inspiremethin

No, I went back to doing 60min of cardio. I feel so incomplete when I don’t get my 60min in LOL. I legit hated forcing myself to stop at 20-30min. However, I made sure my deficit wouldn’t go much higher than ~500 for the following week or two because I didn’t want my weight to stall again (present day I average around 500-700 calorie deficit). I also changed up my cardio routine completely. I don’t remember what I was doing before. I think it was a mix of steady cardio and intervals. But then I changed them to different intervals. Every 2-3 weeks I try to change up my cardio routine. I try to do something different. Either by changing the intensity, interval timing, or changing my resistance/incline/duration/speed. Or changing the type of cardio machine. Every now and again I do a slow (but long) swim. It’s important to switch it up because your muscles get used to the same thing and start burning calories more efficiently (so you could end up burning up to 30%+ less calories than you did initially as the workout gets easier). Hope this helps :))

Really? Odd. =\ It should work for everyone. You don’t need to up your calorie intake slowly. If you do it at once your body will adjust after a few days. The only immediate weight gain you’ll see is additional food mass (that doesn’t get expelled), and increase in water weight (you’ll naturally eat more grams of carbs which will make your body retain a bit more water. this is normal). But once that balances out, your weight should start to trend downward. Remember, don’t focus so much on the numbers; but rather focus on the trend. :)

If I crave something, I have it. But I have a single portion of it. And I also fit it into my calorie intake/macros for the day. So if I’m craving a caramel macchiato from Starbucks, I go and get myself the smallest size (Tall) with nonfat milk to minimize calories. If I’m craving oreos, I have a single portion (I think that’s like 3 cookies?). If I’m craving my favourite salt & vinegar chips, I buy myself a small individual bag portion. If I’m craving a glazed donut, I get that donut. LOL. But I make sure I don’t go over my calorie intake and that I balance out the carbs with more protein throughout the day. 

However, I don’t think I deal with cravings like the average person. I don’t really crave sugary/simply-carby food often. If I do, it’s once in a blue moon. Maybe once a week.. or once every other week. (Unless I’m in a weird/stressed mood… then I try not to cave into cravings on consecutive days… I tell myself to be “clean” the following couple of days). Something like that. Otherwise I just don’t want it. So I don’t really have a problem with temptation. And it only takes a small portion for me to satisfy my salt-carb/sugar-carb fix because I’m sooo used to non-salted and non-sugary food in my regular diet. Eating something like that would be flavour overload. I don’t have problems controlling myself either. Some people… they measure out a portion.. and then they go and eat 5 more portions. Or they tell themselves they’re only going to get a Tall frappuccino and end up ordering a Vente instead. LOL. 

It’s all about having control. If you crave something, don’t restrict yourself. You don’t want to feel like you’re forbidding yourself treats because it will only make you want junk food more. Have whatever you’re craving. It’s okay. Food isn’t the culprit. But just know how much of it you can have. You don’t need to eat an entire box of oreos to satisfy that craving. If you don’t have control over your food portions, then learn to have control. Discipline yourself. That’s really all it comes down to. Hope this helps :))

Youtube: home workout videos! :)

Thank you so much<33 :)

Awuh, how nice of her <3 The general rule that any plateau article will tell you is to increase your calorie intake and switch up your workout. I hit my plateau back in December. I was eating 1500 calories. Got frustrated. Upped my cardio and made sure I did not go over 1500 calories. Turned out, my deficit would be way way way too high. I’m talking like 900+ calorie range. After a few weeks my weight still didn’t change. In January I got fed up. Did more research on plateaus. Decided to up calories to 1700 (some days I went as high as 1800-1900) while decreasing my cardio in half for an entire week. My usual is 60min so I was doing 20-30min of cardio during that week.. and I think I only did like 3 or 4 days of cardio. During the time I would spend doing cardio, I did strength training instead. Nothing intense. I did a few rounds of a couple weight lifting machines.. whatever I could. And focused on increasing my weight. I think I also substituted a cardio session for 30 Day Shred once or twice. I basically focused on minimizing my deficit to 200-300 calories. Too high of a deficit is counter productive to weight loss. After that my weight started going down. Ever since, I’ve stayed with 1700 calories and am losing steadily at ~1lb a week (if I don’t go off track LOL). If you’re not already eating at least your BMR, then I suggest you start doing that since you want to optimize your body fat loss. Eating below your BMR will slow down fat oxidation. Also over exercising is counter productive as well. So if you’re burning even more calories and eating less then stop doing that. Decrease your calorie burn. Focus on keeping your deficit at a minimum. Aim for like 200-300 calorie max. Do it for a week or two and see where you end up. I hope this helps. Good luck!

Yes, sleep is definitely important. I wish I had a source to go off of right now but I’m pressed on time to look for one in my bookmarks. Basically your body repairs itself during sleep. It repairs the muscles you worked. Sleep gives you energy. Sleep controls your hormones. Lack of sleep leads to lack of energy, the munchies, soreness, and poor performance. You could even retain more water due to lack of sleep. Your body becomes under stress, releases the stress hormone cortisol. The body stop burning fat in the presence of high cortisol levels. Just a few things off the top of my head. I’ve noticed that on nights I get more sleep my body weight tends to be lower in the morning. If I happen to stay up late and only get like 5hrs of sleep or less then my body weight is definitely higher in the morning. 

I’d say try to aim for at least 8 hours of sleep. That’s the average. But more important listen to your body. Some people are fully rested on 7 hours. I personally KNOW I function best on 9-10hrs of sleep (I wake up naturally after that much), and 8 isn’t quite enough for me. Unfortunately my schedule doesn’t always allow me to sleep like that. 

I don’t know anything about birth control. Sorry dear! But I’ve heard people say that they actually gained 10 to 20 to 30lbs within a few months of getting on birth control. 

Just taking an educated guess at this. IDK if there are any particular hormones involved that promote fat storage, although I doubt it. I think birth control just makes you hungrier and makes you retain a lot of water. So if you pay close attention to what you eat and stick to an exercise routine then you should be fine. Then again.. I’m sure birth control reacts differently in each individual’s body… so it’s possible it could cause you to lose weight.

Like I said, I have no clue! LOL. Try Googling a few articles and read up on it.