jennifaith
New member
@tiyashrivasthav I seriously needed to hear this. Thank you!
I don’t want to give up, but I feel like I’m doing it all wrong
- Thread starter jennifaith
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jamaicanrose
New member
@jennifaith Is the perception of not achieving your aesthetic goals what is affecting your morale in the gym? Or is it doing hypertrophy? (Bit of both?) Just exercise wise since you’re still at a fairly beginner stage and making progress you could probably afford to switch to something you preferred (strength?) and as long as you are eating at a reasonable deficit, meet some of your aesthetic goals.
For me forming the habit of exercising and sticking with it is way more important at the stage you’re at than what exercise you are specifically doing. It’s a bit of a journey of finding things that work for you then stagnating and finding something else.
In regards to changing your body keep sight of the positives, the inches lost and the new muscle definitions you didn’t see before. It’s happening, you’ve got to trust the process. Be careful of under-eating as this can stall progress way more than people realise. It might be trial and error for a little while but you’ve got to allow enough time for the results to show.
For me forming the habit of exercising and sticking with it is way more important at the stage you’re at than what exercise you are specifically doing. It’s a bit of a journey of finding things that work for you then stagnating and finding something else.
In regards to changing your body keep sight of the positives, the inches lost and the new muscle definitions you didn’t see before. It’s happening, you’ve got to trust the process. Be careful of under-eating as this can stall progress way more than people realise. It might be trial and error for a little while but you’ve got to allow enough time for the results to show.
@jennifaith Yes, you're a little impatient.
I mean, you basically can't have your cake and eat it, but I would say for your goals and desires I'd stick with a small deficit and keep lifting (so no more than the 1900). Until your lifts start stalling you'll be fine. This assumes your TDEE is truly 2400, how did you get that number? I'd recommend the adaptive TDEE spreadsheet, as ultimately you'll be causing yourself a lot of frustration if that number is wrong. I'm inclined to say you may be more like 2200 based on your stats and 3x lifting a week but depends if there are other details missing. If that number truly is lower, it's probably at least 2100 but anywhere like 2100-2200 is almost half the rate of loss you'd expect compared to if it's 2400.
1 lb/week is a good sustainable loss rate at your position, but you can always go to slower losses in order to fuel workouts more. There's no right or wrong. You can't spot reduce either so is what it is. I would say I personally always felt my stomach never looked smaller but it's partly because it's all relative... Everything else gets smaller too so often proportionally things may not change very much for a long period. It will improve eventually but it's a long term game. Also consider whether there are diet impacts (bloating) and postural impacts (pelvic tilts) as they make things look a lot bigger than reality.
The fact the inches are changing though is evidence of progress. Muscle weighs more than fat so the process of gaining muscle can certainly be in conflict if the scale is your primary measure - even more so if indeed your TDEE isn't as high as you think it is.
I mean, you basically can't have your cake and eat it, but I would say for your goals and desires I'd stick with a small deficit and keep lifting (so no more than the 1900). Until your lifts start stalling you'll be fine. This assumes your TDEE is truly 2400, how did you get that number? I'd recommend the adaptive TDEE spreadsheet, as ultimately you'll be causing yourself a lot of frustration if that number is wrong. I'm inclined to say you may be more like 2200 based on your stats and 3x lifting a week but depends if there are other details missing. If that number truly is lower, it's probably at least 2100 but anywhere like 2100-2200 is almost half the rate of loss you'd expect compared to if it's 2400.
1 lb/week is a good sustainable loss rate at your position, but you can always go to slower losses in order to fuel workouts more. There's no right or wrong. You can't spot reduce either so is what it is. I would say I personally always felt my stomach never looked smaller but it's partly because it's all relative... Everything else gets smaller too so often proportionally things may not change very much for a long period. It will improve eventually but it's a long term game. Also consider whether there are diet impacts (bloating) and postural impacts (pelvic tilts) as they make things look a lot bigger than reality.
The fact the inches are changing though is evidence of progress. Muscle weighs more than fat so the process of gaining muscle can certainly be in conflict if the scale is your primary measure - even more so if indeed your TDEE isn't as high as you think it is.
@polcat Hi my diet is 4 eggs in the morning
1 chicken leg quarter and a breast quarter
With some vegetables and same thing for dinner
And i realsie when i used toeat nuts with it i would burn 2300 calories being alive and eat 2200 to 2300
But now i cut out the nuts and i was sedentary before and i lost 30lbs but noticed no fat difference
Im in the gym now and im doing 20 mins cardio on the ellliptical with a high heart rate and weight lifting
Will i notice fat difference now if i continue my diet
Because i burn 3300 when i exercise and i eat 2000 or 2100
Should i keep going,check my account for the pic of my body
I was 200 now 155 no fat difference 6'3 underweight now but still has fat ,kinda undeweright close to being to
I eat a high protein to build some muscle and low carb to burn some fat and used stored fat as energy and moderate fat
175gof protein
100g fat
30-35g of carbs
1 chicken leg quarter and a breast quarter
With some vegetables and same thing for dinner
And i realsie when i used toeat nuts with it i would burn 2300 calories being alive and eat 2200 to 2300
But now i cut out the nuts and i was sedentary before and i lost 30lbs but noticed no fat difference
Im in the gym now and im doing 20 mins cardio on the ellliptical with a high heart rate and weight lifting
Will i notice fat difference now if i continue my diet
Because i burn 3300 when i exercise and i eat 2000 or 2100
Should i keep going,check my account for the pic of my body
I was 200 now 155 no fat difference 6'3 underweight now but still has fat ,kinda undeweright close to being to
I eat a high protein to build some muscle and low carb to burn some fat and used stored fat as energy and moderate fat
175gof protein
100g fat
30-35g of carbs
jennifaith
New member
@polcat I used multiple calorie calculators that all came around somewhere between 2300-400 calories. I feel like the biggest issue is that some didn’t allow for an age input under 18, and I was kinda stuck between their definitions of activity levels. I used to be in a upper/lower split so I haven’t recalculated it since.
It’s unfortunate that spot reduction isn’t a thing
I just know that the stomach tends to be the last place where most lost fat. I have no clue how long it’ll be till I get there.
Bloating has definitely been a problem for me. Through portion control, I’ve also been able to control my bloating. Even then, certain foods trigger bloating easily. Maybe that’s why I feel so good about myself in the morning and worse towards the end of the day.
I use both measurements and the scale just to get a general idea of what’s going on. I was thinking in investing in one of those fancy scales that also calculates water weight, BMI, etc. but apparently the margin of error is a bit high in comparison to the proper machines that you see in personal training rooms at the gym. I always have this idea that the number on the scale doesn’t matter as much as you’d think, but when I don’t see it move it’s discouraging. I’m trying my best to push past that, but maybe it’ll take some more time and progress until I can really ingrain that idea into my head.
Thank you!
It’s unfortunate that spot reduction isn’t a thing
I just know that the stomach tends to be the last place where most lost fat. I have no clue how long it’ll be till I get there.Bloating has definitely been a problem for me. Through portion control, I’ve also been able to control my bloating. Even then, certain foods trigger bloating easily. Maybe that’s why I feel so good about myself in the morning and worse towards the end of the day.
I use both measurements and the scale just to get a general idea of what’s going on. I was thinking in investing in one of those fancy scales that also calculates water weight, BMI, etc. but apparently the margin of error is a bit high in comparison to the proper machines that you see in personal training rooms at the gym. I always have this idea that the number on the scale doesn’t matter as much as you’d think, but when I don’t see it move it’s discouraging. I’m trying my best to push past that, but maybe it’ll take some more time and progress until I can really ingrain that idea into my head.
Thank you!
@jennifaith Yeah the activity bit is where most people go wrong, they estimate too high. I would always pick the lower if you're going for weight loss - in your case no more than "lightly active" (often listed as 1-2 times a week).
Moderately active was only true for me running 20-25 mpw with a couple of gym sessions (30 min cardio, 15 min stretch, 45 min weights). Which was quite a lot really, a good 5 days a week effort and that's with running, one of the best calorie burn per time on the day. Lifting goes a long long way longer term, but the actual workouts aren't going to be adding huge factors to bump the activity up right now.
Yeah those scales don't necessarily offer anything to rely on. The bloating thing was absolutely huge for me though so if you can figure out if there are specific triggers then you might get positive boost! Good luck
Moderately active was only true for me running 20-25 mpw with a couple of gym sessions (30 min cardio, 15 min stretch, 45 min weights). Which was quite a lot really, a good 5 days a week effort and that's with running, one of the best calorie burn per time on the day. Lifting goes a long long way longer term, but the actual workouts aren't going to be adding huge factors to bump the activity up right now.
Yeah those scales don't necessarily offer anything to rely on. The bloating thing was absolutely huge for me though so if you can figure out if there are specific triggers then you might get positive boost! Good luck
@polcat Hi my diet is 4 eggs in the morning
1 chicken leg quarter and a breast quarter
With some vegetables and same thing for dinner
And i realsie when i used toeat nuts with it i would burn 2300 calories being alive and eat 2200 to 2300
But now i cut out the nuts and i was sedentary before and i lost 30lbs but noticed no fat difference
Im in the gym now and im doing 20 mins cardio on the ellliptical with a high heart rate and weight lifting
Will i notice fat difference now if i continue my diet
Because i burn 3300 when i exercise and i eat 2000 or 2100
Should i keep going,check my account for the pic of my body
I was 200 now 155 no fat difference 6'3 underweight now but still has fat ,kinda undeweright close to being to
I eat a high protein to build some muscle and low carb to burn some fat and used stored fat as energy and moderate fat
175gof protein
100g fat
30-35g of carbs
1 chicken leg quarter and a breast quarter
With some vegetables and same thing for dinner
And i realsie when i used toeat nuts with it i would burn 2300 calories being alive and eat 2200 to 2300
But now i cut out the nuts and i was sedentary before and i lost 30lbs but noticed no fat difference
Im in the gym now and im doing 20 mins cardio on the ellliptical with a high heart rate and weight lifting
Will i notice fat difference now if i continue my diet
Because i burn 3300 when i exercise and i eat 2000 or 2100
Should i keep going,check my account for the pic of my body
I was 200 now 155 no fat difference 6'3 underweight now but still has fat ,kinda undeweright close to being to
I eat a high protein to build some muscle and low carb to burn some fat and used stored fat as energy and moderate fat
175gof protein
100g fat
30-35g of carbs