I am so angry at myself

[CricketIAFP]

I just returned from my physical today and because I have gained all this weight I now have to start taking medication for both diabetes and high blood sugar! I have to change. I have to get help elsewhere with the underlying causes of my eating disorder but in the meantime I need to change my behaviors with food and exercise.

I am starting today to eliminate sugar from my diet completely and as fat as this body of mine is I am going to start exercising tonight also. I know that it is going to be really hard and I am going to have to suffer a lot to make these changes.

I could really use any support I can get.

Sherry

[Madalaina]

Hi Sherry!

Well, looks like you made up your mind to do what you need to do! That was the first step! You can do it, girl!

Keep your head up, and your faith strong!!

Alissa

[pmaslan]

Alissa is right, you have taken the first step....
take it slow one step at a time...
If you set the bar too high that sets you up to fail.
Small steps.....
Keep coming back we are here for you.....

[DaVinci2]

I'm new...but if it's one thing I can give advice about it's eating properly and lifting weights. I'm not sure if this is the kind of advice you want, but I've got time right now, so prepare for a long post!

When trying to gain weight (Muscle) or lose weight (Fat) it all comes down to diet. While most people think of it as a 'weight lifting' thing, I guarrantee that most serious lifters will say "90 percent of the challenge is in the kitchen."

First step in eating right is figuring out your maintenance calories. Your maintenance calories are the amount of calories your body needs to consume in order to maintain it's current weight. Everyone has different maintenance calories, it's genetic. That's why some people can eat whatever they want, while others can't.

Figuring out maintenance calories

Go to www.fitday.com and start your free account there. It's a site you can use to track your calories and macronutrients (Fat, carbs and protein). It will also track micronutrients as well. It takes a bit of time to figure it out, but don't worry too much. The important thing to remember is that all the food you enter into fitday.com should always be in grams, or ounces. Never enter food in cups or small/medium/large. Weigh all your food. Eventually you'll be able to accurately guess the weight.

Weigh yourself. For 2 weeks eat as you normally would. Don't cheat by over eating, with the idea that 'oh, I'm gonna be on a diet soon so I should get as much of this junk in as possible.' and don't under eat hoping for a nicer 'score'. At the end of the 2 weeks, weigh yourself again (Be sure to weigh yourself at the same time of day you weighed yourself 2 weeks earlier, preferably in the morning after you've gone to the toilet).

Calculate the average calories you've been eating over the past 2 weeks. If on average you've eaten 3000 calories a day, and you weigh the same as you did 2 weeks earlier, it's safe to say that your maintenance calories are at 3000. If you've gained a little weight, then you can estimate your calories a few hundred less, approx. 2700 to 2800. If you've lost weight, then you're maintenance would be a few hundred more at 3200 or 3300 calories. If you've gained or lost a large amount of weight while doing this, then you'll need to be more careful about how to approximate your maintenance calories. Over time you will be able to figure it out.

Losing weight

Once you've figured out your maintenance calories and you've decided to lose weight this is what you do: Drop your calories by about 10 or 15 percent. If your maintenance calories were at 3000 per day, then drop them to 2550 to 2700 per day. This allows you to lose weight at a moderate speed. Too fast and you end up losing more muscle than you want. Holding onto that muscle is important. It is important to know that when trying to lose weight, you should focus on retaining as much muslce as possible. This is done through proper exercise (Note: cardio is not good for keeping muscle on the body. I'll explain a bit later)

Gaining weight

If you want to gain muscle, you should add 10 or 15 percent (Sometimes more depending on how fast and hard you train). You can continue to eat this way until you feel fat (When trying to add muscle to your frame, you will gain fat regardless). The it's time to try to cut the fat out and keep as much muscle as possible.

Eating properly

At first, this may seem tricky but it's interesting how fast eating healthy becomes a habit. Your diet should be about eating clean, unprocessed foods. Meats, veggies, fruits, everything!! I'm sure we've all heard the 'eat 6 to 8 small meals a day' idea, but that's not entirely necessary. It might be optimal in some cases, but 3 meals a day is fine. You total calories should consist of 1.5 grams of protein per lbs of body weight (If you weigh 200 lbs, you should eat between 200 and 250 grams of protein over the course of the day. If you know what your lean body mass is, then eat 1.5 grams per lbs of lean body mass) Seperate your protein between your meals. Fat is also very important. Most people think cutting out fat = losing fat. Not true. Fat is necessary, even the saturated arteri clogging fat is needed to help promote testosterone. Eat AT LEAST 0.5 grams of fat per lbs of body weight. Healthy fats include olive oil, sesame seed oil, peanutes, avocados etc. About 15 to 20 percent can come from saturated fats. A fish oild supplement should be taken by everyone.

Carbohydrates are not bad, as Atkins would have you think. It can promote quick fat loss, but it's often gained back. Carbs taste good, so don't cut them out completely. Instead, limit your carbs to 100 grams per day. You'll soon learn to enjoy your carbs more in smaller amounts. Eat unprocessed carbs, like sweet potatoes (My favorite). Eating them in the morning, before you lift and right after you lift is the best time to eat them.

To summerize, how much you eat (Calories) will determine if you gain or lose weight. What you eat (Protein, Fat and Carbs) will determine what you gain or lose (Muscle or Fat). Also, what you eat can greatly affect how you feel for the rest of the day. High protein and fat meals keep you from getting hungry sooner, carbs do the opposite.

Supplements

A supplement is a supplement is a supplement. If you CAN'T get enough of something through your daily diet, then use supplements. You do not NEED protein powder (Unless you're looking to fit more protein into your diet while minimizing carbs and fat, or you're looking for something convinient to bring with you to work)

The only 2 supplements I recommend everyone take is a multi-vitamine (We rarely get enough of our daily micronutrients) and fish oil, as I mentioned before. Fish oil is great, and it has actually been proven to help with mild depression.

Everything else is a drop in the ocean compared to a good diet!

Lifting - A good routine

In order to get the best results possible, you really have to commit yourself to a good routine. Here are a few rules:

Get a gym membership. You cannot afford the necessary equipment at home to get the benifits you would have with a proper membership. A few dumbbells and barbells won't do.

Exercise both your upper body and lower body. Too often is the lower body ignored. People simply don't understand that without a strong lower body, you won't be able to get the best results in your upper body.

Stay away from the machines. Machines were invented by God to keep the geeks away from the free weights. Big compound movements are what you need to focus on.

Don't worry about the little muscles. While we all want nice biceps, curls aren't the answer. Doing large compound movements will produce a nicer looking body.

An hour or less is all you need. If you are lifting for longer, you're doing something wrong. Over-training will lead to muscle loss, and you'll burn yourself out.

Rest!! Muscles grow outside the gym. If you don't rest, you won't grow!!

There are plenty more rules to the game, but you'll figure it out. If you can't just ask!!

So...what's a proper routine?

Here you go: (Full body routine)

Day 1:
Squats
Bench Press
T-Bar Row

Day 2:
Rest

Day 3:
Deadlifts
Dips
Chin-ups

Day 4:
Rest

Day 5:
Standing Barbell Military Press
Good Mornings
Cable Rows

Day 6/Day 7:
Rest

You should do a warm-up set on each exercise at about 50 percent the weight you would normally use. The do 5 sets of 5 reps on each exercise. Rest between 1 minute and 2 minutes. The better you get, the less rest you need. Start adding more weight if you get to the last rep of the last set and you feel like you can squeeze more out.

Cardio = bad?

Cardio is great for a lot of things, but it's not great for losing weight and holding onto muscle. If you want to run to lower your blood pressure or just to stay healthy, then add a few hundred extra calories on those days. DO NOT do cardio before you lift.

If you really want to do cardio, I suggest doing a form of cardio called HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) Google it and you'll know what it is. This is great for holding onto your precious muscle and it takes far less time.

In conclusion

I wrote this in the hopes of helping the OP (And because I've got a lot of free time right now ). If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask here or to PM me.

I've been training for years and it's been great. I hope that what little I do know might help others!!

[pmaslan]

DaVinci

Thank you for all the good information you provided us with....
And Welcome to this forum and SR......glad you found us.....

[megamysterioso]

Welcome Sherry and I'm sorry to hear about your health. BUT... the great news is that you now know and you can do something about it. We're all here for support and I wish you all the best.

Thanks DaVinci for sharing the info and welcome. When I exercise, I usually never do cardio before lifting (just so I don't sweat all over the equipment- yuck), but why is it "bad" to do that? Does it lessen the effects of the weight training?

[DaVinci2]

When losing weight, the BEST way is to hold onto that healthy muscle and to get rid of the fat. In order to hold onto that muscle, you have to lift hard and eat enough to maintain the muscle. If you do steady rate cardio before you lift, your body is using those nutrients that should be going towards your muscles. You don't want to deplete you energy stores and compromise your workouts before lifting.

lifting = more muscle (hopefuly)
more muscle = faster metabolism
faster metabolism = more fat lose

Some cardio AFTER lifting is perfectly fine, just remember to add more calories on those days.

[CricketIAFP]

Thank you all for your comments. DaVinci, thanks for sharing that information as well. The link will be very helpful. My first step towards an exercise program will be getting off my butt and walking. I am in the worse shape of my life and know I need to start out slow.

My weight problem hasn't been a life long one but came about in the last 5 years due to traumatic incident. Before the last 5 yrs I was always in good physical condition and very athletic. I never had a weight problem either.

I have the knowledge I need about proper nutrition and exercise. I gained the weight (80 lbs) and am in the situation I've put myself into now because of emontional issues resulting from trauma. After doing a few other things and having to change them over the last 3 years my last "hold out" of dealing with the trauma was through food and sleep... i know, going about it all wrong. I realize now that if i am going to be honest with myself that that's really the way to not deal with it.

food for me has been a love hate relationship. i've been eating for comfort but at the same time eating to punish myself and end up where i am today.

i don't know what all my answers will be but like i have heard others say here, i am going to take it one day at a time.

again, thanks everyone.

Sherry

[Jwife22]

Davinci-

I can't afford a gym membership and am looking to lose weight and gain a little muscle at the same time. I really want to gain some energy.....what would be the best exercise (at home) that I can do???

Thanks

[Jwife22]

Sherry-

Join the Food Journal that we started on here. For me, it's easier to avoid the foods I shouldn't eat because I want to be able to post good things and not bad. That is part of my accountability factor I guess. If I know someone is going to know what I just put in my mouth, it makes it a little easier to avoid eating it cause I don't want to lie about it.........

I hope you start doing really well and I hope the weight starts falling off!!!!

[pmaslan]

Thanks for explaing the lifting first then cardio....
I know that I was always told at the gym by trainors
to do cardio last...why I never asked why is beyond me....

[DaVinci2]

Originally Posted by Jwife22

Davinci-

I can't afford a gym membership and am looking to lose weight and gain a little muscle at the same time. I really want to gain some energy.....what would be the best exercise (at home) that I can do???

Thanks

Let me start by saying that there are quite a few gyms out there that are cheap as hell, even a local community gym. Nothing will come close to the results you will get from a gym, it's like comparing a tricycle to a motorcycle.

I'm going to assume you have no dumbbells or weights at home. If you have them, please let me know and I can give you a better plan. BUT assuming you have nothing to work with you can do the following

Bodyweight squats (Hack Squats, Box Squats)

Bodyweight lunges

Push-ups

Stair dips - same as a bench dip but use the last stair instead

Chin-Ups (There has got to be a place around the house you can hang off of to do this. This is a great back exercise)

You can also do crunches.

Because you're limited to your bodyweight, your progress will be slow. I would suggest shelling out a bit of money for some free weights for your home. If you need help on the kind, just ask.

[Jwife22]

Cheapest gym in my area is the Y and it is still like $60 a month. Right now we are on a tight budget so that's out. I owe the Fed Gov. a bit of $, they seem to think I am rich and that I don't pay enough throughout the year. Working on getting our bills down and maybe after that, I can afford a gym membership.

I do have 5lb weights at home. I also have a treadmill. I don't have stairs in my house.

As of now, all I do is walk/jog.

Thanks for the advice.