GinnyLou Who's Training Log

[GinnyLou]

Originally Posted by missjane

How's the scale treating you? Are you weighing once a week?

By my calculations, I have put myself in a calorie deficit at about a pound loss a week. I'd like to bump that to 1.5, if I can. I swear the last pounds are WAY harder than the first pounds I lost!

Well, I had a good dip a week and a half ago and haven't seen much since then. I may need to go a little lower on the calories.
My average intake from the past 2 weeks is 1370 per day. My goal was to remain between 1300-1400 per day.
My RMR is 1731, so maybe I am not creating enough of a deficit? I am doing a LOT of cardio, in hopes that what I burn off in addition to my RMR is going to help. Thing is, my belly fat is definitely going down. I am anxious to do my measurements this weekend and see the change. I am hanging steady at 163, which is 1 lb up from my low weigh in a couple of weeks ago.
I weigh everyday, it helps me stay on track.

What do you think about this, Jane?

[missjane]

Sounds good to me! My RMR is a LOT lower than yours and my calorie intake is pretty in line with yours. I think I'm the one who needs to go lower on the calories!!

Everything revolves around my belly fat.....BE GONE belly fat!!!

I'm generally not a daily weigher, but I have been this past week or so just because I started tracking so closely. But, I really don't like to do it. I'm hoping to eventually go back to weekly or every other week.

I'm sure you are going to see big changes in your measurements and pics this weekend!

[GinnyLou]

Ok, good. I just thought I would run that by you and get your thoughts.

Thank you.

[missjane]

Hey Ginger, in thinking about this some more, I am wondering about our calorie calculations. I took my RMR from the BodPod and multiplied it by the activity multiplier to come up with the calories for what would be my maintenance. Then, I based my deficit on that. I am really only at about a 300-400 calorie deficit. I think I need to up to to at least a 500 calorie deficit.

Did you do the same thing? With such a high RMR, your maintenance calories have to be pretty high since you are so active. How much of a calorie deficit are you aiming for per day? Did you base your deficit on your RMR or on your RMR x activity?

If I based my deficit solely on my RMR, my daily calorie intake would be under 1,000 calories a day! I surely can't and won't do that.

[GinnyLou]

I am thinking about this a lot, also.
No, I just took the RMR with no activity.
I have 3 different sections on my paper from the BodPod reading, but we also did the metabolism testing. Here is what it says straight from the paper.
So, my RMR with no activity is 1731
Daily calories required to maintain (which of course, is not what I want to do) is 2250.3
Daily calories required to maintain weight, with estimated exercise (this estimated me burning 519 with exercise, which is a little on the low side, compared to what my Polar HRM tells me which is programmed with all my specific numbers) is 2769.6

Where did you get the multiplier to use? I know I've seen them around and may have even read something about that in Leigh Peele's books.
The 1300-1400 range was given to me as a way to get the extra weight off, in a quick manner so that I can go back to the more strenuous workouts.
I am wondering what to do. I am feeling pretty good about what I am doing right now, but I would like to see more continuous losses (who wouldn't, right?).

[missjane]

I am using the multiplier from the quiz in Leigh's FLTS. I also was shown a multiplier at the Bod Pod place, and it actually was pretty close to the multiplier that the quiz gave me. The quiz gave me a range and I took the lower number and used that to multiply with. My RMR is only 1200, so that's a huge difference from yours. I have to eat a lot less calories than you are able to eat. (Boo!)

It looks to me like you are in a deficit of over 1,000 calories a day. Am I looking at that right? Maybe Leigh could offer some further input. On paper, I want to say you aren't eating enough, but on paper, it also looks to me that with a deficit like that you would be losing a pound of weight every 3-4 days.

For me, I think I need to really play around with those calories numbers to find that exact spot where I can safely lose. I had been maintaining steadily, so obviously I had to make a cut in the calories to continue the weight loss. Still figuring it all out!!

[jesca]

Maybe you're not eating enough? I say that because Leigh is a big proponent of doing your deficit based off your your RMR plus your activity. Going too low can cause your metabolism to get all screwed up like mine! The metaburn program in the Repair manual shows you percentage of calories to remove based on how far away you are from your goal. I'm not sure how much you're looking to lose, but you might what to look into that. Either way the % is taken off based on your RMR with activity. Just a thought.

[GinnyLou]

Originally Posted by missjane

I am using the multiplier from the quiz in Leigh's FLTS. I also was shown a multiplier at the Bod Pod place, and it actually was pretty close to the multiplier that the quiz gave me. The quiz gave me a range and I took the lower number and used that to multiply with. My RMR is only 1200, so that's a huge difference from yours. I have to eat a lot less calories than you are able to eat. (Boo!)

It looks to me like you are in a deficit of over 1,000 calories a day. Am I looking at that right? Maybe Leigh could offer some further input. On paper, I want to say you aren't eating enough, but on paper, it also looks to me that with a deficit like that you would be losing a pound of weight every 3-4 days.

For me, I think I need to really play around with those calories numbers to find that exact spot where I can safely lose. I had been maintaining steadily, so obviously I had to make a cut in the calories to continue the weight loss. Still figuring it all out!!

I think you are right. I should be dropping at least a lb a week and I am not. I can finally say that this is my true caloric intake and not a guesstimate, so it maybe that I need to tweak a bit. I did lose a couple of lbs pretty quickly, but it seems to be a little stalled. I also don't want to lower my RMR, by not eating enough. I guess there is a fine line.
Thanks for helping me talk this out. I hope you have chosen the right deficit to work with and that you see a loss.

Originally Posted by jesca

Maybe you're not eating enough? I say that because Leigh is a big proponent of doing your deficit based off your your RMR plus your activity. Going too low can cause your metabolism to get all screwed up like mine! The metaburn program in the Repair manual shows you percentage of calories to remove based on how far away you are from your goal. I'm not sure how much you're looking to lose, but you might what to look into that. Either way the % is taken off based on your RMR with activity. Just a thought.

Thanks, Jesca. I will pull out the books and go over all this again. I have at least 10-15 lbs to lose. I want to get 10 off and see what I think at that point. I want to try not to measure by the scale, but I have to get off this fat I am carrying around. Thanks for your input on this.
I'll definitely keep you updated on this!

[Karen411]

Ginger, it looks like you're doing well. I've printed the books and I'm following along here in case I have questions that you've already got answered here.

[missjane]

You'll figure it out, Ginger. I just don't want to see you undereat and cause yourself a problem there, either. I think these last few pounds are just plain hard! But, we have the tools now to do it, so it's just a matter of fine-tuning our plans for our bodies and making it work. With all this knowledge we've gained this year, you'd think we could just nail this!

[GinnyLou]

Originally Posted by Karen411

Ginger, it looks like you're doing well. I've printed the books and I'm following along here in case I have questions that you've already got answered here.

Thanks, Karen. I hope you get some good stuff out the books, I know I have.

Originally Posted by missjane

You'll figure it out, Ginger. I just don't want to see you undereat and cause yourself a problem there, either. I think these last few pounds are just plain hard! But, we have the tools now to do it, so it's just a matter of fine-tuning our plans for our bodies and making it work. With all this knowledge we've gained this year, you'd think we could just nail this!

Yes, I definitely don't want to screw around and mess up my metabolism. I do think the fact that this is the stubborn fat, isn't helping matters.
We do have the tools and we know what to do, it's just all the fine tuning that is involved with it all.

[kfisherx]

I figured my RMR out from using my spreadsheet tool. It put me at 2370 a day average burn rate. I eat at 1700 a day and lose about 1 lb a week. This has worked so far for me very well even though I am now close to my natural body weight (the weight I was in high school) For me it has been a simple matter of being very careful about cal logged and very consistent in getting in my workouts.

My trainer says he will not allow me to go below 1400 cals a day. You need to eat enough whole food to get nutrients to the body and he feels that for my athletic life-style that is low enough to accomplish my goals. Even at that he would be short term. Instead he has me increase my ss-cardio a bit to burn up more calories in the day. He said as we get down to bf% lower than 15% that it will likely be the case that I do a morning and evening ss-cardio in between my lifting.

Once I have reached my low bf% goal, I am going to do another bulk as that is what gave me the body recomp results that I am now enjoying. If you are at or near your ideal weight but have high bf% it might be something to think about. I started my journey out by doing a 5 week hard cut and driving the bf% down and then turned it around and did a heavy lift/bulk period. It totally reshaped my body and now I am seeing my stubborn fat melting away a bit whereas before it just would not budge. It will take a few more times of this cycle before I am completely happy with what I have but at least I feel like I have the MAP of the journey now.

[GinnyLou]

Alright, going to try my hand at posting a couple of days of eats.

Food	Qty	Serv Size	Cal	Fat (g)	Carbs (g)	Proteins (g)
26-Jun-08
EAS Advantage Vanilla	2 scoops	2	220.0	6.0	4.0	34.0
Tim's XLG coffee 1 cream/2 sugar	1	16 oz	190.0	7.0	31.0	1.0
Snack
Dannon Light & Fit Vanilla yogurt	1	1 cup	60.0	0.0	10.0	5.0
Lunch
Blue Menu-Lasagna	1 serving		320.0	6.0	33.0	12.0
Dinner