No results w/ Cathe but yes w/ FIRM?

[altinker]

It feels like diet plays such a huge part. I did Bikram Yoga for about 8 months. I did it on average about 5 times a week. I ate like a big fat pig. The class fell at a time when I would normally be digesting dinner, and you can't eat beforehand (Well I can't if i don't want to feel like I am going to puke). So, I'd be ravenous afterward. I am surprised I didn't gain more than a couple of pounds, but I didn't lose any weight. I did gain flexibility and peace of mind. I got busy and didn't have time for it, so I tried to just wing it on the diet. I ate decent during the week, and then we would eat out during the weekends. That doesn't cut it, because I'd undo all of the good I did during the week. And, I didn't eat bad, I just ate more. Then, I started working out doing barre. I figured I'd wing it for diet. Again, I felt like I got very little in the way of results. Then, I started counting calories in Myfitnesspal and wearing an HRM for exercise. That's when I started noticing results. I lost 8 lbs in about 2 months. Now, I've gotten busy again, and I haven't had as much time to exercise. My diet has slipped, too. I gained 3 or 4 lbs back. But, I started eating a cleaner diet and I've lost that 3 to 4 lbs.

The whole point is that diet is SO huge. Try tracking your calories in myfitnesspal. You can work out like a fiend and gain strength, endurance and stamina and not really feel like your body looks too different if your diet isn't addressed. At least that is my experience. It's like with Bikram Yoga -- I still had a chubby belly, even though that class is super hard. Now, my legs toned up, but I still had inner thigh fat. My arms didn't look toned. And, I wasn't pleased with my overall results at all (at least in terms of how I looked). Now, had I been able to clean up my diet and watch what I ate, I probably would have been happier with the results.

[furmomof6]

Same here with Cathe! Several years ago (about 3-4) I had around 15lbs to lose. I did Cathe religiously (for months) but just got bigger and increasingly frustrated (I was eating healthy). A sickness derailed me and while I was resting up on the couch I saw an informercial for Slim in Six. I took the bait and voila! I combined that program with walking (same diet) and the inches just fell off. Over a relatively short amount of time I dropped the weight (and then some) and three pants sizes. I've never looked back. Not sure what is about her workouts and my body, but they just don't work for me. I used to do the Firm when I was a teen. I loved it and got great results!

[deineira]

Wow, it's interesting to hear from several who are getting bigger doing Cathe. I, too, have been a diehard Cathe fan for many, many years. I have lost weight with her workouts when I was very big, but once I reached a certain level, I was stagnating with her. I got more fit, but I was not getting any smaller per se. I will say that I have added more muscle and ditched the saddlebags, so it's not all bad! But, I was also getting the blocky look that some here mentioned. I've now moved on to other workouts, and though it's only been a few months, I'm starting to lean out a little through my lower body, which is my big trouble zone. I do love Cathe and add her in once or twice a week, along with other workouts, and I'm going to see how that works. Diet is key, though. I eat whole foods all the time, very little sugar, and most days I only eat one serving of starch per day. I do find that I'm not as hungry since I've stopped doing Cathe workouts all the time as well...but I still make sure I'm burning the same amount of calories when I workout, so I have found that development to be interesting.

Cathe's workouts are excellent, and a lot of ladies get amazing results from her...and I did at one point as well. Again, you just have to find what works for you.

[susan p]

I always had better results with Firm-style workouts than with Cathe (with the same eating, so that's NOT PART OF THE EQUATION in the difference between the two.)


By "better results" I mean a smaller waist, a perkier butt, that sort of aesthetic stuff.

I do love Cathe's workouts, though. At least, her older stuff. Haven't been as enamoured of her newer things but I have several Cathes that are CLASSICS in my collection that I would never part with.

The worst thing ever for me so far in my 20 years of working out was NROL4W. While I loved DOING the workouts and loved lifting more and more weight and loved how powerful it felt, I GAINED weight --and it wasn't just muscle, and it wasn't just water; it was FAT, that has stayed with me for 3 months after quitting the rotation. I was logging my food and NOT eating more, so I don't know what's with that.

I guess I don't agree that the difference is always food. Our bodies are way more complex than that... different composition of muscle fibers, for instance, are going to respond to training different ways. I always WANTED to be one of those people who got toned and tiny lifting huge weights but it's not in the cards for me. I DO believe those for whom it happens; they just have a different physiology than me. And FOR ME, Cathe's workouts lean a little too heavily toward the NROL4W side of the equation (heavier, more "stressful" workouts imho) that don't help me LOOK better (although certainly they do increase my strength better.)

[Cowgirl32]

I did Cathe and ended up looking like a linebacker. I just do better with less intense workouts. I just hold onto weight-especially water weight. But I know from balancing some minor health issues that I have sensitive adrenals. The Firm works well(basically moderate free weights), a couple of hiit workouts, and then my other cardio workouts are endurance based(walk/run, turbo fire, some tonique. Another huge mistake I noticed was my form was off, I was so focused on lifting as heavy as possible I was getting no return for my efforts. I went much lighter while really striving for form.

So clean diet, try keeping the same workouts and see if changing how you fuel yourself helps. Then sustain that and make tiny changes to your workouts per week. If you're body is responding. The fun part is we can change it up! I don't know if you use weight, inches, or clothing as a benchmark. However, monitor it for a couple of weeks.

I too am someone who just gets bigger doing her. And the food journal was not the problem. I looked my best when I combined the Firm with lotte berk type workouts as add ons. And cardio on days in between. Hmmm... should probably go back to that!

[susan p]

Originally Posted by Cowgirl32

I looked my best when I combined the Firm with lotte berk type workouts as add ons. And cardio on days in between. Hmmm... should probably go back to that!

HAHA, isn't it funny how we recount our fitness history in these threads and talk about what worked best and then think "why am I not still doing that?"

(except I know that for me mixing it up is important. After all, I am an experiment of one and if I hadn't TRIED NROL4W, I would never have known and would always have wondered.... now I know! I have definitive data! So we do gain from our fitness experiments. However, yeah, maybe I'm due for a Firm rotation. I'm doing Jessica Smith's Summer Shape Up Challenge right now and she's very AWT-esque, so I could segue easily right into a Firmish rotation.)

[cherimac]

Originally Posted by susan p

I always had better results with Firm-style workouts than with Cathe (with the same eating, so that's NOT PART OF THE EQUATION in the difference between the two.)



I guess I don't agree that the difference is always food. Our bodies are way more complex than that... different composition of muscle fibers, for instance, are going to respond to training different ways. I always WANTED to be one of those people who got toned and tiny lifting huge weights but it's not in the cards for me. I DO believe those for whom it happens; they just have a different physiology than me. And FOR ME, Cathe's workouts lean a little too heavily toward the NROL4W side of the equation (heavier, more "stressful" workouts imho) that don't help me LOOK better (although certainly they do increase my strength better.)

This. That's a great explanation, Susan.

I actually ate a bit "better" with my TA Meta rotation than with my previous 3 month Firm rotation and had better results with the Firm. My body seems to love AWT.

[Scbayless]

Originally Posted by LoveVA

Not to threadjack, but why do you think that is? Do you know what it was about Cathe's workouts that didn't work for you aesthetically? As I said in an earlier post in this thread, I found the same thing but I can't understand why they wouldn't work. They are great workouts and my strength and cardio capacity really improved. Yet, I wasn't losing weight and I didn't like the way I looked. I add in barre, pilates, Tonique, TA, etc, and now I'm back to fitting in to my smaller clothes.

Ok I have never done the newer firm, but did the classics for about a year pretty exclusively. I think why Cathe exclusively doesn't do what you want is a few things. She doesn't do nearly the amount of compound movements the classic firms do. Cathe does a lot more do one thing, stop, move on to the next, go back to what you were doing, back, forth, back forth. Where the firm has you doing it all at once. Also I would say Cathe really hits the same muscle groups over and over in slightly different ways. TA has you using your whole body in really different ways, that don't let you check yoru brain out very well (at least the higher level stuff you can't check out of or you'll fall on your face). Cathe I actually love that you CAN check out pretty well once you know the work out. Just go through it and do it. I dont' think it produces the best results though is the thing. These are just a couple of my own thoughts.

[Candiceena]

I feel like this thread is aweesome....very informative. I know studies say this and expiriments say that and we read the fitness magazines and they say lift heavy, women can't bulk, yada yada yada, but whoever said that it is dependent on each person because we are all different from a phsyiologic perspective, well, that about hits the nail on the head.

I really wanted to get amazing results with Cathe but I didn't. I also was hungry ALL OF THE TIME. My body too seems to love AWT, 4-limb movements, etc. I also really love those kinds of workouts.

Another thing that really helped me lose some fat was doing c25k walk/run intervals along w/ The FIRM, so I need to start something like that back up since summer is here and the weather is great for outdoor workouts!

It's so funny...I wonder why sometimes we stray from what has proven to work for us, time and time again? For me, I know from personal experience, multiple times, that The FIRM gives me solid results. With better diet choices I get better results but even when I am eating like absolute crap (think 21 year old partying college lifestyle food choices) I still was able to get some good results and lose about 12 lbs w/ the FIRM.

I think light to moderate weights and AWT is key for me. I sold my Cathe Body Blast rotation on ebay and was glad to see it go. Today I got notified that my Cathe LIS rotation sold too. I really wanted to love her workouts but I'm starting to feel they just aren't for me.

Also - about Cathe really doing one thing, then moving to the next, then the next VS. the Firm where you are doing all kinds of different things at once, I think that is another reason why I don't see as great of results. I think doing multiple moves at once increases the cardio aspect of it, which seems to help for me.

One thing that really made me start to question if Cathe's workouts were right for me was on her forums, some of the girls there were mentioning what we are talking about - getting big, bulking up, being hungry, not seeing results, etc - and there was this concensus that we needed to "lift heavier, stick out the rotation for longer, etc" ... push through the gain in inches because eventually it will turn into more muscle and more fat being lost. To me that was insane. Bust my *** harder than I ever have so that I can increase in size just to hope that eventually it turns into a decrease? No thank you!

[sunday]

Originally Posted by Candiceena

One thing that really made me start to question if Cathe's workouts were right for me was on her forums, some of the girls there were mentioning what we are talking about - getting big, bulking up, being hungry, not seeing results, etc - and there was this concensus that we needed to "lift heavier, stick out the rotation for longer, etc" ... push through the gain in inches because eventually it will turn into more muscle and more fat being lost. To me that was insane. Bust my *** harder than I ever have so that I can increase in size just to hope that eventually it turns into a decrease? No thank you!

I loved this! So true! Thank you for wording this so well.