Looking for suggestions for my girlfriend for weight loss...

Edgarllama

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Hey guys. Like the title says I needed some suggestions on weight loss supplements for my girlfriend. She gained a lot of weight after high school, I'd estimate like 80-90lbs and she has had a hard time losing it since (about 8 yrs). She has lost about 50lbs in the last year but she had to go to extreme measures and needed a break. She has maintained what she lost but has been at a plateau for about 5-6 months. She dropped her calorie intake to 750 calories/day and walked about 4-5 miles/day. She walked at about 4.2mph.

She has since gone to a "normal diet" meaning she eats sensibly but definitely over 1200-1500 calories a day. We eat chicken or fish and steamed rice with vegetables at least 3 nights a week. She either doesn't eat or eats low cal soup or the :Orville Redenbacher's Smart Pop popcorn" for lunch at work. She has begun a walking/jogging plan where she walks at 4.2 mph but will occasionally jog for a while at like 6mph. She will also sometimes walk but wear a 30lb weight vest too. She has increased the distance she walks to 6mi/day. She would like to lose another 20-30lbs I think. She will of course occasionally take days off. Like yesterday was her birthday and she didn't workout and had a piece of cake.

So.... I looked up a lot of supplements that were mentioned here and it seemed like I was always stumbling across posts where people were doing a cycle of something else or the description of the product seemed like it was aimed towards guys. This made the results of the log a bit unreliable because of too many variables. I looked at DCP, Leviathan, and Drive. The drive seemed only for guys but the other two looked ok. Her body type is.... I don't know...big. She weighs probably like 160-170 right now. She doesn't look like she weighs that much though because she's pretty tall, about 5'9. She also has very muscular legs. They are definitely more muscular than mine, that's not saying much though, because of all the walking/jogging. Most of the weight is in the waist, arms, and legs.

Thanks a lot for reading this massive post. If there is something anyone can suggest to use or stack to help give her a push it would be much appreciated. As I noted above, she is working very hard but her progress has grinded to a halt and I think she would prefer not to drop back to 750/cal a day again. Thanks!!
 

CrissyJ

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Wow, she IS working hard good for her. Maybe she finds it enjoyable but I see the walking 6 miles a day thing a bit of a waste of time. Not to say that its not doing her any good but she could burn more calories in half that time doing intense cardio at the gym. She should also start doing weights also as that burns a lot more calories over the course of 2 days. If she's not a gym fan then she should look into some of the group exercise programs, like kickboxing, spinning, or step, those are usually fun for females.
 

BruteSlayer

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Wow, she IS working hard good for her. Maybe she finds it enjoyable but I see the walking 6 miles a day thing a bit of a waste of time. Not to say that its not doing her any good but she could burn more calories in half that time doing intense cardio at the gym. She should also start doing weights also as that burns a lot more calories over the course of 2 days. If she's not a gym fan then she should look into some of the group exercise programs, like kickboxing, spinning, or step, those are usually fun for females.
+1....walking is GREAT for maintaining a certain weight or for general good health but short intense workout/exercises that make your muscles burn and soak your clothes of sweat should really help with the fat loss. also, you would have more time in your day for other things. good luck.
 
SgtP

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Lev-R and DCP can be stacked together. They both work well. Depending on how you feel about Ephedrine, the ECA stack has always worked for me.
 

Edgarllama

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Thanks for the input guys. Ok so I got her some lipodrene. Some store in town actually had it on the shelf. I thought that stuff was banned?? We decided to try to put on more muscle to help burn more calories as was suggested. Her new diet will be something like 2 eggs or 1 packet of oatmeal every morning before work. A protein shake for lunch and steamed rice and fish/chicken with vegetables for dinner. She is hoping to be able to skip dinner. However I think even if she does eat dinner that isn't very many daily calories. I'm hoping the protein through the day as well as the small breakfast will kick start her metabolism. We began the weight training last night. I am going to have her concentrate mostly on back/shoulders and legs. I think since those are the 2 largest groups we will be able to gain and use "more" muscle in a shorter span of time in order to burn more calories. After her workouts I plan to have her walk a mile for her cooldown while sipping a protein shake.

Last nights workout was a bit stressful because I had to push her harder than she wanted so I could take accurate measurements of what she CAN potentially do. For example, in between every set I had her do crunches on an ab-ball. She initially did 20 but it seemed to not be very hard so I told her to do 30. She said 20 was hard. I then explained when she got up from the crunches her abs needed to be on fire. So she tried 30 and was able to keep that number of reps in between the rest of her sets. It was a lot harder for her, but we established that 20 was not enough. By adding just those 10 more crunches she did over a 100 more throughout her whole workout. Significant improvement in my opinion. I'll see how sore she is tonight and go from there. I think the interval training is going to be hard to get her to do. It's something she has to push herself to do. I can't make her run faster you know. I'm lucky that she isn't your typical "I wanna lose weight but I don't wanna do anything" person. She has worked hard thus far and I have no doubt she will continue to do so. Anyway, I'm keeping a log of all her workouts and I took all her measurements and stuff so we'll see what happens. Thanks again for the advice guys. I really appreciate it.
 
crader

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I'm on the DCP/Levi stack and it works great. Add in fish oil and sesathin and you have a great combo.

As far as th gym goes, be very careful in the beginning with pushing too hard. Not only can it lead to injury as the muscles are not used to the workouts yet. But you can end up with her burning out and developing resentment issues towards you.

It seems like she is alreay putting in the hard work. Make sure you go to the gym say at least 3 days a week. The addition of muscle will help her burn fat.
 
Brian5225

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I only have one suggestion and that is to have her eat smaller meals more often... instead of three meals spread many hours apart, have her eat smaller meals a few hours apart. by consuming food more often, it tricks the body into thinking food is abundant and can help to keep the metabolism running. That helped me to lose weight when I was overweight. Just my 2 cents.
 
metalman302

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Sounds like she's going in the right direction with the eggs and oatmeal

Lipodrene now has ephedra "leaves" or something vs the real ephedra alkaloids.

I didn't see you mention her lifting? Seems like all women are afraid to lift because they think that they will get huge instantly. LMAO. My GF had went from about 130 to 145#s. I had her start lifting with me....a simple routine.... 3x10 trap bar deadlift, 3x10 bench press, 3x10 pulldown... that's it. I made sure she was using a decent intensity (rare for women unless you push them). A few days fter the 3rd workout she was down 5 pounds without diet or cardio!
 
metalman302

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Also how is her sleep and stress level? That will plateau your fat loss also.
 

Edgarllama

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Wow guys, thanks for the interest. Ok so heres an update. She has lost approximately 3lbs. She initially, she thinks, gained a few lbs. I don't know if this can be attributed to water weight or maybe resistance from her metabolism... Either way we are still working out every day. As far as I know she is sticking with her diet and her total daily caloric intake has to be at about 1000 calories. As I stated before she has 1 package of oatmeal for breakfast that she sweetens with splenda (100 calories total), a protein shake for lunch (approximately 10gr of protein and 50 calories) and then steamed rice and chicken/fish and veggies for dinner. She says she drinks at least 100oz of water a day. We don't have any pop in the house and haven't for at least a month or two. We just drink water and use the flavor packets that have no calories or sodium. As far as her stress level, I think it's pretty high. We've had relationship probelms in the past (like over a yr ago) and she has said on numerous occasions that she thinks that I am going to leave her for someone who is "more attractive" than her. I haven't done anything to give her a reason to think this and I try to tell her that is not the case. So.... I think her stress is probably pretty high.

As I stated before I took all her measurements, except bf% because I had no way to do it, and will check them again after 1 months time (Feb. 9'th I think). If she doesn't lose a significant amount of weight from this she wants to go to the doctor and see if maybe she has a thyroid problem. I personally have never needed to lose weight but from the figures that I have seen I can understand feeling like there is something else going on. I mean, ~1000 calories a day and working out 5-7 days a week and no progress. That just doesn't make sense to me. I view the human body as, more or less, a machine and to be able to keep a certain speed (weight in this case) with no gas in the engine just doesn't seem logical. Granted the human body is much more complicated but hopefully you can see the metaphor. I hope this diet/exercise program comes through and she won't need to visit the doctor though. I'll keep ya'll updated and post the little workout log when she is done. Thanks again!!
 
B5150

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She needs to eat a little more and more frequently. Anything less than 8-10x bodyweight in calories is going to stall her metabolism.

Drop the steamed (white I assume) and replace it with vegetables (broc/caul).

A small portion of whole food protein (fish, chicken, eggs etc) and vegatables at every meal. Four, five or more meals a day. She will not be as hungry, her metabolism will get stoked and she will make progress.

1-1.5lbs a week is about normal and anything more may be counterproductive.

The above is just my suggestion :)
 
Ninsha

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She needs to eat a little more and more frequently. Anything less than 8-10x bodyweight in calories is going to stall her metabolism.

1-1.5lbs a week is about normal and anything more may be counterproductive.

The above is just my suggestion :)
Firstly, Forgive me for writing a novel, but this hits very close to home with me, and I over communicate for the sake of being understood. I hope the OP will read thoroughly out of sincere interest and care for his partner.

I DO agree that she needs to eat more often, but not necessarily more calories in the day. Have her carry a 90 calorie Special K bar with her every day, and eat it as soon as she starts feeling a little hungry.



I realize that the general opinion of super-low calorie diets is pretty negative, but I personally disagree that it will stall weight loss if it is paired with a well adhered to cardio plan. I have no real facts to back that up, other than my own personal experience:

on March 15 of 2007, I weighed myself at 270 lbs. I'm 5'8, and was truly obese.

I went on a diet of 700-1000 calories per day, with a minimum of 30 minutes of cardio daily, and plenty of water, and dropped 92 lbs by August 1st of the same year, only 4 and a half months later. An average of 5.111(repeating) lbs per week.

I know that it doesn't work that way for everyone, but there is a simple fact that a lot of people seem to ignore when it comes to dieting: like all things in the universe, your body follows the laws of physics. If you do not give your body enough energy (in the form of food) it WILL pull that energy from somewhere. I lost about 4 lbs of fat for every 1 lb of muscle. To be honest, it's a small sacrifice to make, and muscle can be regrown :)

Every calorie that you give your body is a setback in your goal for weight loss. Eat enough to stave off hunger and keep you sane. I'm sure I sound like an idiot, but that's how I did it. The best part of it all is that once I finished the weight loss portion of my journey, I had no idea how to eat 1700 calories...it is still a feast to me every day.

Attack it like an animal, desire it, keep disciplined.

Lastly...

she has said on numerous occasions that she thinks that I am going to leave her for someone who is "more attractive" than her. I haven't done anything to give her a reason to think this and I try to tell her that is not the case.
You have done something to make her think that:
You are pushing her through a serious lifestyle change that requires effort, denial of things that she enjoys, and a commitment. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be doing so. In fact, quite the opposite. But understand that you can tell her you want her to be healthy all you want...my bet is that she's concerned that you're thinking with the wrong head, and that you really just want a sexy girlfriend. The train of thought goes...that if she can't BECOME that sexy girlfriend that you want, you will move on to someone who can be that for you.
My advice would be to choose your words to her carefully when it comes to weight loss, and encourage her the entire way.

To ensure consistency when weighing herself, I suggest buying her a "weigh in" outfit that is lightweight, and she will be comfortable in. Only weigh in directly after waking; it's only going to be disappointing if she weighs herself later on in the day and her weight fluctuates upwards from water/food. Make it a weekly event, but don't do it daily. If you have a scale at home, make it inaccessible except on weigh-in day.

I hope that somehow, some of this has been helpful.
 

Edgarllama

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Ok I've got a 1 month update here. We've been working really hard the last month and it seems to be paying off. Thanks again for all the suggestions and if anyone has any questions as far as diet or exercise regime just let me know.

Beginning Stats
Weight - 187 (Approximate)
BF % - Unfortunately I was unable to determine.
Guns - (R) 14 (L) 14
Thighs - (R) 26.5 (L) 26
Calves - (R) 15.5 (L) 15.5
Chest - 38
Waist - 43

1 month stats
Weight - 183.4 (Down about 4lbs)
BF % - 35 (Unknown if she lowered)
Guns - (R) 14 (L) 14 (No change)
Thighs - (R) 25.5 (L) 24 (Right down 1", Left down 2")
Calves - (R) 15 (L) 15 (Both down a 1/2")
Chest - 34 (Down 4")
Waist - 40 (down 3")

She also joined a contest at work to see who could lose the most weight and she is in 2nd place (they go by % weight lost) and according to their scale she has lost ~6lbs. They use a digital scale for weighing shipments so I would assume it's pretty accurate. She weighs in again this morning so hopefully it goes well.
 
crader

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Thats great 4-6 lbs is a great amount. Congrats to you both for the hard work. So what did you go with in terms of diet, gym, etc..
 

Edgarllama

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Ok I shoulda waited a little bit, she just weighed in at work and she is down another 3lbs So a total of 9 so far.


For her diet, we tried to read a lot as well as take advice from people here. So...

Diet

1 packet of oatmeal for breakfast - 100cal.

Protein Shake & Protein Bar for lunch

-Shake : 10gr. protein & 50cal.
- Bar : 8gr protein (Soy) & 80cal.

Baked Chicken/Fish & Steamed Vegetables for Dinner

-Chicken/Fish 100-180cal/piece I believe. She usually has 2 pieces I think. Also has Cottage Cheese occasionally and a diet popsicle. No carbs with dinner for the most part. We were eating rice but we cut that out. She also gets 1 day per week that she can eat whatever she wants. Kind of like something to look forward too and a light at the end of the tunnel ya know.

Workout

We began conditioning doing solely back/shoulders and legs on alternating days and determining her # of days rest by her amount of soreness. She does cardio just about every day as well. Once she became comfortable we moved to doing arms as well. So she works every group except chest.

Back/Shoulders:
Shoulder or Arnold Presses
Shrugs
Low Back Press (machine)
Shoulder Raises/Lateral Raises
One-Arm rows

Legs:
Hip Sled/Leg Press
Leg Extensions
Calf Raises
Grasshoppers
Lunges

Arms:
Tricep Extension
One Arm cable Curls
One arm Dumbbell extension
Preacher Curl
Cable X-over Flex
Skull Crushers

Cardio: She began the month walking 6miles daily. She has since moved to doing intervals. She walks at ~4.3mph and Jogs at about 5.6mph. She rotates every 3 minutes I think. I'm not positive on that though, just a rough estimate. On the weekend she will usually do 8 miles a day.

Yesterdays Workout
6miles Cardio Intervals as outlined above

One Arm Rows: 3 sets 10 reps (40lb Dumbbell)
Low Back Press: 3 sets 10 reps (130lbs)
Shoulder Press: 3 sets 10 reps; 2 sets @35lb dumbbells/1 @25
Shrugs: 3 sets 10 reps (40lb dumbbells)

At this point she was feeling lightheaded and Prison Break was about to come on so we left. We also began the month doing sit ups every day and have decided that we will lower the reps and increase the weight and the time it takes to do each rep.
 

Irish Cannon

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Make sure to keep updating this! I love seeing progress reports for people that truly want to put in hard work.

I may have missed it, but did you decide on using any thermogenics for increased weight loss? I ran a log of Leviathan Reloaded and LOVED the stuff. I'll be using it again shortly.

Hopefully she doesn't keep thinking you are going to leave her for someone else. I've ran into this problem with so many people, and have gotten into numerous debates on the subject. For me, it's more of a respect thing than anything else. Especially after a couple is married, I feel it is extremely important for them to keep the physical attraction going. To let yourself go, while the other person works hard to keep fit (not only for themselves, but for their partner), I find to be very disrespectful. If both people don't care, then so be it. If fat makes both people happy, then do your thing; however, most of the time, it's not the case. I used to date a girl that would say, "My husband will love me no matter what." And my response was usually, "He may love you no matter what, but that doesn't mean he's going to want to have sex with you."
 

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