I’m not a nutrition expert in any way, so I’m reluctant to give you specific advice, which, depending on your overall health could be anywhere from counter-productive to downright dangerous. However, I am currently working with a nutritionist/personal trainer to help counteract the effects of my Hashimoto’s disease, so I’ll just pass along a couple of things he’s got me doing, for your general information, but I would recommend seeing a qualified professional before making any drastic changes in your program.
First, it’s not just a matter of # of calories, but what kind of calories, where they come from and when you consume them. Right now he has me eating 3 regular meals and 2 or 3 snacks/day – even if I’m not hungry! Snacks need to alternate between fruits and proteins, so I’ll have, say, an apple at around 10AM between breakfast and lunch, and a handful of roasted walnuts, almonds or a piece of organic whole wheat toast with raw organic almond butter for a late afternoon snack (I can’t have peanuts or peanut butter because, as goitrogens, they wreak havoc on my already underactive thyroid). The reason you need to eat at shorter intervals throughout the day is to keep your metabolism up by preventing your body from going into “starvation mode” and slowing the metabolism to ward off the possibility of not being fed soon enough.
Also, quit using canola, corn or vegetable oil and butter or margarine and switch to medium chain triglycerides such as extra virgin olive oil and raw organic coconut oil. “Medium-chain triglycerides increase energy expenditure and decrease adiposity [the quality or state of being fat] in overweight men.”
There’s a lot more he’s had me change, but again, since I’m not a nutritionist, and since some of this diet is designed specifically for my condition, I’ll just leave you with the above and wish you all the best in reaching your goal.
Out of curiosity, QuickSilver, why are you trying to lose weight (other than having “personal goals” - what are those personal goals)? How did you come up with whatever numbers you’ve come up with?
Stop trying to lose weight.
You’re just converting what little fat you have to muscle, which is heavier.
BMI is useful only up to a point.
If you have a nice amount of body fat, are taking in a reasonable amount of calories and doing a lot of cardio, don’t sweat, you’re fine.
If your personal goals are based on wearing a certain size of clothing, or reaching a certain weight, accept that in order to do that you’ll have to lose muscle as well as fat, which would mean severely restricting your calories further and cutting down the cardio. You don’t want to do that.
I coxed a men’s university boat crew, who all ate about 6,000 calories a day and had BMIs of well over 30. They had incredibly muscular bodies, very little body fat and did 2 hours of excercise a day, alternating rowing, running, weights and circuit training. These guys were the fittest, healthiest guys you could hope to meet, with bodies to die for.
Just keep on doing what you’re doing, maybe shake up your exercise routine to spot target any areas you don’t like (say Abs or Pecs).
Stop weighing yourself and start looking in the mirror.
Okay, perhaps losing weight is not the specific goal at this point. I mean, I’d like to drop another 5 to 10 lb but I’m more interested in getting cut. If part of the weight loss includes some muscle loss, I’m not really concerned about it.
As for targeting, I’m at a level where there is little left to target. I’m not a gymnast but my core is comperably strong. Among other core strength exercises, I can do repeated sets of chinups in the pike position (legs extended in front, parallel to floor). I don’t lift heavy weights any more (I have in the past) and my strenght workouts consist of lifting my own body weight in various ways.
As much as 80% of my time during exercising is spent doing some kind of cardio activity at pretty high intensity (70-90% of my max). I know that my body has learned to economize and be more efficient at this over time. I try to shake things up but I’m starting to realize that I just need to add another 30 minutes to my cardio routines to burn more.
I was speaking to a friend at the gym who’s at the same kind of point I am and we realized that it’s now simply a matter of pushing beyond what seems reasonable for the average person just trying to stay in shape. We both agreed that even a loss of two or three pounds makes a huge difference in how we feel during a long run or bike ride. It’s just a matter of tiny changes making a big difference now, but those tiny changes demand a disproportionate amount of additional work.
The other thing I’ve never mentioned here, on this board, (so I’m breaking a personal rule ) is that for health reasons, I can’t eat small meals throughout the day. I can’t even do 3 normal meals. I can do one balanced meal in the evening but nothing significant during the day. Believe me, it’s got nothing to do with eating disorders or anything of that nature. I love food, I love to cook, I love to eat. Just can’t eat the way many health experts recommend.
…and I guess I’ve pretty much answered my own question. If I can’t change my eating habits, it’s going to be really tough getting my metabolism to gear up. Still, must be more than one way to skin a cat… :dubious:
True, but y’ can’t convert a pound of fat into two pounds of muscle, can you?
…Hmm, maybe you can… burn off a pound of fat and it comes to more calories than the protein intake you need to make the muscle, even at a two for one trade… Okay, I am now officially unsure that I’ve got anything here. Carry on.
I have no idea what medical condition would prevent you from eating at all during the day, even if you can’t handle “meals,” per se. If you aren’t eating anything at all, you’re making a huge mistake with your health, no matter what the problem is. Quit thinking in terms of “meals” and eat something, even if it’s just a small, little thing. Eat one piece of fruit; a banana, an orange, an apple, anything, when you wake up. Eat a small handful of mixed nuts (roasted, no salt!) no more than 3 hours after that. Eat a carrot or a stalk of celery with some peanut butter or another piece of fruit 3 hours after that, then 3 hours later have a couple of hard boiled eggs for a little more protein. Then have your balanced dinner (make sure you’re at least eating fresh greens with this meal!). If you aren’t at least lightly “grazing” throughout the day, you’ll never lose those last few pounds, precisely because they’re the last few pounds your body knows it has left to freaking survive on. You can bump up your exercise regimen and temporarily burn it off, but it will absolutely return the moment you even slightly let up, because your body is naturally conditioned to store it for basic survival.
I don’t doubt that you understand what this means, irishgirl, but it’s one of my pet peeves when people say that muscle is heavier than fat. It’s not; one pound of muscle weighs the same as one pound of fat. Muscle is denser than fat–one pound of it is much smaller than one pound of fat.
What it means is that you can lose fat, build some muscle, lose inches, have your clothes fit better and STILL weigh more on the scales.
Which is why some people are able to look at themselves in the mirror, put their clothes on and feel that they’re looser, and then get on the scales, weigh themselves, see no difference and thus can convince themselves that because they’re still the same weight that everything else is in their head and they still have work to do.
At that point, ditch the scales and get a measuring tape and a pair of calipers. Watch the fat go and the muscle build, while if anything all you see on the scales is weight gain.
Most professional body builders have BMIs that put them firmly in the “obese” range, and these are the ones who at the times of competitions have almost no body fat, because they’re “ripped” to show off muscle definition.
Look at athletes…long distance runners have different builds from sprinters, who have different builds from gymnasts, dancers, cyclists, rowers, martial artists and weightlifters, remembering all the while that those guys train 5-7 hours a day.
If you want a certain build you need to work out what exercises will give you that build; if you want to look like an Olympic sprinter, don’t run marathons and do pilates.
Quicksilver, I remember that other thread you posted where you were considering liposection because of the stubborn fat of your midsection. I get the feeling (and I could be totally off-base) that you really, really want ultra ripped abs (like maybe Usher’s). But that’s not something everyone can obtain, it takes a certain body type.
I’m eternally frustrated that my lower abs never really get flat, even when I’m down at 16% body fat. But I’m just not built for flat abs. A fellow rower of mine does the exact same practices as me, eats about the same, and has had a kid, but her abs are still always flatter than mine. The only time my abs even approached her level of flatness, I weighed 111 pounds and looked emaciated. Flat abs are just not in the cards for me. (on the other hand, I have amazing biceps so it balances out)
If you’re at 10% bodyfat, eating healthy, and keeping fit, you may be at the best you can do. You may just have to accept that you’re in the top 5% of the country. healthwise, superbkly healthy, and still an incredibly attractive guy despite not having the big, chunky abs of your dreams.
I’m beginning to think that I have developed the same kind of relationship with my body that Homer Simpson has with his brain:
“Look body, I don’t like you and you don’t like me. So let’s just get through this last 10 pounds so I can continue killing you with my messed up eating habits.”
Yeah, I’ve been trying for years to build up a Cary Grant chin but no matter how many cheek crunches I do I just can’t seem to get that definition.
Seriously, the other thing to realize is when you see a picture of some actor or athelete with taut six-pack abs, they’re either:[ul]
[li]Tensing their muscles and holding a pose,[/li][li]Have just finished doing 100 crunches and their muscles are engorged with blood,[/li][li]Having been airbrushed/photoshopped afterward to “enhance” the definition, or[/li][li]a combination thereof.[/ul] [/li]
If being “cut” is your dream, well then more power to you, but I personally wouldn’t agonize over it or undergo potentially hazardous surgery to attain it.
I can’t remember where I saw this, but some body-builder guy was talking about getting cut for competition. It isn’t something that your average guy working out at a gym can (or would want to) do. It’s comparable to getting poinsettias to “bloom” for Christmas - he ate, he starved, he drank water, he stopped drinking water*; it was an extreme regimen that was in no way healthy. If getting ripped is your goal, that truly might not be a good, reasonable goal.
*I don’t remember the specifics, but they were ridiculous.
Hey, I’m not looking to become Mr. Universe. Plenty of guys out there with a flat gut and aren’t suffering for it. Just some fortunate genetics and a little work at the gym keeps them that way, I suspect. May not hurt that they also seem to be about half my age.
Geez, at 10% body fat you’re getting to the level where you’re going to have to get extreme to get any kind of results. It is probably unrealistic to lose much more weight unless you want to sacrifice muscle. Your calorie intake may be even be too low. If you’re constantly running a deficit, your body may decide to keep a certain level of fat to protect against starvation.
I’d suggest you look at performance goals rather than your weight. Doing the training to achieve things like an extra 5 seconds off your average mile time or something similar may actually change your body composition as an added bonus. Even if it doesn’t, you’re still achieving a goal and getting fitter.
Now, at the time I wrote the above, my temperature was nudging three figures and I was not at all a well little oyarsa. On thinking it over again…
You do not directly “turn fat into muscle”. You build muscle out of protein and there ain’t any in your stored fat, or at any rate not enough to be useful. You’re doing two separate things:
Upping your metabolic rate and keeping a brake on your calorie intake, so you have to burn the excess fat
Gently injuring your muscles so they repair themselves and hence build muscle mass.
There is no reason whatever why you should have to put on the calorie-equivalent in muscle of what you have removed in fat (which would indeed be about a two-for-one trade).
Agreed. Bodybuilding is less about health, more about exhibiting desired, artificial body criteria at showtime - much like pedigree dog breeding, really. I strongly doubt that even the most dedicated bodybuilder has any ambition to stay like that all the time. But the same could apply to athletics, f’rinstance, while Paula Radcliffe is a truly awesome marathon runner and has the physique necessary to achieve that, she’d be in a hell of a state for breeding.
It shouldn’t make a difference if you did eat buttered Pop Tarts. Contrary to popular belief, dietary fat is not a major factor in body fat.
Although you said you didn’t fancy eating fewer calories than you are, I advise going to about 1,200 per day. You need to do something to break the plateau. I’ve eaten well on 1,200 for weeks at a time (I am right now). Try a low carb diet.
Forget about BMI. It’s near useless except as a very crude, broad based gauge of fitness vs overweight. Anyone with significant muscle or powerful build will be outside it’s sloppy margins.
WRT calories individual basal metabolism requirements change as you lose weight. In diet mode there are stages (it often happens more than once) in a diet where the body will (seemingly) “lock down” on weight set point and defend it for up to a few weeks. I’ve had this happen, and it’s an amazing phenomenon to observe. I ask myself “How is my body doing this? I’m not feeding it anywhere near enough to keep the weight.” But it does, then after 2-3 weeks the lock down cannot be maintained (if dieting continues) and you go back to losing weight. You also “catch up” to cetain extent as initial weight loss when the set point defense collapses comes in a big chunk.
As some side notes I don’t know how you are calculating the calories you burn during exercise, but for a 170 lb individual to burn 1000 calories during an exercise session is quite high. You’d have to be doing about 2 hours straight of high impact aerobics or walking 3 hours a day (at 3 MPH) to burn that many calories.
Also how are you calculating your body fat percentage? To do this accurately requires a water tank measurement. Those “body fat calculator” scales are usually wildly inaccurate. Unless you’re very muscular 10% sounds way low for your stated height and weight.
I’ve found the Harris-Benedict metabolism calculator equation of required calories to be much more accurate than others, and I still have to adjust it down 10% for my slower than normal metabolism.
Just keep at it. You body cannot defend the set point over more than approx 3-4 weeks in most cases if calorie restriction continues. If it does, and you don’t see major changes to explain the continued weight stabilization (ie bigger muscles and less body fat) then you need to call a doctor because you’ve either got a tapeworm or a tumor .
As a final note 168 lbs doesn’t sound all that al the (real world) mark for a muscular 5’ 8" man. Pushing yourself another 10 lbs to get more “cut” might be an interesting exercise, but I suspect it will be difficult to maintain. You’re also likely to have to have to take your heavy weight training up a notch or three for an extended period of time to really “see” substantial muscle definition. Cardio is good but you;'ve got to hit the iron and hit it hard (1 -2 hours a day) to start seeing real bulgy, cut bodybuilder style goodness.
) is that for health reasons, I can’t eat small meals throughout the day. I can’t even do 3 normal meals. I can do one balanced meal in the evening but nothing significant during the day. Believe me, it’s got nothing to do with eating disorders or anything of that nature. I love food, I love to cook, I love to eat. Just can’t eat the way many health experts recommend.
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