Dane,

Yes, Mistress Julia loves abusing me!
Question, I have been following Atkins and high fatting. Calories usually anywhere between 1300-2000. I saw in your journal your calories are low but we are on different plans. Any thoughts? Mistress Julia high fats and is on Atkins and it seems to be working for her...the biatch! Of course, she was closer to goal when she started the training. Just curious what you would recommend b/c I have been losing but at snail's pace! Gain then lose gain then lose...I refer to it as the atkins dance!

Well, as much as a lot of people don't want to think about it, calories do matter, especially when you're lighter. Julia is getting some scale action, but she also counts her cals. You have to give your body a reason to dip into bodyfat stores, and you do that by creating a deficit. How do you know if you're creating a sufficient deficit? By scale loss. By how your clothes fit. If you want to be able to CONTROL that deficit, then you gotta track calories.

1300-2000 is a pretty big range...do you know what your average daily calories have been for a certain period of time? If you can religiously track your food (and this means measuring/weighing it out with a gram scale or food cup measures and then putting the info in MyPLAN or similar) for, say, 2 weeks, and then compare it to what your average weight is, you can get an idea of what your maintenance calorie level is. Or, you can just pick a number (a generic rule of thumb is 14-15 times your total body weight for maintenance) and eat there for a week, adjust as needed.

Then you cut cals. How much to cut depends on you, how strict you want to be, how you deal with food restriction, etc. I like my plan, because even though the dieting days are very low cal (but high protein), I get 2 days of higher cal eating that help keep me sane and fuel workouts. Some people prefer a more modest deficit, like what Ghoulia is doing. It'll all work if you stick to it-- Time + Consistency = Results

The high fatting is just another way to diet comfortably. I have two problems with the high fat plan--if you are weight training intensely, you do need more protein than what is recommended, and Elle will tell you that, too. The other thing is that if you aren't tracking calories, it's REALLY easy to overeat calories without realizing it, making your loss smaller, or even gaining. But, if you are watching your cals, you can make it work, like Ghouoooolia or Elle.

To add to the above post, to make it easy, what I usually suggest is for someone to set calories at 12 times their body weight, and eat that amount for about 2 weeks. At the end of that time period, see where you're at scale/jeans-wise (and if you have TOM during this time, be aware of water weight fluctuations). If you're losing at a good rate, stay there. If you're still at a slow rate of loss, you can try cutting to 11 times body weight. And so on. Some people find they have to cut to 8 times total body weight to lose at a fast rate, but it all comes back to what you're comfortable with. Better to start at the higher end (12xBW) so you have room to tweak when you plateau.

I don't watch my calories at all, not in the limiting sense. As a matter of fact I'm eating more calories now high-fatting than I was on traditional Atkins. I averaged 13-1500 then.

Some days I eat less, some days more, but my average intake over the last few weeks is about 1700 cals per day (ranging from 1200 to 2500 over the course of a week)--and still losing on that. Interesting that that is about 12 times my weight!!! Limiting calories leads to binging for me. Some days I eat less b/c I'm not very hungry, but I never tell myself "I can only have XXXX calories." That doesn't allow me to follow my appetite and if I don't eat more on plan food on those "hungry days," I will binge.

I try to stay out of the whole "how much protein do you need" argument. I know that I cannot eat 100g of protein a day continue to lose body fat on my current level of activity, which is something I feel I can sustain for life. And since I don't seriously weight-train (and never will again, I imagine) I try to just stay out of it for those who do.

Well, I am just a gimpy old woman...

My left wrist is in a brace, I can hardly walk on my right knee, and my low-back hurts.

I think I'm going to go back to what I was doing (once all this pain goes away) aka Vedral method and more emphasis on straight-leg exercises that don't bother my knees (plus my one set of 12 squats). Those extra squats and heavier dumb bells and the ball did me in, I think. And I don't think I overdid it, I just have some arthritis issues, I think. I know the difference between muscle soreness (that is actually kinda pleasant) and the "bone on bone pain" that comes with arthritis (not pleasant!).

Thanks so much for all your time and attention, Dane!!!

Yes, watching and limiting are 2 different birds, I meant that you are mindful of them; you are able to eat to appetite (if I do that, I overeat), so your high cal days are balanced by low cal days. The trouble starts when your (that's the collective "your", not you specifically, Elle) high cal days continue for weeks on end, with no low cal days, ha.
Now how about that! Seems like your body is one of the few that can do both chemistry AND algebra.

Even the experts aren't clear on how much protein we need. There seems to be a consensus that weight trainers should eat more, but how much more? My Guru ( ) recently published an article about that, which I'll post up.

Sorry to hear you're having a flare-up! Do you take high dose fish oil? There's some research that shows it can help immensely with inflammatory Stuff. Also, I've heard that chondroiten/MSM can help, too.

Even though you can't lift heavy, it's good for you to continue with some form of resistance training. Higher rep/lower weight work may not be so wonderful for building muscle, but it will get blood flowing and help with your joints, providing you do a moderate program (meaning 3 times a week or so, not every day.)

Anytime! I learned a lot from the boards, so it's good to be able to "pay it back".

Dane,

Just checking in and realized you and Elleh posted responses!

Loving my workout!Definitely "eating w/hungry" now. Some days calories are a bit higher but still see loss small as it may be. But since begining workout...gaining...I expected that and am measuring inches too. Tummy is definitely tighter and starting to see some muscle underneath! So theres that! Best of all, I jog on treadmill again (love that!) just 20 minutes, but WOW!

On anther note, took a peek in your gallery and your progress photos are inspiring!

Thanks!

If your higher calorie days are getting balanced out with lower cal days, then yeah, your gain is most likely just water retention. Sometimes measurements are reassuring, sometimes not--depends on where you measure and where you hold the water!

This is why tracking calories, as much of a pain in the butt as it is, is helpful. You can see what you're eating, and make adjustments as needed. If you don't track your cals, all you can do is guess the reasons you gain. Since exercise can make some people hungrier, it's easier to outeat your deficit and not realize it, unless you're measuring and tracking.

Sweet that you're feeling good, though! One of the immediate benefits of effective weight training is an awareness of your body, your muscles, and that lovely firmness.

Thanks!

There is just way to much here for my ADHD brain to stick with, so tell me if this distilling is close...

Workout:

Shoot for 3 sets, proper weight is when you can do at most 8-10 a set.

In this order:
1) Squats
2) Dead Lift
3) Lat Pull down / Chin ups ( I could use the chin up/pull up machine here??)
4) Arnold Press (would Military press work here ? )
5) Dumbbell Rows
6) Low incline press ( can this be down with a single bar? Im not good at moving 2 hands in unison )
7) Ball Crunches (Is there a better option here, I do not think my back could take that)

I hope thats not asking what has already been answered, these long threads are just not possible for me to focus well on.

Is that a complete body work out then?
Thanks!

You got it. You can play with order a little bit--squats or deads first; chest/lats/back next, then shoulders, arms, calves, abs in whatever order. You can use the chin up machine, but I would encourage you to try negative chins, too. Military press is fine for shoulders. Barbell incline or flat press can be subbed for the incline db press. Ball crunches are just one type of ab work--pick your poison--hanging leg raises, floor crunches, dragon flags, whatever you like.

The idea is to choose an exercise that works each muscle group, and do it 2 or 3x a week for at least 6-8 weeks. Then you can change the type of exercise to another of similar emphasis.

Now I just have to figure out how to do each of those LOL

The link in the first post has descriptions/pics of the exercises.
http://builtblog.wikidbody.com/2007...e-body-workout/

You can also go to this site and look up the individual exercises.
http://exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

If you have any Q's about a specific exercise, post it up. Lots of smart people here that can help you.

Thats an AWESOME butt! I wish mine looked like that. I have "white girl, pancake butt". LOL

Wow - great resource! Thanks for all the links, Dane!

I would either start with a 12-15 rep weight for deadlifts, or keep my reps at less than 5 for a few workouts. Squats and deads both can be brutal on the low-back muscles, plus, it's the grip that usually goes first on deads anyway.

You could actually alternate squats and deads each workout or so since you have some redundancy in the routine.