mpearson

I'm female- weight is 182. My ideal is more like 155-160 for my body type.

I'm starting to get pretty fit. I do the following exercise as a minimum- bike 3x per week between 15 and 35 miles, run 1x per week (run/walk intervals, stairs, and sprints for 1- 1.5 hours), swim 1x per week (1000-2000 meters freestyle and breaststroke), and lift weights 1x per week (mainly abs, back, arms, and chest).

I feel better than I have in a long time, but I'm still considered obese and would like to get closer to a healthy BMI range.

I don't think it is as simple as calories in vs. calories out. I'm burning more calories than I eat every day. My body is adding muscle for sure, but I don't feel like the fat is going anywhere and my weight is not changing.

Obviously I need to eat food to have energy to workout, but I don't want to eat the wrong things to stall weight loss.

How do you balance those two things?

slowandsteady

How old are you? Have you had your body mass analyzed? What do you eat?

mpearson

I'm 26, about to turn 27. I'm 5'2". I've always weighed a LOT for my size. Right now I'm a size 14 and weigh 182 lbs. About 6-8 years ago I was a size 4-6 and weighed 150 lbs.

I have not had my body mass analyzed in the last several years.

Here is my log from yesterday:

Wake up 7:15 am. Feed horses. Get ready for work.

Breakfast- multigrain english muffin with 2 egg whites (cooked with a bit of real butter in the pan). I don't particularly like the yolk so that's why I take it out. About 8:30 am

1 1/2 liters of water in between (approximately)

Lunch- grapes and portabello ravioli with marinara. The ravioli was made with white flour (I bought them frozen and uncooked- I wonder if they make a whole wheat variety) About 11:30 am. water.

Snack- Chobani peach greek yogurt. About 4:00pm. More water.

6:30-7:30 bike ride. 17 miles of rolling hills in super windy conditions. Average speed 17mph. I felt fantastic and super strong on this ride. Water and 3 or 4 jelly belly sport beans.

8:00- One small piece of brownie and water.

Dinner- 2 links of all natural italian style chicken sausage cooked with green peppers and onions in a bit of olive oil. About 8:30 pm. water.

10:00 pm- feed horses

11:00 pm- lay down to go to sleep

exile

As strange as this might sound, I would try to fit in more meals. A quick read indicates you may not be eating enough for your activity level. A lot of your choices look good, just that you may not be consuming enough. If this is the case your body is signaling "starvation mode" and is this holding onto calories and/or not burning them efficiently.

Another thing to look into is getting your thyroid level checked. Your body simply may not be producing enough.

You are right in your assertion that it is more than simple "calories in vs. calories out". It is a combination of what you consume, when you consume it, and how much you consume given certain factors including activity level, basal metabolic rate, and goals (among other things).

I would probably cut down on the cardio you do and increase the number of times you lift weights. Being a female I wouldn't worry to much about getting "muscles" if that is your concern. I would also look to increase your macro nutrient profile overall by consuming more protein, carbs, and fat.

CliftonGK1

Muscle is more dense than fat. You can drop an inch off your waistline and put on a little bit of evenly distributed muscle mass and it will counteract the numbers on the scale. I use 2 methods for tracking:

Keyoe diet & exercise software allows me to track my calories in/out and adjusts automatically based on my specific goal and manual inputs for my weight, BMR and caloric output (as taken from my HRM). Additional tracking is available for key body measurements to calculate body fat percentage (with option for manual input). Charting for all variables is available in weekly, monthly or yearly graphing.
I use an Omron handheld impedence-type bodyfat meter for tracking and manual input into the Keyoe software.

rumrunn6

you have the right viewpoint - one suggestion - cut the obvious bad food choices - meaning rewards are fruit not ice cream

Vanilla Gorilla

General healthy eating:
Lay off fats and sugar loaded things and enjoy proteins with veggies. A banana before a ride keeps down any cramping. Lots of water all day long. Eat whole grain breads and keep red meat to once a week. Stay away from sweets if you actually want to drop weight. If you want to snack, eat fruit or a small handful of almonds.

Eating for a ride:
Take plenty of water/gatorade on your ride. You don't need energy bars or anything similar for easy rides that take an ~hour. That's just added calories. If you take 2-3+ hour rides, then grab a banana or energy bar and throw it in your jersey in case you need it. To prep for my long rides, I make peanut butter whole-grain toast with banana slices and eat it an hour before and take a banana for the road. Staying hydrated is far more important than stacking calories when I ride, but everyone is different. The guy at my LBS suggest a small bag of chips for 2-3+ rides as it provides some energy and replaces your body with needed sodium that you sweat out. It also means you have to consume more water. There's far too many calories in a bag of chips for me. So instead, I carry Clifs Shot Bloks. 100-200 calories and has a boost of energy with sodium replenishment.

mtalinm

you may not be burning as many calories as you think - most treadmills, Garmins, and online calculators vastly inflate the # of calories burned. try chopping whatever they tell you in half.

CraigB

I don't. While I welcome any increase in fitness I may accrue through cycling and other activities, my main goal right now is to lose weight. I have no big athletic event coming up for which I need to either train, or concern myself with fueling, and I'll probably keep it that way for the foreseeable future (though I have a 30-something triathlete coworker who keeps pestering me to find a race on next year's calendar and commit to it). Once I get to an appropriate weight range, I'll start to concern myself with fueling for fitness. For now I'm happy riding for riding's sake and keeping to a healthy and reasonable food plan.

Rob P.

My suggestions would be to get some books and read what you can about nutrition.

Then, cut out the fats. Fat calories add up REALLY fast and you don't even realize you're eating them. Your ravioli has a ton of fat in it to make it taste good. If it doesn't taste good people don't buy it - so they add high fat content. Some fat is good but too much is bad. Read your labels.

White vs. wheat flour - IMO it's a nonsense argument. It's the fats and calories that count. Again, read your labels and portion size accordingly.

Next watch what you eat when riding. On average I consider I'm burning 500 calories/hr when riding. If I eat 2 powerbars at 280 calories each for that hour I've actually eaten MORE than I've burned. You gotta watch that kind of thing because it's easy to do when combining energy drinks, bananas/fruits, energy bars, etc since each one is individually low in calories but combined you get lots of calories overall.

As has been said you may not be eating enough calores per day based on what you posted. You should track your calories so you know how much you're truly eating. Then match that against your weight loss and you will soon learn where your personal "sweet spot" is for weight loss.

Finally, realize that some people are quarter horses in a thoroughbred world. That means some of us have big muscled butts in a world where sleek & svelt is the look everyone wants to have. It's all good though because there are affecionados for each.

Wogster

The issue for white flour vs whole grain flour is rather simple, most of the nutrients in a grain of wheat are in the bran and the germ, these are polished off in making white flour, leaving a yellowish flour, that if left to sit for a few months will oxidize and turn white, because the factory doesn't want to store the flour while it ages, they speed up this process using chemical bleaches. Typically they don't mind the yellowish colour in pastas, so these are not bleached.

Another thing to remember, many pasta sauces contain high fructose corn syrup, which really should be declared as toxic to humans, many food processors though use the stuff by the rail tanker full, because it's dirt cheap (corn is a subsidized crop) and very sweet.

Really though, one needs to balance their calorie load, 20-35% from fats (primarily olive oil, fish oil and nuts), 10% - 35% from protein, this can be higher if exercising, then remaining calories from carbohydrates, remembering that if reducing total calorie counts, you need to make sure that you keep the nutrient load the same. This means that if you cut, cut out things like soda which typically has no nutritional value, but does contain caffeine which has a negative effect on hydration levels. This means you need to research what you eat.

CraigB

I just heard on the news the other day that the agribusiness industry is now lobbying the FDA to allow them to relabel HFCS simply as "corn sugar." Apparently HFCS has gotten a bad name. Imagine that.

mpearson

Do you have any suggestions as to good nutrition books to study?

I think with agribusiness some of the nutritional information out there is skewed. I heard that HCFS was being changed to corn sugar too.

We've been trying to avoid HCFS in our household lately. I think that my husband has some sort of allergy that we've linked to food with HCFS or other corn by products in it. I didn't think to check the pasta sauce though.

I think that i've been eating incorrectly for so long that my metabolism is pretty messed up. I'd like to get it back on track and get and keep by body healthy.

Thank you for your suggestions so far.

mpearson

And I think i'll start tracking my food intake on caloriecount.com again so that I can see the nutritional analysis of it and try to balance my fats, carbs, and protein. That will help me see where I'm doing well and where I need to improve.

cappuccino911

I'm going to take a wild guess that your Italian!

first of all, I dont care how natural they say it is, generally speaking the words "sausage" and "healthy" don't go together.

2. There was no protein source in your lunch

3. You should add some more fresh vegetables in. the peppers in the sausage and peppers doesn't count!

4. Your 26 years old. What do your weekend habits consist of? i.e. alcohol consumption Be Honest!!!!!

mpearson

I'm not italian :-)

1. Got it.
2. I suppose there was a tiny amount in the portabellos, but you are correct. I'll try to up the protein at lunch.
3. I think i'll stock up on veggies to add to or replace certian parts of meals.
4. I am 26, but I actually don't consume alcohol regularly. I'd say once out of every 2 months I go out and have drinks. Occasionally (once every 2-3 weeks) I'll have one beer or one glass of wine with dinner. I grew out of the binge drinking at 22 or so- when I was drinking a lot was when I was skinniest, go figure! Normally my weekends consist of a longer bike ride one day, a horseback ride the other day, and work around the farm. I lead a fairly boring life.

Here's what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast- light multigrain english muffin with 2 egg whites 8:00
Early Lunch- chicken and wild rice casserole with tons of veggies, salad with balsalmic dressing, and 1/2 of a napoleon dessert from a local bistro 11:00
Snack- Mozzarella cheese stick 2:00
Snack- strawberry greek yogurt 4:00
Bike ride- Easy 12 miles in 45 minutes 6:30-7:15 (wanted a longer ride, but husband's hamstring was acting up so I went home with him. Did not feel as strong as yesterday)
Dinner- spinach and garlic tortilla wrap with grilled chicken, fat free sour cream, green onion, cheese with some soy sauce as a condiment 8:00

cappuccino911

let me take this another step further. What was your heaviest weight? The weight you are at now, have you come down to that from working out or are you working out and eating like this and find that you are gaining weight. For example, if you say you have been in this routine for the past two months and are down 10lbs then there is nothing wrong, you just have to stick with it.

Don't go overboard buying "Fat free" this and that. The fact is that our bodies need fat. The process they put food through to make it "fat free" often makes it worse for us than if we just ate the food in it's naturally fat state. i like the timing of your meals, your never going more than 3-4 hours without eating which is good. you didn't mention what you had for beverages in yesterdays meals but I'm going to assume it was all water like it was in the other day that you listed.

mpearson

Yes, I only had water to drink yesterday.

The heaviest I have been was 198 this past January. I worked out on the elliptical pretty heavily Jan-March and lost 20 pounds. My schedule got wonky and I didn't work out as much and gained 4-5 lbs back. I bought my road bike in July and was about 185. I've been cycling, swimming, and running for about 2 months and am now at 183. I do know that my body is redistributing a lot. I've built a lot of muscle, but I want to make sure I'm doing everything right to make my body healthy and to get my metabolism running as efficiently as it can. I feel great, better than I have in years, but I want to feel and look even better.

dbikingman

Tracking your calorie intake and exercise level is important. One thing that helped me for calorie intake was measuring portions. You list the foods that you have eaten for a couple of days, I could gain wieght on that diet, if I ate several servings My personal opinion is many riders tend to eat too much while they are riding. If you are overweight, new to riding, and only riding a couple of hours I don't think you need a bunch of on ride energy foods. I've seen what some guys list as having eaten while riding and it looks like a rolling seven course meal. If you are a trim rider who is doing a fast ride then your nutritional needs are different than a clyde/athena just starting to ride. On longer rides it helps to have something to eat. Hydration is always important. On rides shorter than 2 hours I usually don't eat and just pack an energy bar or something for emergencies. I've had a ride or two where the energy level dips really low so in those times I like to have something.

On days I ride 4-5 hours I allow myself a few more calories either during the ride or after to help replenish the system for the next ride.

cappuccino911

Definately add another day of strength training in there or at least make sure that your really hitting the weights appropriately. A lot of women grab 5lb dbells and do a bunch of exercises that don't even challenge them. the other thing is that on the bike you really need to be aware of just how hard your working. I have rides where I average 17mph and it's a piece of cake cuz they are so downhill and I have rides where I average that and I'm busting my balls because they are so full of hills. A HR monitor and learning your training zones is real beneficial in this regard. A lot of people look at it in terms of racing their bikes but it's the same basic info for someone trying to lose weight.

Quite frankly, I'm doing a ton of riding and not seeing much change on the scale but I'm not really trying to lose and I eat humongous portions which doesn't do me any favors but I am a MUCH stronger rider on the bike

CraigB

Absolutely. There are some important vitamins and minerals that are soluble (and therefore usable by the body) only in the presence of fat.

Vanilla Gorilla

Who eats two powerbars for a one hour ride?

cappuccino911

when it comes to nutrition, some of the things I see in the clyde forum crack me up. I did a 75 mile ride two weeks ago. I woke up, ate nothing, pedaled to the first rest stop 16 miles out and had breakfast that consisted of a pb&J bagel, probably about 600 calories. HAd 2 plus along the ride 35 miles later. other than that, nothing. I come here and see people post about having all sorts of crap every hour this and that. Most of us have PLENTY of bodyfat we can use as fuel!!!

Rob P.

Sheesh, it was an example.

Looking at the OP's daily intake posts, it seems that she is still taking in too much fat calories. Not "fats" but "fat calories." (which may sound the same but it isn't really.) "Fat calories" are EXTRA calories they add to foods to make them taste good.

For example in the second day's meals post, the OP ate 1/2 of a napoleon dessert. A Napoleon is a puff pastry with sweet cream filling. It isn't the filling that's the problem (although it is but it's right up front saying "I'm not such a good idea")... it's the puff pastry since it is extremely high in fats from butter, more butter, and then they add some more butter 'just because.' You don't realize how many calories are in the dry pastry portion because the fat calories are "hidden." I'd bet that half a Napolean is somewhere around 1000 calories alone.

The next indicator is the tortilla for dinner. MORE "fat calories" but this time trans fats as well. Add these to the cheese stick snack (fats) and the cheese on the dinner wrap (more fats) and there are way to many fats in this day's diet.

I have a sea story about this. When my wife was younger she joined a gym. The gym specialized in body building. One of the guys was getting ready for a contest and started reducing his calories to "get ripped." He was shocked because he couldn't lose the fat on his body to show off his muscles. When asked he said that his lunch consisted of ONLY a peanut butter sandwich and water. After being smacked by his trainer, he changed his meals to cut out ALL the unnecessary fats and lost the weight fairly quickly. BTW I do not recommend a body builder diet as it is EXTREMELY unhealthy and counter to the nutrition we need for bicycling. However, the principles hold solid; cut the unnecessary fats. Especially the "fat calories" that are hidden in our foods by those good folks who process them.

Mr. Beanz

If you want to drop some weight, do longer rides. One hour rides dont burn much IMO. 3+ hours do the trick when it comes to losing weight. Plus you may want to do more demanding rides like 2 hour long sustained climbs. It works for me. I can do 50-60 mile rides and not lose as much as I do when I do 2 hour climbs at 8 mph average.

I say find a course that is more demanding, eat sensibly and you'll drop weight!