

 

However, doctors can be just as weight and fat-phobic as non-medicos, and I have unfortunately run into this quite a bit...where a doc will focus on your weight as a problem when it may not be as much of a problem as they think.

 

I prefer my doc to ask questions about my lifestyle habits -- do I exercise, how often, what type, what's my daily diet like, what are my other lifestyle habits like, what's my health history and my family's health history -- and use the important measures of blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels to determine my overall health, rather than make a judgement based on a number on a scale.

 

I've also had first hand experience with docs pushing weight loss that triggered some very unhealthy dieting/starving/bingeing/compulsive exercise behaviors. Trust me, you don't want to go there.

 

You've gotten a lot of suggestions on this thread, but if I was in your situation, I'd have a detailed chat with my doc, and then I'd be lookin' for a Registered Dietician to learn about nutrition and and work with him/her to set up a personalized plan. Preferably an RD in a private practice and not one employed by a diet place. I'd have a hard time trusting an RD working for a diet doc or diet center...too suspicious that they'd be trying to sell me a "program" rather than deal with me as an individual.

[JeckyllNHyde]

hold up...

 

vegetarian/vegan dishes = chicken, steak, burgers??

 

I think your missing the point or maybe you don't understand what you are...but if you are eating chicken, steak, burgers...then you aint a vegetarian or vegan...

 

Me personally...I think that it should be legal to hunt and eat vegetarians/vegans, because I'm higher on the food chain than they are.

LOL. Haha good one about being higher on the chain but the poster meant (i think) like those vegetarian burgers which are meant to mimic the taste of chicken... i thinkkk that is what was meant.

 

 

 

but back to the OP...

 

1. don't drink any soda....ever

2. keep lifting weights...less weight...more reps...faster pace

3. cardio/arobic exercise in the mornings before breakfast 20-30 mins 4-5 times a week...lifting in the afternoon/evening 3-4 nights a week

4. stretch...stretch some more....then stretch after your done stretching

5. get a full body massage on a regular basis.

6. drink at least 1 gallon of water a day...2 if you can

7. find a way to get vinegar into your body...I don't care if you have to just drink some...its health benefits are amazing.

8. don't eat anything after 7pm

9. if your gym has a dry sauna then use it everyday for about 20 mins after your evening workout...

10. avoid the booze...one night out on the town drinking you'll end up dumping in about 2500 empty calories into your body...

 

you make good points, i have a question since i am in a similar situation to the OP.

what do dry saunas help with? i have one at the gym but dont use it.

[greenmonster]

LOL. Haha good one about being higher on the chain but the poster meant (i think) like those vegetarian burgers which are meant to mimic the taste of chicken... i thinkkk that is what was meant.

 

 

I dunno...I thought thats what they meant at first too...but steak and chicken are steak and chicken...burgers can mean a lotta things...but Steak = Cow....chicken = chicken....who knows

 

 

you make good points, i have a question since i am in a similar situation to the OP.

what do dry saunas help with? i have one at the gym but dont use it.

 

The following was taken directly from some article I found, basically sums up what I was gonna say without me having to type it all out....

 

 

 

Both saunas and steam rooms can be used to relax and unwind. However, dry saunas have an advantage over steam rooms by helping to rid the body of more toxic metals picked up from the environment. Of course, the kidneys take out many of these toxins but a daily sweat can help reduce the body’s accumulation of lead, mercury and nickel in addition to cadmium, sodium, sulfuric acid and cholesterol.

The sauna is also more beneficial than the steam room if weight loss is desired because the energy expenditure. Compared to the steam room, the sauna places a greater demand on the body in terms of using up calories, thus assists in fat loss. thereforeeee, the heart needs to work harder to send more blood to the capillaries under the skin. The energy required for that process is derived from the conversion of fat and carbohydrates to calories,

In addition, the sweat glands must work to produce sweat, which also requires energy and more calories. Studies show a person can burn up to 300 calories during a sauna session, the equivalent of a two-to-three-mile jog or an hour of moderate weight training.

People can lose up to a quart of water during a 20 minute sauna. Without replacement, such a high water loss can lead to disruption of normal heart rhythms and cause fatigue and nausea. thereforeeee, drinking fresh juice or water before, during and after the sauna is highly recommended.

Sweating by overheating the body in a dry sauna also produces the following effects:

 

* Speeds up metabolic processes of vital organs and inhabits the growth of pathogenic bacteria and viruses. The vital organs and glands (including endocrine and sex glands) are stimulated to increased activity.

* Creates a fever reaction that kills potentially dangerous viruses/bacteria and increase the number of leukocytes in the blood, thereby strengthening the immune system.

* Places demands upon the cardiovascular system, making the heart pump harder and producing a drop in diastolic blood pressure.

* Stimulates vasodilation of peripheral vessels, which relieves pain and speeds healing of sprains, strains, bursitis, peripheral vascular diseases, arthritis and muscle pain.

* Promotes relaxation, thereby lending a feeling of well-being.

 

When saunas are used regularly, studies have shown benefits such as improved blood circulation, restored youthfulness, toxin and heavy metal reduction, weight control, cellulite reduction, skin cleansing and rejuvenation, allergy reduction, rash reduction.

[annie24]

hold up...

 

vegetarian/vegan dishes = chicken, steak, burgers??

 

I think your missing the point or maybe you don't understand what you are...but if you are eating chicken, steak, burgers...then you aint a vegetarian or vegan...

 

Me personally...I think that it should be legal to hunt and eat vegetarians/vegans, because I'm higher on the food chain than they are.

 

I *think* she meant vegan substitutes like Boca burgers or Tofurky vegan "chicken" nuggets, or other meat simulation products. there are many good ones out there actually! I would recommend anyone go pick them up.

 

haha, on a totally off topic note, when I was a vegetarian, I had a friend ask me, "do you eat chicken?" I said, "No! I'm a vegetarian." She said, "But chicken's DUMB!" (Ha, and apparently, so was she.

[JadedStar]

This was my day today on the weight watchers plan:

 

Breakfast:

1 serving special K cereal with skim milk, black coffee

 

AM Snack:

Coffee + cream + sugar (i like coffee

 

Lunch:

Spring green salad with spicy chicken sausage, bell pepers, white beans, and onions, with dijon sauce

Diet coke

 

PM Snack:

1 cup of yogurt + 1/2 serving of trail mix

 

Dinner:

1 slice of goat cheese + roasted tomato pizza

1 cup of homemade garden vegetable soup

 

And I still have more "points" left over for another snack tonight if I want one.

 

WOW Annie. Very healthy day for you!

 

I had a slice of pizza and a soda. LOL

 

I don't do well with diets, i hope my metabolism holds out.

[annie24]

yeah, I've forgotten how nice it is to eat healthy. I can feel my jeans starting to loosen a bit. I can hardly wait to get on that scale this weekend! You are quite slender though.

 

Portion control is key. You can eat pizza or stir fry or pasta, but it's just you can't eat the entire box.

 

And while normally, i'd agree with you She2smart, and you know I love you and respect you, I can't see how 5'2" and 180 is healthy. I agree with you, that a doctor should be more looking at the entire picture of health, not just a number on a scale. I know very slender people who are not healthy at all because they got that way because they NEVER EAT. yikes. The thing is, you can be healthy at 5'2" and 180 when you are 22, but at 32, or 42, or 52, your body might not be handling that weight so well anymore. But yes, I agree with getting a comprehensive panel done and figuring out exactly what are the health risks she is facing. And on the upside, if, for example, her blood pressure is high, and slimming down lowers it, then you can see progress in that way also, not just in the jean size.

 

I just found this out a few days ago, I never knew this - but my health insurance pays for 50% of weight watchers meetings, jenny craig, health club memberships, massages, some exercise classes, and acupuncture, up to $100 of reimbursements. This is a part of trying to curb obesity related medical expenses. I never knew about this, and am looking forward to getting reimbursements - PG, does your insurance have a similar financial incentive? I was just watching CNN a few days ago and they were reporting some study where they found that people lost more weight the more financial incentives that were offered. I thought that was a great idea.

[JadedStar]

Annie you are so right about portion control. I have never dieted, i eat whatever i want, but the key is small portions.

 

I have done this so many years it comes natural. I got stuffed every meal but the thing is it takes so little to get me there.

 

But i have this bad habit of eating one meal a day. And normally its dinner. I really want to break that habit. I know its not healthy.

[shes2smart]

I love you, too

 

And we're actually not that far apart in opinions on this.

 

I don't know that 180 is a healthy or unhealthy weight for this particular person. What I do know is if the true concern is "health" focusing on weight isn't the most desirable indicator to use as a marker for progress.

 

Too often, people start exercising and equate "results" with "weight loss". But that doesn't always happen -- they may not adopt healthier eating habits to go along with the activity...or they may start developing muscle and actually gain weight. So, a few months go by and they feel they're not seeing "results" because the number on the scale isn't going down....so they quit exercising because they're discouraged. In the process, they lose all the health benefits they were getting from excercisng.

 

You don't have to lose an ounce to benefit from regular exercise...you just have to exercise regularly to get those benefits.

 

From the OP's description of her usual eating habits, she could do better (as could we all). That's why I suggested she go to an RD. There's a lot of conflicting information floating around out there, and what works for some might not work for others. I spent most of last year seeing an RD who specializes in working with people who have eating disorders and body image issues. I landed there because I went to see a doc in 2005 who gave me the weight loss speech, handed me a piece of paper with a 1400 calorie a day diet. On top of that, she took my blood pressure with a blood pressure cuff that I later learned was too small for the circumference of my upper arm. It gave a false high reading, which resulted in her giving me another lecture and I left her office thinking I was going to keel over dead from a heart attack any minute. No where in that visit did the doc ask what my exercise or eating habits or other lifestyle habits were....other than asking if I smoked. At least I gave her the right answer to that one, otherwise it woulda been lecture #3 for the visit.

 

After that follwed several months of alternately restricting food intake and bingeing...behaviors I had not engaged in for about 20 years. I'm lucky I found the RD and started seeing her. During my work with her we spent more time talking about the attitudes I had toward food, eating and exercise and less time talking about what I "should" and "shouldn't" be eating.

 

Anyway, after working with the RD and reading a good dozen or two books on weight, body image, nutrition and eating as part of therapy, I've come to see that the focus/importance most people put on weight as an indicator of their health isn't the most effective way to go about getting people to change their habits. If it was, we'd all be thin. Too many people believe that "results" must/has to/should equate to "weight loss" and get discouraged when they don't see "results" that match their expectations (much like the OP). Then they're likely to drop whatever healthy habits they've recently acquired (like regular exercise) because they feel "that stuff doesn't work."

 

When I first got my gym membership (about 3.5 years ago), I could barely last 10-15 minutes on the elliptical on one of the lower settings. After 10-15 minutes, my heart rate was way up and I was horribly winded. Now, 30-40 minutes on the elliptical at a of medium/medium-high setting is no big deal. My heart rate goes up into a cardio working range, but it comes back down quickly and I can breathe through the whole thing. When I first started with weight machines, using 10lb plates on some of the machines was difficult...now it's 30 or 50 or more (depending on the machine). When I first started doing yoga, I couldn't hold a Down-facing Dog pose for more than a few seconds...now when the class is hanging out in Down Dog for two or more minutes, I'm right there with them. When I first started changing my eating habits, it was a chore to include more vegetables...now I miss them if they're not there. My blood pressure (when taken with the correct size cuff) is smack dab in the middle of the normal range for a female of my age, my blood sugar went from teetering on the edge of high-normal to normal, my cholesterol's always been normal to low, but that's probably got more to do with the genetic hand I was dealt than anything else.

 

In this process (and the above is a summary of the last, oh 2-3 years), the only time I got really screwy and feeling bad was when I started making my focus and my indicator of results the number on a scale. If I look at the things detailed in the last paragraph, I feel pretty damn good about the progress I've made...and that makes me more likely to continue doing those healthy behaviors because I DO see progress and results. I have not, however, seen weight loss....and I probably won't. A combination of severely screwy diets in my teens and 20's, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (diagnosed when I was 27), and the genetic hand I was dealt pretty much ensure that at this point. As I mentioned before, going by clothing sizes and the way my old clothes (don't) fit anymore, I have gotten smaller...but even that took over a year (and probably more like 2 years) to manifest to any noticeable degree. If I actually paid attention or put importance on the number that shows up on the scale? I'd be so discouraged that it wouldn't seem worth the effort to do all those things.

 

Much as it galls me to say this...I am not unique in that discouragement when the number on the scale doesn't move the "right" way. And now that I've said it, I will return to my normal delusion that I'm some special, magical and unique creature. Thank you.

 

If someone's focus is truly "health" and developing healthy habits, there are a lot of other, more reliable indicators of progress than weight loss. If someone's main or sole focus is weight loss, there are plenty of screwy, unhealthy ways to get there that don't really benefit your long-term health.

[Adrian28]

i'm 5'2" @ 180 lbs

i do average of 30 min of cardio (usually burn 200 calories or more).

Typical diet:

breakfast - bowl of cereal

morning snack - grapes or a trailmix (nature valley) bar

lunch - sandwhich

snack - 3 cookies

dinner - stirfry

weekends i typically eat less. during the week i drink mostly water, and weekends usually juice and pepsi.

 

Taking a quick look at your diet, I would say that you issue is:

 

- Too many carbs, not enough protein

- Not enough "good fats"

 

Contrary to what people think, you NEED fat in your diet. Fat will actually help you lose the fat on your body because your body will let go of it since it is getting enough. Omega 3 fats are your friend. Stick to flax seed oil, olive oil, fish body capsules for your fat requirements.

 

Now, I am going to give you a couple of secrets to the BEST weigh to lose fat.

 

1) Low impact cardio, i.e a brisk walk in the morning, BEFORE breakfast. Your body will not have any food to burn so it will burn the fat. 6 times a week, 40 mins a day.

 

2) NO CARBS for dinner, except for fruits, vegetables etc. No pasta, no rice, no bread. You don't have time to burn it off if you eat it for dinner.

 

Change your morning breakfast to a couple of eggs and some fruit. For lunch throw in a turkey sandwhich or maybe half a can of tuna with some olive oil. For dinner chicken breast and salad. Some nuts during the day, a couple of servings of yogurt at some point...and that is your day.

 

Forget all these fancy diets and crap. Cardio first thing in the morning. And eat sensibly, the pounds will fall off.

[annie24]

PG - Any updates on how the exercise and nutrition is going?