Posts by lak32

What a great idea! I'm in =)

Original Post by carmenxox:

long bouts of cardio will eat away at your muscle, so don't over do it

I think I have misled you guys by using the word "weightlifting" in the subject line. I am training for a marathon. I have to do long bouts of cardio or I will not be able to run 26.2 miles on race day. I absolutely appreciate that weightlifting can help me look and run better (and I be incorporating more useful weight training from now on!) but at the end of the day I still have to log a lot of miles, end of story.

Also, and I think more importantly, I love long distance running and I would NEVER give it up, not for faster weight loss or a better body or better muscle capacity.

I am definitely intrigued - and somewhat intimidated - by HIIT but I want to give it a shot... I'm sure there are a zillion threads on here about it so I am going to go read up. Thanks for all your help.

PS. That picture will haunt my dreams

In my experience a 1300 calorie deficit is fine. Maybe tomorrow or over the next few days keep it to an 800-900 calorie deficit and you are back at a 1000 cal average daily deficit! So basically spin class just gave you a nice cushion for the weekend, good job!

amethystgirl, I think you rock and you give awesome advice. But I am a vegan and I can't take an article seriously that uses "self-cutting emo vegans" as an example of someone who doesn't have any muscle. Also my cross country coaches in high school were fanatical about making us do really high reps and low weights, so it's not just Shape telling me that.

Edit: I should clarify- getting toned would be nice, but I really just want to get in the best running shape I can. If the kind of "weightlifting" I am doing is really endurance training, I am okay with that if it is going to make me a fitter runner!

awestendorf, I do lunges and squats and stuff, anything I can do at home (no $ for a gym membership). I do like 45 minutes of various exercises that I have gotten from the fitness forums, online, Shape magazine, etc. I do not want to do any heavy resistance training because I do not want to bulk up, just get toned (high reps, low resistance).

I have been really careful about counting calories, and I have not been eating really differently than I have for the past several months. Also, what is a macro?

Thanks for the advice about mixing up the running; I didn't really think about that. I realize that running 10 miles burns fewer calories now that I weigh 158 than I did when I weighed 173, but I definitely log many more miles now than I did when I was first starting. Shouldn't that make up for the difference?

jdunckel, how often should I do interval training for weight loss? I kind of hate it so right now I only do it like 2x/month. I occasionally race 5 or 10Ks and am building up to do a marathon, so I know I should be incorporating it more often as part of my training anyways.

Your deficit is your burn meter minus your eat meter. So let's say at the end of the day I have burned 2400 calories, and I ate 1500, that gives me a deficit of 900.

It would be nice if CC gave us a deficit meter! Maybe that's something you can suggest on the CC forum.

Your weight fluctuates day to day based on hydration, salt intake, menstrual cycle, even how heavy the foods you ate are (regardless of their calorie count). You can't expect the number on the scale to drop consistently every single day--if you weigh yourself every day you need to pay attention to the trend, not the actual number. I weigh myself every day and my weight jumps up and down by as much as 3 lbs every day. Thank god for calorie count... enter your weight into the weight log each day and make sure the TREND line keeps going down, even if the blue line is jumping up and down in little spikes.

I can't really help with specific calories you need to be eating but I'm sure one of the many helpful people on here can tell you how much you ought to be eating! They will probably ask you how much you generally exercise--sedentary, lightly active, moderately active or very active?

Hey I have pretty much exactly the same stats as you (23, around 160, 5'8) and I try to NEVER go below my BMR, which is like 1550. Maybe the more experienced CCers can correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought BMR was the very bare minimum your body needs to run itself in a given day? Like, if you were in a coma. Maybe you're eating too little on the days you're eating around 1300 cals, especially if you are working out!

My little burn meter tells me that I burn around 1850 calories sedentary, so even eating my BMR and not working out, I still end up with a 300 calorie deficit. Try eating at least your BMR and see if that revs up your metabolism a bit.

I just had a small setback and hopefully this group can get me back on track. I would love to be at my goal weight by the end of 2009! I am about 14 lbs away right now. I'll weigh in on Fridays. I'm going to count this Friday as the end of week 1 because I am eager to get started!

AGE: 23

SW: 173 lbs (4/15/09)

CW: 156.8 lbs

GW:  143

1. 10/2:
2. 10/9:
3. 10/16:
4. 10/23:
5. 10/30:
6. 11/6:
7. 11/13:
8. 11/20:
9. 11/27:
10. 12/4:
11. 12/11:
12. 12/18:
13. 12/25:
14. 1/1:

 Total Loss:

Good to know about your minor vacation setback- that definitely makes me feel better that most of it came off quickly!

In terms of activity level, I definitely am really active but I also eat a lot on the days I am. My BMR is just over 1500 so I never ever go below that, and on hard workout days eat as much as like 2300, but I normally try not to go above 2000 if it's just a standard workout (like 5-6 miles). If anything, I am concerned that I am eating too much on the days I work out, since I know a lot of people don't lose weight when they start exercising because they think it gives them a free pass to eat as much as they want.

You said I should make sure I'm not limiting myself too much. How much is too much? My daily deficits (before this 2 week slip up) were usually around 500 and rarely more than 1000. I have eaten mostly vegan for more than a year and am wondering if this could be the culprit that caused me to overeat, because my body is craving some sort of non-vegan food?