Hi Veeky Forums, I'm a long time lurker who decided to toss you all a question about a problem I'm having. I'm a 22yr old female, around 5'5 and 210lbs.
TL;DR version of the backstory to this is that I got very sick and from October 2014 to January of this year I was only really able to eat rice, toast, and cabbage juice. Despite not doing any working out I suddenly went from 260lbs to 180lbs real fast, it was pretty alarming. I was very anemic, malnourished, and weak as I had lost a lot of muscle mass. I had surgery and slowly regained strength, started recovering from being malnourished, and started working out to help regain the muscle I lost and to lose the last of this weight.
Now my question for you guys is that after I do my workout (which is 45mins on an elliptical bike plus different weight lifting on various days) is it normal to feel so... drained? After working out I feel so weak that I barely have the fine motor skills to do other tasks. Am I doing too much? Should I slow down and focus on continuing to recover from being as sick as I was?
Feel free to offer insight and advice, I'm going about losing the last of this excess weight totally alone so it can be hard knowing what's right and what's too little or too much.
For one, how did you even hambeast yourself, at 5'5, to 180 even, let alone 210? I'll help you but holy fuck.
To not be a complete jackass, it's okay to separate weights and cardio so you don't overload yourself in one session. You could do cardio at night or at a different time.
With a little science here, let me tell you what matters: Your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) vs your caloric consumption. With a base amount of protein (let's say 1g/lb of lbm, so take your bf% and subtract it from your total weight, then that's the protein you should be having) that's enough to sustain hypertrophy so as to not lose too much muscle while losing weight, focus more on your diet + lifting than just cardio. Cardio, while having been proven to help mobilize adipose tissue as energy, is useful but not needed on an extreme amount where you need an elliptical every day. Only certain days.
In layman's terms: Focus on your diet (calorie count, measure your caloric deficit, stick to it) and your lifts, and do cardio sparingly. Going all out may cause rebound. Google "reverse dieting layne norton" for a good guide, when you are finished dieting, to go back up with your food and not rebound the weight.
Totally srs here when I say I want you to succeed, even as disgusting hambeast.
Isaac Jones
>tl:dr >posts wall of text
Leo Thompson
>"I'll help you" >Doesn't answer the question
Yes it's normal. It's mostly caused by your body being depleted of glycogen and fast-sugar. Suck it up and keep doing.
Levi Diaz
>is it normal to feel so... drained? Yes especially when you're new to working muscles to limits they haven't felt in years (if ever)
It will get better over time but this time period won't be short.
>Am I doing too much? No >Should I slow down and focus on continuing to recover from being as sick as I was? No
You are still probably eating like shit because to be blunt fatties do not know how to feed themselves. If you do more research and make sure you're getting a good mix of everything you'll probably start feeling better after a week. Drink LOTS of water. Read sticky
Wyatt Murphy
(I was 260 and at one point in my life I think I was almost 300 but I never stepped on a scale haha)
The answer to how it happened is years of depression shut in my room and eating my feelings like a hambeast.
Yeah I figured I should focus on calories in < calories out, but I was trying to shove cardio with weights together in one session and I guess that was just too much, man.
I'll look into the dieting stuff, thanks!
Robert Butler
I did answer the question, just not about the drained. I told her it's fine to separate the two, i.e, stop overloading in one session.
I don't even want to know how anymore. I take it back.
Focus on your diet more than anything else. The most important thing in body composition is diet. Cardio might make you "Feel" like you are losing weight due to the type of exercise it is, but it's a marginal amount if you eat more because you do cardio.
Your diet will be what determines your recomp. Also all good things take time. It's not about overloading and getting quick results, it's about getting results that will last you a lifetime.
Go forth and unwhale yourself.
Brody Butler
A few paragraphs =/= wall of text~
Ok good, just making sure! The work I do for a living involves using a sharp knife a lot and I was so drained and weak that my hands get shaky which of course is not good when you're swinging a knife around.
My diet isn't bad anymore, and was never 'bad' in the Standard American Diet sense. I just ate too much Southern food. I don't drink soda or eat candy or sweets in general because my stomach has never been able to handle it and now even more so since I was sick. It's good to know that the time period of adapting to the exertion isn't short, I've been doing this for around 4 months now and was worried because I hadn't seemed to get used to it yet.
Nathaniel Clark
OP, if after 4 months you haven't adapted then yes you are doing too much.
You're working out unnecessarily hard for something that should be tackled with diet.
Do not keep going on this or you will burn out.
I mean, you could not listen and listen to the person that's saying "yeah it's alright you just gotta get used to feeling like death perpetually", or listen to a sensible median where it makes sense to do cardio sparingly, but do the same work calorically diet-wise.
There's no benefit to eating 2000 on a 500 deficit doing cardio than eating 1800 on the same deficit.
Connor Hall
Yeah that's what I was thinking. That makes perfect sense, I'll cut back and review the guide in the sticky again. Thank you!
Nathan Hughes
You might have an iron deficiency, which is common in women. Don't self-diagnose: go to the doctor and get a general blood test / checkup.
Jonathan Bailey
I know for sure I was anemic, I had many blood tests run while I was sick. Liver enzyme levels way out of wack too. I eat tons of spinach and around the time of my period I pop an iron supplement.
Kevin Jenkins
It is normal for people who are that overweight though. Though it's hard to say for sure if she's doing anything wrong since we have 0 information on how much she's lost since she supposedly started eating healthy and exercising and what her diet consists of
Henry Morales
I think you have bigger problems to worry about than my blood levels user...YOU are their target. I'm merely one little guy who went to school with their children. How's it feel to go to plebs university for a masters clown
>0 information on how much she's lost since she supposedly started eating healthy and exercising and what her diet consists of
In my OP I said I went from 260lbs to 180lbs when I was sick, then after my surgery when I started trying to gain muscle again I went up to 210 and I'm trying to -safely- go back down to 180.
My diet largely consists of what my GF's parents buy seeing as we live with them (money and immigration problems) and are at their mercy. They cook quite healthy meals, plenty of vegetables and lean meat. Mostly chicken. I survive on veggies, eggs, beans, half sandwiches, rice, and green or protein powder smoothies. My problem is that my gf likes to snack and she keeps candy and snacks in the house constantly which I get into when I start getting hormonal. I put my foot down recently and told her to stop buying that shit, she needs to slim down too.
Dominic Roberts
Confirmation bias. For one, her workout routine, even by normal standards is excessive. There's never a need to do 45 minutes of cardio + 45 of lifting, in one session, ever. Even on celltech that's hard to handle, on a caloric deficit even harder, and even harder for a non-athlete.
The only thing that's easy to tell is wrong is that she's just doing too much, going too hard. Feeling drained is okay for a month but not this long. Even the overweight adapt.
My point is, when the majority of the work is in the diet anyway, it's better to work smarter than harder.
Samuel Stewart
Says works smarter His information is ALL in the hands of rival parties
Do you have any idea how fucked you are...honestly
Parker Mitchell
>when I started trying to gain muscle again I gained 30 lbs
I can guarantee most of that was not muscle
Your food description makes it sound like you're in denial about your snack intake, placing blame on others
Count calories and keep a diary and learn to be brutally honest in it
Parker Phillips
Lol I'm honestly done arguing with you. I just hope OP doesn't listen to you and takes the sensible approach to it.
GL OP. I'm out.
Nicholas Williams
>mfw i realized americans have to pay to see the doctor
Kayden Cooper
She didn't say 4mins of cardi+45 mins of lifting. She didn't even say how many days a week she does it. She does 45 minutes of exercise and mixes up what the exercise is. Which sounds normal and not excessive
