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working out: i think i'm doing it wrong


MEXobiologist

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welp, i've been fatigued and hungry a lot lately. i've also taken working out far more seriously than i have in a long time.

 

the best guess i have about the fatigue is caloric intake. i mean, i assume i should be at least body weary but my brain is weary too. its like i'm dead on my feet many days, no matter how much sleep i get and am super hungry, like all the time. i already know that i burn calories faster than average, so now that i'm working out and burning much more, should i also be upping my caloric intake? whats the healthiest way to do that?

 

i don't know about these things at all and i don't really want to pay to find out. any ideas?

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Pretty much eat more

Trust me as someone who works out I get hungry and I stuff my face but only 3 times a day I eat alot of protein and fruits, drinking alot of water too. I don't really do specific diets since I have a fast metabolism.  So I don't really gain weight

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Pretty much eat more

Trust me as someone who works out I get hungry and I stuff my face but only 3 times a day I eat alot of protein and fruits, drinking alot of water too. I don't really do specific diets since I have a fast metabolism.  So I don't really gain weight

 

 

yeah, my metabolism has always been good. thats why i've gotten so far without focusing much on fitness in my adult life. i've been between 105-120 since i was a young teen. actually weighing in more as a young teen because gymnastics=muscle :D i've been between 105-115 since i was 18 which is about 15 years meow.

 

 

i don't worry so much about diets but i do try not to eat a lot of garbage regularly.

but i also don't know exactly how much i eat calorie wise because i graze mostly and don't count shit like calories....

should i kind of count them then?

 

 

i bought one of those fancy fit bit kinda watches and am setting it up right meow. between my running and lifting at work, and workout at the gym, i'm hoping it will give me at least some sort of loose estimate of what i am burning. i just don't want to be tired all the time.

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You can count them if you want to watch calorie intake and if you want to reach a certain level of calories so your body gets the right nutrients and use to the intakes , I never got too fancy with that since I eat healthy enough and only watch my self with greasy foods, sugars and such. junk food i only eat like a few times a month can't help my self.

Yeah those fit bit work well, it should give you a general idea of how much your body can handle and when to stop, also dont over do it

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You can count them if you want to watch calorie intake and if you want to reach a certain level of calories so your body gets the right nutrients and use to the intakes , I never got too fancy with that since I eat healthy enough and only watch my self with greasy foods, sugars and such. junk food i only eat like a few times a month can't help my self.

Yeah those fit bit work well, it should give you a general idea of how much your body can handle and when to stop, also dont over do it

 

well this one isn't an ACTUAL fitbit... so we shall see how it stacks up but a coworker of mine has been using the same model i bought for a year now and likes it. she is actually required to wear one for her college track biz so that her coach can monitor their at home practicing.

 

the thing is, i know i am occasionally overdoing it... not often, but sometimes. i really just don't realize it until its too late. all i really want to do is to get into shape and have better stamina. i hike spring-fall and also bike quite a bit but last summer i noticed that i wasn't doing so well. it was harder and i was slower. it was really frustrating. i also have been kinda soft chubs even though i'm still small and would just like to tone up all around.... and hopefully get a bigger butt >.> i'd like one of those for once... or at least one i can be proud of, like "yeahhhh thats my booty, i work hard for that shit!"

 

i realize now though that none of that, not the stamina, health, or appearance is going to come without some regular effort on my part and the older i get the harder it can be to break into that habit. plus this will be good for my rheumatoid ridden knees which is a total bonus.

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If you get too into it than watch a couple of tutorials on YT or talk to a nutritionist or gym rat and they can help you out on calories and nutrients certain proteins

 

 

i don't want to get too crazy about it. i just have some minor goals to achieve and maintain, while also taking care that i don't get sick as a result.

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I recommend you start counting calories. The majority of people who think they have fast metabolisms usually don't eat as much as they think they do. Myfitnesspal is a free app you can use to track calories. I use it.

 

I only started to workout again. This time, I am giving myself more time to recover. I am only working out 4 or 5 times a week. The last time I regularly worked out I was doing 6 days a week and my body couldn't handle it. Keep in mind that my goals were always weight loss, whereas yours seem to be maintenance.

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Well squats are your friend for that butt you can also do some other exercises to work it but squats bring the pain and gain

See if you want that body than you can achieve it just take it a step at a time pushing it, you might hurt yourself and than you won't be able to work out the same/or be sideline for a bit  and wish you had  taken it slow. But I like your motivation that's the one thing I always tell people if you have the motivation to do it you can achieve it,  if you're tired do a small work out at home or do a small run, once you see results it will motivate you more and more and that's when you keep going and go as far as you can

 

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You have to eat more. Try something protein rich after a workout. Of course if losing weight is the goal you watch your calories but you will feel hungry because you're burning energy.  Let's say you want to consume 1000 calories a day a workout can burn that easily so it's like you ate nothing

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I recommend you start counting calories. The majority of people who think they have fast metabolisms usually don't eat as much as they think they do. Myfitnesspal is a free app you can use to track calories. I use it.

 

I only started to workout again. This time, I am giving myself more time to recover. I am only working out 4 or 5 times a week. The last time I regularly worked out I was doing 6 days a week and my body couldn't handle it. Keep in mind that my goals were always weight loss, whereas yours seem to be maintenance.

 

 

yeah, really i dunno. i know that when i was a young teen i had to eat juuuust about double the calories because i was fainting quite frequently. that was per docs recommendation for the reason of having a fast metabolism and being active. it certainly helped then. i really don't know now though because its not that i'm fainting or anything like that. just super tired and hungry all the time.... and its also been about 17-18 years since then so idk... certainly your metabolism generally slows as you age. my eating habits are all over the map though. i rarely eat breakfast if i am not awake for longer than an hour before having to be anywhere cuz it makes my tumtum feel sick. those are usually opening work shifts though, which is about 3-4 days a week. the one or two days i close, i always get a heady bfast in. i work anywhere from 7-9.5 hours a day 5 days a week. on those days i literally eat a small meal on my first break, a full meal at lunch, a snack on my last break, a snack right when i get out, and then dinner. so thats my average i suppose. days off is free game... sometimes i forget to eat until 2-4pm, sometimes i eat a huge breakfast and graze for the rest of the day until dinner. it just doesn't seem like enough a lot of days now.

 

 

out of curiosity, if you work out 5 days and have two day rests, do you do the two days rest in a row?

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Well squats are your friend for that butt you can also do some other exercises to work it but squats bring the pain and gain

See if you want that body than you can achieve it just take it a step at a time pushing it, you might hurt yourself and than you won't be able to work out the same/or be sideline for a bit  and wish you had  taken it slow. But I like your motivation that's the one thing I always tell people if you have the motivation to do it you can achieve it,  if you're tired do a small work out at home or do a small run, once you see results it will motivate you more and more and that's when you keep going and go as far as you can

 

 

yeah, squats are a daily must. there is actually a video i use religiously on yt. i'm to the point where i workout every single day, no rest day kind of. but i don't mean full blown workout. on my technical rest day, i still do the one 5 minute bigger butt squat video. its only five minutes long so its not a hassle to get into any schedule but it kicks my ass. on days that i do full blown 1-2 hours of workout, i do that but i still get in extra different types of squats and other booty/thigh enhancing stuffs along with cardio, abs, arms, etc....

 

 

as it gets nicer out though, i may need to alter my shit a little. its like i said before, i really like hiking and biking. i also tend to swim 4-7 days a week in the summer. i don't want to lose time on those activities around work by spending hours in the gym so i may just end up knocking that down to 30-45 minutes of whatever i'm not getting in those other activities or where i notice i need work. idk, i suppose its just finding out what works and running with it...

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you are exerting yourself more and therefore your body needs to eat more to get that energy.

figure out how much more you need to eat first.

also make sure your body is well rested, that means 8 hours of sleep a day.

 

 

i was talking to an employee this morning at the gym and he suggested to start in smaller increments for the time being... like eat a quarter more at every meal for a week and see if that helps with the fatigue, if not, keep adding more until i feel energized. if that doesn't seem to help then i think i will just go to a dietitian.

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yeah, really i dunno. i know that when i was a young teen i had to eat juuuust about double the calories because i was fainting quite frequently. that was per docs recommendation for the reason of having a fast metabolism and being active. it certainly helped then. i really don't know now though because its not that i'm fainting or anything like that. just super tired and hungry all the time.... and its also been about 17-18 years since then so idk... certainly your metabolism generally slows as you age. my eating habits are all over the map though. i rarely eat breakfast if i am not awake for longer than an hour before having to be anywhere cuz it makes my tumtum feel sick. those are usually opening work shifts though, which is about 3-4 days a week. the one or two days i close, i always get a heady bfast in. i work anywhere from 7-9.5 hours a day 5 days a week. on those days i literally eat a small meal on my first break, a full meal at lunch, a snack on my last break, a snack right when i get out, and then dinner. so thats my average i suppose. days off is free game... sometimes i forget to eat until 2-4pm, sometimes i eat a huge breakfast and graze for the rest of the day until dinner. it just doesn't seem like enough a lot of days now.

 

 

out of curiosity, if you work out 5 days and have two day rests, do you do the two days rest in a row?

 

No, just one day off at a time, then I exercise the next day again. When I worked out 6 days a week I was doing 10 hour overnight shifts four times a week. I could have spaced my workout days better, but you learn from your mistakes.

 

You said earlier in this thread that you don't really count calories, so how did you know that you had a fast metabolism? Were you given specialized tests by the doctor or someone in that sort of profession? Are you just going by quantity consumed visually? Teenagers usually can get away with eating more calories than an adult of the same size, obviously. One reason many fat people fail to lose weight is that they grossly underestimate the calories they consume and just think they have a slow metabolism. Most of the time, fat people actually have a higher metabolism than skinny people. Unless you really count calories, you can never be certain. I know it sounds counterintuitive when you don't have to worry about excessive weight, but it will definitely help if you learn you need to eat more.

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You have to eat more. Try something protein rich after a workout. Of course if losing weight is the goal you watch your calories but you will feel hungry because you're burning energy.  Let's say you want to consume 1000 calories a day a workout can burn that easily so it's like you ate nothing

 

 

weight loss isn't so important per se. i actually just want to tone up my tumtum, thighs, and arms, build a bigger booty, and also gain strength/stamina to help aid the other activities i enjoy so much. the thing is, i'm small but that doesn't mean i don't have body fat, i actually have quite the decent amount for my actual structure. not unhealthy or anything... but not fit. any amount of toning so reveal some bit of muscle definition is sufficient for me in those areas.

 

 

i do need to incorporate more protein in general though, thats def a good idea. really i think you're right though. i'm on my feet all day at work and its not exaggerating to say that i am in near constant sprint mode for at least half of it, combined with the lifting and moving of heavy items. even something as simple as having to empty the fitting room has me carrying roughly 50lbs of clothing throughout the store each trip. on an average steady day, i do that about 20-30 times. on a busy day, it can triple... especially in spring when ladies are bringing in 30 garments at time. otherwise its dealing with lifting and moving freight, fixtures, or furniture... without furniture flats to move them on. we seriously just have to carry that shit to move it and load it. so its like, i'm already burning a shit ton of calories while i'm working but then i've added workout on top of that. i'm really hoping this fit watch thingy helps me calculate at least some of this so i can resolve my overall lack of energy and hunger.

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No, just one day off at a time, then I exercise the next day again. When I worked out 6 days a week I was doing 10 hour overnight shifts four times a week. I could have spaced my workout days better, but you learn from your mistakes.

 

You said earlier in this thread that you don't really count calories, so how did you know that you had a fast metabolism? Were you given specialized tests by the doctor or someone in that sort of profession? Are you just going by quantity consumed visually? Teenagers usually can get away with eating more calories than an adult of the same size, obviously. One reason many fat people fail to lose weight is that they grossly underestimate the calories they consume and just think they have a slow metabolism. Most of the time, fat people actually have a higher metabolism than skinny people. Unless you really count calories, you can never be certain. I know it sounds counterintuitive when you don't have to worry about excessive weight, but it will definitely help if you learn you need to eat more.

 

 

nah, i was recommended to a sports dietitian by my family doctor after they ran some blood work to make sure it wasn't something else. at that time i was still doing gymnastics for funzies. he got a copy of my blood work and i had to track my physical activities, sleep patterns, and food consumption as per normal for a week. had to run on a treadmill for him, have my blood pressure taken... all the things... result was that i wasn't consuming the appropriate amount of calories and my blood sugar was low. all we really did was double the amount of food i was consuming daily and the fainting stopped. that only last for about a year though... maybe a little more. i started getting extremely dizzy while doing gymnastics or certain non physical other activities and because of my symptoms, we got it checked out and sure enough, it was vertigo, just like my momma thought it was and i just sort of stopped the only real physical activity i was doing because i more or less just couldn't do it anymore. so i also fell back in eating. i know i never actually counted anything consumption wise, i know my mom tried initially because i was still quite reliant on her for health stuff and meals in general but i think she only did that for a few weeks or something. 

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You might be working out too much too. Overtraining is a thing. Your body needs to recover especially if you use weights & lift heavy stuff at work.

 

 

hmmm, maybe. i sort of have a hard time telling though. like, if i'm not extra sore, it doesn't seem like i'm overdoing it. i'm not saying that this is an accurate way to measure, i just mean that i don't mentally think i've over done it in any workouts unless i feel like i'm dying and can't move/perform regular tasks without a great amount of effort and pain. i more or less just maintain an average-low amount of perpetual soreness in the areas i'm working out. idk? 0.o this stuff is confusing to me >.<

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