I guess I'm at that "plateau" they speak of

(Denise) #1

…but I am pretty sure I’m not losing the so-called belly fat I’d like to. I’m working out at the gym, but not a lot of my more aerobic stuff like walks and my bicycle. Not losing the belly-fat is a combo of things like a snack of more than enough peanuts in the shell, but I eat nothing now, at all, after my dinner at 5 or 6’oclock.

The good thing is my T2 checks are now in the 5.4-6.0 levels. That’s US mmol/l, so that is encouraging.

I don’t do any ab stuff at the gym, unless squats help with that. Didn’t look it up. Again I think it’s a combo of my eating to many fat calories, and not enough burn. Like a couple weeks back, I didn’t snack at all, just my meals, did at least 3 walks of 2 miles each, then the gym at least 3 times. I went back down 2 lbs. I’m teetering back and forth, and I think I don’t have much willingness most days to pick up the routine I had when I lost my 23-4 lbs.

I’m 69, so I’m kind of wondering if I will ever lose any more inches around my waist. Feedback welcome, especially anyone with T2, or just had that stubborn belly fat, but conquered it :wink:

Thanks in advance, and maybe I just need to be here more often to talk with others that are on the same quest for good health :wink:

(Robin) #2

So good to see your face again! And sounds like you are doing fine! Don’t be too hard on yourself. At our age, we can choose to accept that darn belly fat that won’t budge. If you are basically staying the course, and staying strong enough to get your butt off the floor… I call that a success!
Keep connected. We missed you!
You KNOW you got this!

(Denise) #3

Thanks Robin, I guess I do know the way, it’s just connecting with others of my kind I think I really needed
:grin:

(Robin) #4

Good! We got you!

(Denise) #5

There are quite a few folks my age at the gym and I am getting to know some of them. I actually look forward to going, most days that is :wink: There is one lady that is crippled up and it takes her a long time to walk anywhere but there she is, and it encourages me to see her never giving up.

Every chance I get I tell people I do Keto, and a couple of the men wanted to know about it, usually women don’t ask me. I don’t know why that is. The lady that owns the gym with her husband is over-weight now after winning several trophies for body builder contests. She was lean when I saw her 6 years ago, first met her. She looked at me the other day and said “you’ve lost a lot of weight haven’t you”. I told how much in how long a time, and that I did Keto. All she said was oh.

There’s so many people haven’t heard of it, or still think it’s some fad, weird diet that doesn’t last.

(Denise) #6

I just went to calculate what I was eating, without the snacks, and it was under 1200, 1000 some. But adding the weight stuff in, and walking will make a difference so I’ll log for atleast a couple weeks. See how I do. I will just have to go with how I feel though as MFP doesn’t have anything to see what calories are burned with weight training. Basically, I’ve been told weight-training burns so few calories doesn’t matter.

I do think losing fat is also because of muscle building, atleast that’s one thing I’ve read.

#7

5.4 - 6.0, well done! Coincidentally identical to my last bloods.

I’m going for bloods next week- the first time since quitting metformin.
So looking forward to seeing those results.

(Denise) #8

Excellent! I don’t know my HbA1c of late, but I’m due again. My doc can only give me 1 every 6 months I think it is. So I’ll check with him on next appt. on 28th :wink:

#9

Ab stuff will help, but more for the firmness and smoothing, not burning fat directly there. Squats do work abs, assuming your form is right when you breath in and brace, you’re flexing the life out of your abs to stabilize, which is an isometric hold, absolutely helps the abs.

As you said, prob just too many fat cals and not enough being burned. I can’t lose any amount of body fat that matters with my fat above 80g or so at an absolute max. Keeping it around 60 is ideal for me when I’m trying to cut fat.

(Denise) #10

Thanks for this! I’ll see what mine is on the chart at MFP. Ok, mines at 74 g w/o the Peanuts. I can tweak my settings on those. Do you look at total calories Ifod? Also, I do my squats with a ball against the wall down there, for now. I read about a lot of back injuries from doing squats wrong. When I push upward is when I breath out. If I can put a clip here I’ll show you my form. Let me know more about the breathing if you have time :wink: thanks again, Denise

this is the way I do mine Ifod

#11

100%! I look at everything, the total calories as well as how I got there as far as the breakdown. I go higher protein, enough fat and in my case the amount of carbs it takes to keep the muscle glycogen up without going too far beyond that.

That (can) be true, but it’s also true that Squats as well as deadlifts which are the two that always scare people, are also the most beneficial to keeping everything strong and moving correctly, and in many cases actually relieving pain and keeping everything happy. I always recommend when people start barbell squating, that they just squat the bar, don’t worry about putting any weight on it, assuming your gym is on all Olympic stuff as most are now, a normal Olympic barbell is 20kg, but if you look you’ll notice some have a really skinny bar on them, and it’s slightly shorter, those are 15kg and known as Womens bars.

Even if you didn’t feel ready for that, you can use a dumbbell you’re comfortable with and do goblet squats with it, and they’re also very effective, they’re also real good at building core stability since the weight is out in front of you.

Ultimately, do what you’re comfortable with, but don’t be afraid of trying things either. Thanks to power racks you can use them and set the arms on them which makes it impossible to fall down and crush yourself with a weighted bar, worst you could do is make some noise, and given how much weight noise is in a gym anyway, nobody notices.

(Denise) #12

The only bar I saw, was to heavy for me, but I’ll look around and see if there’s a light one. I don’t know what the free weights are, Olympic or other. I’ll look tomorrow. I can have the lady that runs the gym show me a good routine (I could afford one time) as she won a lot of competitions and she’s my size, except younger and definitely buff when before she gained weight for some reason.

Anyway, that might be a good plan, but I’ll also look at what a goblet squat is. So you eat more protein than fat? One thing about her showing me, I’ve seen her teaching 2 other older ladies around my age, and they were on a mat doing situps! I don’t know about those, or the crunches for my back. Nothing is wrong with my back and I want it to stay that way :wink:

I just saw 33 lbs is equal to 15 kg. Sounds like too much for me. I can use those cable Pull-downs with 20 and 30 lbs but that’s a different thing than free weight.

(Denise) #13

Here’s one of the free-weight rooms, they have 2 now, and a pic of the cable weights setup I like the best, so far:

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(Little Miss Scare-All) #14

It looks like they have a decent squat rack in the free weights. Also may be a Smith Machine in the left hand corner of the picture. If you ever wanted to start doing squats, it’s a good place to start. It make things less dangerous for beginners, and you could just squat the 40lb olympic bar.

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Also, I tend to use a lot of cables. They work very well. For my home gym, I’d love a Freemotion dual cable cross. You can get very creative and use it for soooooo much. Or you can be basic. Whichever.

(Denise) #15

Thank you Dena!

Yes, that is a squat rack and that’s the one I plan to use if I can find a light enough bar. I love how they’re held in place so that will help me form good posture for sure :wink: I do love the cable and know just one using both sides where you lean forward and bring the two grips together. I use the Lat pulldown, the sitting rower, and a rope with two balls on the ends. I love that one for my triceps I think, the back of my arms?? I also do one that is an arm curl. Besides my Swiss Ball I think it’s called and the squats with that, that’s all I do right now but the 15th will be 2 months I’ve been going 3-4 times a week. I can see the difference and it’s very encouraging :grin:

#16

I’d disagree 100%, In 20yrs in the gym I’ve watched more people tweak crap and get hurt using Smith machines than I ever have under a bar. A Smith forces an unnatural range of motion on the body during movement, the whole purpose of a compound movement is to use multiple muscles together, firing as needed and working together to accomplish the goal.

When you use a Smith machine, your range of motion is dictated by the racks, and down to the inch of where your feet are. If you start going down, or up with a bar on your back and it’s not perfectly centered you’ll adapt with balance and shift your core to compensate, your erector muscles will kick in to stabilize and straiten the back so your force is applied evenly, and you won’t even notice it’s happening, with a Smith, you’ll just do it crooked and then apply force while that way while under load since the body couldn’t shift. That’s when problems happen.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #17

If someone is interested in doing squats with the olympic and has never done squats before, and most likely has no spotter, the Smith is a good place to start. You don’t have to worry about maneuvering it onto your shoulders, which for weight lifting beginners can be challenging until they get used to it.

In my 15 years going to the gym, I’ve seen just as many ■■■■ ups in the SM as I have in free motion. And tbh, when I see most ppl free motion a squat (as I do), I cringe because some people pay no mind to form and I wonder wtf they’re thinking.

SM is not a place to stay and not graduate from, but if someone is just learning and wants to jump to real deal, I say the SM is s good place to learn to build confidence to go over go the rack eventually.

(Denise) #18

The more I think about it the more I realize how well I’m doing with the cables, and the Swiss Ball for squats. All the info is good to be learning for if/when I want to get into more. My main focus will be on eliminating this couple inches of extra fat around my mid-section. I didn’t hear any disagreement on the Ball squats so I’ll continue with them for my abs, atleast until I find another ab exercise I’m willing to actually do. I don’t know why those are such a turn-off to do, but at the gym, I’m seeing 2 other people not doing much if any, ab work.

What I do believe for myself in the short time I’ve been diligent and sticking to my workouts, and walks is that I’ve lost 2-3 inches in my mid-section so I don’t see not losing a couple more if I ramp up the walks again, and now I have a bicycle I really like riding. I do have to raise the seat on it as it’s a 24" Huffy from Walmart, and even at just 5’2", I realize I feel like I’m riding a tricycle because I think my knees are coming up too high, somethin ain’t right :rofl: But I’m not investing in another bike until I’m sure I’ll remain interested in riding it.

(Cecile Seth) #19

Thanks for sharing that squat video! I also worry about form so appreciate it.

I’ve been on a plateau for a couple of years. Still down 50 lbs. My arthritis went from daily icing & thinking we needed to “sell our split level home” to not a factor. Other benefits so still as committed to this lifestyle as ever. Love how great I feel! Very happy in life.

I haven’t read it yet Amy Berger has a well reviewed “Stall Slayer” book https://www.amazon.com/Stall-Slayer-Seven-Roadblocks-About/dp/1943721157

(Denise) #20

You’re welcome and thank you for your reply. A friend of mine and I were just talking about the benefits of Keto for arthritis!! I’ll take a look at your link as well and thanks again Cecile and congrats on your ongoing progress, let’s never give up, we may fall down but we’ll just get right back up hey :wink: denise