Training & Nutrition - Trying to loose LITTLE weight.. what am I doing wrong?

Here's the history:
I'm 5'7, female and currently about 128-130 lbs.
ALL through high school i never went over 105 lbs no matter how much I ate

Through college i was at about 115 consistently - eating all the time.. and whatever i wanted (lots of junk food).. i never had any fat on my stomach at all..

Now, I'm 23 and I have gotten stuck at 130 lbs. I have about a 1/2 inch thick section of fat on my stomach and I want it GONE. I started bicycling to work in June 4.1 miles each way.. then riding 10-20 more miles when i got home averaging around 17 mph. I race motorcycles so on the weekends I am at the track, eating rather well and always in the out doors and heat..

It's winter now and I've had a break from riding motorcycles but got into Mtb riding and do that at least 4-6 hours on the weekends in the cold (20-40 degrees).
I go to the gym Mon - Fri and do Arms 2x a week (free weights mostly) and Legs 2x a week.
I do at least 20 min interval work out or 40-60 min cardio perday
Mon and Thursday I do swimming for 1.5 hours at a moderate pace

.. its been 3 months since i started going to the gym every day on top of riding the bicycle 12 hours a week..from 130 lbs and the lowest I have seen was 126 when i believe I really needed some water after a long day at work....
My goal is 122 by March when racing season starts or not so much the WEIGHT part as getting rid of the fat on my belly!
I am eating 5-6 small meals a day.. tried cutting out sugar as much as possible too
I have researched this alot and havent had any good results with anything i've tried... any suggestions?

ELMM = Eat Less Move More...thats it. You may need to take it to extremes, but that is all you have to do.

Other things to help. Write down every morsel of food you put in your mouth. 5'7" 130lb you probably need 1300-1600 calories to maintain that weight (sans exercise). One week of a food journal and figuring out how many calories you actually consumed and you will know what to do. You may think (and probably are) eating "healthy", but if you are not losing weight, you are either not using all of your calories (plus some) or you are eating more than you think you are.

Calories in - Calories out = Weight Lost only if out>in.

Hope this helps.

Here's the history:
I'm 5'7, female and currently about 128-130 lbs.
ALL through high school i never went over 105 lbs no matter how much I ate



Your BMI is 20.2--on the low side of normal weight. At 105 lbs., your BMI was 16.4, or very much underweight.

I agree - you shouldn't lose any more weight with BMI of 20.

Aging, even at your ripe young age, will also push you slightly toward a heavier body weight - that's normal as well. You can combat this by diet and exercise, but indeed, you will find that you will need more and more heroics to approach the super-skinniness of your youth.

I exercise over 10 hours per week at fairly high intensity with run/bike and can even win some local races, yet I still weigh 15 lbs more than I did when 10 years ago at age 21, and I did a lot less back then. Exercise well, eat well, and age gracefully!

You're not riding long enough. Ride more. ALOT more. You should be going long at least once (even better twice) a week as this will teach your body to burn more fat. I've found that higher intensity riding burns glycogen and less fat. I have a tougher time dropping the weight when I'm riding faster/harder but if I ride LONGER at lower intensity (say Zone 2 for instance) I lose weight faster.

5'7" and 105 pounds is scary THIN. 125-130 pounds sounds good for a woman of your height.

I'm 5'10" and weigh around 172-175 pounds. I'm a guy though so it's hard to compare. I average around 10,000 miles a year. I'd love to weigh what I did back in high school (160-163 pounds) but with my build, I'd look silly (and I'd probably lose muscle mass) if I lost any more weight.

Crunches and sit ups might help to tone the tummy area and having a STRONG core can't be bad for motorcycle racing or cycling! (grins)




Here's the history:
I'm 5'7, female and currently about 128-130 lbs.
ALL through high school i never went over 105 lbs no matter how much I ate

Through college i was at about 115 consistently - eating all the time.. and whatever i wanted (lots of junk food).. i never had any fat on my stomach at all..

Now, I'm 23 and I have gotten stuck at 130 lbs. I have about a 1/2 inch thick section of fat on my stomach and I want it GONE. I started bicycling to work in June 4.1 miles each way.. then riding 10-20 more miles when i got home averaging around 17 mph. I race motorcycles so on the weekends I am at the track, eating rather well and always in the out doors and heat..

It's winter now and I've had a break from riding motorcycles but got into Mtb riding and do that at least 4-6 hours on the weekends in the cold (20-40 degrees).
I go to the gym Mon - Fri and do Arms 2x a week (free weights mostly) and Legs 2x a week.
I do at least 20 min interval work out or 40-60 min cardio perday
Mon and Thursday I do swimming for 1.5 hours at a moderate pace

.. its been 3 months since i started going to the gym every day on top of riding the bicycle 12 hours a week..from 130 lbs and the lowest I have seen was 126 when i believe I really needed some water after a long day at work....
My goal is 122 by March when racing season starts or not so much the WEIGHT part as getting rid of the fat on my belly!
I am eating 5-6 small meals a day.. tried cutting out sugar as much as possible too
I have researched this alot and havent had any good results with anything i've tried... any suggestions?

Do you have a coach? If so, talk to them about your weight loss plans.

In terms of cycling performance, you may be barking up the wrong tree. Your weight is already on the low side for female racing cyclists. If you lose more weight, it may be muscle mass, which may actually make you slower.

You should also speak to a physician, and get an assessment as to whether or not you have an eating disorder. Your focus on weight, and your intense exercise regimen may be "exercise anorexia".

Are you still menstruating? If not, or if you are irregular, these are very serious warning signs that you should not ignore. You may be wrecking your health (as well as your athletic potential) to achieve an unreasonable and unhealthy goal.

Be careful when going by the old BMI method. You can be a low body fat bodybuilder and still rate as obese there. Probably works better when you have average musculature, though.

You might not be eating enough calories to lose weight. It sounds weird, but the body goes into starvation mode if it doesn't get enough calories and hangs on to everything you put into it. Figure out how many calories you need to maintain your desired weight and go from there.

BTW, I am 5'5" and 125 lbs. with a small frame. If I get down to 120 lbs. I start to look malnourished. Are you sure you want to get down to 122? If your belly is poochy, maybe you need to up your core workout instead of losing weight.

go buy some plastic body fat measurement skin folder calipers, and measure the suggested points on your body. We are designed to carry some body fat to stay healthy, so it is possible that you are at a low body fat percentage even at your current weight. Most likely you have several pounds of upper body muscle from your motorcycle racing, that you didn't have in your high school years.

Weight loss suggestion, don't eat anything with more milligrams of sodium than calories. This will eliminate just about all junk food, and eating a low salt diet will reduce your appetite beside just being more healthy.

possibly a thyroid problem? I know a few people who have this issue. And they eat great and work out really hard but still cannot lose the weight...it may be a possibility and perhaps talking to a physician would help.

if you are as hardcore as the post sounds then this may be in the realm of possibility.

I guess I should clarify,
I want to TONE my tummy, not necessarily drop the number on the scale. It sticks out and never has before.. kinda have some jiggling going on, and that's a wierd feeling for me!

When I was 105 lbs, i wasnt very active - just did a ton of interneting in high school lol.. now that i've gotten much more active in the past 3-5 years, I started gaining weight (all muscle) but now im gaining pudge too...

My meals are usually 250 cal for breakfast, 200-250 for each snack and lunch and then around 300 for dinner.. should fall somewhere right around 1600 cals

My boyfriend said the same thing about longer, less intense work outs. That's why i've gotten into the pool again - just low intensity for about 1.5 hours with some breathing challenges and drills

I agree that 122 at my current muscle mass is likely not going to happen, especially since I still lift 4-5 times a week.. I just want my stomach to be flat again

Here's the history:
I'm 5'7, female and currently about 128-130 lbs.
ALL through high school i never went over 105 lbs no matter how much I ate

Through college i was at about 115 consistently - eating all the time.. and whatever i wanted (lots of junk food).. i never had any fat on my stomach at all..

C'mon guys, this one's so obvious. Quit your job and go back to college...

Your BMI is 20.2--on the low side of normal weight. At 105 lbs., your BMI was 16.4, or very much underweight.

+1!

I'm 5'6" and I've been 105 (as an adult) ... and I was a skeleton.


To the OP, where you are right now is healthy. You're slender, and you probably don't have much belly fat at all. But if you do want to lose a tiny bit more, pick at least one day during the week and start cycling longer distances.

Be careful when going by the old BMI method. You can be a low body fat bodybuilder and still rate as obese there. Probably works better when you have average musculature, though.

This would apply only if we were talking about somebody with a high BMI. It's totally irrelevant in this case.

crunnnches. And all kinds of them.

Sounds like you simply need to isolate that in your workouts and kill it. Happy workouts!

Your BMI is 20.2--on the low side of normal weight. At 105 lbs., your BMI was 16.4, or very much underweight.

When she weighed 105, I would guess she was not 5'7".

122 is perfectly reasonable for a 5'7" female: 19.1 BMI is still in the "normal" range (WHO/CDC definitions). She wouldn't become officially "underweight" until she dropped below 118.

For more, see, e.g., http://www.halls.md/ideal-weight/medical.htm

When she weighed 105, I would guess she was not 5'7".

122 is perfectly reasonable for a 5'7" female: 19.1 BMI is still in the "normal" range (WHO/CDC definitions). She wouldn't become officially "underweight" until she dropped below 118.

For more, see, e.g., http://www.halls.md/ideal-weight/medical.htm


So what?

That thread title is making my eye twitch...sorry.


Eat fewer calories than you burn. It takes about 3500 calories burned to lose one pound of fat. Strive to maintain a caloric deficit every day, and the pounds will come off.

Keep in mind, as you lose weight, your daily caloric requirements drop. So as you work out more, you actually have to reduce your caloric intake to keep losing weight.

However, there comes a time when you just can't physically lose anymore weight without serious health effects.

So what?

So... BMI is a function of height and weight. Thus if her weight was 105 and she was 5'4", her BMI would be 18 -- within the normal range for a teenager (as she would be in high school).

As it turns out, if you read the information at the link I provided, you will see that 105 and 5'7" is actually at the low end of the normal range for a teenage girl and not "very much underweight" as someone suggested.

When she weighed 105, I would guess she was not 5'7".



Why in the world would you guess that?

Why in the world would you guess that?

Because a 5' 7" person who weighs 105 lbs would have a Body Mass Index of 16.4. That is well below the BMI at which most victims of anorexia are hospitalized for treatment. Anyone at that BMI would look like a concentration camp survivor.

Because a 5' 7" person who weighs 105 lbs would have a Body Mass Index of 16.4. That is well below the BMI at which most victims of anorexia are hospitalized for treatment. Anyone at that BMI would look like a concentration camp survivor.

1) She said she was that weight in high school. Most girls are finished growing by about 13, so that would lead me to believe she was indeed 5'7" when she was 105 lbs.

2) I'm 5'6" and I have also been that weight at 5'6". People were concerned, but no one hospitalized me.

Are you sure you have fat on your stomach and not loose skin? Sounds like you are eating very very little and exercising a lot.

Crunches, leg lifts on a bench, bicycles(an ab workout), waist twist with a broom stick, google these and you should see how to do them. Give up refined carbs- sugar of all kinds, white flour, white potatoes and pasta. Eat good fat, coconut oil, olive oil and butter. I tend to gain weight around the middle and eating low-good carb and fat keeps me from having a middle. Weight training puts on muscle so your metablosim is higher and as you get older you look better. Nothing worse than flabby arms. I'm 49 and weigh the same as I do in high school 115 at 5' 4". I've gained and a lot of 10 pounds over the years.

Swimming doesn't cause weight loss. In fact, your body can adapt to being in the water for three hours each week by retaining fat.

I lift, bike, run and swim but don't lose weight until I do long (3+ hour) bike rides.

ONe thing people can't do is spot reductions such as losing fat around your stomach. Weight goes on spots like your stomach and no amount of crunches and situps takes it off just in one spot. All those exervises do is firsm up the muscles.

Swimming doesn't cause weight loss.
Why do people say things like this? All physical activity burns calories.

Why do people say things like this? All physical activity burns calories.

"Research published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine shows that in the absence of a controlled diet, swimming has little or no effect on weight loss." (http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/research/swimming.htm)

Another failure of "the equation"?

;)

"Research published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine shows that in the absence of a controlled diet, swimming has little or no effect on weight loss." (http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/research/swimming.htm)

Another failure of "the equation"?

;)
Sounds like a problem with the sample size. I used to lose a lot of weight in the summer on swim team, and I can assure you that my calorie consumption was completely unsupervised.

Sounds like a problem with the sample size. I used to lose a lot of weight in the summer on swim team, and I can assure you that my calorie consumption was completely unsupervised.

But your sample size (n = one swim team member) was more than adequate?

:D