No results w/ Cathe but yes w/ FIRM?

[edensmom]

I don't think doing a certain instructor's workouts will give you a body like them. For example I do a whole lot of Cathe but my body looks a whole lot like Alison Davis. You have your own biology etc. to work with.

[bubbles76]

Nevermind.

[kariev34]

In all honesty, I never had good results doing cathe workouts exclusively though I truly love her workouts. I found her workouts gave me a very boxy/thick look. Prior to finding her I did my own weight training circuits in the gym. This produced great tone without becoming overly muscular for my taste. I've never done much firm but I always read people's praises. I say do what you know works for you best.

[Terry]

Originally Posted by Candiceena

I think it's possible. But I also think it's unlikely (at least for me). I have read quite a bit about metabolic slowdown and I think a lot of people misinterpret what it is, although that is a discussion for another board probably.

There is indeed a lot going on with biochemistry and everybody is an experiment of one.

I agree that the vast majority of the general public misinterprets metabolic slowdown. I just want to defend myself as your post somewhat implies that I am misinterpreting known physiology. I have a Master of Science Degree in Biology-Comparative Physiology,I have had formal undergraduate course work in Biochemistry and formal graduate course work in BioEnergetics, and I have done a research paper on starvation physiology. When we eat less than we burn, the biochemistry tends to switch such that less Calories are burned, including a lesser burn for two very high sources of Calorie burn: body heat production and all day movement. This of course won't be exact and will happen slowly over time, be affected by the intentional movement we do, etc. I'm just saying that it can happen, has happened in the research lab, and might be the cause of at least some issues people have with trying to lose body fat.

If you look at the post I replied to, she changed to a new exercise program. It is a program that is known to be very intense. She carefully tracks her food and she did not increase her food. Regardless, she gained fat. Doing the math, there is certainly at least some chance that some of the survival biochemistry was involved.

On your original post: As long as you love The Firm and the results it gives you, stick with it. You can also expand into other instructors that do that type of work thus you can avoid burning out on The Firm so that you can still love it over the next 75 years as you continue to work out (You can stop on your 100th birthday.) I've seen other suggestions but I don't think this one was there unless I missed it: Patrick Goudeau (not sure on the spelling of his last name). (I love The Firm too by the way.)

[fit44]

Originally Posted by Terry

There is indeed a lot going on with biochemistry and everybody is an experiment of one.

I agree that the vast majority of the general public misinterprets metabolic slowdown. I just want to defend myself as your post somewhat implies that I am misinterpreting known physiology. I have a Master of Science Degree in Biology-Comparative Physiology,I have had formal undergraduate course work in Biochemistry and formal graduate course work in BioEnergetics, and I have done a research paper on starvation physiology. When we eat less than we burn, the biochemistry tends to switch such that less Calories are burned, including a lesser burn for two very high sources of Calorie burn: body heat production and all day movement. This of course won't be exact and will happen slowly over time, be affected by the intentional movement we do, etc. I'm just saying that it can happen, has happened in the research lab, and might be the cause of at least some issues people have with trying to lose body fat.

If you look at the post I replied to, she changed to a new exercise program. It is a program that is known to be very intense. She carefully tracks her food and she did not increase her food. Regardless, she gained fat. Doing the math, there is certainly at least some chance that some of the survival biochemistry was involved.

This is very interesting and I was listening to a Biolayne video blog talking about metabolic adaption. It makes sense....Look at how many people did insanity rotations and didn't lose a pound of fat.
Lifting weights doesn't make you fatter, your diet makes you fatter, and like most other programs, there is a fluff stage. There are many women I read posts from on body building forums who grow out of their jeans initially with heavy lifting, They do gain scale weight by increasing calories to gain muscle, there is no other way to gain muscle. You have to eat the calories! BUT, when they cut back on the weights (increase reps) they have solid muscles and are much smaller. These girls go from a size 6 to a size 2 and weight more on the scale after 6 months. The thing it is...it's not a quick fix and you can't be afraid to eat! This takes months not weeks.

I do believe Cathe's workouts can produce the body builder physique and if you want a dancers/pilates look(nothing wrong with this), you should not do Cathe.

[LoveVA]

Originally Posted by fit44

I do believe Cathe's workouts can produce the body builder physique and if you want a dancers/pilates look(nothing wrong with this), you should not do Cathe.

I have slowly come to this realization over the past 2 months. When I first started buying (collecting? accumulating? hoarding?) workout DVDs, I thought that Cathe's workouts would be the foundation of my weekly rotations and that I would sprinkle in the occasional workout from another instructor just to mix things up a bit. Now it's the complete opposite. I'm focusing more on the *type* of workout that gives me the look that I want while continuing to gain strength and cardio endurance. Now, I still love my Cathe workouts and will always do them, just not as frequently as I had originally intended.

I would be very interested in a discussion on why the Dream Body and Tonique workouts create a more lean look when I think that they are as intense as Cathe's workouts. Within the DB set, I'm speaking specifically about Tabata/Toning and Fusion Mix as those are the only two that I have. Why do they not induce that same stress effect that would cause me to hang on to fat when I'm burning a similar amount of calories?

I don't know enough about physiology or the science of exercise to figure out why.

[susan p]

Originally Posted by fit44

Lifting weights doesn't make you fatter, your diet makes you fatter,

OK, so why did I gain FAT (and muscle, yes, I did gain muscle) while EATING EXACTLY THE SAME THING and only changing my workouts from AWT-style to heavy lifting?

The not eating enough explanation does make some sense to me; maybe I wasn't eating enough to support that kind of a workout rotation. I did get stronger as well as fatter!

When people say "your diet made you fatter" we all assume it was because you were eating too much. But I'm told I was eating too little. IS that what you mean?

Seriously, I didn't change my diet when I changed my rotation....

[eyefit]

Originally Posted by Candiceena

But I want to feel and look like a woman -

FWIW, I have muscle and look like a woman. It is possible to lift weights and not look like the hulk. You don't necessarily have to do heavy weights on split days to get the benefits of weight lifting. Some of us do kettlebells or total body weight dvds with great results. Just sayin'....

OTOH, if you like the Firm, do the Firm. We are extremely lucky in this day and age to have tons of workout dvds and options to choose from.

[MKEMom]

Nevermind... much smarter people than me have posted about what I was going to say

[Sue B]

I remember on the NROL4W forum, there were a lot of complaints about weight/inch gain in the first couple of months. I stuck it out through stage 5 and don't recall any dramatic physical results, but then again, I didn't really have a need to lose weight.

I agree that there's no one-size-fits-all program, and lately it seems like a lot of strength programs oversell weight loss or body transformations.