g_ortegam's Journal, 29 January 2019

Yeah, My thoughts are you are doing damn good. Don't get impatient - stay at it. Do not doubt yourself. Your body may fight you for a little while but as long as you stay the course you will get there. Just follow your recommended intake and keep working out. I found the key for me is to log what I eat and what I do for exercise - when I do that consistently, the program works 

For me, hunger is always a product of falling blood sugar (after eating). So, timing of meals may be something you can play with. When I lift weights I have to 'carb up' to 'lift heavy' so I carb up the night before (my muscles need glycogen to lift the weight). What I no longer do is 'fuel up' before I lift. I find it is not needed. The only other thing that may help my weight lifting is caffeine. Anyway, just my personal experience. You really are doing so well. So many blessings, I hope you can see them :) 

I'd say you really need to start by tracking how much you are eating and then decide from there. Exercise burns differing amounts depending on how long you exercise each time - a fitbit or other tracker can give you a pretty accurate number for what you are burning each day and then you can see if you are undernourished by the numbers. Are you losing more than usual? That would be the best way to figure out if you need to eat more to slow down your losses while you exercise. I had a trainer one time who would suggest that I eat about a 200 calorie snack about 30 minutes before I exercised which theoretically jumpstarts your metabolism and fuels the workout. 

Thanks so much guys. I am a Capricorn through and through. Which translates loosely that I’m a control freak; especially when I can’t figure out what’s going on. I am trying to be patient and listen to my body. Which I think likes to mess with me 🤣🤣🤣. As long as I’m not doing any damage I’ll take all the time I need to get this figured out. Just don’t want to start gaining consistently is my issue. But like Chris said if it’s muscle then it’s worth it. Much love. Gonna journal the hell out of my activities and food and go from there. ❤️❤️❤️❤️ 

Are you eating .7-1 grams of protein per body weight? 

Protein is crucial for muscle* 

My 2c is, you'll know at the end of a week what your deficit was like. If you lost more weight than you expected, then you can budget yourself another couple hundred calories, and re-evaluate at the end of another week. I don't even bother with "tracking" (read: guessing at) exercise calories. All I care about is if I need to adjust my budget, and the scale tells you 100% of what you need to know for that. 

Interesting Chris ... I’ll have to try that. And yes Rosio I’m eating at least that in protein. I think that weekly weight tracking is going to be key—I agree with that. Sooooo helpful !  

You don’t need more 😉 

What kind of workouts are you doing?  

The super simple formula is to take your goal weight x10. For example if you want to weigh 150 lbs eat 1500 kcal/day. You can start with that formula today and then make adjustments as described by the other people in this post. The Fatsecret app sets you up with a calories/day recommendation that is based on your current weight. Check out your profile it is probably your current or starting weight x10. I changed mine to the halfway point to where I want to be and where I am now.  

Maintenance or hit 100-200 calorie deficit you might not see weight loss but ur body will change...take pictures from ur back tummy and all and compare body every 3-4 months  

Remember you don’t want to me skinny fat, lean you want to be lean 💁🏻‍♀️ #muscleisworthit 

Can't see your macros since this past weekend - try adjusting the ratio closer to what you had the week prior would be my first suggestion. 

I def been noticing a change in how I look from picutres. I’m going to adjust like you said rosio and slow my wt loss down—ya no skinny fat for me !!! Haha