Meg: Seriously? You too? LOL I thought my body was really screwy! I also do the odd/even day thing because that's what my dr. suggested...but sometimes I have a hard time remembering where I'm at let alone the day or date! Then of course you hit the 31st/1st deal. LOL
Ok all, have a fabulous night. I have to run off and check emails before I crash...today was insane and I feel like a semi hit me full speed.
Meg- i would love to get my body fat into the 15% range. how did you go about doing it.
Baf- i'm not maintaing on 1300-1400 calories, right now i have just stopped my weight loss and im confused what to do next. I'm going to take your advice and bump them up may 100 a week and see where that takes me. Thanks for your input.
Yes and i am a very active teenage girl, i play ice hockey, badminton, squash and weight train with 15 min of cardio in there. I dont do cardio on its own because i have soo many other activties that get my hr up
Well, if you read my blog, you know that the Challenge is all about lost bodyfat. I've been hovering at around 45-46%, 47% on my gym's machine (calipers say 35%, but that's because I'm so muscular). (I'll add, I started this journey at 320 and 53% bf last summer).
Anyway, I watch that more than I watch the pounds.
Tonight I had a surprise. 42% bodyfat.
42%
If that sticks, that would mean a 4% bodyfat reduction that would help me get in the lead to win. Please please please....
I say "sticks" because the body is in constant flux.
But if it's accurate, I'm both tickled and confused. Tickled because it almost means that at maybe 200-220 I'll be in a acceptable bodyfat of 30%. Confused because will I be "a stick" at 160?
I know, I'm awfully muscular (155lbs of lean body weight) and that's in my favor and why weight loss is slow, as well as why calipers are hard to gauge my bodyfat. (I've been wondering if my lean body weight will go down at all because, otherwise I'll always be a bit big.
Anyway, just wanted to share. Any of you who watch your bodyfat will understand that this number is a shock given my actual weight (281).
Also...interesting stuff from training with another trainer for a day (who loved working with me), I'm stronger than even her on some things.
I feel like a circus freak, LOL. But I accept who I am--if God made me strong, I am as He desired.
Last edited by JerseyGirl69; 03-04-2008 at 08:05 PM.
Meg, what you are describing sounds very scary, so perhaps 'cutting' is not what I mean. But I would like to shed some body fat without losing muscle. I have the least defined arms of anyone on the planet and it's annoying. I carry extra flab on my arms and legs and I'd like to at least get rid of enough of it that you can TELL that I lift weights just by looking at my arms. (Oddly, you can tell that I lift weights by looking at my abs, and I barely even work those. It's an unfair body fat distribution thing. No one even sees my stupid stomach; in summer, everyone sees my arms. I want good tank top arms by summer!!!)
But, perhaps you're right. Lowering my cals a bit, cleaning them up a bit and increasing my cardio would probably do the trick. (Btw, you've exposed me as a cardio slacker. All I do is run 2-3 miles with my dog 2-3 times per week, and do 15 mins of HIIT after my weights 2-3 times per week as prescribed by NRLW. I'm a cardio slacker and it is an obvious place to start the fat loss. I really, really, REALLY wish I had a treadmill for the house. It would be so easy to do an extra 15 or 30 mins of HIIT each day if I didn't have to go to the gym...Grumble, grumble. )
Thanks
Last edited by baffled111; 03-04-2008 at 09:15 PM.
Jersey - From what I've read, body fat for those of us that have been morbidly obese is not something easily gauged and we really need to get down to overweight/obese before it can be. I started out at 49% bf at 350 and various bf measurements put me in the upper 20s/low 30s right now. You gotta remember that when you lose weight, you lose fat, water, tissue and some muscle. When you lose weight, your body will shed some 'lean body mass' that it no longer needs to support your smaller body. It is really one of those things to 'wait and see'.
Sharon - I'm glad I'm not the only one I haven't tried HIIT with weights but that sounds like a good idea, especially with my kettlebells which really get my heart rate going BUT it is hard to maintain that rate.
If you're leery about dropping calories too low, I think your only other choice is to increase your cardio. If you're doing a half hour of HIIT per day, tack on 30 - 45 minutes of steady state cardio, preferably in a second session. Make sure your food choices are clean as can be and try to avoid starchy carbs -- get most of your carbs from veggies.
I've heard Alwyn Cosgrove describe a protocol that he learned from Lyle McDonald. While he usually prescribes it as a stubborn fat protocol (as he doesn't normally recommend steady state cardio for fat loss), you might want to give it a shot. What is directed is that you do about 15 minutes of extemely intense Interval training, then you completely rest for 5 minutes. This will get triglycerides flooding into your bloodstream. Then you do about 30 minutes of moderate intensity steady state cardio.
I've heard Alwyn Cosgrove describe a protocol that he learned from Lyle McDonald. While he usually prescribes it as a stubborn fat protocol (as he doesn't normally recommend steady state cardio for fat loss), you might want to give it a shot. What is directed is that you do about 15 minutes of extemely intense Interval training, then you completely rest for 5 minutes. This will get triglycerides flooding into your bloodstream. Then you do about 30 minutes of moderate intensity steady state cardio.
That might actually work for me, Depalma, thanks. The trouble is that I have to exercise the dog on MWF mornings, so if I want to do more than run 3 miles, I need to go to the gym after work--which I will very rarely do if I've run in the am. But I could go to the gym, do 15 mins of intervals, walk home, grab the dog and go running with her. (But it does seem as though there are an awful lot of opportunities for me to slack off in there...). I keep trying to compel myself to do ss cardio after weights and HIIT, but I'm just too exhausted at that point.
Last edited by baffled111; 03-05-2008 at 12:37 AM.
Baffled - I think Depalma's suggestion is a good one. Also, I found when I started lifting after about 6-8 weeks I really started to shed bodyfat - once I had started to build up enough new muscle to get the metabolism going a bit better.
I have done HIIT with weights. I find it kind of a fun way of doing it. A couple suggestions of how I've done it: alternating lifting exercises (snatches, OH presses, squats, lunges, etc.) with a stationary cardio exercise (jumping jacks, butt kickers, star jumps, etc.) or alternating lifting exercises with a simple body movement exercise like turkish get-ups.
I went to the gym today. First time in almost a week. I think I have finally pinpointed my lose of motivation. When I worked at the pool I would guard the noon-1:30 swim everyday. Every day the same people would swim in the same spots for the same amount of time & same # of lengths. Their exercise never altered in the least. Most were seniors - but I remember one woman in her 40's who was constantly in the quest to lose some weight who followed this same strategy. I literally mean for years she did the same swim workout. It drove me nutty!!! It seemed so pointless to not try to improve or change in some way. That is where I feel I am with my workouts with the whole pregnancy thing. I know in the end the reason for doing it is valid & important - but it's so far off it is hard to focus on it. I have decided to make it mandatory to get to the gym 3 times a week (instead of the almost every day I was striving for before) & then add as much light cardio the rest of the week as my energy levels will allow.
I'm doing cardio that way despite Lyle McDonald. Personally, some of his nutrition advice strikes me as so bizarre (and I tried it) that I don't take a lot of what he says seriously.
BUT....the cardio that way seems to work if you can force yourself to actually STOP for 5 minutes. Find a place to drip other than a leather sofa, tho!
Most competitors do double cardio sessions to get down to really low body fat, but NOT HIIT. It's to catabolic. Personally, I've never gone below 14.5%, but I've taken several figure competitors down to the 8-9% level (for two days )
Wow...so double cardio sessions are really the way to go if I want to see a significant change?! Yeesh...just can't realistically see that happening for me.
Like baff, I've got some stubborn fat spots on my body and I'd love to see a change but I also don't really have room to drop the calories any lower. I, too, already differ greatly from the calorie suggestions proposed in the NROL. I think you have to know you're own body. I imagine that some "cleaner" eating could help.
I've heard a lot of talk about HIIT and I think I need to give it a try or at least fluctuate between that and my usual steady state 5k runs. I remember the suggestion made in NROL, that depalma mentioned, about doing some HIIT followed by a short break and then the steady state cardio having some positive effects. So much to learn!
Meg/Mo - so I'm not the only one who forgets to take the right dosage of my synthroid?! As I've lost weight my dosage has gone way down over the years and my endocronologist is so specific that I actually take one dosage all week and a half a pill on Sundays! If I remember!
Here's a question for the experts: How far down do you have to get before you can actually call it a pushup?! No really...I have never been able to do big girl pushups but I've been feeling a bit stronger and I think the yoga has really helped. Yesterday I tried them and managed five actual pushups but I couldn't get down too low. Is it still a pushup or should I go back to the knees so I can get down lower?
Lovely weather here by the way. yes, that was sarcastic.
The above is an article I came across in my reading. I know it is a different web site. It is after all geared toward men. But it has some great articles on weight training. The article is about HIIT with weights.
I'm trying the swings and snatches for 20 minutes every other day. I'll see how that effects my body fat %.
I am SORE! On Monday I did leg presses and the guy who was training me said that the "sled" (??I think that's what he called it) was 100 pounds. I felt like I was getting ready to launch into space in the little chair thing and then I pressed up with my legs....I hope you guys know what I am talking about. Then I felt like a little insect watching a shoe coming down to squash me, and I pretty much thought my legs would never make it through the reps and sets. But I did. And then yesterday I was so sore I could hardly walk. I've been following the nutrition plan religiously (even when I was sorting 12 cases of Girl Scout cookies---not a crumb of one passed my lips). I'm sure it will get better. I hopped on the elliptical last night for 15 minutes of slow and easy just to see if it would help the soreness, but I don't think that it did. My joints are fine, it is just my quads are totally tender. They are better today though....I can touch them without wincing.
Yay, Midwife! Yep, it's a sled. The one at our gym is 65#, so you must have been leg pressing a MONSTER! As for the muscle soreness, it's always worst when you try a new exercise. Don't worry, it will never be this bad again (until you try something new!) But don't you kinda like it??
Sharon, I love T-Mag! They have the best articles (just have to ignore all the guy stuff). I'm signed up to get their email update every Friday night and it's always fun to read over the weekend.
Sharon - I know I talk about them a lot but if you like snatches and swings, I'd highly recommend looking into getting a kettlebell. You can do things like one handed swings, snatches, cleans, etc. I'm extremely impressed with my arm strength and development due to the kettlebells.
midwife - awesome job, good luck with the soreness, I know it sucks at first.
Then of course you hit the 31st/1st deal. LOL 
MO
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Yep, it's a sled. The one at our gym is 65#, so you must have been leg pressing a MONSTER! As for the muscle soreness, it's always worst when you try a new exercise. Don't worry, it will never be this bad again (until you try something new!) But don't you kinda like it?? 