Need guidance

[rexcollis45]

Hello fellow petites I’ve decided to post because I’m completely lost and need some guidance

Let’s start with some background information I’ve always been as the same weight most of my life at 57 k and no big changes
When the pandemic started I got stuck at home as most of us and decided to use this time to reach my goal weight, I did cardio and a lot of restriction and the fat started melting off week by week until I finally reached my desired weight of 45 k
Seeing this with what I know now it maybe wasn’t the best idea to restrict as such but I believe it best to be transparent
I lost fat but also a lot of muscle and it stayed like that for awhile
Then things got complicated in life, I found myself in a very stressful situation for over 9 months, huge lack of sleep, stress and just sitting at a desk pretty much all week
I’ve gained in those months more than I’ve ever weighed in my life and I currently stabilized at 67 k
All my clothes are too small. I have no energy, I don’t eat junk food and I’ve been realizing that even when doing walks, workouts, eating carefully it’s like my body is stuck
I feel completely out of wack and I believe being super restrictive as before isn’t good or durable, but why now that things have become less stressful, and I’m sleeping a big more there are no changes
I’ve done alot of arm weighted workouts and my arms are fatter not fitter, it just makes no sense to me
I know this isn’t a medical site but I wonder if perhaps it could be something else such as PCOS (no worries will be seeing a doctor) but until then maybe a fellow petite friend can help me out ?
What to eat during the day ? Workouts to follow ? I want to remain healthy and accountable… but it’s increasingly harder when no improvement is present, and quite the opposite perhaps getting worse every new month
Thanks

 

[williamis]

@rexcollis45 The vast majority of weightloss is going to come from your diet. It's not healthy to restrict as much as you did before so I'm not recommending you do that again, but you are going to need to cut calories in order to lose weight. Strength training just doesn't burn that many calories.

If you want some support and to get some tips on cutting calories I recommend r/CICO. There's a lot of experience over there and it's a really supportive group.

Don't get me wrong, you 100% should continue working out, but it's not the bullet for losing weight that people think it is.

 

[rexcollis45]

@williamis Thank you for your feedback
Yes I’m very aware hence my post
Totally understand your message about weights I guess I was expecting maybe more results on that end, but even when I track my calories, walk etc it’s not changing and worse is tracking like that has made things worse and nervous
And CICO for petites is particular as I cannot strive on 1200 calories a day so I’m still feeling stuck but I’ll check it out

 

[williamis]

@rexcollis45 You don't have to eat 1200 a day, it just means weightloss will be a little slower. Slow and sustainable and healthy is better than nothing at all. I know I get disappointed sometimes that the hours I put in at the gym don't seem to help my weightloss much, but I also do it for my health and to build strength, so I have to think of it that way. And it will increase my BMR so I'll be able to burn more calories in daily life which means losing faster or maintaining easier. It's a really common thought process to think the gym will be the secret to weightloss - its frustrating when it turns out to not help nearly as much as we thought it would.