Seeking Advice

    • Seeking Advice

      I feel as if I'm always eating and that I'm slowly gaining extra weight. I've danced from the age of three (fourteen years) constantly but this year I decided to focus more on school so I only dance two days a week compared to previous years where I've danced up to six out of seven days. I work in the food industry and while on shift everything is free and I work three to five days a week. I've noticed that my body has been gaining weight (seven pounds within the last week) and I don't want this to be a pattern that continues in the future. I try to eat healthy but I always end up saying to myself its just "a little cheat". After eating said food I normally feel the regret. I would like to exercise more but I don't have the time. I joined a gym last summer but I did not have the motivation to go. I would like to know if anyone has any tips on healthy eating, fitness, motivation, and what you think I should do. Thanks. :)

    • Re: Seeking Advice

      FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal

      Do this for 3-4 days, then tell us the average amount of fat, carbs, and protein you are eating (grams). We'll tell you if you need to bring something down.

      If your carbs are anywhere where I think they are, then we probably have just a diet issue (such as the misconception that non-sprouted grains are anything but carbs and not much micronutrient value).

      The post was edited 2 times, last by Torn ().

    • Re: Seeking Advice

      Calories in vs calories out. That´s how fat gain/loss works. If you consume more calories than you burn, you gain weight. Since you are gaining unwanted weight with your current diet it shows that your calorie intake is too high in comparison to your activity level.

      How you approach your problem is up to you. By simply eating a suitable amount each day you can lose some of this weight. Don´t go starving yourself or trying some ridiculous highly specific diet that´s supposed to be a "secret" or something. It´s completely unnecessary. As long as you end up consuming around your goal calorie intake each day you´ll be fine (you don´t want to be eating too little or you´ll experience plenty of negative effects). This does take a minor amount of effort, being conscious of what you´re eating and how much, and you do need some willpower to stick to it (consistency is what´s most important). It´s up to you to do this. You have to want to do it. You can only blame yourself if you fail.

      Being more physically active is obviously going to increase your calorie output (how much you burn) each day. Though you claim to lack motivation. Well like I said before, you have to want to do this and be able to summon up the willpower to stick with it. If you put a serious effort into training as well as your diet you may eventually see great changes with how your body looks and how you feel. The change alone can often be motivation enough to keep going and improve even more.

    • Re: Seeking Advice

      Mysterious Stranger wrote:

      Calories in vs calories out. That´s how fat gain/loss works. If you consume more calories than you burn, you gain weight. Since you are gaining unwanted weight with your current diet it shows that your calorie intake is too high in comparison to your activity level.

      How you approach your problem is up to you. By simply eating a suitable amount each day you can lose some of this weight. Don´t go starving yourself or trying some ridiculous highly specific diet that´s supposed to be a "secret" or something. It´s completely unnecessary. As long as you end up consuming around your goal calorie intake each day you´ll be fine (you don´t want to be eating too little or you´ll experience plenty of negative effects). This does take a minor amount of effort, being conscious of what you´re eating and how much, and you do need some willpower to stick to it (consistency is what´s most important). It´s up to you to do this. You have to want to do it. You can only blame yourself if you fail.

      Being more physically active is obviously going to increase your calorie output (how much you burn) each day. Though you claim to lack motivation. Well like I said before, you have to want to do this and be able to summon up the willpower to stick with it. If you put a serious effort into training as well as your diet you may eventually see great changes with how your body looks and how you feel. The change alone can often be motivation enough to keep going and improve even more.

      While people here say that "it's stupid to blame fat gain/loss on one thing" they are guilty of the same thing. Most organizations can't even explain how they got into the "3500 calories = a pound" which relies on three premises of only one is totally true (one pound of fat = 454 grams).

      If hormones explain our growth vertically, why not horizontally?

      An obesity researcher recently asked on organization to provide proof of the "calorie deficit = weight loss" and the expected weight loss in their proof was 66 pounds, and only 11 pounds were lost on average.

      This also does not take into account known resistances (insulin, leptin) that promote weight gain.

      Also, the number of recent studies lately that are studying weight loss effects of exercise are covering their bases by saying that "cardio should be emphasized for health marker results [bp, lipoproteins, etc.], thus we should keep doing it."

      I think it's safe to say that diet composition has a lot more to do with weight loss than the amount of calories one is putting in/putting out.

      And no I don't believe just the lipophilia hypothesis (Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes).

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Torn ().

    • Re: Seeking Advice

      Torn wrote:

      While people here say that "it's stupid to blame fat gain/loss on one thing" they are guilty of the same thing. Most organizations can't even explain how they got into the "3500 calories = a pound" which relies on three premises of only one is totally true (one pound of fat = 454 grams).

      If hormones explain our growth vertically, why not horizontally?

      An obesity researcher recently asked on organization to provide proof of the "calorie deficit = weight loss" and the expected weight loss in their proof was 66 pounds, and only 11 pounds were lost on average.

      This also does not take into account known resistances (insulin, leptin) that promote weight gain.

      Also, the number of recent studies lately that are studying weight loss effects of exercise are covering their bases by saying that "cardio should be emphasized for health marker results [bp, lipoproteins, etc.], thus we should keep doing it."

      I think it's safe to say that diet composition has a lot more to do with weight loss than the amount of calories one is putting in/putting out.

      And no I don't believe just the lipophilia hypothesis (Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes).


      I definitely agree that cardio is excellent to do and the health benefits are enormous. Not going to disagree there.

      However diet composition does stand in the same place as calorie intake. Not in the big picture anyways. I do believe that diet composition is important. Don´t get me wrong there. However when it comes to weight gain, your calorie intake in relation to your maintenance level is truly the deciding factor. Eat under maintenance and you WILL lose weight. Eat over maintenance and you WILL gain weight. Admittedly there are certain factors that might alter these facts somewhat (such as alcohol), but that´s going into a much deeper level that does not apply to about 95% of circumstances.

    • Re: Seeking Advice

      Mysterious Stranger wrote:

      However diet composition does stand in the same place as calorie intake. Not in the big picture anyways. I do believe that diet composition is important. Don´t get me wrong there. However when it comes to weight gain, your calorie intake in relation to your maintenance level is truly the deciding factor. Eat under maintenance and you WILL lose weight. Eat over maintenance and you WILL gain weight. Admittedly there are certain factors that might alter these facts somewhat (such as alcohol), but that´s going into a much deeper level that does not apply to about 95% of circumstances.

      A calorie deficit is not possible, unless you think the right side of the equation are independent variables, which they aren't, they are dependent. The body is in a never-ending state of homeostasis.

      Eating less and moving more is, as Stephan Guyenet put it, likable to the edema model of "drink less, pee more."

      Eating more may indeed make you gain weight, but if it's the calories or the diet composition is a whole other story. Hormones are to blame obviously, instead of the caloric model which is rather silly (doesn't explain a lot of weight gain, such as hypothyroidism). Calories being turned into fat sounds makes it sound like leptin resistant patients are turning their calories into fat for no reason whatsoever, as they are supposedly eating below maintenance and still gaining due to insulin reactions.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Torn ().

    • Re: Seeking Advice

      ketro wrote:

      I feel as if I'm always eating and that I'm slowly gaining extra weight. I've danced from the age of three (fourteen years) constantly but this year I decided to focus more on school so I only dance two days a week compared to previous years where I've danced up to six out of seven days. I work in the food industry and while on shift everything is free and I work three to five days a week. I've noticed that my body has been gaining weight (seven pounds within the last week) and I don't want this to be a pattern that continues in the future. I try to eat healthy but I always end up saying to myself its just "a little cheat". After eating said food I normally feel the regret. I would like to exercise more but I don't have the time. I joined a gym last summer but I did not have the motivation to go. I would like to know if anyone has any tips on healthy eating, fitness, motivation, and what you think I should do. Thanks. :)

      Sounds like you already know what your problem is. How about you go out and do all the stuff you know you should do instead of sitting here posting and feeling like you've done something when you haven't?

    • Re: Seeking Advice

      Frosty wrote:

      Sounds like you already know what your problem is. How about you go out and do all the stuff you know you should do instead of sitting here posting and feeling like you've done something when you haven't?

      Cardio for weight loss is overrated, and not many people can adapt to HIIT which is the only one that shows any glimmer of hope for weight loss. She's simply asking for tips, sure exercise can have a relatively great net benefit for health, but it's not the be-all end-all way of losing weight. Surely you can't deny the fact that if she's eating 200+ carbs and insufficient fat/protein her body will only put on weight instead of keep it off.

    • Re: Seeking Advice

      Torn wrote:

      Cardio for weight loss is overrated, and not many people can adapt to HIIT which is the only one that shows any glimmer of hope for weight loss. She's simply asking for tips, sure exercise can have a relatively great net benefit for health, but it's not the be-all end-all way of losing weight. Surely you can't deny the fact that if she's eating 200+ carbs and insufficient fat/protein her body will only put on weight instead of keep it off.

      Yeah but it sounds like all those carbs are coming from regular "cheating" on her diet. It'd be easy enough to simply stop eating crap, but it seems like she's rather just blog about it on here to procrastinate instead of fixing it.

    • Re: Seeking Advice

      Frosty wrote:

      Yeah but it sounds like all those carbs are coming from regular "cheating" on her diet. It'd be easy enough to simply stop eating crap, but it seems like she's rather just blog about it on here to procrastinate instead of fixing it.

      Well, the way you put it, it sounded like she was just here to waste our time- which I don't think she is. I think she's honestly asking for help, and I knew you'd eventually weigh in with your not-so-subtle manner.