Sector said:
JourneyToPerfection said:
Every time I try to shed the full amount of weight and then move into a body recomp, the same pattern plays out. The opening couple of months feel great. After that, my drive disappears. No clue why. My diet stays pretty much the same, nothing extreme. I simply reach a stage where Iām still nowhere near satisfied with how I look, yet my head goes āeh, fuck it, good enoughā. Only it isnāt good enough, and I do want to reach my goals.
SW 74.2kg
CW 65.7kg
GW 57kg (ish)
Reta 2mg every 7 days (very sensitive to GLPs)
Working out hasnāt started for me yet, and I realize thatās the next thing to add. Old injuries stop me from going all out at the gym, but I can still manage short sessions at home and use the apartment treadmill thatās there for me. Maybe thatās the part that trips me up. If I stay on Reta without adding even a little exercise, Iāll wind up flat all over (same as what happened with Mounjaro last year), and then deliberately put weight back on to restore my curves. Apart from my back, which somehow stays chunky no matter what
Iām just after advice, tips, tricks, personal stories and so on about how to keep going and see it through.
CJC no dac & Ipa should reach me this week, but I wonāt go near it until a routine is in place and Iāve likely shed another 5kg.
Help meeee
What matters most, in my view, is putting together a routine that moves you toward your goalsāand even more than that, one you actually like doing.
Habits carry enormous power. Getting lean or reshaping your body is a long haul: it comes down to what you do each day, repeated steadily, across many months. The longer you keep at it and the more steady you are, the stronger the result.
So there are two pieces.
1) Put together an eating plan built from foods you genuinely likeāthings you'd happily have dailyāthat still fit the macros pushing you toward your goals. That may sound like a given, but I watch far too many people jump into harsh or even fad diets that can't last, and then they fall apart... precisely because nothing about them lasts. They go for a crash diet, cut carbs to 0, or eat nothing but lettuce and chicken at every meal, and sooner or later boredom hits, a binge follows, and they slide back into their old habits and eating patterns. So landing on something you can keep up matters. At the same time, you'll want to steer clear of anything fried, and of meals that stack lots of fat together with lots of carbs.
Usually you can put together a solid meal plan from foods roughly in this range: chicken, beef, steak, fish, shrimp, rice, potatoes, oatmeal, cream of rice, Greek yogurt, salads, and so on.
You'd be surprised how many variations you can get out of chicken and rice by adding mushrooms, onions, or a different sauceāor you could even drop the rice and turn it into more of a chicken salad with tomatoes and cheese. Once chicken starts wearing on you, switch to beef or fish, or use those for your other meals, and lean on different add-ins (onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, sauces, seasonings) to keep the taste varied. If rice gets old, potatoes are an easy substitute, or the other way around. Eating "on a diet" doesn't have to mean food that tastes awful; plenty of additions boost taste, flavor, and the whole experience without wrecking your calorie budget.
When a sweet craving hits, Greek yogurt is what I reach for, assuming you like it. Take Greek yogurt, stir in protein powder and fruit (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, even granola, or anything else that sounds good)āand you get a high protein, low fat meal that tends to satisfy that craving.
The other half of the picture is training (working out). Fat loss is possible without it, but as time goes on you're basically (to use a metaphor) fighting with one hand tied behind your back if you want to build your physique without training. It's like installing a supercharger in your car, then capping the throttle/governor at 50% use.
When you diet and drop weight, a calorie deficit slows your metabolism, and once metabolism slows, your new maintenance calories (and the calories needed for weight loss) fall tooāso if cutting calories is your only lever, you land in an endless, unsustainable loop of dropping calories further and crashing your metabolism even harder.
Or... instead of cutting calories to the point of starving, you can raise activity. Working out brings a huge number of health benefits (mental and physical), but in this context it also lets you eat more, and better cardiovascular endurance plus higher calories give you more energy and help you feel better (not only in the gym but at work, with your family, all through the day). So if you want to move past simply losing weight and into actually building a physique, activity is close to non negotiable. There's good news on this front tooāadding muscle raises your maintenance calories and your total daily energy expenditure. More muscle means you can eat more. The toughest part of working out for most people, much like with eating, is simply building a routine they enjoy. I've found lots of people are afraid of the gym because they worry about being judged (but honestly everyone is so caught up in their own insecurities that they won't even notice yours)āso I would reccomend getti if in the gym, either before or after work depending on when works best for you, start with a simple workout routine where you incorporate cardio and resistance training, then you can build up/modify the workout structure from there (based on what you like). If the treadmill is your thing, use it. Biking is a great option too. If you build up to pushing yourself on the stairmaster, that can be a painful kind of fun as well. Group classes exist too, and of course all the weightlifting equipment you'd need is there as well.
That's all I got
.
)...
There was a time when I was really fit from the gym, and even after 2 years of training without missing a beat, dragging myself there never stopped feeling like a chore. Still, youāve nailed it about having a set plan or routine in place, and going just twice a week is totally doable!
Itās more about moderation, and Iām not terrible at that. I know I could do better by focusing on more nutritious choices and prepping meals ahead. The problem is meat: after having my gallbladder removed quite a while ago, my digestion canāt handle red meat or fish, so Iām stuck with chicken or turkey