@Voxel I sent you an email
You’re not working hard to not be fat. You’re working hard to destroy your body, and you’re doing a good job at it.
You think very binary. While I suspect you need to continue gaining bodyweight, there are other factors that contribute to amenorrhea. Having low bodyfat from starving oneself is one stressor, but so are many other things: lack of sleep, poor nutritional choices, trauma, school/work demands, and, of course, overexercising.
I have mentioned these things before, and it still seems you cannot grasp it. You like research. Why not educate yourself on these topics as your daily work? Could be a great way to learn how to listen to your body. I bet lots of money (and I don’t earn much) that reading this stuff will benefit you way more than the papers from your favorite Nobel Prize winner in economics.
Believe it or not, your body does not have a body fat measuring tool inside that dictates whether or not you menstruate. It’s a complex problem controlled by many factors rather than the one on which you fixate (bodyfat percentage).
This is not a rhetorical question – are you genuinely surprised that you have not had a period for years?
Again, these people’s circumstances are wildly different from yours. Are these same people walking in place to reach a crazy number of steps every day? Are they stuffing themselves with vegetables to feel full? Do they suffer from the same issues you are? You are doing neither because getting leaner and stronger is the last thing your body wants to do at this point.
Having a consistent menstrual cycle is a monthly report card from your body, and you are failing miserably. It’s like failing a prerequisite class. You’re not going to survive in let alone be able to take the higher math courses (achieving your performance goals) if you keep failing algebra I (having a period).
You have been repeating same stuff for years and expecting a different outcome. Your body can’t tell if you’re using a barbell or kettlebell.
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What’s so ridiculously dumb about this is that none of what you’re doing is working to make you feel happy about yourself.
That’s… why you continually post that you’re unhappy with this or that.
And every time someone tries to help you achieve your supposed goals, you either move the goalpost or argue in a manner that makes it clear that’s not actually your goal.
If you want to spin your wheels because it’s comfortable then be honest and say that. It’s important to be honest with yourself. I like T3hPwnisher’s posts on this forum largely because I think he’s honest about what he wants to do.
You don’t need to act on what you determine after an honest introspection, but it is critical that you are honest with yourself about why you’re doing something. You’ll probably lose your mind or do some serious harm to yourself or your loved ones in some form or fashion eventually otherwise.
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Omg, yes!
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The honesty thing is a big part of this. There’s a lot of internal dishonesty, which then manifests into external dishonesty. And it IS tough to be honest with yourself, but that’s ALSO been a consistent narrative here: a refusal to do the tough things.
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Not surprised, just incredibly frustrated
That’s a good suggestion. I really like medicine
I guess there’s a difference between what I WANT and what I do.
I want to be healthy, strong and lean.
I’m afraid of getting fat
I like doing crazy challenge workouts
I’m taking today off btw (meetings all day and poor sleep) but I’m still doubting the decision
- I’ve never regretted completing a workout
- Ppl have gotten work done feeling a lot worse, being a lot busier
Ahaha, not letting this one pass by without comment. Your body has indeed adapted to a lot of walking. By shutting down other vital systems to make sure it can manage it. That is how the body works. Adaptation always has more or less equal cost to balance it out somewhere else.
My body will, for example, adapt to the running I have been doing by becoming more efficient. Yay! Part of this is through improved oxygen exchange between heart, lungs and muscles. Part of that is by literally eating my muscle tissue so that it has less of a burden to support. That is what efficiency means in this case. My body is eating itself. Luckily for me, I have enough for it to eat without causing damage.
In your case, when you have so little for the body to sacrifice…it is going to use your internal organs. You won’t give it the energy it needs, it will find it where it can.
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Conservation of Energy applies to the human body too - Energy can neither be created or destroyed, only transformed.
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I know you are frustrated. You are frustrated that what you have been doing for years does not work. If you like medicine, I trust you are smart enough to know why your approach is not good for you. However, I feel you are frustrated by cognitive dissonance rather than by not menstruating.
I know it is difficult to battle what your mind is telling you to do. But until you want your period back more than you want to destroy yourself, nothing is going to change. Your log will be filled with your check-in photos that look the same year after year with other posters repeating themselves like I am currently. You will either give up on the training, or, what I think is more likely, training will give up on you.
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I’m frustrated that it takes so long. Like that point in a cut where the diet sucks and they feel weaker and smaller but still don’t look great
maybe?
I don’t WANT to destroy myself. I like crazy workouts (there’s a lot of inspiration here) and am afraid of taking my foot off the pedal
I know it’s frustrating for you (guys) too, but just know that all these conversations have helped me a lot over these years
To continue this analogy, you are treating your body/health as if it’s a Top Fuel dragster and it must operate at some specified optimum level all time. Have you ever watched a drag race? The amount of times these cars drop cylinders or blow apart is incredible. Nothing that consumes/converts energy can run at top performance for very long.Life is an endurance race.
If your goal (as you state) is to compete in powerlifting at 103 lbs, you need to tune your performance engine towards that. Slow down - run 5/3/1 (or as close to it as you can with equipment you have) or something similar, eat and rest a lot, and get up to 112-115 lbs. It’s easy to cut out at least 5-7 lbs water if need be just for a weigh in.
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What takes so long? I think you might misunderstand Bagsy (who has made a few phenomenal posts)
Mum said I could get the bb for my birthday (late may). Unfortunately, the garage is a bit small so deadlifting isn’t going to happen. Also don’t have room for a bench. I’m thinking back squats, front squats, RDLs, rows, presses. The idea is to do a pretty simple linear progression for 6-8 weeks, then do something like 5/3/1 BBB for 6 weeks if/when I go back to Shanghai. If I don’t go back to Shanghai, I can have the family friend move the car out so I can deadlift. then back to sheiko in August when I go back to school
I’m worried about the DL, but I’ve heard that squats transfer pretty well
getting period back. I know the body doesn’t work this way, but I wish that once I gained weight (13lbs so far), It’d come back
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Sounds like a good exercise selection but why do you think RDLs and Rows take up less space than deadlifts?
You will have to move the barbell out to the grass or something - can be done if your willing.
A fraternity brother and I used to flip heavy tractor tires and spar in the front yard of our house (only place we had grass) to keep our skills sharp. Got some weird looks from people driving by - but we didn’t care.
Is your college planning on holding classes in person in the fall? I am sure they have a weightlifting club on campus somewhere.
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When I like having a LOT of space around me when I DL (6ftx6ft). I can do rows and RDLs pretty much right in front of the rack. I also don’t have room to put in rubber matting
Wow I’m dumb- will do