8 Week Transformation Challenge

KageTrainer

Good morning!

I am a high school teacher from Iowa and yesterday I entered a Transformation Challenge at my gym. My goal is to apply healthy habits to lose as much weight as possible while building lean muscle. I started yesterday by completing an In-Body test which gave me some useful statistics.

The technician told me that I have an abnormally large amount of muscle (above-above-average) but I also have about 50% body fat. I would say I am about 125 pounds overweight, though I am very tall and carry it very well and proportionally. When looking at me, most would say I am overweight but not obese (and they would be wrong!). I am body confident at every weight but would very much like to get down into a healthy weight range.

This Transformation Challenge is in the form of a contest where I can win money and prizes, though the real reason I am participating is to motivate myself to get healthier. I have 8 weeks before my weight and body fat % are measured again to determine the contest results.

Experienced people: What advice do you have for quickly losing weight and gaining muscle?

These are my plans:
-Drink lots and lots of water and eliminate most other beverages.
-Reduce calories at a healthy margin and focus on balancing macros.
-Reduce and mostly eliminate processed foods.
-Reduce sodium intake overall.
-Lift weights following the New Rules of Lifting for Women program 3 times per week
-Swim at the gym at least 3 times per week.
-Take walks whenever possible.
-Do moderate yoga with my husband in the evenings before bed.
-Weigh weekly on my home bathroom scale, first thing in the morning, then take the results with a grain of salt, knowing weight is not the only gauge of progress.

Some friends and colleagues have recommended Paleo and other keto-based regimens, but I am not interested in completely eliminating entire food groups. I am not a vegetarian or a vegan, though I try to be conscious and responsible in my consumption of meat. However, I am open to hearing recommendations from people who have had success by experimenting with these areas.

What worked for all of you? I would love to hear your stories. Thanks in advance!

Scubdup

Plug in your stats to MFP, and eat so that you stay close to and under the amount it recommends for you.

YMMV, but I've had the best results when I didn't stress about Paleo, or any thing that complicates the fundamental principle of counting my calories.

supercpa999

I would consider the whole 30. I am a bit like yourself. In the first 40 days I lost 38 lbs eating around 2,000 calories of high quality food a day. I am completing my next 30 days on the cycle this week and am hoping to have lost another 15 pounds.

KageTrainer

For you and others who have done Whole30- I believe that eliminating processed junk and added sugar will obviously have a huge effect, but I'm skeptical about things like legumes and some grains really making that much difference. A nutritionist friend of mine always recommends hummus, oatmeal, air-popped popcorn, and edamame as healthy snacks for weight loss. Have any of you added some of these back into your diet with success?

GhostOfPhillip

Cardio in the morning right when you wake up before eating anything and do interval training when you run. Try and do that about 4 times a week. It's going to really matter what your eating I never really followed a "diet" but started making better choices in what I was eating. I'm no expert yet and I definitely lost my fat the wrong way by intermediate fasting but it lost me 40lbs. Get rid of any sugar too the sugars you get from just eating fruit are fine but nothing else. If you focus on home made meals with real ingredients you'll do just fine.

boehle

Good Luck!

AnnPT77

KageTrainer wrote: »

For you and others who have done Whole30- I believe that eliminating processed junk and added sugar will obviously have a huge effect, but I'm skeptical about things like legumes and some grains really making that much difference. A nutritionist friend of mine always recommends hummus, oatmeal, air-popped popcorn, and edamame as healthy snacks for weight loss. Have any of you added some of these back into your diet with success?

Frankly, even processed junk and added sugar don't have a "huge" effect, as long as you get overall good nutrition and stick to your calorie goal. The trouble with junk/sugar is that they're easy to overeat, not very satiating for most people, and they can tend to drive out more nutrient-dense foods from many people's eating.

I lost about 1/3 of my body weight, 50+ pounds, down to a weight in the 120s at 5'5" in just less than a year at age 59-60 (and am in year 2 of maintaining there), while eating lots of legumes, oatmeal every day, edamame, popcorn, etc. . . . even the occasional craft beer, dessert, or Doritos.

Personally, I don't believe in most structured, named, 'diet', temporary ways of eating. I believe in eating a balance of foods I find tasty, nutritious and satiating, including some "treat foods", staying within my calorie goal most days. IMO, the weight loss process is a good time to experiment, and find a way of eating you can stick with forever, in order to stay at a healthy weight permanently.

I don't see why a contest would require that to be any different.

leggup

My goal is to apply healthy habits to lose as much weight as possible while building lean muscle

You can't build muscle in a calorie deficit. Yoga, while great for the mind and flexibility, has nothing to do with weight loss. I've heard good things about New Rules of Lifting for Women. I've also heard a lot of women who start with NROLFW switch to Strong Lifts or Starting Strength because they're simpler.

I agree that keto/low carb/paleo are not required for weight loss. Elimination diets often fail and don't have a failsafe for reintegrating foods. HOWEVER! If there are prizes related to weight loss, it would be a good idea to cut carbs the last few days/week so that you drop a ton of water weight. This will not change your Body Fat Percentage, but most BF% scales are not actually accurate anyway. You will gain those lbs of water weight back when you go back to eating carbs since it's water, not fat.

kommodevaran

A lot of good stuff has been mentioned already - I just wanted to point out a few things, especially as you're a skeptic too, and I hope you can see the nuances and not write things off as "semantics" - getting the information right can be the difference between success and failure:

Muscle *is* lean mass.

There is no such thing as "healthy snacks for weight loss" - no foods are more or less healthy, a healthy diet is balanced and varied; "healthy snacks" tend to be just ordinary food; no foods "aid" weight loss, but a nutritious diet is typically satiating, and being hungry a lot is one of the things that make people give up weightloss attempts; on the other hand, satiety is subjective, individual, habitual and situational, so one food or diet can work well for one person and not at all for another.

And if you increase water intake, you need more salt, not less.

mzbreezy

Get in your last meal 3 hours before bedtime.
No simple carbs after lunch
Cardio upon waking-empty stomach

AnnPT77

mzbreezy wrote: »

Get in your last meal 3 hours before bedtime.
No simple carbs after lunch
Cardio upon waking-empty stomach

Violated every single one of those rules - nearly every day, in fact - while losing 50+ pounds in less than a year . . . at age 59-60, while hypothyroid.

Perhaps they're not universal requirements?

ladyhusker39

KageTrainer wrote: »

My goal is to apply healthy habits to lose as much weight as possible while building lean muscle.

This is an oxymoron. You can't accomplish both at the same time. You have to pick one. Since it's a contest I expect you'll choose the latter.

Good luck.

Wynterbourne

mzbreezy wrote: »

Get in your last meal 3 hours before bedtime.
No simple carbs after lunch
Cardio upon waking-empty stomach

Over 40 yrs old and broke every one of your suggestions losing 130+ pounds.

Strong first post. /s

Maxxitt

OP, given your current stats, do NROL for W (or the current program by the same authors, called Strong) and eat at a moderate deficit (you could probably do a 500-1000 calorie daily deficit being 125# overweight) with foods that you enjoy. Plug your data into MFP for your calorie intake. Make sure you get adequate protein and fat and let the rest be carbohydrates. Think of food as fuel. You don't at this point have to worry about "building lean muscle." Just hang on to as much of the muscle mass as you have currently - and you can do this by maintaining good nutrition and lifting. Good luck! You can do this!

KageTrainer

Thank you all very much. I appreciate your honesty and the details you've shared.
I mis-wrote when I talked about "building muscle"- what I'm really looking to do is to change the ratio between fat and muscle in my body. Thank you for calling me out on that, as I do need to be deliberate with my language.

I wanted to emphasize that I will be including weight lifting as part of my workout routine, and not just cardio. Hopefully this will allow me to get stronger and to help my body work at maximum efficiency.

KageTrainer

I appreciate your advice, everyone. I weighed in today and am down almost 10 pounds from last Thursday. It's nice to shed the water weight and get down to business.

trigden1991

If you’re over 50% bodyfat, I doubt you have high levels of muscle mass.

Set a sensible calorie deficit and be consistent.

KageTrainer

In 4 weeks I have reduced my overall body fat percentage by 2%. I have lost approximately ten pounds.
I am eating a sensible calorie deficit, being deliberate about my carbohydrate choices, lifting weights 2-3 times per week and swimming on the off-days. I work with a personal trainer on Saturdays for 1 hour.