Always kinda lost German with goals

[couchsurfer]

Hey guys,

 

I finally stopped lurking and decided to check out the forums.

 

Basic stuff:

 

Female

30 yrs

5 foot 2

from 185 to 145 lb's

Goal: around 127 lb's

 

Workout: every second day is cardio, the other days muscle 1 Rest day per week (Friday or sat depending on work schedule)

 

Story:

 

I found NF about a year ago because of an imgur post. But until a few days ago I don't think I was really serious about anything.

 

I was always kinda chubby. Rather spend my day playing video games and reading than go outside and actually move myself.

I am rather short (5 feet 2) on top of that.

 

At University I realized I wanted to be slimmer and started jogging every second day for an hour or so.

Just that uninformed me kept eating junk food. Cheap and fast.

Then through a friend I started playing University Rugby and loved it. I slimmed to 136 lb's but was severly malnourishd due to daily sport and not eating right.

 

I finished University, moved back home and found an office job. My weight started rocketing and all I did just held it off until I reached a point when I couldn't even look at myself anylonger.

I had no more sports but tons of comfort food and no moving at work.

And there was another problem. Constant stomach pains (I mean all day, no break any day), reflux and sickness.

 

For the pains I went to my physician and she found out I reacted with certain foods basically: wheat, noodles of any sort, rice, potatoes, possibly raw egg whites, maybe cream.

 

She told me straight out I needed to eat alkaline. As a food loving German from a family with Bohemian backgrounds and constant hearty cooking, I was devastet and refused flat out.

I just made sure I ate more veggies.

 

about  a year ago a 6 year friendship went up in flames (I still haven't figured out what happened) and I realized I didn't respect myself so wh should others? I was at my highest weight, I was always tired or sick and basically shied away from others because i was the fat kid. That moment I feared I had thyroid because my weight had balooned so and I went back to my doc who did the bloodwork and called me back in a few days later.

 

She sat me down and said I wasn't sick, the stopped and actually said: You are just obese.

 

That hit me like a ton of bricks because I always thought I was chubby but she did the measurements and it put me into obese.

 

This is what made me change and I got a fitbit and myfitnesspal since my doc told me she wanted to monitor me and gave me strict food guidelines. I read up on good calories and started logging it all. I shed weight swiftly just by eating right. Also she told me to excercise reg. but here I am the couch potato who thought she coul lose weight just by eating right.

 

With the change in weight there also came the constant inner need to move about. I never had so much energy in my life. I basically eat only veggies and fruits, some muesli that I can stand as well as meats and fish. I still try to eat potatoes and such but keep them on sundays when I can be at home with bely aches.

 

Why am I here?

 

I hit a severe plataeu (sp?). My doc warned this would happen. After months I am stuck at 145 lb and can not get lower even tho my daily calory intake is the lowest allowed (1200kcal).

 

So weeks ago I started every second day cardio on my parents x trainer and actually am able to spend an hour on middle intensity.

I still won't weigh less.

 

That's when I remembered nerd fitness and I started reading up on things here. I now added the beginners body weight circle and can do 4 reps (hello aching thigh muscles).

 

Thanks to NF for the always helpful articles and hello community, thanks for baring with my story and I hope I can find many good workout ideas here because I still have some way to go and I want to do it the healty way and find something to stick with the rest of my life.

 

 

Thank for reading sorry for spelling or grammar mistakes,

 

Couchsurfer

[Ulfgard]

Hi, another German, how nice. Hallo

 

I can feel with you, being myself through a lot of this. I think you are on the right track with your weight training. Constant dieting without much movement will cause atrophy of your muscle tissue and with it your calorie consumption will go down massively. But fear not: what has been lost can always be regained. Just do not be afraid when you gain some weight, this can very well just be your muscles that start to come back (and this can happen very swiftly, when you train hard!). My advise would be for now to try to keep your current weight and train a lot. This might also require an increase of your daily kalorie intake(if your body did not get enough energy to maintain your muscles, how should it be able to build them anew?)

 

Good luck on your trip!

[couchsurfer]

Hi Ulfgard,

 

thanks for the warm welcome.

 

Also for the advise. I am really a person of habit and thus find it hard to break eating habits. I am trying my best and have recently started trying foods I would not touch before.

 

I have no idea how to measure how much food I would need. MFP says 1200 if I want to keep losing weight. Somedays that is easy to reach and sometimes I struggle to get to 1200 because of my stomach and me only able to eat mostly veggies. With veggies I need ages to get to 1200 so I am adding eggs and almonds for healthy fats and protein.

 

Also the fitbit does not count much with the boy weight work out so I never know how much this burns. As I have never realized muscle training is needed for a better body and better burn of calories I now struggle to make sense of it.

[Halea]

Welcome I'm sure the community here can help you find the resources to figure out what works for you... there is so much information here it just takes time to search through it.  Have you talked to your doctor about your workout routine and caloric intake? She maybe able to give you an idea of the number of calories you need a day. I use the My Fitness Pal app to track my calories and I know there is an option to track calories burned as well (if you want to pay).  Maybe google average calories burned for the exercises you perform regularly?  It won't be exact but it will give you a starting point.  I'm experimenting with the app right now...testing it to see how many calories I really need to support muscle growth but continue to lose weight (since I'm cheap and haven't quite decided if I'm ready to pay for extra features ). Like Ulfgard mentioned, you may gain weight starting off as you gain muscle but this will eventually slow down. Good luck with your quest! See you around the forums

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Welcome to the rebellion! Good job on all the progress so far. If you are starting strength training, you may want to stop stepping on the scale all together and start measuring with tape. Keep up the good work!

[couchsurfer]

Thanks Halea and Tank for your welcome and input.

 

@Halea: I use MFP together with my fitbit to track calories burned. Its only really useful though when you take actual steps. Even on the xtrainer it misses about a third of the steps I take and does not measure distance well. I had no idea there is a paid MFP version? I would love it if the annoying adds were gone.

 

@tank: Yea I know I am probs over using the scale (I think it might be obsessive) Before I went to the doctor I never owned one. To see the weight plummet almost felt like a reward.

[Chen Wangting]

Welcome :-)

 

I'm from germany as well. The community here is awesome and i'm sure you will get good help and advice.

[couchsurfer]

Thanks Chen, looking forward to it.

[Tolsimir]

Hi Couchsurfer, welcome! 

 

Good progress so far, and nice that you are joining the rebellion to tackle that plateau!

 

 

Thanks Halea and Tank for your welcome and input.

 

@Halea: I use MFP together with my fitbit to track calories burned. Its only really useful though when you take actual steps. Even on the xtrainer it misses about a third of the steps I take and does not measure distance well. I had no idea there is a paid MFP version? I would love it if the annoying adds were gone.

 

@tank: Yea I know I am probs over using the scale (I think it might be obsessive) Before I went to the doctor I never owned one. To see the weight plummet almost felt like a reward.

 

What tank means with switching from scale to measurements doesn't have much to do with overusing it (although I recognize that! In a journey on weightloss it's very exciting to step on the scale and see the numbers dropping). Now that you're going to implement exercising, the scale may not tell you what you want to see. That has to do with this:

 

"Scales don’t tell the whole story. I’ve already covered my thoughts on scales. If you are training the right way (with an emphasis on strength training), your weight might not drop as fast as it would if you starved yourself and ran 20 miles a day.  Heck, you might be getting stronger and more muscular but the scale refuses to budge.  Now, if you only had a scale as your ‘measuring stick,’ you’d probably get super discouraged and depressed at the lack of “progress.† However, if you were tracking your body changes properly, you’d realize that you are making far more significant and healthier progress by doing things the right way.  At the end of Saint’s journey to the Ab-promise land, his weight WENT UP while his body fat percentage went down.  The scale can lie!"

 

You can find more on that in this article. 

And more on overusing scales here.  

 

I wish you the best of luck.

[couchsurfer]

Hey Tolsimir,

 

thanks for the reply.

 

Yea I have read up on fats vs muscles and realize muscles weigh more than fat.

 

In the past week alone I see strong changes in me now that I have brought weights training into the routine. Maybe its just the high from my exercise but it looks as if my belly has gotten flatter.

 

My real problem zone will be my rear and thighs me thinks.

 

I stopped worrying about the scale and concentrate on training and feeling good.