The Experiment.
Hello! If you look at my previous posts, you'll see that I'm a 38 yr old woman who's been VERY athletic all her life, but - despite tremendous amounts of serious exercise (a mix of running, biking, intervals, sports drills, and heavy weights; yoga for balance) - has struggled for the past 14 yr to lose weight.
I have a bodybugg, which confirms that I burn much more than I have consumed. (And I weight and measure all my food, so underreporting is not the issue here). On average, I burn between 2000 and 2800 kcal per day. The low end typifies rest days, the high end represents a day with w/o plus other daily activities. Until recently, I rarely ate more than 1500 kcal a day.
I also have been dealing with abnormally low testosterone in the past year, as well as slightly low thyroid levels (FT4 is low, sometimes but usually NOT out of range (unmedicated); FT3 is i range, slightly low, TSH is between 1 and 2.2, unmedicated).
I have a feeling these hormone issues were caused by yrs of aggressive training. Also, I want to note that from May 06 through October 06, I hired J Berardi's team at Precision Nutrition to devise an exercise and nutrition program. I thought that they might be able to solve my fat loss problem. But despite adhering pretty well to a very aggressive training protocol (travel occasionally put a kink in my schedules/eating), I did not lose weight on this plan; I did lose ONE percent bodyfat. ... I also became very hypoglycemic towards the end, and started retaining water.
From Nov 06, I began a much less rigorous routine - still lifting, and still doing aerobic work, but less volume... I lost a bit of the water weight, but not much.
I am 155 lbs with 22% bodyfat, and 66". Left handed
A few months ago, I hired Leigh Peele to help me solve this mess, and she gave me her permission to start a log, with the condition that I make it clear that the program she's put me on is unique and tailored to my needs.
I've been logging elsewhere, but since so many women on this board seem to have similar issues, I thought it might be useful to put down this experiment here. I call it an experiment, because what I'm doing with Leigh is unlike anything I've done before - and seems to counter common practice. But I have faith in her.
To recap the first couple months, I just want to say that I rested and raised calories a bit. I probably gained a few pounds.
I am currently on a "cut", eating very low calories and doing a minimum of resistance training (mostly isolated moves, as per Leigh's other comments in the "Bodybugg thread" in the Diet Resources forum). Very little other exercise.
I'm 1 week into the program, and am 3 lbs down from a week ago.
Today, I will do back and abs, and am eating 1500 kcal, 30% carbs and fat. I will log weights later. I'll try to keep up the log as best I can.
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Linear Mode
