Moms with mombod - did you ever get back in shape?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW my stomach has flattened and I lost weight when I switched to steady state low heart rate cardio. Keeps your body using fat instead of sugar for energy. I am really surprised because I did not have a lot to lose and am in my late 30’s. Also lift weights, which helps but the change came from switching from running to fast walking.

What do you do for cardio?

It sounds like she does fast walking for cardio.

I just lost a decent amount of weight with walking as my primary exercise. If you cover a good number of vertical feet and keep a good pace, it can burn fat and get your HR up. (I usually do four miles and then jog another half mile).

How long is your workout? 1.5 hours? I’d like to start

No, not 1.5 hours. More like 70 minutes.

First mile is 4.0 mph and 5 incline, with the first "lap" warmup
2nd mile is 4.1 and 7 incline
3rd mile is 4.1 and 8 incline
4th mil is 4.1 and 9 incline (maybe 10 towards the end)
Token 1/2 mile of jogging is 5.5 mph and 2 incline, then a cooldown lap. Sometimes I walk at 4.2 but anything more than that is hard to maintain.

I should add that I was pretty sedentary, so this might feel like a worthless light stroll for someone who is in great shape. I have no idea. It's definitely more strenuous than the built-in "fat burning" workout on my treadmill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old are you?

I agree w pp best bet is to cut out dairy, sugar, gluten. Or at the very least cut out all alcohol. It’s more about what you eat/drink than about exercise, unfortunately.

OP here - well thats depressing haha. I am 37. I have never dieted a single day in my entire life. I work out for sure but never watch what I eat. I guess I should start doing that now that I am older!

Everyone has to do it at some point. You probably will always be able to eat more than people who have had inefficient metabolisms since puberty and have always had to be more conscious of food intake, but you will be closer together in that as you age.

A lot of people who say what you just said were never actually in shape to begin with- they just were naturally thinner and worked out some but not enough to actually offset all their intake- they just had a naturally really really efficient metabolism. Basically they wouldn't have very "in shape" body/muscle ratios they would just be naturally thinner and a little exercise every other day or so would give them enough definition that they thought they were "in shape".

Not necessarily saying this is you- but its the case a lot of the time when people hit a certain age and try to get back into shape- they weren't all that fit before, just thinner! In that case, yeah its going to be a lot of cutting what you eat to get smaller. If you want to not have to cut so much its going to be more focus on macros and body recomp training regimines. I personally find that much easier to do mentally and less like a slog, but for some they are like "eff this, I don't want a second job of planning protein, you gym rats! I'll just skip sandwiches" which I completely get and respect, LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes but you won't like the answer!

Cut out dairy, gluten and sugar.

Ditto. It was really the sugar that did it for me. I also happened to cut out dairy and gluten for ibs. I didn’t them at different times and saw that the sugar was the biggest factor.

Its the calories-not the sugar, gluten or dairy. You can eat 1800 calories of pure crap a day (which is not much food) or you can eat 1800 calories or low cal/high protein and still lose weight. The key to losing weight is being in a calorie deficit. Period. Add in heavy weight training to reshape your body and you are done.

NP. Lol. This has been so disproven it’s not even funny.

FFS. Really! I don't understand how people don't see this- endocrinology like basically doesn't exist for this worldview.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but I think DH preferred the mombod.

You know, this isn't that crazy. There is a lid for every pot and no one is saying that "mom bod" is this way outside the norm bod, its just not the model/young/hot bod, so its not weird to think that some dudes prefer roundess while others prefer skinny while others prefer muscles,etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but I think DH preferred the mombod.

I would be willing to make a large wager that this is not the case.

[Anonymous]

Photoshop is not realistic expectations

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old are you?

I agree w pp best bet is to cut out dairy, sugar, gluten. Or at the very least cut out all alcohol. It’s more about what you eat/drink than about exercise, unfortunately.

OP here - well thats depressing haha. I am 37. I have never dieted a single day in my entire life. I work out for sure but never watch what I eat. I guess I should start doing that now that I am older!

Everyone has to do it at some point. You probably will always be able to eat more than people who have had inefficient metabolisms since puberty and have always had to be more conscious of food intake, but you will be closer together in that as you age.

A lot of people who say what you just said were never actually in shape to begin with- they just were naturally thinner and worked out some but not enough to actually offset all their intake- they just had a naturally really really efficient metabolism. Basically they wouldn't have very "in shape" body/muscle ratios they would just be naturally thinner and a little exercise every other day or so would give them enough definition that they thought they were "in shape".

Not necessarily saying this is you- but its the case a lot of the time when people hit a certain age and try to get back into shape- they weren't all that fit before, just thinner! In that case, yeah its going to be a lot of cutting what you eat to get smaller. If you want to not have to cut so much its going to be more focus on macros and body recomp training regimines. I personally find that much easier to do mentally and less like a slog, but for some they are like "eff this, I don't want a second job of planning protein, you gym rats! I'll just skip sandwiches" which I completely get and respect, LOL

I also think there are people who were "in shape" before having kids but it was not a sustainable situation. It's easier to really heavily calorie restrict and still have the energy and time to work out a lot when you are younger and don't have kids. But the combination of age plus more life responsibilities make achieving that again much harder. Basically, a lot of women have borderline eating disorders in their 20s and 30s and then can't recreate that post kids because it was never a particularly sustainable lifestyle.

Some women are at their healthiest while carrying more weight. That's just what their bodies want to be. And it's possible to fight that with enough time and focus, but once those things are in short supply, it's much harder to do what it takes.

I honestly think this is most women who think they "let themselves go." I think they've actually just returned to their more normal, perfectly healthy weight, and it only seems like they are out of shape because they still have the memory of their thinnest selves, which was actually the result of disordered eating and excessive exercise.