Friday, May 14, 2021

Do you ever feel guilty for trying to lose weight?

Ok, I know I'm going to have to chat with my therapist about this too, but I want to know if anyone else can relate. I have been at the low end of overweight most of my adult life (right around 155, 5'6" F, 38yo). During covid I gained another 10lbs, so I decided I wanted to lose the weight, and then some. When I've lost weight in the past and was around 140-145 I'll admit, I felt SLAMMIN, so I want to feel that way again. :)

I've been working on my food issues with my therapist, which is great. And I know that most of the time when I try to lose weight, I lose the same 6 lbs. over and over again. So it's been probably 5-6 years since I was at my goal weight last, and I didn't maintain after I hit it - took my eye off the ball and gained the weight back. I'm determined this time to maintain in my goal range.

Anyway - point of the post - I'm realizing that I feel guilty for losing weight. I'm probably the thinnest in my family as-is, and the only one without kids, so I know that my body has skipped some things that my siblings have had to deal with. I also know I have more "free" time than others (although, I work FT on my business, so I still have a lot on my plate). I feel guilty for having these goals, like I'm leaving others behind. My siblings and I share about weight loss / healthy eating, and exercise a little, but I'm afraid that if I share too much, like how into it I really am, that I'm going to exclude or alienate people. Does that make sense? Anyone else relate to this? I know I just have to work on me... but it's hard.

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The First Pound

I (35F/4'11"-150cm/SW 135/CW 133/GW 105) started guesstimating my calories and haphazardly working out a couple weeks ago as well as diving in to some of the weight loss forums here on reddit to get myself ready for a proper day one, which was Monday. I did it this way because I knew if I made a post for Day One it would put too much pressure on me and my motivation would seep out because I'd already told people about it. So I just started.

I was a healthy weight until around 2017 when my health tanked and I emotionally ate my feelings about that. I managed to get it under control and lose the first 18lbs by the time COVID hit -- at which point lockdown flared my health issues and my depression and I regained everything. I knew I could do it since I'd done it before though. But this time around I knew I was going to have to work harder, but that's okay(my meds make it hard for me to lose weight and easy to gain plus I'm a little older now, eh.) Last time I was walking 40min 5x/week and doing heavy lifting 2x/week.

Only nothing happened. Talk about frustrating! I was counting calories (1200! not a smidge over most days!) and spin biking and the scale at least got under 135 but then nothing. I sat at 134.6 for over a week even though I knew that with the calorie counting and the introduction of *consistent* workouts something should happen. I'm now cycling 30min 4x a week and lifting moderately 2x week. So I just kept going, trusting the science of CICO and knowing a little whoosh was coming.

Today it finally happened. I mean, it's the tiniest of whooshes but at my height there's not a lot of room to work with lol. And I can't even express the RELIEF to see that. I didn't even realize what I was seeing. And it's the best motivator there is to keep going. It seems silly because it's such a small change, a little over a pound, but it means the world to me.

The first pound was the hardest mentally. I'm going to celebrate by slinging around some weights after work. ;)

[Details for those interested -- I have a disability called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome that means my collagen is all f'ked up and my joints are unstable. The primary features for me are constant full-body pain, extreme fatigue, and brain fog, and it has a ton of minor comorbidities like IBS, interstitial cystitis, autism, anxiety, and depression. I'm super interested in maintaining a healthy lifestyle while disabled and would love to connect with others in the same boat!]

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5 Easy Resistance Band Training Exercises for Beginners

Resistance bands are a great addition to your home gym. These elastic bands used for strength training are proof that you don’t need to make a heavy investment to get in shape! Resistance bands take up no storage space and are highly versatile in working multiple muscle groups. Plus, they are easy to use! They’re also incredibly portable and beginner friendly. You can use them in virtually any room in your home or even outside.

With all of these great benefits, it’s no wonder that we’re seeing so much interest in resistance band exercises.

If you’re looking for an easy way to add strength training to your routine, then you’re in luck. We’ve rounded up five easy resistance band exercises that will help you to get lean and toned.

5 Full Body Dumbbell Exercises for Your At-Home Fitness Routine

1. Seated Back Row with Resistance Band

a man and a woman doing resistance band training exercises

A seated row exercise is a form of strength training for the back and upper arms. It’s a lot like having a rowing machine but without needing the equipment.

According to the American Council on Exercise (ACE), you can perform this exercise in a chair or on the floor. Sit down with your legs straight out in front of you. The resistance band should go under both feet. With your elbows in and close to your body, pull the arms back towards your hips. Go back to start position and repeat the move.¹

2. Lat Pull Down (Without a Machine)

a woman doing upper body resistance training

Here’s an easy way to work your lateral muscles without a machine. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and grip each side of your resistance band. Hold your arms straight up, then pull one arm down with the elbow bent and to the side (keeping the other arm straight). Raise the bent arm back up to straight position and pull the alternate arm down. Repeat based on your planned number of reps.²

3. Lunges with Resistance Bands

a man doing lunges with a resistance band

Resistance bands can be part of a leg workout, too. In fact, you can really increase the impact of your stationary lunges by adding resistance band to this leg-toning workout.

According to ACE, you can start with one leg forward and one back in a split stance. Put the resistance band under the front foot. Holding a side of the band in each hand, bring your hands to shoulder height, lower into a lunge, and press back up to the start. Do all reps on the same leg before you move to the other one. By working the arms and the legs together, this move is now doing double duty.¹

Walking vs. Running: Which is Better for Weight Loss?

4. High-Low Partner See-Saw

two people training together

Resistance bands can also be a great tool for working out with a friend or significant other. (On the Nutrisystem Partner Plan? This one is for you!) In this exercise, you should stand facing your partner, each holding one end of the band in both of their hands.

According to ACE, one partner should get into a squat position and bring their arms toward the ground while the other partner stands with arms raised over their head. You should both keep the band pulled tight, then switch positions at the same time so that one is always pushing down while the other is pulling up. This is another effective way to work both the arms and the legs in a single workout move.³

5. Crunching or Planking with Resistance Bands

a woman using resistance band as she planks

Alt text: a woman using resistance bands as she does crunches

Finally, you might also consider adding resistance bands to one or more of your core workouts. For instance, you can loop resistance bands around your feet for an intensified bicycle crunch. As you move your legs in that “pedaling” motion, you’ll add strength training for your leg muscles.⁴⁵

You can also add resistance to your plank workouts. Of course, planks aren’t easy to begin with, so adding resistance training on top of it is more of an intermediate to advanced move as opposed to a beginner one. One way to add resistance is to loop a band around your ankles and jump feet out and back in. Or, you could loop a resistance band around the ankles and slowly raise one leg at a time to work your gluteus maximus muscles.⁵

As with any exercise, just be sure that you’re easing in. Since there are different levels of resistance, you might want to start with “light,” if you’re truly brand new. Buying a set will allow you to work your way up or vary the intensity of your different exercises. Soon, you’ll be on your way to being even stronger.

*Always speak with your doctor before starting an exercise routine.

8 Tips to Burn More Calories by Walking

Sources:

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Help Crossing the Next Barrier- Working out more and yet losing less

Hello! Any helps or thoughts would be great.

I (upper 20's male, 5'7", SW: 220, CW: 188, GW: 170) have hit a weight loss wall and am struggling to figure out how to pass through it.

Progress has been intentionally slow and steady, and especially between the 200-190 lb marks I started running daily and made what felt like a ton of progress.

Since passing the 190 lb line (about three weeks ago), though I have been running once or twice a day, eating within 1500-1800 cals a day (generally), and frankly generally feeling better, I just cannot make any progress towards the actual weight loss goal. There was a week where I was running 3.5 miles twice a day and still did not lose any weight, which has been frustrating and baffling.

Any help, assistance, or ideas would be very welcome. Thank you.

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Shedding Some Light On Fat Cavitation

I looked through some threads about this subject to learn more because I was thinking about trying it. When I did I found a lot of misinformation and liposhaming. Its almost like people are offended that there might be an easy way that works and most importantly, doesn't actually affect the people who get offended (gasp!). Backtracking from the subject of toxic people, once I figured out reddit didn't have much actual information on fat cavitation I went to google scholar instead and found some good information. I thought I'd share that here in case someone else looks to reddit first for some information on the subject.

So fat cavitation works by using sound waves to break up fat cells. Before anyone comments that this is bogus because they use it to see babies and it can't possibly do anything, I'd like to point out that sound waves can do so much more than just see babies such as break glass, levitate objects (google it), and actually break up tumors. Its that last one that's important here. Ultrasound can be used to vibrate cells until they explode (tumors) or partially liquefy if you want a less drastic measure (fat). Machines producing 20,000 hertz or more have been shown to actually break up fat cells. You might ask "Wont it also break apart muscle or skin tissue?" and the answer to that is......probably not? Ok, so the science on that is less concrete because they haven't tested every type of vibration or frequency. Its the equivalent of saying prove there's not a potato flying around in space right now. You can't. But the studies done so far saw either no change or statistically insignificant change within the fat targeting ranges used. Fat has more liquid to it than muscle or skin. Due to that its easier for the vibrations to affect the fat over other tissues. So while I can't 100% say it wont affect other tissues, I can say I feel confident to try it out without serious concern.

So another factor I saw a lot of was "This wont help you lose weight, its a scam!" and the answer to that is......You're absolutely right!.....sort of. It's not a weight loss procedure, its a body shaping procedure. Even if someone goes full monty and gets surgical lipo they won't actually lose a lot of weight because there actually isn't a whole lot of weight in problem areas. It is recommended that you are close to your ideal weight and just use fat cavitation to target stubborn fat that wont go away. So if you want to go from 180 down to 150 or something, you still need to work for it. If you have worked at it though and still have an area that wont go away, that's when you zap it gone.

Here's a link to an actual scientific study. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4174158/ This group used 20,000 hertz machines and tested different methods of ultrasound delivery such as focused waves vs broad wide area waves (the broad waves seemed to slightly affect other tissue btw) and tested one treatment vs repeated treatments and even tested if the effects last over time. They biopsied samples, measured it, freeze dried it, measured it, pureed it, measured it, took extra samples and zapped it in the petri dish, measured it, ect. Their sample size of people wasn't that large but I'm confident with the methods they used. The multiple treatments test seemed to produce the best results showing a 47% decrease in adipose (fat) cell size. Note that this study did not try to burst these cells which other treatments can actually do. Also, they ran control samples from the same person when possible where the material wasn't treated and compared it vs the treated ones.

On one last note, I can not say if XX product on Amazon works or not. This is something that looks easy to fake by predatory companies. I do know that they have 40,000 hertz machines on there for sale and the study only had 20,000 hertz machines and saw results. Beauty and body sculpting products are a minefield though. Also, I am not actually recommending anyone actually use fat cavitation. All I'm doing is putting some information out there and stating that at least in a clinical setting, it looks like it works. Also, I'm going to be trying it myself most likely......AFTER some more research which I highly recommend anyone do when considering any kind of procedure.

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Noom is a scam - a field report

TL;DR it's a waste of time and money

I know Noom has gained quite a bit of popularity with their "mindset change" approach but holy cow, please don't use this app.

I've seen quite a few dieticians drag it through the mud for their diet mentality in disguise but I thought they might have been exaggerating and wanted to try it for myself.

First of all, if you start doing your assessment online, you need to pay immediately. Apparently not over the app but even there, they're very pushy to get you a subscription. Not a fan already.

Now about me: I'm 5'2 and weigh around 140 pounds, BMI at 26. I have consistently worked out 5+ times a week for over 2 years and am very muscular, so even though my BMI says I'm slightly overweight, I'm physically completely healthy (confirmed by my doctor, I don't need to lose weight for health reasons). I also generally eat healthy, although I tend to be an emotional eater. Had two eating disorders based on that.

I answered Noom's questionnaire truthfully. They asked me the standard questions about height, weight and activity level, which I expected. I was also asked about my eating habits and why I eat. I set slow and steady weight loss plus creating healthy habits as my goal.

After filling out the questionnaire, I listened to some of their lessons about food psychology (not my cup of tea but might be helpful) and started to track my food.

This is where I immediately stopped using it. Not only do they color code foods in a way that clearly indicates that certain foods are totally bad for you (a no no in my book, this encourages unnecessary restriction and bad feelings about certain foods), they also gave me a limit of 1200 CALORIES.

Given my physical activity and high amount of muscle mass, my maintenance is at 2000 - 2100 calories (agreed upon with my own personal trainer). My sustainable weight loss is at around 1600-1800 calories, depending on what I'm feeling. Noom wanted me to starve myself in the name of weight loss. Hell no.

I wouldn't recommend anyone to use this app. Take that money, go to a dietician/personal trainer and invest your money into a professional, in person assessment.

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Thursday, May 13, 2021

Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Friday, 14 May 2021? Start here!

Today is your Day 1?

Welcome to r/Loseit!

So you aren’t sure of how to start? Don’t worry! “How do I get started?” is our most asked question. r/Loseit has helped our users lose over 1,000,000 recorded pounds and these are the steps that we’ve found most useful for getting started.

Why you’re overweight

Our bodies are amazing (yes, yours too!). In order to survive before supermarkets, we had to be able to store energy to get us through lean times, we store this energy as adipose fat tissue. If you put more energy into your body than it needs, it stores it, for (potential) later use. When you put in less than it needs, it uses the stored energy. The more energy you have stored, the more overweight you are. The trick is to get your body to use the stored energy, which can only be done if you give it less energy than it needs, consistently.

Before You Start

The very first step is calculating your calorie needs. You can do that HERE. This will give you an approximation of your calorie needs for the day. The next step is to figure how quickly you want to lose the fat. One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. So to lose 1 pound of fat per week you will need to consume 500 calories less than your TDEE (daily calorie needs from the link above). 750 calories less will result in 1.5 pounds and 1000 calories is an aggressive 2 pounds per week.

Tracking

Here is where it begins to resemble work. The most efficient way to lose the weight you desire is to track your calorie intake. This has gotten much simpler over the years and today it can be done right from your smartphone or computer. r/loseit recommends an app like MyFitnessPal, Loseit! (unaffiliated), or Cronometer. Create an account and be honest with it about your current stats, activities, and goals. This is your tracker and no one else needs to see it so don’t cheat the numbers. You’ll find large user created databases that make logging and tracking your food and drinks easy with just the tap of the screen or the push of a button. We also highly recommend the use of a digital kitchen scale for accuracy. Knowing how much of what you're eating is more important than what you're eating. Why? This may explain it.

Creating Your Deficit

How do you create a deficit? This is up to you. r/loseit has a few recommendations but ultimately that decision is yours. There is no perfect diet for everyone. There is a perfect diet for you and you can create it. You can eat less of exactly what you eat now. If you like pizza you can have pizza. Have 2 slices instead of 4. You can try lower calorie replacements for calorie dense foods. Some of the communities favorites are cauliflower rice, zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash in place of their more calorie rich cousins. If it appeals to you an entire dietary change like Keto, Paleo, Vegetarian.

The most important thing to remember is that this selection of foods works for you. Sustainability is the key to long term weight management success. If you hate what you’re eating you won’t stick to it.

Exercise

Is NOT mandatory. You can lose fat and create a deficit through diet alone. There is no requirement of exercise to lose weight.

It has it’s own benefits though. You will burn extra calories. Exercise is shown to be beneficial to mental health and creates an endorphin rush as well. It makes people feel *awesome* and has been linked to higher rates of long term success when physical activity is included in lifestyle changes.

Crawl, Walk, Run

It can seem like one needs to make a 180 degree course correction to find success. That isn’t necessarily true. Many of our users find that creating small initial changes that build a foundation allows them to progress forward in even, sustained, increments.

Acceptance

You will struggle. We have all struggled. This is natural. There is no tip or trick to get through this though. We encourage you to recognize why you are struggling and forgive yourself for whatever reason that may be. If you overindulged at your last meal that is ok. You can resolve to make the next meal better.

Do not let the pursuit of perfect get in the way of progress. We don’t need perfect. We just want better.

Additional resources

Now you’re ready to do this. Here are more details, that may help you refine your plan.

Quick Start Guide - Build your foundation!

* Lose It Compendium - Frame it out!

* FAQ - Answers to our most Frequently Asked Questions!

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