That’s fair. It wouldn’t be my choice, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad one.
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Gotta say @TrainForPain has me pegged and his assessment is spot on. I’m actually pretty shocked. I am trying to learn how to eat normal food for the long term. I agree that Velocity could be a very useful tool in the future and was happy for @ChickenLittle to suggest it. But honestly I’m a “recovering restrictor” - if that makes sense. It’s amazing for a female to finally realize she doesn’t need to starve herself to cut fat.
Other thing I’ve recently learned is that this may be a repeated cycle, i.e. lose some fat now and increase calories again. I hope to be posting in the future asking for advice on how to get out of a deficit to start building again. I cannot over emphasize that weight loss to me has always been a destination not a cycle related to training. I imagine both of you have been around this block numerous times and it’s almost instinctual for you both. I hope to get there soon…
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I think you’re right that it’s always cyclic. So the bigger picture never really changed, it’s just the execution. For me, my ranges have just become smaller (and, unfortunately, on the lower end!). So now, to gain weight, I’m really just loosening up slightly vs the old world of eat everything in sight.
You also kind of learn which end of the spectrum your natural tendency is. It’s much “easier” for me to gain weight - I like to eat and my job is sedentary. So I have to err on the side of caution.
@ChickenLittle has a tougher time holding weight, and is constantly working outside in the Texas heat - her focus is always on getting more calories in.
I think that’s the benefit of establishing your baseline; it gives you something to tweak vs overhaul.
Everyone in this thread is a smart cookie; just different strokes for different folks and all that.
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Just getting caught up here, and while it might be strange for a dude (though not sure about that, honestly), this was me, too.
You’ve received solid advice here, and I don’t have anything new to add, but I’m excited to see your progress!
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Hi! Not at all strange. I LOVE advice from dudes (and ladies). Experience trumps all. What I love about these forums and (most) of the weightlifting community is this desire to help others.
@TrainForPain also checked in with me this morning so I tagged him to this reply.
The past few days, I have been processing @TrainForPain advice and trying to eat more like an adult and less like an a**hole (not sure how much cursing is allowed on these forums). Yesterday I ate: coffee, two teaspoons sugar, one date, pouch of tuna, TB of lite mayo, 2 peaches, lamb stew (homemade, no starches), small bowl of cereal with milk and two slices of pizza. Ordinarily, I would say the pizza was a complete fail but I found it to be a success: I ate two slices and was perfectly happy (it wasn’t zero and it wasn’t 6 slices followed by a pint of ice cream). I am really trying to work on my psychological habits behind eating…
That said… and I hope you are still reading this… I have had three people in the last week who have not seen me in a while comment how I looked bigger but not fat per se. Two of them have no lifting experience so they could not put their finger on it. The third person has lifted and she commented she could tell. Also, last week, I wore a blouse and needed help taking it off - ordinarily it is usually flowing on me. So I am not sure what to do. Yes, building muscle is great and needed and I have loved every minute of it, but this is not where I want to be aesthetically. I have contemplated everything, including stopping lifting (I can assure you it will not happen but it did cross my mind). I believe I need to scale back to less training days and try to maintain my strength, increase cardio a touch and drop calories while maintaining protein. Any words of wisdom always appreciated.
Also, I have a potentially dumb question…Is hypertrophy the same exact thing as building muscle. As in, can you use the word hypertrophy interchangeably with building muscle? Or is hypertrophy a type of muscle building?
Thanks as always.
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Great job!
Way to go, but let’s keep it PG… (I’m kidding)
No way. Stay the course. I completely understand where you’re coming from, but I promise diet drives everything. You like lifting, you’re killing it, you’re getting stronger and building muscle. You can’t do better. Let’s just keep tightening that diet up and give it time to work. I really recommend taking pictures so you can compare like every 3 weeks; you won’t see daily changes. We don’t need to drastically overhaul our training, though, and I don’t think you’ll enjoy it if you do (based on earlier posts).
Yep!
We’re in your corner! Check in when the doubts creep in
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Thanks for the reply.
So I had a question on training technique. Should I ask that here, or start another post?
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Your world - whatever works for you. The benefit to another post is you’ll get new voices. Based on title, you’re more likely to thing in folks that are specifically interested in what you’re asking.
I think some of the articles Andrew posted go over this as well, but muscle will help you burn more calories. So every bit of muscle you have worked for will help you take the fat off.
Have you tried meal prepping yet? This did wonders for me for stopping the fluff gain. I can’t waste food, so I inevitably eat whatever healthy thing I made instead of going out.
Also, I know this has been mentioned, but do you have a log here yet? It has been awesome to see more ladies showing up and I would enjoy following your log! You can use it for food accountability, if that is helpful.
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