by | Mar 31, 2015 | Increasing calories, Metabolism Reset
So… You’ve been doing some reading and have come to the conclusion that you have been under-eating, over exercising, and your metabolism is now suffering. You may have also decided that you need to do a metabolic reset in order to get your metabolism back up and running where it should be. Now what?
The first thing that you need to in order to start this process is to determine your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). Your TDEE is the amount of calories that your body requires to maintain your weight. That (TDEE) figure includes your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) as well as your normal day-to-day activities plus any formal exercise. In theory — based on this definition — if we eat at our TDEE, we will maintain our weight. The problem is that this theory does not always hold true. When we have been under-eating and over-exercising, our body will adapt to this stress. In an attempt to maintain homeostasis, it will down-regulate the metabolism to match the decreased intake. The result will often be a suppressed metabolism. This explains why suddenly you may find yourself gaining weight while doing hours of cardio and eating 1,200 calories or less a day … your body has adapted! You have decreased your intake and increased your exercise for a long enough period of time that the body has finally slowed down your metabolism to match the intake. Your body is doing what it is supposed to do = maintain homeostasis.
To get your metabolism back up and running where it should be, you’ll need to increase your caloric intake back up to TDEE, or do a Metabolic Reset. To begin this process, the first thing you will want to do is go to an online calculator and enter your stats to get your TDEE (maintenance) calories. This will give you an idea of what your ultimate goal will be. But remember that these calculators just give you estimates. They are subject to error based on how much exercise you input into the calculator and how active you truly are. Many newbies to EM2WL lead very active lives, and may actually burn a lot more through their day-to-day activities. If they simply enter in the 4 hours of formal exercise that they do each week, their final TDEE estimate may actually be too low.
Apps sync to your preferred device to give you an idea of how many cals you burn each day
Alternatively, you can use an on-body device such as a FitBit, or BodyMedia band to get an idea of how much you burn each day. These are likely more accurate than the calculators, just because they’re monitoring how much activity you actually do each and every day. However, these devices are also not 100% accurate because they don’t accurately calculate calories burned from your strength training workouts.
So, where does this leave you? How do you figure out your “true” TDEE? You have your TDEE estimate and/or your “on-body device” average, but ideally you will also test out these numbers and make sure they are truly accurate for you.
The normal process for doing a Metabolic Reset involves increasing your caloric intake up to your calculated TDEE and staying at that level for a minimum of 8 – 12 weeks (much longer if you come from a history of severe dieting or caloric restriction). We generally recommend that you make this increase slowly, adding approximately 50-100 calories to your daily intake each week. Of course, you can certainly jump right up to TDEE quickly (“rip the band-aid”) or make those increases more substantial, but you may find the increases on the scale to be discouraging. By making the increases more gradually, you can often avoid some of the gains seen during the “rip the bandaid” approach. We leave this to the individual as a personal decision.
Now, back to the original question … “How Do I Find My True TDEE?” In order to do this, you will most likely need to go through a trial and error process. You have your calculated TDEE, but how do you figure out if that is “true” or not? As you are going through the process, gradually increasing your daily caloric intake 100 calories a week, keep an eye on the scale. Generally, as you make these increases, you may see the scale jump up a pound or two, and then during the course of the week, it will generally trend back downwards, often ending up right back where you started, pre-increase. As you get closer and closer to your calculated TDEE, you may find that it takes a bit longer for your weight to stabilize and drop back down. At this point, if you find that happening, you may want to take it a bit slower. Then if your weight has not stabilized and dropped back down by the end of the week, wait until it does before making any further increases.
“Activity level” isn’t just about your formal workouts – many moms underestimate activity level
Once you are at or near your calculated TDEE, watch for slow and steady increases on the scale which do not stabilize over time. If you do start seeing gains like this, you have most likely surpassed your TDEE, and which point you can back down on your intake by 100 calories or so and you should be right there — at your true TDEE.
What many people find is that their actual TDEE may be higher than what they get with the calculators. Often their day-to-day activities (chasing kids, doing laundry…etc.) makes them more active than the activity level that they chose when inputting their data into a calculator. We often tend to underestimate how active we are. Many people find that they are actually able to eat 100 or 200 calories more than the calculators give them, simply by “testing the waters” and not blindly accepting those numbers as accurate.
So, give it a try! Surely by now, you have resigned yourself to the fact that this is not a fast process, so take the time to make sure you know your “true TDEE.” Don’t blindly trust the calculators, test it out and see how much you can really eat before you start seeing true gains. Ignore those monthly fluctuations and the jumps that occur after increasing your intake. Keep pushing your intake higher and higher until you start to see slow, steady gains that do not stabilize over time. As hard as it may be, don’t worry about gaining. You can always just drop your intake down and those gains will stop. Remember: nothing that you are doing during this process is irreversible. Take the time to do it right … right from the beginning. You won’t regret it!
Just starting the process and need a step-by-step guide? Get our FREE Quick Start Guide!
by | Mar 18, 2015 | Increasing calories, Metabolism Reset, Testimonials, The Journey
As you know this has been quite difficult for me. With the past of the eating disorder trying to take control. I have had many slips but never given up. I had anorexia for 10 years, being emaciated, tube fed, detained. Then bulimia for 15 years (nearly 3 years purge free) I have always had a horrible history with food and eating.
I had known for some time something had to change but I felt I lacked the skills to change this. I felt stuck. I felt powerless. I believed I would have to live the rest of my life diet yo-yoing, a miserable thought. I wanted to change because of my two daughters. I did not want them following my bad habits. I knew what I wanted but how to make it happen?
I spent a decade hating myself, starving myself, purging…my life was a complete mess. I’d go 30 days straight without eating and still exercising, then wondering why I was in hospital being tube fed. I wanted freedom, but I never thought I would be free. I felt like a bird trapped in a cage. My life was the same every day. Get up weigh myself, shower, gym for 2-3 hours. Shower. Go home. School. Home, read ways to burn more calories. Bed. That was my life…then there would be days I’d binge and purge from hunger, enemas, and laxatives. But my life changed for the greater good when I was in hospital detained, being tube fed, not being able to leave bed…I had that light bulb moment. From there on I gained a lot of weight, my body was confused and held onto everything I ate.
What made my recovery harder for me was having 3 miscarriages and having a premature son at 24 weeks who lived 6 days. The guilt. The hate. The anger. The depression. Talk about a major relapse.
Then I discovered EM2WL and this is where my story begins…
I have been sitting here for nearly 30 minutes wondering how to start this entry. I think with last year, trying so hard to lose weight and putting in so much effort and getting very little results has made me think. It’s been something I have been trying to put the pieces together for a little while now.
You’d think with tracking your calories for a year (and honestly) keeping to a 1400 calorie diet and going to the gym nearly every day (burning 400-500 calories) I’d have results. After weeks of trying to find information I came across “Eat More to Weigh Less” I was a little hesitant to go there and look but the other part of me was interested.
I can starve, I can purge, but for the life of me I cannot get this weight off me healthy. I’m trying to learn, but it is hard!
Spending hours reading, and talking to people it has been a real eye opener. The amounts they eat and with half the exercise I’m doing and losing weight…I was/am jealous!!! Reading their stories, they were all so similar to mine, their history. Looking at the photos, amazed me. I had to admit I was very interested…
As they say if what you are doing isn’t working then something has to change. I’m ready for change.
I knew how many calories I was eating. I had a start. I went to many TDEE calculators to see what numbers it would give me. These numbers blew me away, I couldn’t believe it. It took me days for this to sink in and make some sense. My TDEE was just over 2700!!! For weight loss 2200, my jaw dropped.
I had a random thought last night, before the birth of my youngest daughter, Jasmine, I lost weight easily because I was eating more and not killing myself at the gym. Things were starting to click with me. Maybe this was the missing piece of the puzzle I needed.
I spent the past four weeks bringing my calories from 1400 to 1600 calories. I have had to change my exercise because I am draining myself, giving myself no rest or time to recover.
So I have had to make two massive scary changes.
1) Eat more
2) Less HIIT
So, right now I am working on doing HIIT 3 times a week and eating 2200 calories. No less than 2000 calories a day, no excuses.
I can do this, because I want this. This will be my year.
It has been a real challenge, good and bad, but mostly good. I have been doing a metabolism reset for nearly two months. When I first started I was on average 1400-1500 calories. I was always hungry on that, grumpy because I was hungry, the list goes on. Over the past two months I have been adding to my calories. Normally 100 calories every week, sometimes I’d stay there for two weeks. After all there was no rush, I wanted this to be for life, not just for now.
At this current moment I’m at 2000 calories. I’ve had so many challenges and fears to overcome. The two main ones were:
1) I cannot eat that much. Yes I can. It’s been a process, but I can. It’s actually quite easy. A serving of mixed nuts, there is 200 calories. Not crap food but food that will make me grow strong. If I have too many calories left over I’ll have a banana smoothie, or a small bowl of ice cream. I have added food back into my diet that I thought was too high in calories… nuts, seeds, peanut butter, a glass of milk. Oh my how I love nuts!!! Little things but it all adds up. I always feel so hungry lately, it feels completely weird. I have had to learn how to balance out my food over the day, a little planning goes along way.
2) I will gain too much weight. Oh my how this did my head in… If I was eating 1300-1400 calories and not losing and gaining how could this possibly work?! But I knew in my heart, that something had to change…and now. While doing this I have not gained ANY weight. I was scared I would gain so much weight. Yet I haven’t gained ANY weight. This has really played with my head and done amazing things.
Everything I believed about eating X and no more than X calories for so long, has been so wrong. It has been life changing. I have always been jealous of people who could eat so much and gain nothing… This has been the biggest hurdle for me in my recovery. I’d eat ‘normal’ amounts and gain. Then I’d go back to what I knew worked for me, yet in reality it was only screwing me up more. My goal is to get my calories up to my TDEE (2600/2800 calories) then drop it to 2200/2400 calories. From my understanding once I’ve been at these calories for two months and do a cut I should start to lose weight.
This is not easy for me, while doing this I have had to challenge so many of my core beliefs, it is hard but it has been worth it. I just wish I knew about this much earlier. I’m really enjoying this journey, I’m really enjoying the food. I love this, this is an amazing journey…thank you for sharing it with me.
by Trish Adams | Dec 16, 2014 | Metabolism Reset, Strength Training, Testimonials, The Journey
How long have you been on this journey?
I discovered EM2WL in May 2012. It’s been a long journey with both ups and downs, but there is no turning back for me. It took me a while to trust the process and I’m so happy that I stuck in there. Luckily for me, I have a lot of patience, which is key with this lifestyle. Yes, lifestyle. It is not a quick fix or a diet. It’s a way of life. If you like food, like most people do, then you will like EM2WL.
When did you first learn that you needed to eat more to reach your goals?
Well my story is a bit of a lengthy one, but I think it’s one that most people can relate to. I did Weight Watchers to lose weight after both of my pregnancies. After my first pregnancy it worked great. I had lost all the weight and then some. I was also doing a lot of cardio. I was running 5 days a week and doing some light weight lifting.
After my second pregnancy, however, the weight did not come off nearly as fast with Weight Watchers. I also was not able to do my usual 5 days of running because I was diagnosed with pelvic girdle pain. It is something that I deal with to this day. I came within 8 pounds of my pre-pregnancy weight but my clothes just didn’t fit the same. I was fatter! My body composition was completely different. All of that cardio and low calorie eating came back to bite me.
A few months later I stumbled across MyfitnessPal and the EM2WL group. I watched Kiki’s and Lucia’s videos about TDEE. I was intrigued to say the least and I decided to jump right in by doing a 3 month reset. I figured if the low calorie/cardio way wasn’t working, then eating more certainly couldn’t hurt.
What was your original response?
My initial response to EM2WL was disbelief. I was shocked. How could I not have known about this? How could someone eat so much food and lose fat? I just could not wrap my head around it.
How did others around you react about your decision to discard the usual low calorie methods for weight loss?
I think there was some hesitation from family members, except my brother. He is a personal trainer and knew exactly what I was doing. Most people didn’t understand, but I knew it was the right thing for me and that’s what matters.
How did your body react to the initial increase in cals?
Well, I gained! I ended up doing 2 resets and gained 25 pounds in a period of about one year. Yes, I know it sounds scary but I came to the realization that I had to gain before I could lose. Most people think they lose weight because they are eating LESS, but we need to realize that you’re losing weight because at one point you ate MORE. I now tell people that I actually gained weight on purpose.
I also noticed that my nails were stronger, my hair wouldn’t fall out as much, and I wasn’t cold all the time. I also saw that even though the number on the scale was either staying the same or going up, that my inches were going down.
Did your family notice or comment on any changes once you upped your calories for a period of time?
I think it sparked some curiosity in my family members. I am definitely more muscular now than I have ever been my entire life. My husband felt my arms earlier today and was impressed with my progress.
Can you describe your typical workout schedule prior to EM2WL and today?
Prior to EM2WL I was doing an insane amount of cardio. I would run 5 days a week and do light weight lifting. By that I mean lifting no more than 5-10 pound dumbbells. And to be honest, I don’t think I could lift more than that anyway because I wasn’t eating enough.
Today I do cardio maybe once a week. Again, I suffer from pelvic girdle pain and cardio tends to aggravate that, which is actually a good thing because that means that strength training is my primary form of exercise. It helps with my pelvis. So it’s a win-win!
I lift weights 3 days a week and lift heavy. I’m midway through The New Rules of Lifting for Women and have experienced great results thus far. I am also a huge Cathe fan. I’ve done 1.5 rounds of STS before spraining my wrist this summer.
I really look forward to my workouts because I love seeing my progress. I’m at the point now where I enjoy focusing more on what my body can do versus how much weight I have lost. That stupid number on the scale doesn’t mean anything to me anymore.
In conclusion…
In conclusion, I’d like to thank Kiki, Lucia and the entire EM2WL family for the constant support. I’m so thankful that I have adopted this lifestyle. Not only for myself, but for my daughters too. They know when they see me exercising that I’m doing it so I can be strong, not so I can be skinny.
by | Dec 9, 2014 | Consistency, Metabolism Reset, Strength Training, Testimonials
The Two Year Plan
Hi. I’m Liane and I’m one year into a plan. I was never good at the small details but great at the big picture. This is why I came up with a two year plan but ended up flying by the seat of my pants and still, to some extent, am. But let me start at the beginning (see, flying by seat of pants).
When I was in high school, I was a serious athlete. I played three seasons of sport (field hockey, basketball and softball) and had the body that went with this. In the 80s, the muscular with some body fat body wasn’t something to have as a teen (then again, it seems to never have been the body to have). I thought my butt was too large, my tummy too large and I hated my muscular calves. I wanted my best friend’s tall lithe body. I look back on those pictures and wish I had that body again! I was so cute and fit (my tummy was just lightly rounded but I couldn’t see it). BUT, I didn’t diet. It wasn’t big in my group of friends who all seemed to just eat.
The summer after I graduated I went and worked as a pool-side cocktail waitress in a bathing suit at a resort. Talk about horrible. I was a late bloomer and working with these college women who were much more developed. At the same time I started drinking alcohol and eating to deal with the emotions I was feeling, being away from home. I gained 20 lbs in that summer. Yup, the freshmen 15+ before even becoming a university freshmen. Ugh. I began to play Division 1 field hockey at university and along with eating less meat and more veg, I lost the entire 20 lbs during that year. I felt good about myself. I hadn’t starved myself but cut out a few small things. And then my sophomore year came and a new coach. She made us all get our body fat taken by caliper. I was told that at 22%, I would have to lose a lot of weight – I was fat. Yup, not just asking me to eat a bit less to get a lower body fat percentage but that I was fat and to lose weight. All my insecurities came back. And so I began to starve myself. I probably ate between 800-1000 calories most days, though more on weekends. As you can imagine, in the next three years I did lose a lot of weight but my hockey performance declined a lot. My coach had ruined me. But I was skinny.
Throughout my 20s, I was constantly trying to keep that very skinny body shape. I would under eat, workout for hours and smoke. Yuck. But I was skinny for the most part.
When I wasn’t doing these things, my weight would balloon. And as I got older it got harder to go between heavier and skinnier. The worst was when I ended up tearing my ACL while playing rugby. I couldn’t exercise for months in the same way and I ate because I was unhappy. So I gained again.
Up, down, up down, never actually learning how to eat the right way. But I kept around a decent body weight and I doubt anyone would have ever called me ‘fat’ (though I felt that way). In 2004, I moved to London for a job. In the first few months, I lost weight despite drinking lots of beer with my new field hockey teammates and felt fantastic at my dad and stepmom’s wedding. I didn’t really eat a lot because I was a bit broke and I was walking everywhere as the transportation was expensive (and I didn’t have a paycheck right away). I then met my to be husband. He is a born and bred Londoner. And he loves food. He was the first guy I met who told me to eat more, that I was too skinny and that he couldn’t understand women who ate salads only. He loved my bum and hoped that I would get curvier.
That led to the two of us sharing our love of food and cooking. He taught me Indian dishes (as that was his background) and I showed him how to barbecue. Over the next couple of years, we both slowly gained weight, though I did more so due to eating his size portions. I called it my boyfriend weight. But I was happy. I didn’t even care about losing weight before I got married though I was sad to have a tummy in my wedding pics (Indian style wedding so tummy showed!) Eventually, I actually weighed myself and saw that I was 170 lbs. Holy cow. This was by far the heaviest I had been at 5’6″. I found MFP and lost 20 lbs quite quickly (I put myself in for a 2 lb a week weight loss). I ate very little, which felt natural to me. A few years later (and a year ago), I saw pics of myself looking quite fat faced and decided to weight myself. 165. Darn it. Gained weight again! Back to MFP where I quickly lost 5 lbs.
But then I began to read more in the forums. Some women were posting about eating more, especially as they didn’t have a lot of weight to lose, which I didn’t. I wanted to get to 145 minimally, so I went with 1 lb a week. Lost some weight and then went to 1/2 lb weight loss goals. I was doing some weight lifting on the machines which made me feel like I was getting a bit stronger. My input of calories slowly went up to 1900. And then I just stayed there. It was frustrating. I wasn’t really losing a lot of weight, but the ladies I friended encouraged me to read more and take my time. I eventually got to the EM2WL group on MFP and it was there that I finally figured out how to do this. I didn’t want to lose weight only to gain it again. I was 45, darn it, and I wanted to start eating for my lifestyle while also losing some body fat.
I joined the website forums and began to post. I started doing Stronglifts 5×5 as it seemed like a great programme. I lost those final few pounds to get to 145 as I was eating more (who knew?) and I decided that I would try to figure out my true TDEE so I could do a healthy cut to get to my final goal weight of 140.
I’m still in the midst of doing this. I’ve slowly added 100-200 calories and held at that level for a month at a time. I’ve had setbacks such as breaking a rib and getting a major chest infection which has influenced how much and what I could do as workouts. But I’ve held strong. I’m now eating the way I hope to for life – I haven’t given up a single food but I’m trying to keep my protein intake a bit higher (to keep my muscles) and watch my portion size. Amazingly enough, I’m eating almost at dinner some nights what I used to eat all day (around 1200 calories). I’m still in the midst of figuring out my TDEE (I’m at 2400 calories currently) and once I get to the point where I am gaining weight steadily, then I’ll know it’s time for a small cut of 10-15%.
I’m one year into my two year plan. I didn’t know how to get to where I was going, but now, I have more of an idea of what I need to do. I’m no longer really listening to the scale in the same way I used to. For me, it’s a tool to figure out my TDEE but not to figure out if my body is where it needs to be. I’m using measurements and my mirror as my guides. I’ll never been a fitness model, nor do I want to be one, so I’ll always carry a bit more body fat than others. I want to be able to have pizza and beer while still feeling fit. I want to still be playing field hockey at age 50 (I’m almost 46 and going strong on a team in London). And, if I live to my 90s like my grandmothers did, I want to be in the best health that I can, with strong bones from lifting and eating well. Yeah, those are good goals.
by | Nov 11, 2014 | Building Muscle, Consistency, Fat Loss / Cutting, Metabolism Reset, Testimonials
Kiki has been bugging me for a while now to write about my weight loss and fitness journey, so here I am finally getting the courage up to writing it. I say courage because in the past year I have come to realize quite a few things about myself that I was ashamed about for a long time and have finally come to be able to face the truth. Yes, I too (as many women do), suffer from binge eating disorder (BED), but let me start at the beginning of my journey, because I couldn’t always admit, or understood that this was going on.
Upon turning 40 (4.5 years ago), I was very unhappy with my body and weight and the fact that hiking was getting hard for me. I live in Arizona and hiking is one of my husband and my passions, especially at the Grand Canyon. Well, it was a trip to the canyon that finally snapped me into reality and made me make the decision to do something about my weight that had ballooned to 185. I am 5’7” and 195 was the highest weight that I had gotten to in the past, so I was closing in on that number again! I decided to give online weight watchers a try and had (what I thought) was great success, after all I dropped 45 pounds in about 4 months! Of course, I quickly hit a plateau and continued to increase my exercise, while sticking to the very low “points” that weight watchers was allowing me; rarely to never eating back my exercise calories that continued to increase with my cardio/calorie burn obsession!
After about a year of weight watchers, I decided not to renew my contract and to switch over to MFP, where I discovered that there was a whole group of Cathe Friedrich obsessed women out there. For those of you unfamiliar with Cathe, she is a workout DVD genius and my guru! I had been lifting weights with her DVD’s along with her cardio DVD’s during the whole weight watchers process. It was a breath of fresh air to meet all of these women with the same workout commitment that I had. Well, long story short, I got hooked up with Kiki through other mutual Cathe/MFP ladies and started to read her blog posts and watched her YouTube videos. This is where I first got hooked up with EM2WL and started to realize that the health industry has steered us women in the wrong direction when it comes to “losing” weight.
After many conversations with Kiki, I was convinced and finally understood that eating really low restricted calories was always going to set someone up for failure, especially when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off and that the healthiest route was to eat to fuel your body and to lift weights, heavy weights! As I mentioned, I had been lifting weights all this time, but never understood why I was never able to make any progress in muscle development and that I had actually lost much of my muscle. Oh, and I should mention that during this plateau, I didn’t understand why every time I would feel like I made some progress I would fall into a binge tailspin. For 9 months, it was 2 steps forward and 1 huge binge step back. Every time this would happen I would absolutely loath myself and shame myself etc, but never understanding that it was partly my body’s way of telling me to “feed me”! (Of course there are also psychological reasons for the binging as well).
I finally let her convince me to do a metabolism reset after being at the plateau for a good 9-12 months and losing and gaining the same 5#. Silly me, I thought that I would reset my metabolism for 6 weeks and then start cutting again. I didn’t understand why after that 6 weeks I had gained a good 10# back and why when I started cutting it didn’t just fall right off!? After more conversations with Kiki and more research, she finally got me to understand that it wasn’t a number that I could assign to my reset, that it could and would take time, quite possibly a LONG time. She also convinced me to join a group of ladies who were starting STS (a 3-6 month Cathe weight lifting program), while bulking (eating above calorie requirement). She did warn me that I would gain weight and boy did I. I gained about 20# back, bringing me back to around 160. I was a little scared, as was my husband starting this process but new it was going to be for my good. After STS was finished I decided to try a cut. I lost some of that weight, but I could tell that my metabolism still wasn’t healed, so I started to eat at what I thought was maintenance and stayed there for a long time.
I should mention, that after I lost all the weight with weight watchers, I told my husband that I thought I wanted to someday compete in a figure competition. I had an unwritten goal of competing before I was 45. Well, I talked about this goal for about 4 years and finally, a (very devout Christian) friend of mine finally pointed out that maybe the fact that I kept bringing this topic up every few months, that maybe, just maybe God was directing me to actually go for my goal. I should mention that within all this time of weight loss and resets, I was born again (which is why she felt it was God calling me to this goal, for whatever reason). We both figured the reason was not because he wanted me to compete, but one much more deeply.
This conversation occurred in December of 2013 and around the same time, my husband got fed up with my talk and said that I needed to just do it! After much discussion with him and other women who had competed and a TON of prayer, God led me to an online trainer who came highly recommended and who was also a Christian. I signed a yearlong contract that began on January 27 2014 that included a nutrition and training plan, with the intention of competing on November 1, 2014. You are probably wondering how did it go!? It didn’t.
After starting with my trainer, I quickly started seeing results, not only in fat loss, but overall improvement in my cardio ability as well as muscle development. I couldn’t and still can’t believe the amount of muscle that I have been able to develop. So why did I not compete? As I said, I felt God had me on this journey for a much bigger reason than simply competing and as it turned out, it has been a journey of healing and learning about nutrition and coming to a place where I can finally admit that I do suffer from BED. Do I still struggle with BED? Constantly! Have I binged during this new goal phase of my life? Sadly yes, but with God’s help I am working on it and have only had 2 major occurrences in the last 9 months, which is a great improvement from binging every few weeks.
So, the reason I didn’t compete? Twelve weeks out from the competition date, when true contest prep would normally take place, I got a response from my trainer that I was not expecting. She felt that with my BED issues, that she could not get me to competition readiness without restricting my calories too much and with my ED, she knew it was the wrong thing to do. After much discussion with my husband, we both agreed that this is why I hired her and I should heed her advice.
We have now moved into a muscle building phase and the new goal is to compete in spring of 2015 and if I am still not ready, than winter 2015. Needless to say, I now know this is a journey of not only physical health, but mental and spiritual as well and I will take as long as I need to get to the point of competing. My mindset has changed from “I just want to be able to say that I did it”, to “I did it and I won!”
I guess I should add my stats for those of you who are wondering (I started tracking in July of 2012 and unfortunately don’t have pictures for the earlier dates):
July 2012: 158 (end of my second reset)
September 2012 (the start of STS and after a short cut): 152
March 2013 (end of my first official bulk): 164
June 2013 (end of my first cut): 150
December 2013 (during my second bulk): 154
January 27, 2014 (the start of my figure training) 25% bf and 154.5
August 11, 2014 (12 weeks out from competition) 18.8% bf and 134
October 27, 2014 (last check in with my trainer) 17.7% bf and 132
by EM2WL | Sep 17, 2014 | Metabolism Reset
Are you having difficulty dealing with family and friends who don’t understand, or aren’t supportive of you doing a metabolism reset or a bulk? They may respond: “You said you wanted to lose weight, so why are you eating so much??” Or you tell your mate you’re going to gain muscle by doing a bulk. “WHAT? Gain weight on purpose? Are you crazy? Others may say more cruel, and even hurtful words. Before throwing your hands up, try to understand their perspective. Then you’re able to work on how you can help them understand yours.
Metabolism Reset – Support from family
Think back to when YOU first heard about Eat More 2 Weigh Less, or when someone recommended that YOU do a metabolism reset? Or try to remember when you were lifting like crazy — eating at a deficit — yet trying to build muscle. One day a fellow lifter finally told you that in order to gain muscle you’d have to eat over your maintenance calories and lift even heavier? What were you thinking? How were you feeling at that moment? The moment you realized that everything you were doing to lose weight wasn’t working. That you now needed to do the total opposite of everything you thought you knew about building muscle.
Now imagine that times 10. That’s how your loved ones are probably feeling.
Just as you remember all the fad diets and the weight yo-yoing up and down, your family and friends remember also. Your husband remembers your reaction when you could fit that little black dress on one occasion and the next occasion it wouldn’t fit! They know how emotional you got when those “new diet” ideas became bad ideas fast!! They are just trying to protect you from another failure, from what they think is another fad diet.
We want those who love us to support us even when it really makes no sense to them, but that can be difficult. So for those in your inner circle, you may need to explain exactly what this is and that this will be part of your life. The fact that you’ll be eating normal foods and not be restricting calories should give them some relief. And also knowing that you’ll be building a body that is based on healthy standards and not based on a number on the scale should have them doing back flips!
Having loved ones who are concerned for your well being and your happiness is a plus and should be embraced. Most of them do not understand the philosophy behind EM2WL let alone what a bulk or reset is. Do they deserve an explanation? Maybe they do or maybe they don’t. But your journey will go a little smoother with the support of the people around you who understand what you are trying to do.
So… You’ve been doing some reading and have come to the conclusion that you have been under-eating, over exercising, and your metabolism is now suffering. You may have also decided that you need to do a metabolic reset in order to get your metabolism back up and running where it should be. Now what?
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