Need Advice

[goldengirl101]

Thanks girls. I will definite modify. I'll keep you posted.

 

[*Bunny*]

Thanks girls. I will definite modify. I'll keep you posted.

Please do Oh and remember it is always good to throw in a ~5 minute warm up & cool down You can always 'work your way up' to 20 minutes HIIT ...

 

[goldengirl101]

OK, girls. I debated posting this or not. So here goes. (Don't yell too much)

My understanding is that in order to lose weight, you need to expend more calories than you consume, right?

So why is it that a diet with 1700 cal/day would be better than 1200?

And, what difference does it make what type of foods the 1700 calories come from ?

 

[buffalogal]

Hi goldengirl! On the surface it seems that the fewer calories consumed the better. However, the body is too smart and if it "senses" a significant calorie deficit it will begin to store everything you give it.

Keeping the calories up will send the message that there is food available and so it will utilize what you give it rather than holding on to everything it can. I believe this goes back to the past where food was in short order and the body would essentially prepare itself for a famine.

Remember also, to eat every 3-4 hours or so to keep the metabolism revved. Good luck hun!

 

[scorpiogirl]

OK, girls. I debated posting this or not. So here goes. (Don't yell too much)

My understanding is that in order to lose weight, you need to expend more calories than you consume, right?

So why is it that a diet with 1700 cal/day would be better than 1200?

And, what difference does it make what type of foods the 1700 calories come from ?

Oh boy....you got all our feathers ruffled now!!! lol

BG is absolutely right! If you are eating less than you should be (1200 cal vs 1700), you WILL lose weight. HOWEVER....you will lose fat AND MUSCLE. When you lose muscle your metabolism slows. Once this happens, your metabolism will stall out and you won't be able to lose anymore. THEN what happens is - you eat that reward for losing the weight and you blow up like a balloon and your body won't let go of it. You will eventually gain it ALL back PLUS more due to the muscle loss.(that's the non-complicated version)

OK...calories....carbohydrates = fat - when you eat too many. Most people who don't have their diet in check are too high in carbs. All those people who buy the low fat foods and they can't figure out why they're not losing weight - low fat foods are LOADED with carbs!

Eat AT LEAST your body weight in protein...ex: if you weigh 150 lbs, eat at least 150 grams of protein per day. This will ensure your muscles are being fed enough so they will not catabolize (be eaten for energy).

 

[Sassy69]

OK, girls. I debated posting this or not. So here goes. (Don't yell too much)

My understanding is that in order to lose weight, you need to expend more calories than you consume, right?

So why is it that a diet with 1700 cal/day would be better than 1200?

And, what difference does it make what type of foods the 1700 calories come from ?

Think of your body like a fine-tuned Maserati. You spend all this crazy money getting this amazing car. You keep it shiny clean. Then you throw some mud in the gas tank. It aint' gonna run like it should. You want to give it exactly what it needs to run optimally. Your body is an amazing biochemical machine where everything it does is governed by a series of complementary biochemical reactions.

Feed it just enough to help it find the optimal burn rate for "your" metabolism, your activity rate and your recovery rate. If you don't feed it enough, it will slow down, activitating a primal surivival mechanism that slows down your metabolism because it thinks it entered a starvation period (e.g. a drought season) to preserve the energy sources (fat) that you already have stored. Feed it too much and it will get sluggish. It won't be able to burn all the fuel, so it gets stored as fat.

Say you eat 1700 cals of Ben & Jerry's. After a couple weeks of that, your body will realize it is nutritionally starved and won't run so good. You won't have energy, you'll probably be tired all day, possibly thirsty and just not all that great feeling anymore. With these fads of low-fat & low-carb, you can conceivably still be nutritionally starved by not getting the good carbs & fats that you need and further getting more the shit they process these foods w/ to make them edible.

If you eat say 1200 cals, sure you'll lose some weight - probably both fat and muscle -as the number you see on the scale is a measure of your bone, fat, muscle and I guess you can include water in there too. Probably your bone mass is static, but your muscle mass, fat mass and water can fluctuate all over the place (e.g. 5-8 lb change due to water retention during "that time of the month"). So at 1200 cals, you'll lose weight. But then it will eventually start slowing down when your body realizes it isn't getting enough to efficiently run on and assumes starvation mode. That's when peopel get all freaked out that they aren't losing weight anymore, get frustrated and either cut out more food or else start eating everything in sight for a nice big blow up.

You want to set up a nice efficient burn rate for your body. Feed it just about what it can metabolise in one 2-3 hr session - e.g. some numbers claim women can metabolize 35 g protien in 2 hrs. Your body can metabolize first carbs in 2 hrs or less, proteins in about 2 hrs, and fats in 2-3 hours. Thus the idea of eatign every 2-3 hours. So if you eat something like 4 oz chicken as your protein source for Meal 2, you will want to refuel for the next 3 hr run but no more than that.

Carbs & fats - I've seen a thousand different ways to determien how much of these you want. But generally you want to put the carbs when you need the kick, e.g. first thing in the morning (e.g. meal 1 = 4 oz ground lean turkey for 35 g protien + 1/2 c oatmeal for about 30 g complex carb). Or after training to restore depleted energy stores. Fats you need to put in somehwere because they are good for you & a necessary part of a balanced diet. I'd put them at the points where I have to go a bit longer than 2 hrs between meals, e.g. mid afternoon when my boss schedules never-ending conference calls. The fat will help slow down the metatbolism rate of that meal. Another time is before bed - your last meal of the day and another 7-8 hrs before you will eat again. Helps delay the point where you might start feelign hungry int he middle of the night.

 

[*Bunny*]

Not sure if this was mentioned, but are you considering your BMR? Basal Metabolic Rate is the minimal caloric requirement needed to sustain life in a resting individual, i.e. the amount of calories your body requires to keep running each day without any activity at all.

I'll use today for an example: Roughly
My Cals Burned by exercise - 1800
My BMR - 1700
Cals Consumed + 2000
-------------------------
Based on those (est.) figures above,
I expended 3,500 kcals during the day. (cals Burned + BMR). This would mean that I need to consume this much in my diet to maintain my body weight. If I wanted to gain weight, I would have to eat more. If I wanted to lose weight, I would have to expend more energy with exercise and partially cut my food intake, but nothing drastic (i.e. see above comments of muscle catabolism/starvation mode).

I cannot accurately guesstimate your BMR b/c I don't know your body fat, but my point is, your body is burning calories if you are working out or not.

(This is really not a VERY accurate way to measure energy expenditure, but it could give a ballpark figure of what you might be looking for & good for tracking purposes)

I hope that makes sense, it's 3:40 AM and I cant see straight lol

 

[WoNderWoMan25]

Think of your body like a fine-tuned Maserati. You spend all this crazy money getting this amazing car. You keep it shiny clean. Then you throw some mud in the gas tank. It aint' gonna run like it should. You want to give it exactly what it needs to run optimally. Your body is an amazing biochemical machine where everything it does is governed by a series of complementary biochemical reactions. .

Great explanation. When I was hesitant to eat all day long- five or six meals instead of three- someone gave me the wood stove analogy. You need to consistently add wood into the stove all day long to feed that fire AND keep it burning.

 

[Sassy69]

It is that but its also that your body needs the consistency to know how to setup and be able to rely on the continuous feeding rate. This is the key to competition prep - you spend 14 weeks manipulating your diet on the macro level with carb rotation, eating various protein sources at diff times of day, fueling your carbs based on your energy requirements, but all the time you are eating on the exact same schedule. This is so when you get down to the final week - your body is so tuned into expecting to get a certain type of fuel at an exact time of day, that you can leverage it to know within an hour or two when your carb load will fill out your muscles completely for an estimated 10 am stage call for pre-judge. This can actually screw you sometimes if you end up waiting too long because the show got started late (which they usually do), and you spill over.

An example also of the need for consistency -- durinig my first competition prep, I was tight on the diet but in the back of my mind I was going nuts for some cheat food. I thought for sure I'd discovered the ultimate cheat food in lite whipped cream (e.g. cool-whip). Wrong! I threw that into my diet a couple of times during one particular week and I watched as my bodyfat consistently dropped about 1% / week for 2 months, and then stalled out when I started the whipped cream --- it wasn't huge amounts, and otherwise my diet was 100% like clockwork, same w/ training & cardio. But the fuckign whipped cream screwed 2 months of dieting in 1 week.

 

[goldengirl101]

Damnn that whipped cream! You girls are awesome. Thanks for for the explanations it makes sense.