Posts by acretin

The general recommendation for pre workout nutrition is to have a small amount of high quality carbs to fuel your workout....then to have a meal within 30 minutes of your workout that has a 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein. That ratio will help replace the muscle glycogen that gets burned during cardio.

I'd like to clarify my comment about cardio burning muscle tissue, cardio burns a lot of calories...the calories have to come from somewhere.  Usually, they will come from carbs first and then muscle tissue.  If you're calorie deficit is too high, then your body will start using muscle tissue for energy because it's used up everything else.  If you use this calculator http://www.phord.com/cc/, it will show you the maximum calorie deficit that you can have without catabolizing your muscle tissue.  It's very difficult to build muscle while you're in a calorie deficit, not impossible, but difficult.  I used a cycling approach, where I had a small calorie deficit for two weeks with strength training 4x a week with heavier weights and cardio 4x a week.  I followed that by two weeks of strength training 3x a week with lighter weights and 5-6x cardio sessions.  This approach helped me build muscle for two weeks and then "cut" the fat for two weeks.

I went from 31% body fat down to 17% since this last April....but my biggest accomplishment???  Finally being strong enough to do a real push-up instead of the on your knees push-ups!

Now if I can just get through this core test http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/bestabexer cises/a/core_test.htm

I usually average about 18 mph as well.  When I wear my heart rate monitor, I usually get up to about 85-90% of my max heart rate which I consider vigorous.  I guess classifying it for you would depend on your heart rate on the machine.  According to my heart rate monitor, I generally burn about 350-400 calories in 30 minutes on it.

Pete Thomas (former contestant on the Biggest Loser) has his own website and talks alot about what they do on the show.  Not sure if he mentioned what his calorie intake was but I thought I remembered his mentioning it.  http://www.winningman.com/

Original Post by damirishgem:

I too am having the same issue. I have lost 15 lbs since the beginning of the year not really even trying, just kind of watching what I eat and exercising a few days a week. But about the middle of August I decided I really needed to kick it into high gear, step up my workout routine and religiously count my calories. At first I started out working out 4 or 5 days per week, burning about 200-300 calories during 30 mins of cardio, and roughly 50-60 weight-training, and I was only eating about 1300 calories. But I wasn't losing any weight! Although my clothes were fitting better and I dropped a pants size. Then, I decided after a horrible month long plateau that maybe I wasn't getting enough calories and decided to eat 1500 calories and exercise more and change my routine a bit, so I decided to start doing 20 mins on the Arc Trainer and 40 mins walking at a very fast pace, highest incline, on the treadmill, burning between 500-700 calories in that time-frame. I have been doing this for about a month and I have not seen ANY weight loss or loss in inches. I weigh 131 right now and I have one cheat day a week, usually Saturday or Sunday, and generally I cheat during dinner. Never anything crazy though. I don't understand what I am doing wrong. I eat a good amount of fruits and vegetables, a ton of fiber, lots of lean protein, nuts (in moderation), but I do notice that I seem to take in a lot of sugar and carbs. Most of that is from fruit though, but I am not sure if that is effecting my weight loss or not. As of right now I am unable to workout because of an Achilles Tendinitis injury, so I am kind of staying steady as far as weight. Any suggestions for when I can get back on my feet would be super helpful!

 Achilles tendon injuries absolutely stink!  I hurt mine once and it was a year before I could really do anything.  Try taking a look in the sports medicine category on About.com.  They have a lot of guidance on sports injuries which helped me alot when I strained my calf earlier in the year.

You might want to try cutting down on the fruits for a little bit.  Fruits are metabolized differently from other sugars due to their fructose content. My trainer had told me only to eat fruits early in the day (there was a scientific reason for it which I just don't remember at the moment).

I'm assuming there's a typo in your first sentence, you did mean 174.6 lbs, right?  If so, you're definitely on track.  Someone in another post recommended this website http://www.eatingwell.com/eatingwell_menu_pla nner for meal planning.  I'm going to try it myself, I could use more healthy/low calorie recipes.

Congratulations on your weight loss!  You should be proud of yourself for what you've accomplished.  Be careful about not eating enough high quality calories, though.  Try to eat a little more, 1200 calories is low for what you're doing, you should probably stick to the 1500-1600 range as you continue on your weight loss journey.  Most people will lose more pounds in the beginning of a weight loss program, so I don't think your weight loss is all that abnormal.  Just make sure you're eating a balanced diet (don't worry about the grains, eat some more veggies/fruit if it's too many grains for you).

Well the really cool thing about the book is that the entire first half deals with the psychology of emotional eating, mental reprogramming, etc.  He makes you think about the reasons why you overeat and how to overcome them.  The second half is about nutrition and workouts.  It was very motivating for me.

Did you have that before?  It might just be skin, 31% body fat is pretty high and going to 19.8 is a big change even if it doesn't seem that way on the scale.  That's where I started too.  My back is one of the last places that I lose body fat so you might be losing it from other areas first and that might be the last holdout.  Do you have anybody that can measure your body fat with calipers?  I find those fat analyzers to be wildly inaccurate with me, sometimes more than 5%.  About.com has a really good body fat calculator tool.  One of the methods takes skinfold measurements from 7 different sites including the back so you might get a more accurate result from doing it that way.

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/gi/dynamic/of fsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=sportsmedicine& cdn=health&tm=85&gps=188_820_1020_585 &f=10&su=p284.9.336.ip_p736.8.336.ip_ &tt=2&bt=0&bts=0&st=16&zu =http%3A//www.linear-software.com/online.html

I had thought about doing a similar thing before...but when I priced it out, it was really too high for me.  So, instead, I spent my vacation week doing what I called my "biggest loser" week.  I worked out with a great trainer at my local gym every day (no yelling), did long cardio sessions, cooked most of my meals in advance, and scheduled either a massage or pedicure or manicure every day.  Still spent some money but nowhere near as much as I would have if I had gone away.  It actually was a great week that I enjoyed. Plus I dropped  fat and gained some muscle.  It was tough but it felt a lot better than spending the week away eating and drinking.

nottilthursday,

I can sympathize with you, getting enough protein can be a challenge when you're on a tight budget.   Eggs are a pretty good choice, they're lower in price than many meats.  At my supermarket, ground turkey is actually way lower in price than hamburger and is better for you anyway.  Milk/yogurt are not too bad price-wise, the store brand will be cheaper.  You might want to also check into protein powder.  Although it seems expensive, my can of protein has 13 servings.  So it works out to $1 per serving if I mix it with water.  Dried beans and peanut butter also have a decent amount of protein.  Just be careful not to eat too much peanut butter due to the fat content.  Many grocery stores have a "smashed can" bin with canned goods that have been dented.  You can sometimes find black/kidney/garbanzo beans in there.

I hope that helps.  Anybody else have any ideas?

I really like to work out to fast songs and have themed "mixes" such as 70's rock, 70's disco, 80's, 90's etc.  My faves for working out at the moment:

New Pornographers - All The Things that go to Make Heaven and Earth

The Hives - Tick Tick Boom

Spoon - You got yer cherry bomb & The Underdog

Green Day - Know Your Enemy

Jet - Are you gonna be my girl

Buckcherry - Lit Up

The Raconteurs - Salute Your Solution

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground

And my fallback song whenever I'm getting tired and have another 6 minutes to go on my cardio - Fatboy Slim - Rockafeller Skank

I agree with the other posters here that you don't need to lose any fat.  Your body fat percentage is terrific.  But it sounds like what you're describing (pants fitting better/lower previous weight)  might actually be due to water retention and not excess fat.  You might want to try eating really clean for a week and avoiding salt, refined flours, sugars, sodas etc.  Don't take diuretics, they can really mess up your electrolyte balance and cause serious complications.  Eat really clean and drink tons of water...you may lose a couple of pounds of water weight and feel a little bit better in your jeans.

I understood the initial post to be saying she was exercising only 3x week. With an approximately 325 calorie deficit per day plus approximately 1500 calories burned over the week (2 exercise sessions plus the walk), that's about 3700 calories per week which would give a 1 lb weight loss.  BUT, that also means that she has to be spot on perfect with her food intake.  One or two more 45 minute cardio sessions a week could break her from that plateau and provide a "food cushion" in case she underestimates her food intake. The addition of one more strength session would help toward maintaining muscle mass and improve body composition.

Unfortunately, I don't think there is a "right" or "wrong" in this particular instance.  Her diet is not one that I would want....but that's me....and you, are you.  If there were a "one diet fits all" that truly worked for everybody and was healthy for everybody, then we here on CC would probably all be on it.  A balanced diet with a good mix of carbs, protein and fat will work well for one person while another might need more protein.  Incorporating whole grains is considered healthy for many but a wheat gluten sensitive person would certainly find it unhealthy.  I do think that your approach is most likely a healthy choice for a good majority of the population.  And as long as she is taking in enough calories even through a limited menu, her plan might be a healthy thing for her.  However, if she's on a super low calorie plan, then she runs the risk of catabolyzing muscle in addition to losing fat.  Not an option that I would go for but everybody's different.