Yep, not often you hear a trainer say that. But that is indeed what my trainer, Dr. Ellington Darden, told me today.
Ya see, I don't want to go into detail and get too personal, but life has been kind of hectic around my house lately. My wife's parents aren't doing well, and that's meant she's gone a lot. Which leaves me trying to pick up the slack. "Mr. Mom", they call me. LOL Doing a lot of "school runs" with the girls, homework help, keeping the business going, and getting less sleep than I'd like. So, Ellington's guess is that my system is stressed and in a bit of "Survival mode" right now. ( Hey, I READILY admit, I've got it easy, next to my poor wife... I wouldn't trade positions with her for anything!)
Our bodies don't like stress. So, they tend to shut down fat burning, and hold onto the fat. For me, that means right around the mid section. This is real life, not a Hollywood movie... we go through stuff, and it affects our bodies. Weight loss... or "getting into shape", as I refer to it, isn't a straight line. There will be ups and downs. So, I'm UP to 171 lbs and right about 14% bodyfat now... the most I've been in six months or so. Yikes! Glad we took the caliper readings today. That's important to do regularly, for just this reason.
So, Ellington's remedy for this is for me to "de-stress" my body... get more sleep, relax ( ha! I'll try), and eat more calories. 300 more per day, actually. That'll put me at 2100. Also, eat some steak every once in awhile, I believe were his exact instructions.
Gotta love training advice like that! Everything else he's said has worked like a charm, so I'm sure this will too. I'll keep you posted!
...Keelan
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Interesting that you are uping the calories. Seems to me you just gained fat mass since the last time your updated. Weren't you around 174, 12% bf?
ReplyDeleteHmmm.... I'll have to go back and check out my previous postings. You may be right... I may have said that on my last update. That's my last UPDATE, not to be confused with my last caliper and weight measurement. See, I've tried to keep the reporting of my training, for good and bad, up to date. But, I've been busy so I may have missed some important updates. AS a matter of fact, in late May-early June as I was actually down to 167 and about 9% BF. So, that was my lowest mark. But, at my age ( almost 43 ), and with my genetics, it seems too hard to keep my body there. So, I'm trying to drop a little bit of BF to get me in the 10-12% range again ( shouldnt' be too hard ), and then up the muscle mass a bit.
ReplyDeleteI'll try to keep my updates more frequent! Thanks for the comment, Stephan!
And as far as gaining just fat, yeah, that's probably true. But, calories are not always the suspect. Sometimes, too few calories are. Particularly at these ranges. When the body gets too few calories, it goes into survival mode and stops burning fat as much. Get the body out of stress, out of survival mode, even by just upping the calories, and it should start burning again.
ReplyDeleteKeelan,
ReplyDeleteHoping you can help: I travel to the St. Pete Beach every year for vacation and have found a hard time finding any gyms that have Nautilus/MedX machines in them. Do you know of any gyms in the area (I don't mind driving up to 45 minutes away) that would carry that kind of equipment? Thanks!
Kevin
Hey, Kevin. Ya know, I do not. I live in Orlando, and have made each fo my trips to St. Pete a "no workout" vacation.
ReplyDeleteTell ya what, though... do you know of "Big Jim" Flanagan? He's here in Orlando ( Google him for an email... I don't know it ), and is still really involved with both MedX and Nautilus. If anyone knows an answer to your question, it will be Jim. Tell him I sent ya! ;D
Hey, Kevin, maybe you know Jim, but a link to one of his sites is in my links list. Hope that helps!
ReplyDelete