Being healthy can bite my fat ass

The BBQ Pit
1

I used to be very overweight. With ridiculous amounts of willpower, I got down to the weight I wanted and the (clothing) size I wanted. I lost 55 pounds overall. Unfortunately, my body seems to be confused. It seems to think that I live in the fucking arctic and that every calorie consumed must be devoted, immediately, to building up the layer of blubber that I need to survive in the frozen tundra.

All I want, really, is for my body to obey the laws of physics and logic. Over the past three years, it has been a constant motherfucking battle to not gain the weight back. I write down what I eat, every day, every calorie. I showed this log to my nurtrition teacher and she found nothing lacking in my diet. Of course, we can’t all be good all the time. My birthday, Valentine’s Day, a holiday, I might eat whatever I want. In one day of eating whatever I want, I can gain five fucking pounds. Not temporary ones, either. I can put them on in one day and spend a month taking them off. WTF is that?! I always learned that if you consume fewer calories than you expend, you should lose weight. I guess that’s true for everyone but me. I write down what I eat. I don’t sit on my ass all day - going to class involves running all over town. I never take the elevator, the bus or a cab. Even if all I did was walk to class, there is no way I am eating more calories than I am expending. In order to do that, I would probably have to spend all day in bed, not even showering. Perhaps I could shower if I rolled down the hall to the bathroom on of those luggage racks bellhops have.

I went home for break and stayed with my parents and “in-laws.” It was too cold and snowy to go out, so I have gained 13 pounds in two weeks and none of my fucking clothes fit. :mad:

Oh, yeah, and I’m immune to exercise. I have been doing between 250 and 600 abdominal crunches every day for the past few years. NOTHING. Nothing. Fucking nothing. I have no abs at all. Or maybe I do, they’re just buried under the squishy fat that I can grab in handfuls on each side of my abdomen. And no, I’m not doing them wrong.

This summer, I lived 3 miles away from work and school. I walked back and forth five freaking days a week, up and down hills, and hauling ass. (It didn’t even take 45 minutes.) I didn’t change my eating habits, either. I didn’t say, “Oh, I walk 6 miles a day now; let’s hit Burger King!” So, eating habits stay the same, but I add 6 miles of speedwalk to my routine. I didn’t lose a pound. Ok, maybe I gained muscle, right? WRONG. My thighs are just as jiggly as they used to be, and you can trust me when I say that’s pretty fucking jiggly. :confused: I don’t understand that shit. It’s too cold to go out now, so I run up and down the stairs in my building. I never skip it when I’m not in the mood.

I’m 21 years old. I have cellulite. It looks like I never work out at all. I have friends who are of comparable height, who weigh more and they all look better than I do. I am really at the end of my rope. All this careful eating, all this exercise, all this willpower, and for nothing at all. I don’t care if I’m 100 pounds. I don’t care if I am a perfect size five. I don’t care if I look like a swimsuit model. I just want some of my hard work to finally show. I want to look like I work my ass off, because I do. I want to stop struggling with this shit for nothing at all.

Whew! That was some steam that needed a serious blowin’ off. :eek:

~Mercury

2

I can help you. I promise. Your story is similar to a lot of others I have heard. My body is much like yours.

You are cursed with a strong efficient body. Every time you diet, your body goes into starvation mode and seeks to conserve every last calorie. When you eat normally, you gain weight.

What you need to do is get some serious cardiovascular exercise. Walking is good, but you’re a young buck. You need to step up the pace.

Make the vow to run a marathon or some similar enterprise. Start running, and don’t worry about your weight. Three or four months from now when you are logging 30-40 miles a week, your body will slough off the fat like nobody’s business. Be advised you will probably gain weight for the first month. Don’t worry about it.

The 20-30 minutes of hard cardio you do every day will not only burn calories, it will step up your metabolism and prevent your body from going into starvation mode. At these higher burn rates, you will require more food to build and repair muscle. By all means, eat it.

Your body is a wondrous machine, and just the way that it knows to go into starvation mode when you go on a diet, thus thwarting you, it will also know that it will need to slim down when you start pushing it 30-40 miles a week.

Take advantage of the system that is your body, don’t fight against it.

While running, eat lots of greens and fruits and meats. Eat simple basic foods. Stay away from junk food, but other than that, eat what you feel your body wants. Drink lots of water so you don’t get dehydrated. Cardio work will dehydrate you.

Don’t like running, fine. Try something else. What you need to do is get your heart rate way up for 25 minutes a day through exercise.

Walking is nice. Let’s face it though. You’re 21 years old. This is not serious exercise for you. This is not challenging. This will not step up your metabolism.

Give this two months and your body will begin to remake itself. You will be replacing fat with muscle and gradually losing excess weight.

Keep it up and you will be like unto a God. Better yet, add weight training to your regimen.

Don’t beleive me?

Go to a local 5k or 10k race and talk to all the people. You will be surprised at all the formerly fat and chubby people there. They will love to talk about how they tried everything and nothing worked until they started running.

I’ll put it this way. Train seriously and run a marathon, and get back to me.

The fact is, that you won’t be fat when you finish that race.

So many people have health problems or injuries that prevent them from exercising properly. If you don’t count yourself as lucky and take advantage of it.

Trust me when I tell you that starving yourself is a lot more work, a lot less rewarding, and ultimately counterproductive.

3

I agree with Scylla.

In my particular instance, regular Dopers will be aware that I’m a former Olympic road racing dude in cycling. OK… fair enough… I’m blessed with a slightly higher genetic predisposition for cycling… but be aware of something. I raced in the Olympics in 1984 at Los Angeles, and I’m almost 42 years old now.

Like all human bodies, mine too has shown a disposition for gaining weight if I lower my work habits. Thankfully, cycling is a sport which is very easy for me to take up again - but as Scylla suggested, it could just have easily been running, or swimming.

What’s important is to train with other people. The moment you know for a fact that a group of similar folks are gonna be gathering at some point at say 6am Tuesday to Thursday, all of a sudden the incentive to NEVER miss a training session manifests itself.

Then, if you throw in some more training on Saturdays and Sundays, then BAM! All of a sudden you’re training more days per week than you aren’t - and your body instantly goes into “athlete mode”. Your heart rate drops, you sleep better, your weight drops, and your fitness goes through the roof.

As I said, the trick is to find a training bunch somewhere nearby. Doing hard training with other people makes it all so worthwhile for some reason.

Make the phone call. Ask around. Find a sport which is up your alley. Running, cycling, roller-blading, swimming - anything - just find one, and join a club. Your world will change, truly.

4

This is the problem. Spot training DOES NOT WORK! I’m sure you have killer abs, but they are hiding under that fat. You are way overdoing the crunches, by the way. You probably have better abs than Arnold at that rate. Tone your anaerobic exercise down and ramp up your aerobic exercise, like Scylla says.

5

Mercury

Scylla is absolutely right IMO. I used to have handfuls of excess flab (well, I still do have one good handful of it but I’m working on that) and nothing I tried worked and I made myself miserable as hell with all the dieting. Then I read Scylla’s marathon piece that he wrote for Teemings and decided to take up running (by the way, Scylla, I’ve been meaning to thank you for writing that piece for a long time. You really helped change my life with that). I’ve got asthma and am prone to injury so I realised pretty quickly that I was never going to be able to run a full marathon but I run between 5-10 Kilometers every day on a treadmill at the gym and believe me, it works like a charm. That, combined with a sensible diet, helped me to do in six months what I’d been trying to do for several years. If you have the capability to run farther than that then you should do. Stretch yourself.

If I can offer any extra advice it would be to start off slowly. Don’t get disheartened if you can only run for 5 minutes the first few times. Everyone starts off like that but once your body realises (and it will) that you’re going to be running regularly you will find your stamina increases pretty quickly.

Also, I would advise against running every day to start off with. That should be your goal but I found that, at first, running every day wore me down a bit and I kept oversleeping. If I were you I would start off by running 3-4 times a week then after 2-3 weeks increase it to running every day. Make it an integeral part of your daily routine. It only takes a few weeks to create a habit that you feel distinctly unconfortable breaking so it’s not as difficult as it sounds.

Also, running can get a little dull sometimes so it might be a good idea to mix it up a little bit with some swimming or something occasionally. The important thing is, as Scylla said, to make sure you kick your heart rate right up every day.

All the best.

P.S. If you can do between 250 and 600 crunches a day then you certainly do have excellent abs. I predict that when the effects of the running really kick in you’ll have quite a sixpack to show off!

6

Damn, where’d my sig come from? I haven’t seen that for years. Still, it’s a pretty apt thread in which to resurrect it :slight_smile:

7

Ignore me, this is close to a hijack.

I guess I’m not regular enough to know. But I am a cycling nut. Can you give me some hints?

FWIW, Mercury, I am sure it is very frustrating, but your body does not defy physics. Eat less but more often, avoid starvation as that clearly makes your body think it needs to pack it on. Exercise vigorously, frequently. I’m partial to cycling, but regular distance running will melt your fat woes faster than you will believe.

Make exercise more than a habit, make it an addiction, or some higher requirement. Social interaction helps too, you can’t quit early and call it a day if you’re out with 10 other people who want to keep going.

You claim to have good eating habits, but you should really take the time to analyze it. A good diet that minimizes blood sugar fluctuations will really help you out.

And lay off the crunches a bit, sounds like they just piss you off anyway.

Good luck.

8

**

Thank you. You’ve brought a smile to my face a mile wide. Running a marathon isn’t really anything but an arbitrary goal to help focus efforts. You may be surprised though at what you can do after your body’s become accustomed to running distance.

I’ve read about people with truly frighteningly horrible things wrong with them, who’ve completed marathons. People with heart transplants, and I personally know a guy who did one less than a year after bypass surgery!

9

I agree with earlier posters regarding cardio exercise. However exercised induced injury is crucial. Running can be a problem for some people-especially heavy ones. That said running is a fantastic way to get fitness. Swimming is a pain but is excellent for avoiding injuries, cycling is as well but is costly. I think the best solution is to incorporate whatever you choose to do into your life style, and make friends (join a club for example)who do the same thing. :slight_smile:

10

Add me to the list of pro-scylla folks. I’m just on the way down, I’ve lost a total of 27 of the 80 total I plan to lose, and the only way I’ve been able to do it so far is a lot of weight training, and excess cardio. You’ve got to put your body’s pedal to the proverbial metal. Remember this little phrase…

More cardio, less lardio.

Horribly simple, yet spot on.

11

I think I have a body much like yours as well. I can diet and diet and diet and diet, and nothing ever works, but Katie bar the fucking door if I have a little too much pizza.

Believe what Scylla says about running. It is simply, bar nothing, the absolute best aerobic workout your body can have.

And brother, if you’re like me, you need an aerobic workout like nobody’s business.

I’ve never particularly looked like a studmuffin skinny guy. Hell, right now I’m 230 pounds, complete with a spare tire and a bit of a poochy belly (working on it…been sick for about a month and haven’t been running. Just started back this week.)

But, man, my body is powerful, if I may be so immodest. I’ve been on backcountry hikes with guys who are half my size and skinny types who either 1) get absolutely exhausted after a few hours of hiking my pace, or 2) have to eat every 20 minutes to keep their energy levels up. Me, I can eat a bagel and a couple slices of bacon before a 15 mile hike, and I’m cool til afternoon sometime.

I can exert myself HARD all day, then sit down for a few minutes and be ready to go again in 15 minutes. I just did that today, in fact. I hiked down into a 1500-foot gorge, dorked around for a few hours, then climbed straight back out, including some hand-over-hand scrambling, free climbing, and lots and lots of bouldering. Pretty exhausting stuff. But after I got home and got a few minutes of rest, I went and ran half an hour.

Downside is, I can’t lose weight easily. My body (and I suspect, yours) is built for endurance and strength, not speed and quick metabolism.

The good news is that you can develop a speedier metabolism, and that’s what will burn the fat off. You just have to ramp things up a lot.

I started off running 30 minutes every day. Pace does not matter at first. You can jog at a snail’s pace, but you must keep that running motion going for 30 minutes. At first, you may have to take a breather every once in a while, but you will be floored at how fast your body gets used to it and you can go the entire time without breaking pace at all.

After I started feeling like 30 minutes was not enough, I ramped it up to 45. There was a time when I was running 45 minutes twice a day for 5 days a week. Probably 50-60 miles a week.

Know what? I still had a liiiiiittle layer of fat over all those strong, strong muscles. You should have seen the skinny little guys at the track when I zipped by them, then a few minutes later when I lapped them. There was one guy who never really spoke, but we developed sort of a contest. He’d silently try to keep pace with me every day, and be forced to fall back every time.

The first time he ever spoke to me, he said, exasperated, “You’re killing me. You should not be able to run like that.”

It may be petty, but it felt really good. He then became my running partner. :slight_smile:

12

Boo Boo Foo, any advice on protecting the cartilege in my knees? The doctor says that a lot of it is worn away. But the cardiovascular exercise that I like best is done on a step-in-place machine that offers resistance and lets me determine the depth of my step.

Scylla, you have been such a good motivator and teacher for me! I’m glad I had a chance to thank you here.

Mercury, this is just a suggestion and if either Boo Boo Foo or Scylla say that I am wrong, then go with what they say: Focus on healthy behaviors rather than weighing a certain amount.

13

My understanding is that cartilage is non-regenerative - that is, once it’s worn away, it doesn’t come back sadly.

Knee cartilage problems are something I personally never hear about in my particular sport. Nowadays, I’m involved in coaching a lot of teenagers who are “up and comers”, but I also train and race with an incredible number of people in their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s believe it or not. And knee problems are very rare - in the context of my own personal experience.

Occasionally, very rarely I hear about achilles tendonitis - but it’s very rare.

Certainly, anyone who has a knee cartilage issue is someone who I would counsel towards taking up cycling as an option. That, or swimming. But cycling is much better due to the fact that you can talk to other people while you’re doing it, and you get to see so much countryside once you get fit. Both swimming and cycling (and to a lesser extent roller-blading) are low-impact persuits - no jarring or thuds on your joints. In my experience, most folks who take up long distance running in their later years (who were never athletes when they were younger) well, ankle and knee problems tend to manifest themselves with a greater amount of prolifacy.

Make the call - ring your local club. Explain your circumstances and you’d be amazed how people will offer to help you out.

14

Mercury… with all due respect to the runners among us, and with all due respect to the great and unarguable health value in vigorous consistent exercise… allow me to
educate
you.

That is the best of the many books I’ve read so far. For your sanity alone, I strongly urge you to read it. It is extremely thorough, well-researched, and a good read besides.

And it is more than the title suggests, believe me. It is an in-depth assessment of the physiological reality of weight, from every angle.

You’ll have a new attitude after you finish it.

15

On a slightly different note, Have you had your thyroid, or any other medical reasons checked? Before I knew I was insulin resistant, I could eat barely anything and gain weight, and even now If I eat a few too many sugars it causes what seems like an immediate weight gain. It is a constant struggle to keep my weight down(and working on keeping it lower). I feel your pain.

16

I was just about to suggest the same thing as Deadly Nightlight. Get some bloodwork done. If everything checks out okay, then do as the others in this thread have suggested.

I’ll just add one more thing. In addition to cardio, you really should be doing some weight training, preferably three days a week. The more muscle you have, the more fat you will burn. I’m not sure why that is (maybe someone can enlighten us?), but that’s what I’ve always been told.

Good luck!

17

Your body has to expend calories specifically to maintain new muscle. I believe that your body has to burn an extra fifty caolries a day to maintain one lb of muscle. If you’re able to put on 10lb’s of muscle that means you can eat a fair bit more, provided it’s healthyt and nutritious.

18

Mercury- I do feel your pain. It’s hard. Last year I joined a gym after a successful bout of losing weight by walking, in hopes of losing more. What happened? I gained weight. Didn’t change my eating habits, I was lifting weights and varying my cardio (walking, cross trainer, elliptical) but the fat was still there and increasing. It wasn’t muscle weight either. I still haven’t figured it out though I suspect it’s because my body got used to my routine. Sigh.

Then I read something in Shape or some other Health mag that’s made a difference. I prefer walking as running hurts my knees, though I’m trying to build up to running. What I learned was to walk really really really fast for short bursts of time- say 3-5 minutes, then slow down the pace for 5-10. Repeat for as long as you like. The bit of fast walking has made all the difference. I don’t know why, but it sure as hell works. Variation is also key.

Everyone’s advice so far is good too.

19

I wanted to comment on a couple of things. I am an athlete as well as an employed health, fitness, and diet credentialed professional, so I could go on and on about many things, but I wanted to mention a few specifics in response. I hear a lot of the OPs concerns frequently from people. They are common concerns.

I wouldn’t say you are immune to exercise. You just need to plug in the recommended formulas and do the correct amount of exercising for your needs. Exercise can vary from the minimum ACSM requirements up to the high end athletic training needs. It just depends on your goals. If it is to run a marathon, then you train hard and constantly. You also understand that hard training ups your chances for injury. But if that is your goal, you just do it. If you just want to reach and promote health then you can train at a lower level; minimum requirements to moderate requirements, even vigorous training. But you have to consider the components and a formula for each component of activity. There is frequency, intensity, time and type (FITT) that tells you how often, how hard, how long and what type of exercise (aerobic or resistance training, and you need both). Then you will have the proper overload and thus the proper progression.

You could investigate hiring a trainer. It’s great you have a nutrition teacher whom you can consult. If a trainer is out of the question, then just do some research. There are many credible sites out there, so you can easily find credible sources and get the information you need to have more success: American College of Sports Medicine, Cooper Institute, Amercan Council of Exercise, AAFA…etc. Those sites will give you all the laymen’s terms for calculating your exercise needs. It’s all about FITT and applying it properly.

I noticed prior posts mentioned thyroid disfunction. That as well as some other metabolic issues can cause problems with metabolism, and they are fixable. So if you still find ongoing problems with things, an MD would be in order.

And the cellulite…all women have it. We have thin skin, unfair areas of fat storage, and the combination makes for that bumpy disgusting texture. The more one has in the way of disproportioned fat to lean tissue (overweight), the more the thin skin is stretched and we see that ugly subcutaneous fat. The leaner one is and at a health body composition, the less noticeable it is. But we all get it, young or old.

20

[QUOTE=Gomez]
Mercury
Also, running can get a little dull sometimes so it might be a good idea to mix it up a little bit with some swimming or something occasionally. The important thing is, as Scylla said, to make sure you kick your heart rate right up every day.
QUOTE]
Swimming, especially, if you have access to a pool is good. I never liked running; the pounding on the feet was always unpleasant, but swimming is an excellent substitute and will probably do more for your upper body.

Another way of fighting “cardio-boredom” is to do it in a gym on the bike, stairclimber, or elliptical trainer: you can hold up a magazine or paperback and read while you sweat. For me that makes all the difference.