Vintage

I'd suggest plank and hollow holds (and maybe supermans) to start with. But do them perfectly. If that means scaling them, then scale them. 

For a plank (actually, a lot of this applies to hollow holds, too),  you want your hips to be down, but your back should be hollowed a bit. Think about tucking your rib cage towards your pelvic bone and (vice-versa) and holding your bellybutton close to your spine. Tense your abs like someone's going to poke you hard in them. Hell, have someone poke you hard if you need help figuring out how to do this. Keep your head neutral and your shoulders active (push against the floor some so that your shoulders aren't loose and sagging). To scale this down, there are several options. One is to do them on your hands (like you're in the top of a push up) instead of on your elbows/forearms. You can elevate your hands to make it even easier. You can also cut the time into smaller chunks. You'll get a lot more out of doing a few 20 second holds on your hands with awesome form than you will holding for 60 seconds with poor form.

Hollow holds are pretty similar actually. Lie on your back with your arms at your sides and lift both your shoulders and your a few inches off the ground. The key here is that your lower back should be pushed towards the floor - I think about the same rib-cage to pelvis cue to make this happen. You should see the belly part of your shirt wrinkling. Hands stretched above your head and both feet out straight is tough - start out by tucking up in a loose ball with bent knees and arms straight but pointed down. 

Supermans are pretty much the opposite. Lie face down, arms straight up and legs straight. Tighten everything and lift your chest off the ground while doing the same with your legs (keep them straight - your thighs should come off the ground eventually). Squeeze the bejeesus out of your glutes. Just a note - this movement aggravates certain injuries for some people, so pay attention if you have any sharp pains.

Do you have a foam roller? If not get one today. Then spend some time on your IT bands (basically you'll be rolling the strip of tissue that runs from the side of your hip to the side of your knee - you'll know when you're on it because cuss words will come out of your mouth reflexively), quads and hamstrings. Then spend more time on your IT bands. Stretch, making sure to hit your hip flexors. Then do some slow, controlled squat standups and bodyweight squats with good form. Squat to a box/ low chair/step/ coffee table if needed. 

As the soreness and stiffness fades, get back to your regular routine with reduced weight. If it gets worse or isn't getting better, see a doc.

You just can't get the same results without a heavy barbell in your hands or on your back. Starting Strength and Stronglifts are my go-to recommendations for newbies. Regardless of your choice in program, get a copy of Starting Strength. It is a great reference on form and mechanics of the big lifts.

 

Dumbbells aren't a good substitute for a barbell in that you can't use them just like a barbell and get the same results. But the argument that you can't get strong without a barbell is bull. I'm a girl with a 215 lb barbell squat and unweighted pistols leave me walking goofy for days. Look into advanced bodyweight routines and use your dumbbells to add difficulty. A good bodyweight/dumbbell program doesn't look like a barbell program and that's absolutely ok. Waldo (and others) can give you more specifics. If you want to learn to lift with a barbell eventually (I'll admit that I love it, which I didn't anticipate), start plotting how to get access to one. But if you don't really care for the idea, (or in the meantime), work with what you do have.

If I changed my food/exercise plan every time I looked in the mirror and thought I saw more fat...

Pretty much everyone I know has those days. They don't feel good, but they don't mean much. You need more information before you get anxious or make changes. Take measurements and photos (being able to put two photos side by side is totally different than looking in the mirror). The scale isn't awesome, but it's another measurement. Get scientific about it. Gather data, compare it objectively, then make changes accordingly. 

As far as diet, I honestly don't think you're getting enough protein. I know it's much much harder without meat/eggs/dairy, but do some research and find a way to get a significant amount of protein at every meal. Trade this out for some of the fruit, which does have a lot of sugar. Pick hearty vegetables (ice burg lettuce is worthless, for instance) and try adding some avocado or nuts to your salads - this might make you want less salad, but it will be more nutrient dense. Unless you're eating a ton of processed foods, I wouldn't worry about sodium levels. Consuming way more salt in a given day than usual can make people bloat, and so can your monthly cycle, but in general the panic over sodium was way overblown for people without heart problems (and even mainstream medicine and nutrition is recognizing this now). 

For the goals, I'd say start out with a couple of accomplishments that really appeal to you. Honestly, that's a very individual thing. Do an unassisted pull up? Deadlift your bodyweight? A 10 second free-standing handstand? 20 push-ups on your toes? Those are all realistic starter-goals. For (mostly) guys, the idea of putting on 10 lbs of muscle might be motivating - but for a lot of women at least we might be more motivated by focusing on the strength progression and treating muscle mass gain as a by-product. Find something that motivates YOU. Then break those into action steps. The big thing is to focus on very concrete, measurable achievements. The length of time it will take to reach the goal is also less important if it's something that you can break up into progress steps (i.e. it isn't an all-or-nothing proposition). Write out the goal, then write out some logical stops along the way (i.e. if you're wanting a pull-up, a part-way point might be a 20-second negative descent). Then write out what steps you're going to take. Don't get super hung up on finding the absolutely perfect series of steps - you can modify along the way depending on what results you're seeing. 

Food wise, don't forget about sweet-potatoes as a carb-source. You don't necessarily have to focus on eating at a significant surplus, but if you increase your exercise (weight training burns more calories than some people realize), you're going to have to increase your caloric intake accordingly. It doesn't sound like you need to be losing any weight.

Just to add - when you do the hangs (in piked position or with knees bent and thighs parallel to the ground as a scale), keep active shoulders/lats. In other words, you shouldn't feel like your arms are pulling out of your shoulder sockets - keep your shoulders down away from your ears and your shoulder blades pulled down and back. It will make it much harder, but this hits a lot more on those lat and shoulder muscles that are often lacking in toes-to-bar (and pull-ups!)

I don't think putting that an arbitrary and indirect unit of measure is of little importance was rude. If bodyfat was stagnating or measurements were increasing then there is a definite sign of body composition going the wrong way. Obsessing over minor weight fluctuations with no more objective data, and no iminent need for a small amount of weight to drop is obsessing for the sake of obsession. Train hard, relax, and know that eventually the work you are putting in now will pay off later.

I'm not arguing with the basic content of your comment. Notice that my own comment (like those of others) assured OP that this wasn't a rational fear and advised she not place nearly as much important on the scale number.

But I am trying to alert you to the fact that the tone of your comment didn't come off as particularly helpful or kind, particularly to a new member asking a question for the first time. Calling the poster a 'neurotic wreck' and saying she's being 'fucking ludicrous' is patronizing, dismissive and unnecessarily abrasive. 

Um. El Exorcisto? I'm not sure that comment was entirely helpful. In fact, it was pretty f*cking rude. But perhaps you didn't mean it to sound that way.

OP acknowledged that she was being paranoid and she clearly asked the question knowing that everything was probably fine and she was needing some reassurance. This forum is a good place to do that, and we all have those crazy-pants moments. 

Angelic Fruitcake - the answers and advice you've gotten are spot on. I've made huge strides in letting go of my obsession with what the scale says, but occasionally I step on the scale and it's gone up (which is always most discouraging when it's been steadily going down) and I have to give myself a reality check. But then I realize that for me to have actually gained 2 lbs of fat in a week I'd have had to have eaten 7000 extra calories. Did I happen to eat a couple of cheesecakes last week? No? Then it's probably not fat. 

It really really helps to have other benchmarks and ways to measure your awesomeness. Take measurements and photos once a month (preferably at the same time in your cycle), record what you eat so that you can look at the evidence that you didn't eat those two cheesecakes worth of extra calories, and find some sort of performance-oriented goal that you can work on. I'm not going to say don't weigh yourself (I don't want to dish out advice I won't follow myself) but don't set it up so that your feelings about your progress and effort ride only on that one number.

I think there's a distinction to be made between focusing on maximal strength gains (which does require eating at a surplus and being willing to put on weight and get bigger) and strength training while losing weight. Will you be gaining strength like you would while eating big and minimizing cardio? No. But that doesn't make it pointless. 

Personally I enjoy strength training, it keeps me motivated and it's helped me retain muscle. But for the exception of a few breaks for re-feeding, I've been eating at a deficit and steadily losing weight for a year now, going from 205 lbs to 150. My lifts have all improved dramatically (mostly through developing technique and my body learning to use my muscles better), though they've slowed down in the past few months and I know that the fix to that is to start eating to support lifting. I'm totally happy with my results, and I don't think I would have been as consistent with eating and conditioning if I didn't have strength training in there as well. I feel confident that when I do make the switch to focusing on strength gains I'll have built a good base.

So I'd say if you enjoy lifting and you're seeing any results you like, then stick with it. Just because you're not seeing the biggest possible gains, doesn't make it a waste of time.

I don't know exactly what you want to include/limit in your diet, but...

*Jerky (turkey, beef, etc) is a go-to snack for me. I keep it in my car. Try to find the good stuff - without extra sugar and chemicals. It's more expensive, but you don't need much at all. A strip will tide you over for a while.

*Trail mix and nuts - just make sure you're getting stuff that will relieve cravings, not create more, and that you monitor quantities. Serving sizes are very small for nuts and dried fruits.

*Popcorn - the plain stuff. Adding some salt is fine. If you can find the more natural microwave kind, go for it. Otherwise, you can make your own microwave popcorn bags with just plain brown lunch bags and kernels (much cheaper). Google will give you instructions. 

*Cottage cheese - High in protein and reasonably cheap. I salt and pepper mine. In college I did this by thieving salt and pepper packets from fast food restaurants.

*carrots (and any other veggies you like raw)

*Almond butter - add it to your fruits in small quantities. The fat content will keep you fuller longer.

*Tuna - the stuff in cans. Packed in water. Check your brands to minimize mercury content, but you still don't want to live off the stuff. I actually eat mine with a small bit of soy sauce (you guessed it - from packets stolen from restaurants when I was in college), or 1/3 of a mayo packet. 

In general (but especially if food selection is a problem), pay close attention to portion sizes and overall quantities with snacking. Don't eat out of the container - pour out a serving and put the rest away immediately, and know what a serving size is of things and what's in it, for example.

I'm glad you started on the food diary. That would have been my first recommendation. And yes, writing down when you're eating (both absolute time and what happened before/after) will be a huge help in seeing patterns. 

But also remember that the pattern of having a craving for a certain food (or type of food like sweets or starch or salty things) and immediately allowing yourself to stop, get that food and eat it is a habit in and of itself. As is the act of browsing the junk food isle or going into a fast food restaurant until you see something that looks good and eating it. I'm guilty of both of those habits. There are times that I'll just have a craving for something bad for me - I'm not physically hungry and I don't have a specific food I'm craving, but I have the impulse to eat for pleasure. 

I don't do well with strict elimination diets, so I deal with these bad habits by planning out meals (including planning times that I'm going to splurge a little bit), thinking about how what I want will fit into my nutrition for the day, and practicing delayed gratification. If it's 3:00 and I want some sort of treat at Starbucks or what not, I'll say "ok, what have I eaten today and what do I plan to eat later/tomorrow/this weekend? If I eat a pumpkin scone now (like 400 calories and ridiculous quantities of sugar), what will I need to eat/not eat for dinner to compensate? Would I rather save those sugar grams and calories for tomorrow evening so I can have a couple of margaritas at happy hour with friends?" Or if I'm craving something specific I'll make the decision  to have it - but at some future time. I'll be walking on campus and french fries will pop into my head. Instead of stopping at the nearest fast food place and cramming them in my mouth I'll say "I can have fries tomorrow with my lunch/dinner and I can plan out my other food accordingly." Often the craving subsides before then, and if not I can at least plan around it a bit.

Choices (even impulsive actions - yes those are choices) in general are all about consequences. When we spend some time evaluating what the potential consequences of a choice are in advance, we tend to like the outcome a lot more. 

I agree with the above comment that you should be relying on fats and proteins to keep you full. And veggies like greens and broccoli should make up the bulk of your vegetable intake. They'll do a much better job of that. Carbs create a full feeling quickly but don't sustain it, and the way they affect blood sugar tends to increase hunger and cravings later.

But carbs are not evil. Some people (depending on individual physiology, activity, what else you're eating, and so on) seem to do better with higher or lower amounts of carbs. Look at the bigger picture; If you don't feel good or aren't performing as you want at super-low carb levels, then eat your half a sweet potato. Yes, you'd probably lose fat faster without it (at least for a while), but if that's not a diet plan that fits well into your life and that makes you feel healthier and that you'll want to stick to, then it probably isn't worth it. 

But I would suggest that you spend some time tracking what you eat and how it affects you. Record what you ate, when you ate it, and info that will let you know how it's working for you (weights and measurements, yes, but also whether you felt weak or fatigued during workouts, how soon after eating you were hungry, if you were grumpy or depressed or lethargic, etc.). Give it around 6 weeks and then decide how it's working for you. Tweak as needed. 

bigM (and others) are right - most of your progress is from learning to use your muscles, improving technique and just getting mentally tougher. But that's awesome and that's all stuff that will carry over once you're done focusing on weight loss. Think of this as a time to build a really strong foundation. 

You're almost certainly losing SOME muscle. It's pretty impossible not to. But a combination of good protein intake (I aim for about my bodyweight in grams/day, which means I usually end up around .7- .8g/lb of bodyweight) and consistent strength training will minimize it. If you notice you're struggling through workouts or seem to be losing strength then you might take a look at your diet - it could be a sign that you're at too much of a deficit and/or not getting enough protein.

I'd agree that this sounds like a diet issue. In all likelihood, you're going to have to decrease calories consumed. There are different ways to do this, but a good place to start would be to simply track everything you eat/drink for about a week and see what's really going on. Be brutally honest - weigh and measure things, ask waiters what's in stuff, etc. Myfitnesspal is my tracking app/website of choice, but there are others. It's possible that after doing that you'll be able to see one or two specific changes that would make a difference (you're looking to cut out around 500 calories/day from your maintenance level). But you also might decide it's necessary to track calories for the time being. Combining a moderate caloric deficit, good protein intake and consistent strength training is going to help get excess fat off and retain muscle so you look leaner and feel better. Oh, and definitely take measurements and photos regularly. This will give you a more complete picture of your progress than the scale will. 

Awesome job in making some good changes and creating better habits. Sounds like you've got a good thing going in the gym. Keep it up and start tweaking diet. 

Did you get a powerlifting-style resistance band (they look like giant rubber bands) or one of the tube-style ones with handles (they're made out of a length of rubber tubing like surgical tubing with a handle at each end)?

I've always used the giant rubber band type by tossing one half of the band over the bar and looping it through the rest, then pulling tight...

Then I'd put a box under the bar to  one side of where I'd be hanging, lift one foot (the one closer to the band, which should be to one side of the box), and shift my weight onto it while straightening out the leg. Then I'd rest the free foot on top of/in front of the band. I DID NOT put both feet in the band -having one foot (the one closer to my box) free gave me a way to quickly exit the band if my hands got slippery or my grip gave out. Your legs should stay straight and your body tight the whole time.

I found banded pull ups helpful to an extent. The band seemed to push me in a weird direction that made it harder to really use my lats, and it provides a lot of help at the bottom but not much at the top where I struggled. I'd say go ahead and do banded pull ups, but mix it up with lots of single reps, negatives, partial pulls, rows (inverted, bent over with a barbell, with a dumbbell, etc.), and whenever you can get someone to provide human assistance by holding your feet/ankles and providing a bit of stability to push against (they shouldn't be lifting you up) when you get to the top of your pull.

Definitely add me to the "maybe" list, BigM. It's only a 3ish  hour drive from Austin and I so very badly want to meet some nerds. 

I think it looks good if it's something that you find sustainable. It sounds like you do have a strong grasp of what to eat, so now you just need to experiment to figure out what will help you fit that into your life.

For the dinner thing... consider arranging things so that you don't need to buy veggies every night or even cook every night. If you plan out meals at the beginning of the week, you can probably cut down shopping to once or twice/week and minimize cooking time. For instance, for meat you can cook a double portion one night and use the second half the next night (or in your salad for lunch the next day). I'll do this with steak by grilling 2-3x what I need and then pulling some of it off the grill early. Then I'll take those slightly-underdone leftovers and reheat them in a skillet with some veggies for quick stirfry or add them to eggs for steak and eggs or whatever. I do this with chicken too (obviously I don't undercook the chicken) and pork. Does everything taste best when cooked night of? Yes. Am I more likely to give in to my exhaustion at 8PM after a 14 hour day if I have an extra 20 minutes of prep and cooking to do and just eat takeout instead? Yep. 

With buying veggies, I always make sure to think about what I'm buying and what order I'll cook it in. Some veggies spoil immediately. Some will last a lot longer. Some I don't mind reheated (like carrots, spaghetti squash, sweet potatoes and broccoli, for instance), and some I want cooked right before I eat them. Some things can be partially cooked the night before in a big batch and finished off in less than 5 minutes right before I eat them.  I do my best to plan this out and cook accordingly. But I also use the existence of food in my fridge that needs to be cooked and/or eaten before it spoils to encourage myself to go home and eat homecooked food rather than stopping for takeout. I've already purchased that food and might have already put in the effort to cook it, so I damn well better go home and eat it instead of throwing out my money. 

Of course, you may find that buying veggies nightly and cooking every night fit well into your life, that you'd rather take the time and have everything super fresh, and that you take more pride and self-responsibility for your diet that way. Go you! if that's the case. 

I think it might be time to take a break from focusing on weight loss for a little bit. Not only to give your body a chance to recoup a bit (let loose skin shrink a bit, let your metabolism restore itself, give your system a break from the stress of a constant caloric deficit, restore muscle that you've lost through dieting, etc.) but also to get yourself together mentally. 

It sounds like you've had a lot of your mental energy focused on getting rid of excess fat for a long time. It's easy to get to a point where that's all you can see when you look in the mirror or look down or put your hands on your body. You're so focused on it that it's overwhelming everything else. So I'd highly recommend taking some time to re-expand your view of your body. Spend some time eating to fuel workouts, working to gain strength, set and reach some goals that are about making your body better and stronger, not just smaller. and appreciate all of the awesome things you've accomplished over the last year and a half. Breath. Be in your new body and get to know it a bit. Set a time period to do this - say 2 months. Give yourself some guidelines (gaining 15 lbs in sheer ice cream weight is not what I'm advising, but raising calories to maintenance or 100-200 above and really going after your strength training. Come up with a new skill to learn. 

You may find that after taking your laser-focus off of the skin/fat left, you don't notice it as much. You may decide that you still want to work on losing it, but you've got more patience with it and that your body is willing to cooperate a bit. 

My immediate thought was just the word "flapping."

Oh and...

It's probably better to go for a strict pull up first vs. kipping ones.  While kipping makes it easier, there's a greater chance of hurting the shoulder if you haven't built the musculature up to being able to do regular pull ups.  At least with higher reps in kipping.

I agree 100% when it comes to high-rep, controlled and powerful kips. But I'd say there are two different types of kips, there's the strict, controlled gymnastics kip that's powered by the strong opening and closing of the shoulders below the bar and then there's the sort of uncoordinated, kind of unintentional half-kip that people do when they don't quite have the strength to hang perfectly still and keep their lower body steady. The first requires more shoulder stability than many people realize to be done even semi-safely. The latter tends to take the form of a dolphin kick or jerky worm motion right at the top of the rep to just provide that tiny bit of momentum. It technically disqualifies the movement as "strict" but I don't consider it much of a threat. I say if a person can get up to the bar unassisted with that sort of movement that's mostly in the legs then go for it - and over time work on decreasing it bit by bit.

Waldo's point about needing to learn to use the muscles you have is a huge one. Women in particular seem to have a problem using their lats efficiently for whatever reason. I really like bodytribe's article on pull ups here. It discusses everything from the actual mechanics of a pull up (what it should actually feel like), to how to correctly incorporate a lat pulldown machine if you want to, to progressions and a scheme for working on it. One thing she mentions is that you don't need to pick one scale for a pull up - you can do dumbbell rows one day, inverted rows another, negatives on a third, partial pulls on a fourth, and so on. 

For me, lots of lots of rows (inverted rows on rings because that's what I have available, bent over barbell rows, dumbbell rows, etc) were a huge help. Really focus on using your lats. In the very beginning, I actually sometimes needed someone to place a finger between my shoulder blades because it somehow helped me direct my effort there. I also did (and still sometimes do) a lot of negatives. At first I needed to jump from a tall box and just tried to slow down my descent. Eventually I got to where I lowered the box and barely used my legs for the jump, then did long, controlled descents. 

I've also found that having a human assist once you're very close to unassisted pull ups can be more helpful than a band, machine or chair because they can actively adjust the assistance when I'm struggling. When I got close to a pull up I really only needed help at the very top - but this is where bands and chairs are least helpful. Basically, you bend your knees a bit and cross your ankles, then have someone hold your ankles/feet and provide a bit of support for you to push off  of. Generally they don't do much active pushing, just provide something to push off of and a little extra help at the top. Because of the position of my legs when I do this (the support is under the tops of my ankles, not firmly planted under my feet and my knees are bent), it doesn't provide as much help as a chair or band. Plus, I'm always trying to put as little force as possible on their hands (because they can feel it and know how exactly how much help I'm getting, I'm heavy, and my feet are generally jammed in their chest so I need to be careful), which gives some extra encouragement to pull a bit harder. I actually did these today working on increasing my range of motion (getting closer to chest to bar than just chin over the bar).

Oh, one thing that people haven't mentioned is other hanging-from-a-bar exercises. Kipping knees-to-elbows and toes-to-bar, strict knee raises, beat swings, monkey-bars - just spend some time hanging from a bar and manipulating your body weight in different ways while strengthening your core and your grip.

I think you're getting good advice. Your gains will probably be slower in absolute numbers (how many pounds per month) compared to other people, but percentage-wise I'm guessing you're moving along well. For bench in particular, remember that ¹⁾ gains are slower than in the lifts that utilize bigger muscle groups like the legs ²⁾ the number of pounds is going to be so much smaller overall compared to squats and deadlifts that progressing 5 lbs at a time would be a HUGE jump percentage-wise and ³⁾ People frequently underestimate the level of technique and full-body involvement needed for a bench press, particularly for small women who really need to learn to take advantage of every bit of power they have.So if you can, spend some time researching technique and making sure you have it nailed down. For example, make sure you're able to really drive your feet into the floor to help you use your legs and tighten your entire core. From one short-person to another, this may involve stacking plates or small boxes under your feet. 

For cardio and diet, I'd say you're safe eating 2000 calories/day. If your intervals are fairly intense and you're lifting consistently, that's probably enough for moderate gains. The advice to drop the cardio is probably right if you want to just prioritize putting on muscle mass and gaining strength. But interval training has other real benefits, so I get wanting to keep it. Try out upping to 2000 cal/day and track how everything's progressing. Take measurements, pictures and track all of your workouts. I would also make notes about energy levels and other signs that your body is happy/unhappy. Keep in mind that weight won't go on over night (for good or for bad), so it's going to take time and monitoring to know if something's working and if it's too much/too little you'll be able to readjust without it being a disaster.

Last thing... I'm hoping you've worked with a dietitian and/or doctor regarding eating disorders and understand the complexities of gaining weight after being extremely underweight for a good period of time. This is one of those cases where the calories in/calories out equation just doesn't seem to be so simple or easy to manipulate. Weight gain can take a long time to start and can jump around wildly, some girls have more trouble putting on muscle mass, etc.

If you're completing the full workout, I'd up the weight. Heavy weight and low reps.

Overhead holds would be hugely helpful for this. The beauty of these is your can do them with almost anything. Press something overhead (you can do this with some dip and drive to use momentum to get it up there), lock out your arms completely and focus on keeping your shoulders active. Don't let your core sag or arch. The cue we give kids is "press up the sky". It should be a very active position. Work on holding for a minute at a time. Repeat with heavier things. Practice doing this while walking across a room.. Remember, in a handstand you don't ever want to have to your arms bent or your shoulders loose. 

The other thing you can do is practice kick-ups on a box/coffee table//stair/bench. Start standing, facing the box, with your arms up straight and shoulders active. Place one foot in front of the other, transfer your weight to the front foot and kick the back leg up while placing your hands on the box. Let your front//bottom foot leave the ground a tiny bit, but keep it down low. There's no chance you'll flip all the way over. Just as with the overhead holds, keep your shoulders tight and actively pushing the whole time and don't let your arms bend. As you get better, kick with more force to bring your top leg higher and your torso closer to vertical (your bottom leg will leave the ground more and spend more time in the air, but let it still hang down to provide counter balance). Then lower the box/bench/stair. Remember, your shoulders should be actively pushing against the surface and your core should stay tight. Try to keep your head neutral (don't crane your neck up). Don't bend your legs.

General tip from a former gymnast: I see people (especially men)  try to ease themselves into the handstand by placing their hands on the floor first (creating a V position with their body) and then gently kicking up. It rarely works. Keep your body straight and tight from fingers to toes. At some point in the kick up, you should pass a point where you make a T if viewed from the side with your base leg as the vertical post and your leg and torso as the top line. It'll help you use momentum to get up there and be tight (and thus stable and well supported) the moment your hands touch the ground. More importantly for some, this keeps your from chickening out once you're trying to kick all the way up for the first few times. It also looks better.

I think for most people it comes down to what's going to make them sick + what will help them perform better. If I eat something that makes me feel sluggish and sleepy, obviously my workout will suffer and I won't get as much out of it. But that seems to already have been addressed.

You don't seem to be asking if it's ok to eat before a workout when that's the option you have, you seem to be thinking that it will help you lose more weight. I've never seen any reliable source say that eating before a workout will "reduce the fat acquisition" from a meal. I'm actually not sure what you're meaning exactly. If you eat immediately before a workout (and don't give your body enough time to break down and absorb that food), it's just going to sit in your stomach while your exercise. Your body isn't going to be able to use it yet. Some nutrients are used faster than others (sugars get absorbed and used quickly, for instance).