Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirjava
Thanks for the input, Espi--my GROWING belly is definetely my biggest issue. I can't wait until my cycles get regular. I haven't had a cycle in about 2 years. It is kind of scary.
What kind of daily carb intake do you have?
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Do you also experience a lot of stress in daily life? Sleeping poorly perhaps as well? These are things you really need to address as well. Back in 2000 my cycle normalized after 3 months of care-free cycling (& h-hiking) across the USA. The exercise and more regular eating did me a world of good.
FYI: an adult woman that's far away from menopause lengthens her cycle when food intake is not adequate. This lengthening occurs in the first follicular phase. I'm approaching menopause at age 44.
Since April 2007 I'm tracking basal body temperature which has enabled me to pinpoint ovulation. This is how I discovered that my 2nd phase is now the instable one. Apparently that's typical for peri-menopausal women, their 2nd phase starts to 'flounder'. Generally it shortens as soon as I start dieting, to the extent of having cycles of just 23 days. Once I stop dieting, it lengthens again to 27-29 days, sometiems 31 days. That's a far far cry from how it used to be in the old days when 35-42 days was the average and sometimes I'd skip cycles altogether. Especially when travelling = pleasant stress. Apparently travelling by public transport (as I used to do) is tons more stressful than travelling by bicycle (burning off eaten calories and less time-crunch, viz you stop whenever you want).
Back to the carbs. Right now I'm at my goal weight, albeit bf% is still not how I'd like it to be (viz. 26-27% as opposed to the desired 23% = optimal for my age). Back in 2002 I started low-carbing and slowly shed weight (1kg a month). Late 2002 I switched to a keto diet and shed 8kg in 6 weeks.. but alas also lost a ton of hair and turned grey in a short period, due to severe B12-depletion (which only got addressed much later .. not by a doctor but by my current SO!!!).
While a keto diet can lead to magnificent weight (& fat) loss in a short time period, it's not suitable for people that work out (lots). Too much stress on the body! You're burning through your B-vitamins like a wildfire, and if your body doesn't absorb them well in the first place , you're in trouble.
If anything: choose a diet that has you cycle carbs. You go low on rest days (as low as you can tolerate, the lower you go = the more appetite is suppressed = lower calorie intake = faster fat loss) and then go to the level of carbs on WO-days that gives you
sustainable energy. This is hard to predict.
Thing is: if you're used to very low carb intakes, a little carb goes a long way. If not, then you're a predominant carb burner. This is why it is often adviced to establish ketosis during about 1-2 weeks (and hold off the training for a bit) and then start cycling carbs.
Some have low - medium - high days and others prefer low - high. I do the former.
Low days = 50-75g of carbs on rest days (say 1g/kg BW)
Medium days = approx. 150g on a training day (approx. 2g/kg BW)
High days = approx. 300g on a more strenuous training day (often including HIIT, viz. 4g/kg BW).
On a cutting diet:
low days approx. 1100-1400 kcal
Moderate days at maintenance (currently 2200kcal)
High days over maintenance (2500-3000 kcal)
On average this gives 10% deficit. It may look like a futile approach to go that low and yet only have 10% deficit, but it's about the only thing that really worked for me. Also, I don't mind eating very little one day (or heck, even fast for 24hrs) if I get to indulge a little the other day.
Besides... it works miracles.. body never even guesses I'm on a cut! Never let your body eat below maintenance for prolonged periods, unless you're UBERFAT like 30 kg overweight.
Feel free to tweak this.. this is just 'my' approach.
Interesting: back in 2002-2003 I could tolerate very low carb intake of an average of 100g carbs or less. Now I no longer can.. either because of development of adrenal fatigue (ties in with B-deficiency and food intolerances) or because I'm so much leaner. The latter is probably not true, since Galya is very lean but yet, can tolerate very low carbs (<50g) just fine and trains hard too.