Last 5 lbs - consistency or variety?

[yogapam]

Originally Posted by JackieB

I think it's all about the kitchen. I've been struggling with 5-8 lbs and I know that I can't out-exercise what I put in my mouth.

Jackie

Yes, I would agree with Jackie!

[upperwside]

Also want to add.. depending on your age.. diet plays more of a factor sometimes as well.. and hormones can be a bit off (that is a whole other story and thank you bio identical hormones!!!). I am almost 42 and in the past 2 years I have noticed how much more of a roll diet does play. I really needed to bring down my calories.. even with heavy lifting. Try using my fitness pal or another tracker to find out if you are over or under eating? I use it once every few months if I am feeling "softer" and I always find I am eating too many calories...

[missaulnier]

bzar - Thanks! I love that there is a tag search for everything!

Thank you everyone for your responses - I am SO Appreciating this board right now. Its exactly the reality check I need. I feel like I generally have more of a laid back, process oriented focus on fitness and I try not to obsess about the weight number and measurements and more about how I feel, function, etc. However, I've got to say that this turning 40 business is bringing out my inner crazy and I'm getting a little hyper-focused on x number on the scale and fitting into my size y clothing, etc.

Originally Posted by holliholli915

Overall, I think everyone's bodies are different. But, if it were me, I would resist throwing everything and make sure you focused mostly on food intake. I was in your position this same time last year and just went exercise crazy. Ultimately, my body was thrown into a plateau! When the plateau hit, I began doing two a days. The scale didn't budge and my body rebelled. Then, I went out of town on vacation, didn't work out but continued to eat well and lost six pounds in four days.

At the time, I didn't realize that my body dropped the weight because I let up on the intensity. So, following vacation, I went work out crazy again and hit another plateau, stopped working out and watching what I ate and gained 30 pounds in six months which I'm now in the process or re-losing.

Sometimes, less is more. What I wish I knew one year ago: 1) be grateful for the progress that was made, 2) focus less on the scale, 3) listen to how your body feels, 4) don't overdo the exercise and 5) stay the course with the food intake. Everything else will take care of itself.

holliholli915 - Yes!! This is me right now, wanting to workout for hours a day to try and "force" my body to drop that last bit of weight. The week I turn 40 we will be on vacation where I also have a wedding to go to and a summer party to attend, and I am putting a lot of pressure on myself to achieve my goal weight/size by that time.

Time to take a deep breath. Thanks for sharing your "less is more" philosopy - I'm going to take your four points to heart because I can feel the urge to overdo the exercise right now. It actually feels less stressful to let myself just focus on diet because I don't have to push so hard.

Ok. Coming back to earth. Thank you all for keeping me sane!

[missaulnier]

Originally Posted by upperwside

Also want to add.. depending on your age.. diet plays more of a factor sometimes as well.. and hormones can be a bit off (that is a whole other story and thank you bio identical hormones!!!). I am almost 42 and in the past 2 years I have noticed how much more of a roll diet does play. I really needed to bring down my calories.. even with heavy lifting. Try using my fitness pal or another tracker to find out if you are over or under eating? I use it once every few months if I am feeling "softer" and I always find I am eating too many calories...

And upperwside - I definitely notice that food is so much more a factor now than it used to be. I expect that I will hold onto a bit of weight since I am seven months post-partum and still nursing. My hormones will be wacky until baby weans. This whole discussion is a good reminder to stay realistic about my expectations for this point in my life.

[bzar]

Originally Posted by missaulnier

And upperwside - I definitely notice that food is so much more a factor now than it used to be. I expect that I will hold onto a bit of weight since I am seven months post-partum and still nursing. My hormones will be wacky until baby weans. This whole discussion is a good reminder to stay realistic about my expectations for this point in my life.

congrats on your baby!

the best time i ever lost weight, quick and w/o effort, was immediately post partum, all 3 times. i attribute it to sleep. honestly. i breastfed all of my kids and weaned them at 1 year. my largest weight loss was after DS#2 was around 2 years old.

all 3 times, during the time i was breastfeeding, i wasn't focused on losing the weight. i wanted to produce a lot of milk, and the overwhelming key was sleep. the lactation nurse and the articles i read indicated that sleep was the key.

the side benefit was weight loss.

[upperwside]

Originally Posted by missaulnier

And upperwside - I definitely notice that food is so much more a factor now than it used to be. I expect that I will hold onto a bit of weight since I am seven months post-partum and still nursing. My hormones will be wacky until baby weans. This whole discussion is a good reminder to stay realistic about my expectations for this point in my life.

My body held on to some weight while nursing.. right after I stopped.. 6 or so bothersome pounds came right off. It is your body way of saying it is working hard to make healthy milk and you need to have some extra body fat (a built in survival thing). My midwife wanted to me keep those pounds on... so I tried not to worry about them and more thought about that I am responsible for making nutritious milk for my babies.... but I still could not wait to get it off!! Haaa. Hang in there..

[slysam]

Originally Posted by missaulnier

Hey everyone - I'm trying to come up with a rotation for the next four weeks, and I'm hoping to lose about 5 llbs. I am tempted to throw in everything but the kitchen sink in an effort to maximize my results.

Just wondering if folks have had better results focusing on one method for the last few pounds, or introducing lots of variety to mix it up?

Both consistency and variety work best for me for most fitness goals including weight loss (though diet is the most important thing with weight loss). What I mean by both...
*A consistent program with lots of activity ideally that follows a progression (the workouts becoming a little more challenging throughout the program).
*And a variety of activities/exercises/movement paths/intensities included consistently in the same week. So for me a mix like strenght training 3 times a week, cardio 3 times a week, and yoga or stretching (tai chi, classical stretch, whatever you like) 2-3 times a week works well. I see different benefits from the different types of activity that all support a good diet. From strength training I send my brain the message I need to keep my existing muscle and bone mass despite dieting and this keeps me strong and helps boost my metabolism. Also there is said to be a small boost to metabolism for a day after a strength workout. From cardio, I see improved aerobic fitness and increased calorie/fat burning (though not always as much as one would hope). From yoga/fusion/relaxation type workouts improved mobility and posture (which can make you look like you lost five pounds before you have in some cases), improved stress response and heightened body awareness (which can lead to less non-hunger eating or improved food choices).

Anyway, I get my best results when my weekly program consists of a mix of activities. But when the program over 4-12 weeks is consistent and progressive week to week. So that could be choosing a few challenging workout dvds that you find a little too difficult (a cardio, a strength/toning, a stretch/relaxation) and doing them every week on certain days until they become easy. For the strength it would mean moving from easy to hard modifications, increasing the weight/resistance, increasing the reps, improving form. For the cardio--it could mean moving faster, taking less breaks, or "performing" the workout like imagining a group of people watching you (great for dance, but also for other workouts). For a yoga/stretch workout it could mean focussing more on timing breath, stretching deeper, balancing and stabilizing better on challenging poses, engaging the core more, keeping posture elongated, etc. Or it can mean using a program that organizes this for you i.e. p90x or many others out there. The other thing I sometimes do is take a progressive strength program rotation to follow on strength days, choose one or two relaxation/stretchign practices to follow a couple times a week (maybe alternating) until they become too boring or too easy, and do whatever I like with cardio as long as I get my heart rate in zone (though doing the same activity can help or the same workout for choreographed routines.

If I do daily cardio, I like to do a mix of intensities and at least 2 activities to alternate as that helps prevent over use injuries). At one point I did twice dailty workouts and had great results despite warnings about overdoing it. I think this was because I did 3 days a week strength workouts, 3 days a weeek stretching/yoga/mild fusion, and cardio or recreational activity 3-6 days a week. My cardio then included a couple weekly dance classes, swimming a couple times a week, one jumprope or hiit workout a week, and 1-2 outdoor walks. So I only did high impact aerobics 2-3 times a week and some were short and vigorous and some longer but low intensity. And different muscles were used. It was summer and there were a lot of fun activities I wanted to doa nd I had the time. But this was more than necessary for fitness or weight loss. I think if you like a lot of activity, mixing it up a bit can help. But if only doing cardio 2-3 times a week, it isn't as important then you might do better focussing on fewer activities.

[slysam]

Originally Posted by upperwside

Also want to add.. depending on your age.. diet plays more of a factor sometimes as well.. and hormones can be a bit off (that is a whole other story and thank you bio identical hormones!!!). I am almost 42 and in the past 2 years I have noticed how much more of a roll diet does play. I really needed to bring down my calories.. even with heavy lifting. Try using my fitness pal or another tracker to find out if you are over or under eating? I use it once every few months if I am feeling "softer" and I always find I am eating too many calories...

Yes and hormones. I believe this is part of the reason some women see better weight loss when they start replacing some of their vigorous workouts with milder workouts. Exercise can effect hormone balance both in good and bad ways (variable by the person depending on diet, recovery speed, other life stresses, sleep, health problems, etc). Vigorous exercise is a type of stress, so more isn't necessarily "better". The right amount can be very beneficial, but too much can just be more stress to disrupt hormone balance (especially while dieting). Hormones also control the hunger signals so sometimes lighter, relaxing exercise can help you naturally eat less.

When I eat naturally and my activity decreases a lot, I do gain weight. (Most times I gained weight have been in response to temporary or long term lifestyle changes that resulted in less activity since my routine was disrupted). (Though also life events/illnesses that trigger hormone changes have caused me to gain weight). If I am logging food and intentionally moderating it compared to my calorie burn, I lose weight when I should and gain if eating more than I seem to burn. But this is a bit nebulous since individual metabolism varies, hormones effect our metabolism, and all calorie burn (and many calories eaten) figures are estimates and may not be exactly right. But I have slowly lost weight by intentionally decreasing intake and increasing activity.

The other problem with small losses like 5 pounds... Progress can easily be masked by moment to moment water weight fluctuations. Some things that increase fluid retention include certain stages in female hormone cycles (and maybe male cycles too), eating more sodium recently, vigorous exercise, illness, stress, eating more carbs than usual recently, traveling in an airplane recently etc. Clues are the things that lead to shoes, rings and maybe even skinny jeans getting tighter can also temporarily increase weigh by a few to five (or more) pounds. And things that cause this fluid weight to be released might make you think you lost five pounds, only to find you regain it after a day or two of eating and rehydrating to normal levels. Losing five pounds of fat takes time especially when already at or near a healthy weight, but gaining or losing a temporary five or so pounds can happen every day for reasons that have nothing to do with body fat levels. I think this can make it especially discouraging when people are close to their goal anyway especially if they had lost larger amounts of weight and expect the faster fat loss they saw when heavier. Perhaps this is part of the reason following a program and consistently following it regardless of day-to-day changes can sometimes lead to better results. A lot of programs are quite cleverly designed to take a reasonable amount of time for subtle changes to happen i.e. a 90 day program may work because people are more consistent (if they stick with it) *and* because 90 days is a reasonable amount of time to see changes in your body. Doing something for one week then moving on--any changes on the scale in one week are likely just fluid weight fluctuations (especially if you only have five pounds to lose). Even if the workouts are good, it isn't a reasonable time frame to expect to see results. I think I usually need 4 weeks on a program to start seeing results I can quantify and notice. But several weeks longer before others will notice any changes unprompted.

[Laura S.]

I would vote for a different consistency. Many times, your body gets used to doing the same thing. Even with variety, I tend to do the same types of workouts. And sometimes, the body seems to be shocked into a new phase a weight loss by a different form of exercise. So, if you have been doing mainly light weights, I'd go to heavy. If you have been doing Hiit workouts, I'd try steady state, etc.

[Pam61]

Diet (clean eating) and portion control.

Pam