Originally Posted by
Eclectus
Your specified weight-loss data is a bit confusing: "end of April" 272, now 253 => 19 lb wt loss. But you say "12 lb lost in May alone".
I'm fairly sure I dropped just under 270 at the beginning of may, but I'm not entirely clear. All I know for sure is that in the third week of april I was still at 272. For sure I have lost 19 lbs in a month, though; but I'm not positive where exactly the biggest losses were.
Does your PT say you need to shed more pounds to be at ideal weight? If so, what would this ideal weight be, in his opinion?
My PT asked what my ideal weight was, rather than setting one for me. I told him somewhere around 200, and I'd rather look muscular and fit than thin. I'm not looking to be a bike racer. He told me that as long as I was cycling and was working on my aerobic base, the most important thing for me if I was looking to be well rounded was strength training, and reducing my body fat percentage, not the actual weight number, so that's what he focuses on when he trains me, getting a full body set of exercises, no muscular isolation workouts.
What is your body fat percentage now? What is your desired target?
I have only measured it with bioelectrical impedance, both on my own scale and my gym's scale. Since the values can vary with hydration, I am not sure of the exact number, but I started somewhere in the range of 42% in December and now I am about 30%, maybe 29%. My target is closer to 20%. If I can get under, even better; but I feel until I get closer to or even under 20%, I'm still at risk for a lot of things (grampa died of a heart attack, was diabetic, and my mom is a type 2 diabetic.) I'm 24 now, and 3 years ago I was diagnosed with the metabolic syndrome, which is a strong pre-indication for type2 diabetes. I was put on metformin, but I didn't want to be; this is what prompted me to get on the bike, I'm too young to be taking diabetic meds. Sure enough, 4 months later my blood work showed me at healthy glucose again, and in the 2 years hence my blood work has shown me as fine. I do blood work frequently and a 5-hr glucose tolerance test whenever I can stand it, definitely trying to keep on top of things.
Can you pull your 38 pants up to your navel? Can you pull them off without unbuttoning them? If the answers are yes and no, that's good, because your mid-abdominal girth should be less than your hip girth. If the answers are no and yes, you need to shed belly fat.
Yes, and Yes. I definitely need to shed belly fat, I still have quite a "beer belly" (though I don't drink)
1+ on ffa's alcohol elimination. It's an individual choice, but EtOH does impair athletic performance, including desire to exercise, leading to doing less, and it slows weight loss.
Luckily, that is one vice I do not have. I don't stock alcohol and have one drink maybe once a month.
Originally Posted by
Fastflyingasian
During my heaviest cycles of training i easily can eat up to 5k calories on workout days and some times on off days
Yeah, I've had my share of 5k calorie days as well. I just seem to have limitless hunger on those days, and anything goes if it can temporarily satiate me. Those days are why I do not stock sweet stuff in my house.