Diet change weight gain?

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by Kframe, Nov 27, 2014.

  1. Flatfish

    Flatfish New Member

    Sorry guys , i'm new here but i read this thread and did want to chime in for a second. I did the calorie reduction, steady state cardio thing for a while when I started to get active again after a long lay off due to work, kids etc. I managed to lose about 25 lbs was happy about it but could not lose any more. For some reason my body just did not want to be below 180 lbs.to get there i reduced my calorie i take by about 1000 cals each day for a weightloss goal of 2 lbs per week coupled with bike, jogging etc. Since then I had been watching my diet and been steadily exercising ever since with not much to show for weightloss. So I finally decided to switch things up, took up a basic strength training program ( starting strength, or stronglifts(my choice)), interspersed with some HIIT and TKD and I have seen marked improvement, not so much in overall weight but in body composition ( less fat, more muscle). I am still trying to cut weight but I just thought to throw out a suggestion for you to try out a completely different workout routine and see where that takes you. Our bodies adapt to challenges, so maybe you are not responding to the steady cardio anymore right now. Change it up and see what happens....it's a long time endeavour to get and stay fit anyways.....
     
  2. Kave

    Kave Lunatic

    Higher calories burned is better. Unfortunately, cardio is endurance training. Endurance training forces your body to adapt by become more efficient (which is really the purpose of endurance training), what this means is the more cardio you do, the harder it gets to burn calories by doing cardio. Cardio becomes self-defeating for weight-loss unless you are prepared to continuously increase both the intensity and time spent. All exercise suffers from this to some degree (which is why changing exercises helps to break through plateaus) but endurance training (steady-state cardio) is the worst.

    Steady state cardio will give you short term weight-loss success, but will sabotage future weight-losses. If you are 74kg and want to get to 72kg then you really don't have to worry about the long-term viability of your weight-loss strategy, but if you are 140kg and aiming to get to 70kg then you need to pay attention to what long-term effects a weight-loss strategy has.
     
  3. Flatfish

    Flatfish New Member

    One more thought. It might be worth your while to peruse some of the bodybuilding forums out there. The lifestyle is not my cup of tea,a bit too narcissistic (I'll keep my chest hair, thank you very much :p), but those folks know how to put on weight and get it off. You will find that extensive cardio does not come up as a strategy in general. Lifting and nutrition does.
     
  4. Kframe

    Kframe Valued Member

    Thanks Flatfish ill look into it.

    Again sorry for being argumentative here guys. Like i said i am mad at whats happening and uneasy about change.

    Ill do more reading into hiit and try to make some serious changes to my training. Hopefully we will see results.
     
  5. Ros Montgomery

    Ros Montgomery Valued Member

    Kframe, the NHS Choices website is really good for sensible weight loss resources:

    http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/loseweight/Pages/Loseweighthome.aspx

    I'm not a dietitian or doctor but I have lost over six stones by eating sensibly and exercising (a mix of cardio and resistance in case you're interested).


    I believe this is a common misconception regarding insulin; it's actually more of a 'nutrient director'. If you eat carbs or protein, the resulting insulin response tells the body to use that for energy, rather than burning fat. Similarly, the lack of insulin response when fat is eaten tells the body to burn the fat just eaten. Either way, the body will use what has just been eaten for energy, any left gets stored and if there is not enough for energy requirements, previous fat stores will be used. Insulin does not promote fat accumulation in the long run.
     
  6. righty

    righty Valued Member

    I'm going to say all these presuming that you kept your total calories the same before and after the switch from low to higher carbs.

    I would not be concerned in the slightest and would consider the weight gain absolutely normal.

    A low carb diet depletes your body of muscle and liver glycogen. For every molecule of glycogen your body stores 3-4 molecules of water. So when you use the glycogen, your body excretes the water. Glycogen is used by your muscles as the preferred source of energy and glycogen primarily comes from carbs. So the low carb diet means you are likely to have low glycogen levels and the fact that you were having issues with recovery only adds to that evidence.

    So when you add carbs back to your diet, you are also replenishing you glycogen stores and with the glycogen, your body is also storing that water again, adding more total weight.

    In the grand scheme of things you only added 6 pounds or less than 3 Kgs. That is nothing and if anything I might expect a larger difference with this sort of change in diet, especially for someone of your size.

    With regards to where to go from here there are already comments giving advice on exercise. But regarding food it will always be a matter of trial and error to see what works with you. Even DEXA scans and the like are only an estimate in terms of energy expenditure. So pick a diet and log it, stick with it for a minimum of 2 weeks (and more if making a significant changes) and log any changes. If results are good then stick with it until progress stalls for a minimum of 2 weeks. After that, change things a little at a time. Then rinse and repeat.
     
  7. Kframe

    Kframe Valued Member

    Hey guys. Im getting better at eating. I have managed to pinpoint my maintenance calories. So im working on a small deficit but am struggling with the weekends. Im bored so im grazing.. Which is bad..

    That said i found a affordable place to work out and was looking for some input on there group class's. http://www.fitnessstudiobychp.com/class-schedule-small-group-aqua/schedule/

    Specifically if i would get any s/c and weight loss benefits from it or would be wasting my time. I have no real experience with any of their class's so i cant really draw any conclusions other then they look body weight based. Which im not sure of as i had heard that body weight exercises are not as efficient as weight training.

    So exercise guys, what do you think of there group programs? They are very affordable and really close by.

    Thanks for the input.
     
  8. seiken steve

    seiken steve golden member

    if you've never done anything really classes are great for GPP, they'll only get you so far though.
     
  9. seiken steve

    seiken steve golden member

    Although they seem really poor. Is there a gym there too?
     
  10. Kframe

    Kframe Valued Member

    No, its just a group exercise place. Classes use kettlebells or bands or body weight or the cycles.

    I was looking at it because i enjoy group things. Ill likely give them a try and when/if i need a change ill move on to something else.

    The pro bodybuilder/weightlifter fitness center i found was considerably out of my price range.

    Other options include getting a heavier kettlebell (i have a 20lb, i need a 40) and following along with the AOS kettle series. Or i could just get bands or dumbbells and do hiit on the bike. The bands are the cheaper choice and scale up to 700lbs(gorilla bands) however they become problematic at higher loads. Namely trying to chess press great loads with them. Traction becomes a issue. However, i can barely bench over 160 so i have a ways to go before i have traction issues.

    Dumbells have none of the drawbacks of bands but are significantly more expensive for a full set or for a pair of adjustables.
     

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