Leon Lifts

Thank you so much for the information! I’ll take a look at your link and try to find the ED thread.

Okay, nerds—long time lurker here needing some science/health and fitness gurus to weigh in on a topic: is it possible to increase your metabolism/get leaner by slowly increasing calories? If not, what is your advice for someone— read, me— looking to get rid of those final stubborn pounds? So basically, I found the video below of a woman who claims that once you’re close-ish to your weight loss goal, you should start increasing calories to burn those final pounds by 100 cals every 2-3 weeks until you are at maintenance of your goal weight. Now obviously from what I understand about calories in vs calories out, this makes me highly skeptical. Especially because I know you can’t burn fat and build muscle at the same time, which seems like it might be implying. In her description she has linked scientific sources of how she came to that conclusion; I have tried to sort through them and come to my own conclusions, but my brain isn’t making the “full connection” and I want to get more opinions before I completely accept her strategy or throw it away. Her recommendations start at 7:24 (she explains what metabolism is in the first half). HISTORY (if it’s relevant): I am a 20-year-old female, 5’7”, ~170 lbs (a lot of the weight comes from my dense bones/thick muscles I inherited from my dad, though, so that isn’t necessarily body fat). I’ve been at approximately 1300 cals since last summer (I didn’t put my activity level in my TDEE and just enter workouts manually, so I do adjust on workout days). I do IIFYM with weight-loss macros (can get specific numbers if needed), but I have just started to get on the macro bandwagon again recently— chronic illness plus a thesis and grad school apps caused me to put “strict” weightloss on the backburner. However, even when not adhering to macros, I was at 1300 cals the whole time. MY GOAL: I want to get super strong (I love lifting heavy) and also want to build stamina/endurance. I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to lean out/get toned more for vanity reasons as well. I know from losing weight in the past that I feasibly can go down one more pants size, and I liked the way I looked back then. I had an eating disorder, though, so even though I looked good and had great physicals/blood tests I obviously don’t want to use the same method. I know now this was long, but thank y’all so much in advance. This is a site full of smart cookies, and I really trust and respect your opinions.

Also, if you have a Kroger near you, they have Kroger frozen veggies 10 bags for $10. I've just started branching into this, and so far all the results have been cheap, easy, and healthy. My favourite is getting a bag with frozen stir fry veggies and rice in it, spraying down a saucepan lightly with PAM nonstick, and covering it to cook about four minutes with whatever spices and sauces I like (I'm still experimenting, but I've been very into Sriracha). The whole bag is 280 calories, is super filling, and super quick to make! (You could obviously recreate this with fresh veggies/precook your own rice, but it's still a good recipe idea.)

I use a website called Cronometer to keep track of my food intake and energy output, and I calculate/set my own BMR. Since I've been on this new leg of my journey (aka actually tracking and actually seeing results) since late September, I've probably lost about ten pounds of fat. So I obviously had to recalculate BMR, which I did today. My weight loss so far has changed my BMR by ~400 kcal (I also changed my daily activity level to reflect my "laziest" days instead of my most active ones-- I'd rather eat 100 less kcal than needed than 100 more-- which also probably affected the number). My question is, at a weight loss rate of 1.5 lbs/week, how often should I be recalculating my BMR to keep my daily caloric needs as accurate as possible? I know it's impossible to get a "perfect" number of how many kcal I need per day, but I want to get as close as human error will allow. Thanks!

Membership to an obstacle course gym? Lucky! I'm so jealous. The closest one here (that I know of) is in Indianapolis and is also run by an American Ninja Warrior (don't remember the dude's name). I would go, but Indy is about two hours away from me... talk about long commutes...

I've struggled with chronic knee pain for years now-- bad pain, like so bad that for a time surgery was being discussed. I mention that as a disclaimer: I have never had back pain and don't claim to be a medical professional of any kind. That said, yoga really helped me through the worst of my pain and was actually recommended to me by my physical therapist at the time (the best one I ever had, honestly). If you search online for "yoga back stretches" there are plenty of different options at varying degrees of intensity. Pinterest is your best friend for this one. All of my PTs recommended swimming as well. If you ever have a day where you want to run but your back pain is too much, try going for a jog in the pool. It sounds silly (and you'll feel ridiculous), but it's a great therapist-approved way to go for a run minus the heavy impact. My last PT office actually had an in-pool treadmill they had me jog on sometimes! Lol On a lighter note, good job on your progress so far. I'm so happy for you that you're already seeing results!

Living for those Supernatural gifs. Gotta love Dean! Also, couldn't help but notice you're into Black Widow, which I approve of. I'm reading a book about her right now, and so far, it's great. Following!

This. I am also in the market for a new pull-up bar (something like Mshrmit's option 1)-- and if I may-- I would also like to know if the door can still close with the bar attach. If not, it would have to be easy enough to unattach and reattach regularly while still being very sturdy (I don't look it, but I'm about 190 lbs, and I know my even-denser brother will want to try it out as soon as I hang it). Thank you so much for beating me to the punch with this question, and I hope I didn't hijack your thread.

Hey! I just found your thread after taking a hiatus from the site for a few months, and I loved reading through this challenge thread! Apart from some dietary differences, we have very similar goals, and the Avengers theme is just perfect. I would offer to help you with swimming-- I'm a certified lifeguard and have taught swim lessons for years-- if only we lived a bit closer. As it is, we're only about three hours away, but still just a little too far apart. I wish I got to be a city girl like you. Lol Really hope to see you back on the site soon!

You're right about diet being a huge factor in this-- after all, you've probably heard the saying "You can't outrun your fork," which is very true. Rest all depends on what your body can take. Some people do really well with pre-scheduled rest days, others do what I've seen referred to as "organic" rest days and only take time off when their body tells them they need to. Working out six days a week may work for you, but it also may not-- just listen to your body and do what it tells you to do. That may not be the perfect answer you were looking for, but every person is different. If you're looking to put on ten pounds of muscle, strength training will be the most beneficial to your goals. If you find yourself too exhausted by your current plan, the running should be the first thing you cut back on. I'm not saying you can't add on and build up to more intense running when you're ready, but how the body shapes itself in response to a lot of running is very different to how a body shapes itself in response to strength training (lean, light muscles vs. heavy, "ripped" muscles). That being said, I've found that mixing in cardio (like running) along with my strength training has helped me lean out, reveal the muscles I'm building, and overall get me to my goals faster. I'm no expert, but I hope this helps.

So I dropped off the face of the Earth for a while. Well, not the Earth-- just Nerd Fitness (unfortunately). Midterms suck, and even the classes I didn't have midterms in felt the need to give us projects around this time. Which is stupid. Either way, I'm on Spring Break now (woot woot) and am back in the game! I've been keeping up with my goals pretty well. I'm still not at the point I want to be, and since I missed the starting point for another challenge because of midterms-- urgh-- I'm going to continue the goals I outlined above until the beginning of April when I'll re-evaluate/reset new goals. I decided not to do a food log here, but I do keep track of what I eat and have made an Instagram that will serve as a food diary. My biggest problems will be a) remembering to take pictures of what I eat, and remembering to post it. The Instagram account is @leonlifts. Let's do this!

SAAAAMMMMEEEE. I stalk spezzy's IG. Shamelessly.

From what I can understand, "jumping like you mean it" is not the main focus. I think where the force behind it is delivered is more important, which should ALWAYS be on your heels. That much I know. Think about it: the bar is in front of you on your shoulders, so if you land on your toes you give yourself an uneven distribution of weight. Which equals a face full of gym floor. Not fun. Plant those heels!

Look at you go! And that...CONDITIONING...

I love power cleans. I learned the move last year because one of my friend's moms is a trainer for Marines at a military base close by where I lived and she taught us proper form on a lot of lifts. Keep in mind, I'm not an expert, but I'll tell you what I know. An important thing about power clean is to keep your back flat, like a tabletop. This isn't a big deal yet with your 20# bar because you're not dropping it to the floor or anything (by the way, going all the way down to the floor is the difference between a hang clean and a power clean-- and hang is perfectly fine). However, once you move up in weight and start using the big colored plates, you may want to consider going all the way to the floor with the bar. This is when you'll have to work harder not to arch your back, and a way to combat this is to keep the bar as close to your legs as possible on the way up until the point where you flip the bar upwards at mid-thigh. But with your DL history, I don't think this will be a problem for you. The other thing I want to recommend is to go into a squat when you jump/flip that bar up to your shoulders and use your legs to lift the weight. If I remember correctly, it's really bad on your muscles and joints to just use your shoulders and arms to lift the weight. I can tell you're getting a little knee-bend action in there with your jump, but I would advise going just as far down as you would in a front squat, A2G if possible. This is a good habit to get into now when you don't need that extra support to lift the barbell than trying to add it down the line when you do. Other than that, your starting form looks great! Again, I only have experience, not a license. If any of this advice is more personal preference than legitimate critique, someone can feel free to call me out. Or ask for clarification if I'm not making sense.

An update concerning today will come later tonight. I don't know how to make those images bigger, and I'm also having issues uploading some of the pics and gifs I want to upload because the files are too big. If anyone has some advice on this topic, I would greatly appreciate it!

I promised a comprehensive update, so here's my comprehensive update! Buckle in and grab some veggies to munch on, because this is going to be a long one. MONDAY: Workout (SL 5x5): - Squats - Warm up 1x10 @ 45 lbs and 1x10 @ 135 lbs - Workout 5x5 @ 160 lbs with decreased rest (~1 min)* - OHP - Warm up 1x10 @ 50 lbs and 10 GREAT push-ups - Workout 5x5 @ 55 lbs with decreased rest (~1 min) - Deadlift -Warm up 2x10 RDL @ 45 lbs and 1x5 DL @ 45 lbs - Workout 1x5 @ 115 lbs - Additional exercise - 2x10 lat pull downs @ 70 lbs - 60 mins yoga *I do decreased rest right before I'm about to move up in weight; if I can do this semi-easily I know that its time to move up. Even though I did decreased rest on OHP, I'm not ready to move up yet-- my form was suffering a bit. Also, warming up at 50 lbs was too much considering the current weight I'm using for my workout. I'll try the same workout weight with decreased rest next time. I went down in weight on my deadlift to work on proper form, and I'm glad I did. A lot of the new lifts I'd never done before SL I learned with improper form, so watching training vids and then fixing my form has been one of my main lifting goals recently. I ate very well on this day, followed my 90% Paleo plan swimmingly. Here's a little post-workout selfie from Tuesday, complete with the crappy dorm room mirror: TUESDAY: Workout: - 30 mins HIIT on elliptical - 45 mins yoga I didn't do as well on my 90% Paleo yesterday-- it was probably more like 85%. I had a minor binge on somewhat healthy foods (read: Clif bars, all-natural crunchy peanut butter, and 72% dark chocolate) due to some emotional issues and also PMS. I was able to stop myself before the emotional eating got too out of control, which is good. Honestly I probably usually clock in a little under 2000 cals, and a quick calculation of my TDEE suggests that perhaps I should be eating more than I am. I don't think I'm going to go up in calories, however-- maybe I can do an unplanned cut and shed some body fat. Plus, I'm feeling good right now and making my lifts, so cutting vs. bulking isn't my main priority right now. Getting myself used to eating mostly Paleo again is. Speaking of eating Paleo, I've been tossing around the idea of adding what I eat every day on here as well as my workouts. However, I don't think I will right now, for several reasons. One, my posts would get significantly longer, and that would make daily posts start to seem more like a chore. Two, I'm already logging them in a journal offline, so it isn't like I'm not keeping track. I may, however, take pictures of everything I eat and post them on an Instagram dedicated solely to my fitness. I think this would hold me more accountable for what goes into my mouth and reduce binges.

Oh, it gets worse. And by worse, I mean THE FEELS.

I had never even heard of contests like these until finding the Warriors threads, and they seem awesome. Following.

Though I'm not cutting now, I will need to one day and you are an inspiration. Following because I just found your thread and am enjoying your progress. Also because fellow Warriors FTW.

I laughed out loud when I saw that gif! That has got to be one of my favorite moments of the whole show! And welcome to my thread.

Yay, someone else who's lifting around the same weight as me! Though your OHP blows mine out of the water. My weak noodle arms are giving you double thumbs up. Also. Supernatural gifs? Always a good choice.

Only on a forum of nerds would people have an animated discussion over units of measurement.

You're like me-- I do some elliptical training on my lifting days, too! Mostly for a friend, because she needs someone to come with her for motivation as she's starting out. I'm also pretty much the same size as you-- 175 (ish) lbs, size 12-14 pants, medium in shirts (except for those stupid brands that run small-- grrr, I hate that). It's so motivating and relieving to see other "compactly-built" rebels like myself! The only people I've met IRL that fit into my sizes are ~30 lbs overweight, which makes my brain say "see, you're overweight, because you're in the same sizes." Not the best feeling for self-confidence. I've just got big hips/butt and a big chest! Also, these lifts you posted on here are giving me some great ideas.

I'll post an update over the last few days later this afternoon. (Sorry for the multiple posts, I'm typing this on my iPad.)