I didn't lift today due to a horrible sinus headache. It was mostly gone by after lunch but I still had that full-headed, ever-so-slightly dizzy feeling. I did do 40 minutes on the elliptical-better than nothing. I hope to lift tomorrow night.
It seems that I have lost 1/2 inch in my hips and 1 inch in my stomach-the hugeness between my waist and hips. I haven't had any success in so long, it is hard for me to believe.
__________________
Karen
Life is short. Break the rules. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. Love truly, laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.
You're not 4 years old. You can tell yourself NO!" Dr. Phil
It seems that I have lost 1/2 inch in my hips and 1 inch in my stomach-the hugeness between my waist and hips. I haven't had any success in so long, it is hard for me to believe.
Well, where is the TADA? That is much success. Your hard work is showing.
__________________ Just because your mother thinks you're special doesn't mean I do
It seems that I have lost 1/2 inch in my hips and 1 inch in my stomach-the hugeness between my waist and hips. I haven't had any success in so long, it is hard for me to believe.
Hey Karla, Tracy, Mel and Espi! Thanks for stopping by and for the encouragement.
The pizza was wonderful! I will try not to cheat again until Cake Day on February 3rd! Hahahaha! My son (age 11) decided, 3 years ago, we needed another holiday to celebrate so he decided we should celebrate cakes. Cake Day is the 1st Sunday in February-Sunday so Daddy can be home to celebrate...cakes! Oh yea, the idea came from a Jimmy Neutron episode. So remember, February 3rd is Cake Day! Cakes Rule! Hahaha!
I'm serious, we really do this:0
Somehow i overlooked this, and then when throwing out emails struck on it again and then I thought: WOW! Just wow. Cake day.
My SO will adore your son.. he loves cakes too and says they are 'Teh Anabolik Food' .
Hmmm....well, Stingo, I would have to ask the "author" of Cake Day, but I guess we could let it slide this year..... Go ahead and enjoy your cake at work!
Karen
__________________
Karen
Life is short. Break the rules. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. Love truly, laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.
You're not 4 years old. You can tell yourself NO!" Dr. Phil
Pssst I started a thread here too (in the Recipe Section as I need help on that carrot cake). I'll be slipping too, since Monday is going to be my high kcal day. If I'd be training in the morning (which I don't).
In case I can't hold myself back and already eat/devour it on Sunday, I'd make Monday a low-kcal day and see if I can improve my lifting with it.. I've done this approach in October. It worked very well (eat more the night before = better lifting) but I recovered slightly less (eating less = more tired in the next off-day). Compromises.. compromises.
Karla, I need this in my log to look at over and over and over and over! Thanks. I have dipped down in the 1500 calorie range and I need to keep this and the info in the thread about checking RMR in the Women's Challenge section forever in front of my face:
Karla said:
When I first joined this board I had an RMR of about 1600 a day. I ate around 1400 and was barely loosing any sort of weight. My belly was storing fat. I found a personal trainer to help me and started to read the contents of this board. I am here to tell you that what is advertsed really works. I am burning now at a rate of 2400 kcals a day and eating 2000 and still loosing. I feel stronger and better than I ever did with so few cals.
Here is what I did to get to where I am now.
1. I cut down on cardio - 2x3 times a week (30-40 min) and started to lift and lift hard
2. I cleaned up my "healthy" diet. My trainer helped me with this. He cut out all things from my diet that did not really provide me with value including things I thought were pretty healthy like whole wheat pretzels. The pretzels were not bad for me but I was snacking on them instead of eating whole meals and so they ultimately were not good. Guidelines I used to come to a real clean diet.
a. Meaure everything on the scale (esp cereal cause that settles in a cup) I was actually blown away at how much I really ate when I started to get into details
b. Eat 6 times a day and only eat complete "meals" (macro ratio) each time.
c. Get protein way up there to assist in musle recovery and repair (40% or more)
d. Eat protein strategically (when you first wake up, when you go to bed and post workout esp)
e. Make sure all carbs you consume are complex
Again these are the changes I made and my guess is that you could probably benefit from some of these things as well
To change my paradigms about eating and loosing weight I set a new goal of bulking (temporarily gaining weight) for a few months. Now I am challenging my metabolism to keep up with me. And it is stepping up to the challenge and burning everything I can throw at it.
So now just 2 months later my body is totally changed. My metabolism is racing. I can feel this in that I have hunger and in that I am no longer shivering all day long. I can also feel this in my overall health.
It is as advertised. Eat more to loose weight and to get your metabolism where it needs to be. The trick is that you have to eat more of the right foods and at the right times and add the right sort of exercise. Not as easy as it sounds but definately achievable
__________________
Karen
Life is short. Break the rules. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. Love truly, laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.
You're not 4 years old. You can tell yourself NO!" Dr. Phil
Monday, 28 January 2008 Yes, You. Eat! Lately, I've been getting a lot of questions about food and calories. Lots of people bought The New Rules of Lifting for Women and they balk at the advice to eat at a maintenance level. They look at the formula and think the calories are too high, the math must be wrong, they must be different, or special, or misunderstood. Surely women only need to eat 1200-1400 calories per day, like hungry Shape Magazine models or dainty little birds. Women freak out and die if you tell them to eat 2,000 calories. I'm here to tell you, that's nothing!
Do you want to be an athlete or do you want to be a dieter? There's a major difference, both in attitude and appearance. Dieters are soft and hungry and super-critical of themselves. Athletes are rock solid lean, very well fed, and oozing confidence. I'm a 40 year old woman who regularly eats 2400-2800 calories per day just to maintain. I would never "diet" again. No, no. Bad. :-)
The better you eat, the more you can eat. 2,000 calories worth of lean protein, fruits, vegetables and healthy fat is way different than 2,000 calories of breakfast cereal, sandwiches, chips, and low-fat snack treats. The more you emphasize high-quality whole foods, the higher your calorie intake can go. Women living on rice cakes, Special K and Slim-Fast need to keep their calories shockingly low because they're ingesting such crap. An athlete living on scrambled omega eggs, black beans, grilled chicken, huge leafy green salads, fresh berries, almonds, sweet potatoes, etc. can lose weight on a much higher calorie intake because they're eating metabolism-boosting whole foods packed with protein, fiber, and nutrients.
For a more in-depth discussion about women's calorie needs, particularly as it relates to New Rules, there's a great interview with all three authors posted on the Precision Nutrition Forums. I listened to it while I was cleaning the house a few days ago. I love that they addressed all of the food/calorie/weight issues right off the bat. And of course there were some laugh-out-loud one-liners from Lou and Alwyn, who could probably become a comedy duo if they get tired of the fitness thing.
From Skwigg's blog
__________________
Karen
Life is short. Break the rules. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. Love truly, laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.
You're not 4 years old. You can tell yourself NO!" Dr. Phil
Although I am pretty firmly in the camp of need to eat more good foods, I still have those bad thoughts in the back of my mind once in a while.
Sometimes I can't believe how much my idea of "healthy" food has changed. I used to live off pasta and marinara sauce, fat free yogurt, granola bars, fat free popcorn, pretzels, etc.
BTW, congratulations on the progress with the measurements! That is awesome.
A biologist at Berkeley shared something very revealing on the low-carb BBS system about 4 years ago that helps us all through the erratic weight fluctuations you invariably encounter: Fat cells are resilient, stubborn little creatures that do not want to give up their actual cell volume. Over a period of weeks, maybe months of "proper dieting", each of your fat cells may have actually lost a good percentage of the actual fat contained in those cells. But the fat cells themselves, stubborn little guys, replace that lost fat with water to retain their size.
That is, instead of shrinking to match the reduced amount of fat in the cell, they stay the same size! Result - you weigh the same, look the same, maybe even gained some scale weight, even though you have actually lost some serious fat.
The good news is that this water replacement is temporary. It's a defensive measure to keep your body from changing too rapidly. It allows the fat cell to counter the rapid change in cell composition, allowing for a slow, gradual reduction in cell size. The problem is, most people are frustrated with their apparent lack of success, assume they have lost nothing, and stop dieting.
However, if you give those fat cells some time, like 4-6 months, and ignore the scale weight fluctuations, your real weight/shape will slowly begin to show. The moral of the story - be patient! Your body is changing even if the number on the scale isn't.
PATTERNS OF WEIGHT LOSS
Common patterns of weight loss from tracking a lot of people who become assimilated into the low carb lifestyle, a pattern emerges.... the 2 week induction is pretty heady...weight lost just about every single day, enormous and unbelievable amounts of weight loss are reported. This is often followed by complaints that weight loss "stalls" or that the rate drops to only 1 pound per week.
Many people just don't know that fat-loss ...the actual goal when on a weight-reduction" diet, is rate-limited. In other words, the human body has factors that prevent more than a certain amount of fatty-acid release from storage...and even more factors that prevent those released fatty acids from being used up instead of stored back into the fat cells.
A priority of the human body is survival. Anything that threatens its survival results in the cascade of events to maintain the previous status quo. Water fluctuations are one way the body does this. OK...so you done good on Atkins' during induction...lost 10 pounds the first 2 weeks. Maybe 7 the first week and 3 the second. But, whoa! Weeks 3 and 4 there is NO loss! And weeks 5 and 6 is only 1/2 pound each!
So... what gives? Initially, the body jettisons the water attached to the glycogen stores that we diligently deplete to get into ketosis...this accounts for about 3-5 pounds of water. In addition, muscle stores of glycogen are not being replaced when used...which will account for the rest. All in all...MAYBE 1/2 pound of fat was metabolized during the first week... and MAYBE 1/2 pound of fat was metabolized the 2nd week. Of that 10 initial pounds, only 1 pound was fat and 9 pounds water...
The body senses this lack and sirens start shrieking: Warning! Warning! Losing water... new thing...got to get back to the status quo! Brain tells body to produce and release that vasopressin anti-diuretic hormone....more water is retained, and no weight loss noticed.
Fat loss is still occurring, MAYBE even 2 pounds per week, because ketosis is firmly established and appetite suppression is in effect...but water retention is hiding that continuing fat loss. The body is preventing dehydration with this mechanism, and that's a *good* thing.
From the perspective of the scale, it can be discouraging. Which is why the mantra: Water retention masks fat loss (repeated frequently to oneself) is helpful. Water retention will mask ongoing fat-loss for as long as the body retains the water. We can combat this by drinking more water...but we aren't going to totally overcome this mechanism during the initial water-loss phase of the Atkins diet.
By weeks 5 and 6, things start to get back in balance, and the scale will begin to reflect the true fat-loss...which, as mentioned before is rate-limited. Individuals vary, but max weight loss runs about 2 pounds per week...under extremely optimal conditions... or 1% of body weight (whichever is the lower number).
So don't use the scale as an excuse to undermine your progress. Even when the scale is in a stall, fat loss can be occurring.
We've been told over an over again that daily weighing is unnecessary, yet many of us can't resist peeking at that number every morning. If you just can't bring yourself to toss the scale in the trash, you should definitely familiarize yourself with the factors that influence it's readings. From water retention to glycogen storage and changes in lean body mass, daily weight fluctuations are normal. They are not indicators of your success or failure. Once you understand how these mechanisms work, you can free yourself from the daily battle with the bathroom scale.
Water makes up about 60% of total body mass. Normal fluctuations in the body's water content can send scale-watchers into a tailspin if they don't understand what's happening. Two factors influencing water retention are water consumption and salt intake. Strange as it sounds, the less water you drink, the more of it your body retains. If you are even slightly dehydrated your body will hang onto it's water supplies with a vengeance, possibly causing the number on the scale to inch upward. The solution is to drink plenty of water.
Excess salt (sodium) can also play a big role in water retention. A single teaspoon of salt contains over 2,000 mg of sodium. Generally, we should only eat between 1,000 and 3,000 mg of sodium a day, so it's easy to go overboard. Sodium is a sneaky substance. You would expect it to be most highly concentrated in salty chips, nuts, and crackers. However, a food doesn't have to taste salty to be loaded with sodium. A half cup of instant pudding actually contains nearly four times as much sodium as an ounce of salted nuts, 460 mg in the pudding versus 123 mg in the nuts. The more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is to have a high sodium content. That's why, when it comes to eating, it's wise to stick mainly to the basics: fruits, vegetables, lean meat, beans, and whole grains. Be sure to read the labels on canned foods, boxed mixes, and frozen dinners.
Women may also retain several pounds of water prior to menstruation. This is very common and the weight will likely disappear as quickly as it arrives. Pre-menstrual water-weight gain can be minimized by drinking plenty of water, maintaining an exercise program, and keeping high-sodium processed foods to a minimum.
Another factor that can influence the scale is glycogen. Think of glycogen as a fuel tank full of stored carbohydrate. Some glycogen is stored in the liver and some is stored the muscles themselves. This energy reserve weighs more than a pound and it's packaged with 3-4 pounds of water when it's stored. Your glycogen supply will shrink during the day if you fail to take in enough carbohydrates. As the glycogen supply shrinks you will experience a small imperceptible increase in appetite and your body will restore this fuel reserve along with it's associated water. It's normal to experience glycogen and water weight shifts of up to 2 pounds per day even with no changes in your calorie intake or activity level. These fluctuations have nothing to do with fat loss, although they can make for some unnecessarily dramatic weigh-ins if you're prone to obsessing over the number on the scale.
Otherwise rational people also tend to forget about the actual weight of the food they eat. For this reason, it's wise to weigh yourself first thing in the morning before you've had anything to eat or drink. Swallowing a bunch of food before you step on the scale is no different than putting a bunch of rocks in your pocket. The 5 pounds that you gain right after a huge dinner is not fat. It's the actual weight of everything you've had to eat and drink. The added weight of the meal will be gone several hours later when you've finished digesting it.
Exercise physiologists tell us that in order to store one pound of fat, you need to eat 3,500 calories more than your body is able to burn. In other words, to actually store the above dinner as 5 pounds of fat, it would have to contain a whopping 17,500 calories. This is not likely, in fact it's not humanly possible. So when the scale goes up 3 or 4 pounds overnight, rest easy, it's likely to be water, glycogen, and the weight of your dinner. Keep in mind that the 3,500 calorie rule works in reverse also. In order to lose one pound of fat you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in. Generally, it's only possible to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. When you follow a very low calorie diet that causes your weight to drop 10 pounds in 7 days, it's physically impossible for all of that to be fat. What you're really losing is water, glycogen, and muscle.
This brings us to the scale's sneakiest attribute. It doesn't just weigh fat. It weighs muscle, bone, water, internal organs and all. When you lose "weight," that doesn't necessarily mean that you've lost fat. In fact, the scale has no way of telling you what you've lost (or gained). Losing muscle is nothing to celebrate. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns, even when you're just sitting around. That's one reason why a fit, active person is able to eat considerably more food than the dieter who is unwittingly destroying muscle tissue.
Robin Landis, author of "Body Fueling," compares fat and muscles to feathers and gold. One pound of fat is like a big fluffy, lumpy bunch of feathers, and one pound of muscle is small and valuable like a piece of gold. Obviously, you want to lose the dumpy, bulky feathers and keep the sleek beautiful gold. The problem with the scale is that it doesn't differentiate between the two. It can't tell you how much of your total body weight is lean tissue and how much is fat. There are several other measuring techniques that can accomplish this, although they vary in convenience, accuracy, and cost. Skin-fold calipers pinch and measure fat folds at various locations on the body, hydrostatic (or underwater) weighing involves exhaling all of the air from your lungs before being lowered into a tank of water, and bioelectrical impedance measures the degree to which your body fat impedes a mild electrical current.
If the thought of being pinched, dunked, or gently zapped just doesn't appeal to you, don't worry. The best measurement tool of all turns out to be your very own eyes. How do you look? How do you feel? How do your clothes fit? Are your rings looser? Do your muscles feel firmer? These are the true measurements of success. If you are exercising and eating right, don't be discouraged by a small gain on the scale. Fluctuations are perfectly normal. Expect them to happen and take them in stride.
It's a matter of mind over scale.>>[/font]
__________________
Karen
Life is short. Break the rules. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. Love truly, laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.
You're not 4 years old. You can tell yourself NO!" Dr. Phil
You and me have very similar build: all of the problematic fat on the torso. Except that (thankfully) I'm 20kg/45lbs lighter now, body shape is basically still exactly the same.
You and me have very similar build: all of the problematic fat on the torso. Except that (thankfully) I'm 20kg/45lbs lighter now, body shape is basically still exactly the same.
Yes, I am totally an apple!
__________________
Karen
Life is short. Break the rules. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. Love truly, laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.
You're not 4 years old. You can tell yourself NO!" Dr. Phil
.
Go ahead and enjoy your cake at work!
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