Training & Nutrition - Need tips on how to reduce body fat

I need to find a way to loose weight or body fat down to 145lbs total body weight. It seems like Im stuck or have hit a plateau or my diet is not getting me somewhere.


Heres where Iam now

Im 27 5' 6'' weighing 155lbs. Using the electrical impendence body fat scale, it gave me 12%. I also have some muscle definition, that my thigh and my calves are larger than average person.

I regularly bike to work (15mile round trip) 4 x a week. Then I do some weight lifting for my upper body 3-4x a week at hte gym.


My food is about 1800 calories a day. However I may run into too many bowls of Frosted Flakes on weekdays, Frozen Yogurt and or a chocolate bar =x

At weekends, I splurge with any food I come by. Also at some weekends I do about 40-50miles of biking in a moderately high intensity (flat avg around 20-25mph) .

Ever since I started to bike, I lost few pounds but Im now stuck.

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What ideas would you share or suggest?

I am no sports medicine expert but 12% sounds fine to me. Please check with a Doctor who specializes in sports medicine before trying to go too much lower. At 12% I hope you are male as women with below 17% body fat start to have serious medical problems. While some men can get by down to 5% many will have problems before then. A qualified personal trainer will advise on diet and exercise and keep you from going overboard on the fat loss thing.

Im a guy ! I m probably hit with image issues of trying to get lower. I just wish my face wasnt round while the rest appears fine.

Im a guy ! I m probably hit with image issues of trying to get lower. I just wish my face wasnt round while the rest appears fine.

That's genetic. Have a chat with your parents about that.

But if you do want to lose weight ... go with 60-90 minutes of exercise a day.

my total ride is almost 50mins, ill put into changing routes to total 90mins.

It sounds like you're in really good shape... why do you want to lose weight?

im assuming he wants to loose weight so he can look a bit better, 12 percent is fine. usually it depends on body type where your bodyfat percentage is, like my bodyfat naturally is extremely low but my doctor said tis my body type event ho having body fat this low is nto normal. but 12 percent is pretty good. i would say not to go under 10 percent tho. u just gotta make sure you never consume mroe calories then u burn, trust me even if you consume only a hundred calories less then you burn daily you will slowly loose the weight and have a good chance at keeping that weight down. btw u have to cut calories everyday you cant reward yourself with food, kuz if u cut 100 calories today then tell yourself you deserve to let go a little at the end of the week and eat like a 1000 calories dinner then you just got back all those calories you worked to get rid of etc. eve just eating till your lightly full will work good, you shouldnt starve yourself to any means. make sure to stay health, and just lower your fats intake in your diet and that should do more than enough.

Sounds like you eat a lot of sugar. Frosted Flakes, frozen yogurt and chocolate can kill any plans to lose fat. Try cutting those foods out but replace those calories with healthy foods. Give it a couple of weeks and see what happens.

Michael

You can look at this article - How to Lose Weight (http://www.freshbite.info/fnews_1210746273_10041.htm)

7 years ago I lost 30 lbs and got down to 142lbs. That was easy since I was younger that time and Ephedra was available.

Ok so far ideas are to stop rewarding myself with chunkload of food and increase my ride from 45mins to 90

A few things that got me through a fat loss plateau:

1) Thermogenic Fat Burner - I used Nutrex Lipo 6. Has quite a bit of Caffeine, so if Caffeine bothers you, it might not be the best idea.
2) Ride long on the weekends - After the first 2 hours(ish), glycogen stores are exhausted, so your body has to burn fat. Any hours after the first 2 burn a lot more fat for fuel.
3) Lift before riding - 20-30 minutes of lifting before going on a long ride can help by using up some of your glycogen reserves, helping you to dip into the fat tank earlier on the bike.
4) This might be the most important one - You need to know that simple sugars (frosted flakes, choco bar) are only acceptable directly following a workout. This is when your body wants whatever carbs it can get for recovery, and simple sugars are okay (some even say desireable). Outside of this 30-120 minute period, stay away from simple sugars for the rest of the day.

I spent a bit of time at the 12-13% mark, and these things have gotten me started downward again. I'm close to 10% now, and to be totally honest I don't think I'll push much lower.

Also, if you're going to be monitoring yourself based on BF percentage, the electrical impedance scales can be fairly inaccurate depending on hydration leves, etc. I'm not up an all of the models, but it's probably worth getting a set of calipers even if you only use them to doublecheck what the scale is telling you.

Also, if you're going to be monitoring yourself based on BF percentage, the electrical impedance scales can be fairly inaccurate depending on hydration leves, etc. I'm not up an all of the models, but it's probably worth getting a set of calipers even if you only use them to doublecheck what the scale is telling you.

Calipers are too open to user error. Impedance will tell you which direction you are heading(and quality ones are probably as accurate as most caliper readings).

I have tried Lipo 6 or other 3rd gen thermogenics. Im more convinced that its due to my bad diet discipline.
Thats hard esp when I get home after work.

Well 12% body fat is pretty good. I usually figure at 10% men are pretty lean.

A problem with weight loss is that the body does not care what it loses as long as it gets the calories. Many people on crash diets lose as much muscle as they do fat. Another thing is that the nervous system can only burn carbohydrates and needs about 300 calories per day. So when you get down into the really low fat areas, it is tricky to lose more fat instead of losing muscle. I don't think you are there yet but it gets really tough around 5% body fat for men.

The other thing is why should you want to? Yeah, the round face. That has to do with the shape of your skull and musculature. Sure if you lost a bunch of fat, it would probably get leaner but wouldn't accepting the fact that you have a round face be easier?

I mean it could be worse, you could be a lady. Our society hits women with all sorts of critiscisms about all sorts of body parts. We guys are lucky.

Early last year when I was 150 , my face wasnt round. And yes trying to get lower is harder. Im not trying to get below 10%

If you do not mind the alleged health risks of ephedra or ephedrine you can grow your own ephedra or "Mormon Tea". Is is a dry lands or Xeriscape type plant and is common in the desert southwest. Please do not dig up wild plants, grow your own.

I opt out for Ephedra, I dont want to do that anymore

to lose weight at the beginning of the season, I will increase the distance of my rides and keep it at a low-avg intensity. this allows me to maximise the calories I spend while being able to ride consecutive days.
I also find that regularly riding, at least 5 times a week, helps me to manage my hunger and my eating habbits. Doing weightlifting is an other alternative to stay active. after every training I want to eat well to recover faster to be able to go at it again the next day. Otherwise, I don't have any reason to eat well:P
as a rule of thumb when I want to lose weight, I'll eat half of what I spent during the ride exceeding my "inactive" caloric metabolism. for instance, if I ride for 2 hours, that's roughly 1000 calories more than my 2000 basal, so I eat 500 in extra of the 2000. I can't stay on such a diet for too long if I want to train every day so after loosing a couple of pounds I stabilize my diet, and my weight to recover after which I start the same routine again.
I usually loose the 5-10 pounds I gain during the automn/winter seasons in a couple of months easily and end up with 2 wholes in my cheeks:P

i'm close to your weight (140 pounds). After getting injured this winter, I got up to 145 pounds, and I started keeping track of calories and made sure I had a 500 calorie deficit each day. This is enough to lose 1 pound of fat each week. It worked well for me, only took maybe 10 minutes a day to add everything up. There are many sites that have calorie values for every food, such as thedailyplate.com

i wish i could be 140 pounds heh. my weight is usually 130ish and my bodyfat percentage is usually 4.4 to 5percents and that with eating allot, ive tried to not workout for a week and eat allot of food but i didnt gian much weight heh, that and it was really unhealthy ha, but im startin to gain muscle which brings my fat up a bit, kuz the percentage has to stay the same so if i get mor emuscle my body has ot save more fat also. so my weight is goin up, very very slowly but surely heh.

Seems your exersizing enough, maybe just tweak your diet. I also am at 12% body fat and want to get under 10 and kind of stuck also. I talked to a trainer/nutrionist, the sugary cereal and candy bars are probably hindering achieving your goal.
Good luck

What should the target heart rate (% of HRM) when I plan to double up my ride from 15miles to 30?
My avg is usually 150-160 bpm

my scale tells me im 6% sometimes then 10% later the same day.

get a coach.

my scale tells me im 6% sometimes then 10% later the same day.

Read your manual.

Do your readings at the SAME time of the day for more consistent results. Also, these scales are not that accurate in terms of absolute values. However, the are very useful in terms of measuring CHANGE in body fat values.

... Brad

I'd be willing to bet that you're underestimating your calorie intake unless your really binging on weekends...at 1800 calories a day I would be losing weight even during a rest week at 5'6" 130-132 lbs....

I'd be willing to bet that you're underestimating your calorie intake

Ding ding ... we have a winner!

... Brad

Are you drinking alcohol in there some place that's unaccounted for?
I know when I drink I have a tough time controlling how much I eat.

Chat with Martin:

LeanGains.com

I usually have few drinks every other week.

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I switched to my MTB for commuting 15-20miles 4x a week since my roadie is broken. Im now around 153-154.

As soon as I get my roadie back, ill probably alternate between the two bikes and do 30miles for the roadie.

also..I have been goood and staying away from Frosted FLakes and other carbs.

The big think is you are in a rountine both with exercise and eating. Your body has adjusted for the regular and rountine level of exercise. Try doing intervals, hill repeats, sprints with friends, etc. Increase your weekend ride gradually to 3+ hours

Too much processed food, too much raw sugar, not enough fresh food, fiber, or vegetables. Simple carbs (sugar, white flour, white rice) cause your blood sugar to spike (though this can be moderated if you eat protein/fat with them), which causes an insulin response, which stores the sugar as fat, drops your blood sugar, and then you eat again.

So, start eating better. Find a cereal with some fiber in it and less sugar, and eat that. Use 2% or 1% milk instead of whole milk.

Im lactose intolerant so I use plain soy for my cereal. I have indicated that I have stayed away from it last last week. I do understand the issues with complex vs simple carb. I just became too relaxed with the idea.

When I lost 30lbs 5 years ago I stayed away from rice and sugar and did alot of running and lifting.

My breakfast 4x a week for the past few years are 4 egg whites with one yolk and 2 shots of semi cooked oatmeal + 1 tsp of powdered fiber.

Then I take 3 protein shake a day ( one shake = 20grams of protein).
Lunch and dinner is a portion of lean protein and a portion of complex carb.

It was just plainly bad diet discipline and constant exercise routine which in this case I stop loosing weight.


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any way Im already on the works with changing routine, bikes, and staying away from my favorite Tony the tiger and delightfull Sees chocolate =p

Thanks

Nutrition makes a huge difference in weight loss.
Back when i was a fat butt i weighed 270lbs. I then read about the raw food diet (not really a diet.) It was a pretty extreme way of eating being that all i ate at the time was junk food and crap (the standard american diet.) First thing i did was stop drinking soda's, fake juices and drank water instead and stopped eating candy. I lost 5 pounds in that week. The next week i stopped eating fast food and opted for restaurants and home cooked meals. I dropped another 5lbs that week. I started getting withdrawals from all the crap i used to eat like a crack head does for some rock and realized maybe this stuff the FDA and all the other folks in the "food'' cartel that market this stuff as "food" isn't exactly "food" and maybe i shouldn't eat it. Soda was hard to give up and gave me the biggest withdrawals, that stuff is no good and not meant for human consumption, shoot if this stuff gets spilled during transit on a tanker truck they have to call in a haz mat team to clean it up becuase its dangerous stuff. So I figured what the hell and went cold turkey and stopped eating the so called food (literally crap, sugar, chemicals) us americans get shoved down our throats and indoctrinated as being ok to eat by billions of dollars of marketing and went to the other extreme and went RAW. Well I averaged shedding off 5-10lbs a week and got my weight down to 170 lbs. Oh yea, i didn't exercise either but I really should have. I can't remember but it took me about 4-6 months to loose the 100lbs i was carrying around. I also looked like a crackhead because of all the weight i lost and was to poor to buy cloths. Within the few years since i started the raw thing I ended putting back on 30lbs because i'm lazy and hate working out in any way and gorged a whole lot raw nuts.
BUT then i bought a bike 3 weeks ago becuase i really hate driving in L.A. and i can't handle the gas prices and so far I have been pedaling around 1-2 hours a day and now those 30lbs are flying off pretty quick, haven't kept track of it but i feel lighter and my belly has flatten out, It's still soft and squishy though but i'm working on that.

So nutrition is really damn important for loosing, maintaining and gaining weight. I'm not saying you should do the raw thing. Just eat more raw foods, even replace 1 meal a day with a raw food meal and most importantly eat things that are actually food and stay away from junk foods, the crap nutrition stuff they sell at the LBS and watch out for marketing words like "Natural." Its only natural if it comes from the natural source and not some lab. Eat a banana, rasins, nuts to get the same effect. Its cheaper and probably taste better. Go organic if you can also. Soy is no good either and isn't fit for human consumption, there have been plenty of studies that prove this, do a search on its side effects. Have you tried drinking goats milk?

Im at 153 now, ive been out of FrostedFlakes/Soy since this post started.

Ive been also maintaining my HR at my rides for better fat burn for an 1.5 hours a day 4 x a week . (Zone 3, 70-79% of max)

I stepped in the scale yesterday.. 151 =]

Whats your diet like at the moment?

Breakfast4 Eggwhites/ 1 yolk, Two Shots of Oatmeal

Pre Lunch, Post Lunch, Pre workout Protein Shake One Scoop

Lunch and Dinner One Portion of Protein, One Portion of Complex Carb, Veggie pack

Protein Choices are Lean Chicken Salmon Soy Tuna
Carb Choices are any Fruits healthbar Wholegrain bread Complex Carbs white rice veggies

I still stray at weekends and friday but not with Frosted Flakes.

I read that if you exercise when you're glycogen stores are low or depleted (i.e after fasting or exercising in the morning if you ate early the night before) that heavy aerobics will burn up to 300% more body fat than exercising say later in the day or after you eat. And if they're not depleted, weight lifting first will help assure that, then tie in the aerobics to aim for the body fat.

My aerobics begin right when I wake up to go to work 6-8miles , then I take a longer route on the way home 20-24 miles.

This is the best I can accomodate my aerobics to my work schedule. Also I just do my weight lifting at the gym twice a week now after getting home. Regardless Im still getting results even if by theory less effective.

I read that if you exercise when you're glycogen stores are low or depleted (i.e after fasting or exercising in the morning if you ate early the night before) that heavy aerobics will burn up to 300% more body fat than exercising say later in the day or after you eat. And if they're not depleted, weight lifting first will help assure that, then tie in the aerobics to aim for the body fat.
Where did you read that?

If you are eating properly your glycogen stores shouldn't be depleted in the morning. If they are depleted you won't be able to exercise very long and you won't burn many calories. If they're not depleted and you lift weights to use up the available glycogen you won't have anything left to do aerobics with.

Greg

http://www.intensemuscle.com/2656-cardio-timing-secret-burning-fat-up-300-faster.html

I should have said low glycogen levels in the morning, my bad.

http://www.intensemuscle.com/2656-cardio-timing-secret-burning-fat-up-300-faster.html

I should have said low glycogen levels in the morning, my bad.
Sorry, still not buying it. If you start cycling with low glycogen levels you will bonk faster and your workout will be shorter than it could be if you maintained a reasonable calorie intake.

This sounds similar to the myth that exercising at a low heart rate burns more fat than an intense workout. In both cases the percentage of fat burned during the workout may indeed be higher but the absolute amount will not be as high as that obtained with a more intense effort.

Good work thus far!!


I will say, that being very strict during the week and much looser on WE's is a great way to hold onto stubborn bodyfat.

Consistency is key.

You may find that you can actually eat more during the week (but NOT binge on WE's) and lose more fat.

If you take in 1800 cal for 5 days, and the twice that on WE's, it is very likely that you'll never cut that last few % BF.

Keep it up though!!

-L

my scale tells me im 6% sometimes then 10% later the same day.



The amount of water in your system can have a significant effect on the results.

People are noticing that my face is less round, ill just stay within the same rounds with weekend binges =x
ill find out what my weight is later...when i go to the gym.

this week i m hovering around 150-151

This is an excellent book about weight loss and building muscle. It's only available as an online download that you pay with credit card but it is basically a must have if you want to learn the science behind body types, body fat, weight loss and muscle gain. It's called "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle" by Tom Venuto. I heard about the book last summer, bought it and I lost 30 pounds in about 4 months. He gives formulas on how to calculate your daily caloric intake based on the specifics of your body (weigh and body fat). It's really a great book.

I m now touching around 149 -150 !

Way to go Aerodee, you're almost there.

Chingon77: you too, are an inspiration!

same this week due to holiday and extra day off