   my sexy's broken.
  Over the past 6 months, Ive completely changed my lifestyle. Ive started eating really healthy and started going to the gym as well. Before, I used to eat junk food all day long. Tons of sugar on my Frosted Flakes in the morning, drinking pop all day, greasy pizza or hamburgers for supper etc etc. It wasn't uncommon for me to eat 4 or 5 dounuts a day, or some other ungodly amount of other junk food. If I ate a bananna, It was BY FAR the healthiest thing I ate all day. Today, I try to stay away from banannas because apparently there is quite a bit of fat (or potential for fat - carbohydrates and sugar) in them. So the thing that used to be my healthiest meal has now become one of my least healthy meals. Now I eat brown rice, pasta, potatoes, tons of veggies, and lean chicken for meat. I dont put sugar on anything. I dont use butter or oil in anything, not even in my rice, and your supposed to use some butter when cooking rice. My own birthday was a few weeks ago, and when no one was looking, I hid the piece of cake that I was supposed to be eating. I didnt even have a bite of my own cake. Ive also been going to the gym for about 2 hours every other day (more or less, Im pretty busy with work and school sometimes). I lift weights really hard for about an hour and I run for about 45 minutes.After six months of this hard work, Ive got nothing to show for it. Nothing. Six months ago, I weighed 185 pounds. Today, I weight 185 pounds. What the hell is going on? Im not cutting corners anywhere, because I really want to be healthier and look better. Some people say "maybe you've gained muscle and lost fat". But that cant be true. I would have noticed. Im still the same size i used to be- i still have all my same clothes and they still fit the same. Nobody else noticed a change either. People dont know I go to the gym unless it comes up in conversation and I tell them. Then they say "ohh... yea... now that you mention it, I can really tell! uhh.. good work!...". I can tell theyre just saying that because thats just the polite thing to say when someone tells you theyve been working out for 6 months. I dont know what is going on and I feel like just giving up. Hell, maybe it works the other way around too, and I can just eat what I want like donuts all day and still be 185 pounds all my life.sigh...[edited by - AndreTheGiant on June 5, 2003 5:37:48 PM]
  IT isn''t broken, I just stole the sexy from you.   --------------------------------------------Democracy may only be a few steps removed from anarchy, but at least it isn''t as loud.;  I went into army training at 187 lbs... after going through basic training and AIT, about 5 and a half months for me, I weighed 187 lbs.Are you trying to lose weight or are you trying to get into better shape? These are two completely different things. You stated that you eat alot of pasta, potatoes, and rice. All of these are high in carbs! You won''t lose weight by eating alot of these, but you will gain energy.Bananas are not something to be skipped out on. They are high in potassion and are VERY good for you. Most fruits are very good for you.I''m not quite sure why you''re upset here. Were you trying to lose weight or... ? 185lbs isn''t exactly all that heavy, depending on how tall you are.   ---------------------------------------------------laziness is the foundation of efficiencyretrospiral.net | llamas! | megatokyo | FreeBSD | gamedev.net | google;  Rice, pasta and potatoes are probably just as heavy in carbs as all the greasy crap you used to eat.EDIT: beaten.[edited by - Sandman on June 5, 2003 5:47:14 PM];  I have a similar problem, only that''s the opposite.I want to get some more weight (at least 10 KG).Well, no matter what I eat, there is absolutely no increase in my body weight. So, i came to the conclusion that it is ebcause I have a high metabolism. There is nothing I can do about it, so I accepted it.   Height Map Editor | Eternal Lands | Fast User Directory;  Did you talk to a physician or personal trainer or dietician before embarking on all this? Some people need more focused attention than others to see results. Some people never gain weight, others effortlessly add muscle. Some people can never quite shed that paunch around the belly (I have a slight remained of one, and it''s the only thing that has refused to go so far... but I don''t work that hard).Talk to a professional. Lots of gyms offer two free sessions with a personal trainer as a sign up bonus; use them to identify the areas you really want to work on and come up with a schedule that will help you attain those goals. Also remember that you need rest and lots of water. Working the same body parts every day may actually retard progress because you don''t give the muscles any time to grow new fibers and really burn off the fat/raise your metabolism. ;  Im 6" tall, with a medium frame i guess I''d say. But Im just a wee bit chubby for my liking. Just enough so that Im too self conscious to take off my shirt in the summer time for example. I dont really know what I want - to lose weight or gain muscle. I suppose I''d be happy with either. But I''m still exactly the same as ever. I know you have to take a different approach depending on what you want. For eg if you want to gain muscle, eat more protein and to lots of heavy lifting. If you want to lose weight, cut back on carbs and fats, and do lots of cardio. But surely you cant have a wrong combination of this can you? I mean I cut back on fats and carbs (and yes eating a potato instead of 4 donuts is cutting WAY back on carbs), and I lift AND do cardio. At this point I dont really care if I lose weight or gain muscle, or do both. But my point is, from what I am doing, certainly SOMETHING should be happening, right? ;  I used to weight to much, and not eat very healthy. I decided that I should loose weight. I still have the same eating pattern, only I ended up being 10kg lighter. Dunno how though. ;  If you want to tone your body, try calisthenics instead of weightlifting to couple with your running.Alternate every other day calisthenics and running and take Sundays off.Monday: Run 2-3 milesTuesday: CalisthenicsWednesday: Run 2-3 milesThursday: CalisthenicsFriday: Run 2-3 milesSaturday: CalisthenicsThis is what I did in Army training and believe me, it works. You don''t build large muscles, but you get TONED.------------------------------------------------------------repeat this series with 40 seconds, then 30 seconds, then 20 seconds for each part:a) wide arm pushups- hands spaced beyond the shouldersb) 30 seconds breatherc) standard pushups- hands directly under your shouldersd) 30 seconds breathere) close hand pushups- hands close enough that thumbs touchf) 30 second breatherg) normal situpsh) 30 seconds breatheri) rocky situps- when you come up touch your left elbow to right knee, right elbow to left knee, then come downj) 30 seconds breatherk) crunchesl) 30 seconds breatherm) flutter kicks- legs straight out, hands under your butt, flutter your legs keeping them straightThis provides a good 25 minutes of straight pushing of your body. DO lots of stretching before and after. After doing this for a couple of weeks you''ll get stronger and you''ll want to increase the time your spend on each exercise.-------------------------------------------------------------For running you''ll want to run at the very least two miles because you have to maintain a strenuous workout for at the very least 15 minutes for it to really do anything for you. You say that you run for 45 minutes. How much distance are you clearing? 45 minute runs aren''t really necessary. Try to clear 3 miles in under 25 minutes. If you can''t, then just work on running 3 miles everyother day until you can... and then keep at it.--------------------------------------------------------------Remember also, drink lots and lots and lots of water. I can''t stress this enough. If you''re peeing yellow, then you ain''t drinking enough water. This is important especially for your runs. Don''t drink alot of water right before your run though, you need to already be hydrated, drink plenty right afterwards though.--------------------------------------------------------------Believe me, if you follow this advice, you will see results.  ---------------------------------------------------laziness is the foundation of efficiencyretrospiral.net | llamas! | megatokyo | FreeBSD | gamedev.net | google;  I''ve been between 135 and 140 (6''1.25") for about 4 years now (from 15-19) and I''ve varied from intense physical work out (dancing and martial arts) and an uber-healthy diet to sitting around programming and eating string cheeses sticks and drinking mountain dew. Life is grand I suppose. 