Relatively light people trying to get leaner

123456654321 · March 2011

Bump

rockabyesarojane · March 2011

thanks for posting this. it's nice to get a healthy reminder of what the real focus should be.

i mean; i know these things, but sometimes i lose track of whats more important .

rockabyesarojane · March 2011

I haven't read all the posts yet (but I will) in this thread but I have some questions. I am one of those females that has believed that if I run miles and miles and reduce my calories, I will get fit. I currently weigh 125 and I am 5'5. I totally buy into everything you are saying but I have some questions:

1. When you say heavy weights, is this limited to free weights or can one also use weight machines?

2. How does one determine what constitutes as "heavy weights" and how does one determine the number of reps and sets?
I totally want to shift my focus to heavy weights instead of doing calorie restriction and intense cardio but I am not certain where to start.

Btw, you should have your own tv show/book/etc . You're brilliant!

oh yes. i like these questions too.

Rubie81 · March 2011

bump for later.

peaches6311 · March 2011

According to my GoWear Fit I average about 2200 calories a day burn, and I eat about 1800 calories a day. So I am not starving myself by any means

I will steadily lose for awhile, and then it seems as if everything goes haywire and I put it all back (and maybe a few) and then it starts all over again

Not starving yourself, no. But you're adding to the pot of stress you're imposing on your body. Less nutrition coming in the door means less ability to recover. And when you're doing marathon 2 hour sessions per day, stressing out about plateauing, and whatever else you have going on in the gym and in life and this stuff's paired with a calorie deficit... well...

Competitive athletes can have crazy workloads. But they eat to support it. And they take planned breaks to allow for recovery (periodization).

Who knows... maybe this isn't the case with you. But it's the case with most I encounter in your shoes. Maybe you're the one off who is eating more than you believe or expending less than you believe.

I do plan a recovery week about every 6 weeks or sooner if my body tells me I need one. During that week I continue martial arts, Pilates and may throw in a Yoga class but no lifting.

What else would you suggest? If I had to choose to either cut back my exercise or stay a little heavy, I would stay a little heavy. But I am hoping that there is another choice.

Do you think if I cut my calories a little more (say 500 deficit a day) and take a recovery week every 4 weeks that would work better?

It's very hard to say. Cutting calories would work if a) you're not overdoing it in the stress department and b) you're eating more than you think you are now. The fact that your periods get all out of whack though tells us that there's a whole lot going on in the hormonal department which could easily explain why you're gaining weight. WEIGHT... not fat. Just as how women tend to hold onto water around their time of the month.

Do you maintain your calories faithfully and consistently?

You're only lifting twice per week, so unless your coach has your doing absurd amounts of high intensity work... I doubt you're overdoing it in that department. But you have to look at the total pot of stressors you're placing on your body and ask, "is this too much." This is a very loose metric, but it seems in my experience when you have relatively light women dieting and doing more than an hour of exercise per day... things get wonky in terms of water flux and metabolic rate.

Granted, as I noted, it's very loose since it says nothing about intensity. If you're doing an hour of low level yoga, for example, obviously there's capacity to do more.

Here is my workout schedule --- My accessories are planned so that if I have done higher reps on that part it rests the next day.
Monday 1 hour Pilates & 1.5 hrs. martial arts
Tuesday: rest day only thing I do is pushups (about 32 right now trying to work way back up to 50)
Wednesday: Heavy bench and accessories and 1. 5 hours martial arts
Thursday: Squats and accessories moderate weight and rep (6 - 8) & Lower weight higher reps accessory for upper body (8-12 and then take a real light weight say 65# barbell and do 3 sets of bench to failure (like 30 reps) )
Friday: Rest day --- P90X ab ripper and house work
Saturday: 1.5 hours martial arts & yard work (nice weather)
Sunday: Heavy Deadlifts 3-4 reps and some accessory lifts.

About every 6 weeks (unless my body says I need it sooner) I take a week break on the lifting and just do the rest of my workouts.

Yeah, my hormones are really out of whack; I am at that age (45) where everything goes haywire. I am not always good with my calories, but my average is good. I try to listen to my body. There are days I am starved and I eat more. Other days I can handle a lower food amount. So I guess I do an unplanned zig zagging on my diet. I am not too stressed about losing weight, but I would like to compete in the 132 (and loose a little around the tummy). This morning I weighed 139. I think that if I got down to 135 I could dehydrate to 132.5 and make the weigh-in. My next competition is in July.

stroutman81 · March 2011

According to my GoWear Fit I average about 2200 calories a day burn, and I eat about 1800 calories a day. So I am not starving myself by any means

I will steadily lose for awhile, and then it seems as if everything goes haywire and I put it all back (and maybe a few) and then it starts all over again

Not starving yourself, no. But you're adding to the pot of stress you're imposing on your body. Less nutrition coming in the door means less ability to recover. And when you're doing marathon 2 hour sessions per day, stressing out about plateauing, and whatever else you have going on in the gym and in life and this stuff's paired with a calorie deficit... well...

Competitive athletes can have crazy workloads. But they eat to support it. And they take planned breaks to allow for recovery (periodization).

Who knows... maybe this isn't the case with you. But it's the case with most I encounter in your shoes. Maybe you're the one off who is eating more than you believe or expending less than you believe.

I do plan a recovery week about every 6 weeks or sooner if my body tells me I need one. During that week I continue martial arts, Pilates and may throw in a Yoga class but no lifting.

What else would you suggest? If I had to choose to either cut back my exercise or stay a little heavy, I would stay a little heavy. But I am hoping that there is another choice.

Do you think if I cut my calories a little more (say 500 deficit a day) and take a recovery week every 4 weeks that would work better?

It's very hard to say. Cutting calories would work if a) you're not overdoing it in the stress department and b) you're eating more than you think you are now. The fact that your periods get all out of whack though tells us that there's a whole lot going on in the hormonal department which could easily explain why you're gaining weight. WEIGHT... not fat. Just as how women tend to hold onto water around their time of the month.

Do you maintain your calories faithfully and consistently?

You're only lifting twice per week, so unless your coach has your doing absurd amounts of high intensity work... I doubt you're overdoing it in that department. But you have to look at the total pot of stressors you're placing on your body and ask, "is this too much." This is a very loose metric, but it seems in my experience when you have relatively light women dieting and doing more than an hour of exercise per day... things get wonky in terms of water flux and metabolic rate.

Granted, as I noted, it's very loose since it says nothing about intensity. If you're doing an hour of low level yoga, for example, obviously there's capacity to do more.

Here is my workout schedule --- My accessories are planned so that if I have done higher reps on that part it rests the next day.
Monday 1 hour Pilates & 1.5 hrs. martial arts
Tuesday: rest day only thing I do is pushups (about 32 right now trying to work way back up to 50)
Wednesday: Heavy bench and accessories and 1. 5 hours martial arts
Thursday: Squats and accessories moderate weight and rep (6 - 8) & Lower weight higher reps accessory for upper body (8-12 and then take a real light weight say 65# barbell and do 3 sets of bench to failure (like 30 reps) )
Friday: Rest day --- P90X ab ripper and house work
Saturday: 1.5 hours martial arts & yard work (nice weather)
Sunday: Heavy Deadlifts 3-4 reps and some accessory lifts.

About every 6 weeks (unless my body says I need it sooner) I take a week break on the lifting and just do the rest of my workouts.

Yeah, my hormones are really out of whack; I am at that age (45) where everything goes haywire. I am not always good with my calories, but my average is good. I try to listen to my body. There are days I am starved and I eat more. Other days I can handle a lower food amount. So I guess I do an unplanned zig zagging on my diet. I am not too stressed about losing weight, but I would like to compete in the 132 (and loose a little around the tummy). This morning I weighed 139. I think that if I got down to 135 I could dehydrate to 132.5 and make the weigh-in. My next competition is in July.

That's actually not that bad from the looks of it. Cutting cals by 10% or so might not be a bad idea. But be careful in the strength deparment... don't want to cut into that. I'm guessing you're competing in powerlifting? I'd go as far as to say you could drop cals to 1400-1500.

DeeDeeLHF · March 2011

I really appreciated this post. I did not read the entire thread, just the OP but I must say it was a relief to read this.

I have been trying to lose weight and be healthy for almost 6 years. It took me 5 1/2 years to lose 61 pounds. I am 5 ft 1in and 46 years old, so it was just very slow. I never gave up. I tried not to do anything too extreme. There were times I feared "starvation mode" because my calories seemed so low compared to others around me but I think that is just how it is.

Including my exercise I am maintaining my weight by eating an average of 1400-1500 calories per day. What really happens is that I have about 4-5 days of the week that I am under and then 2 days that I am over. I tried increasing my calories but started to gain. So, even though I would love to eat more, this is it!

What I have noticed over time is that even though my weight has stayed about the same, I "look" better. I think things are redistributing in a better way. I went down another pant size but my weight didn't change.

Thanks again for posting!!

Donna

stroutman81 · March 2011

You're welcome Donna. And congrats on your success by the way.

swanny320 · March 2011

Okay, I read your response and I am very excited to go work out tonight. I am changing EVERYTHING about how I've been working out. I've been so transfixed on getting in a certain amount of cardio and running so many miles blah blah blah and then going and doing a bunch of light weights.

So glad I found this thread!

stroutman81 · March 2011

Good luck!

peaches6311 · March 2011

Thanks, I will cut down to 1400. Yes, I do powerlifting.

tdml · March 2011

bump

stroutman81 · March 2011

Peaches... nice.... are you new to the sport? Do you mind me asking what your numbers are?

Everyone else... thanks for keeping this thread alive. I see a lot of posts on the forum by people who need to be reading the information in this thread. Please be sure to spread the word.