Just realized I'd never introduced myself

TrevorJ76

Hi all, I've been using MFP for a while, but never into the forums much. So, here I am, hi! I'm in the US Air Force, currently deployed to Afghanistan.

I guess I'm lucky when it comes to weight as it stays pretty stable. I can eat nothing, or I can eat a horse. Drink sodas, cut out soda completely. Work out or sit on the couch. Nothing seems to make a difference, my weight stays where it's at. My goal is to lose fat, I'm 5'10", 182lbs at about 20% BF.I track everything I eat and drink and lift every other day. I'm finally beginning to see the scale move.

So again, hello. Sorry for being such a lurker.

ukaryote

Hi Trevor!

I'm guessing you are ground crew in the USAF - my brother was a mechanic in the service and enjoyed it a lot.

Some extra BF is not a bad idea in a high-output avocation. You have stored energy to carry you through times when you can't fuel up for a coupla hours. If you were 5 or 3% BF and "ripped", you might feel exhausted in the middle of a job. When I am low energy, I make mistakes on the job. Over there, mistakes on the job can have larger consequences than here in Suburbistan.

IMO, I would not worry too much if I was getting enough exercise and felt fit. You are developing habits now that will serve you well in the next few decades, if you maintain the practices.

ChangeYourPace

Welcome, and thank you for your service.

neandermagnon

Hi Trevor!

I'm guessing you are ground crew in the USAF - my brother was a mechanic in the service and enjoyed it a lot.

Some extra BF is not a bad idea in a high-output avocation. You have stored energy to carry you through times when you can't fuel up for a coupla hours. If you were 5 or 3% BF and "ripped", you might feel exhausted in the middle of a job. When I am low energy, I make mistakes on the job. Over there, mistakes on the job can have larger consequences than here in Suburbistan.

IMO, I would not worry too much if I was getting enough exercise and felt fit. You are developing habits now that will serve you well in the next few decades, if you maintain the practices.

if someone's missed just one or two meals, the body gets its energy reserves from glycogen, not fat. If someone with very low body fat is having problems like you describe, then that'll be due to glycogen depletion, and eating more carbohydrate will fix it. Fat is the long term energy store (to survive famines/food shortages) - glycogen is the short term energy store, to keep functioning optimally if you have to skip a meal or go a day without food. With no food at all and a normal amount of activity, glycogen usually lasts about 24 hrs. Long distance running it lasts a lot less time, and marathon runners need to load up on carbs (to ensure their glycogen levels are topped up) and have carbs on hand (e.g. energy drinks) to prevent running out of glycogen mid race. If you run out of fat, you die.

Your body burns fat slowly, so long as you're in calorie deficit. Your body can't burn fat fast enough to make up for a lack of carbohydrate. When endurance athletes run out of carbohydrate (including exhausting their body's stores of glycogen), they call this "hitting the wall" - suddenly they can't perform at half the capacity they were before, and they may experience mental confusion and extreme tiredness...... their bodies will still be burning fat, but the human body simply can't burn fat fast enough to do everything you need to do in a physically demanding situation. You need carbohydrate for that.

Having more carbs/glycogen in the system results in weight gain, which freaks some people out (because they think they're gaining fat - they're not!) - but you need a sufficient amount of carbohydrate in your system (including sufficient glycogen stores) to be able to function optimally, especially in a physically demanding job. Someone can have low body fat and still have enough glycogen to perform optimally... for example every athlete who is very lean/visible abs. Having more body fat within the healthy range won't harm athletic performance but there's no advantage to it - if someone is glycogen depleted, then they will still hit the wall and not be able to function, no matter how much body fat they have on them, even if they are obese, because it's not fat that they are lacking.

So basically, the OP can safely lower his body fat percentage and will still be able to perform optimally. He just should be sure he's getting enough carbohydrate (i.e. avoid low carb diets)

TrevorJ76

Well I rdie a desk for 12 hours a day in an air conditioned facility. So not much expediture going on there. I do walk a lot--everybody here does. But I also have a Jawbone UP which forces me to walk the long way wherever I go.

I use IIFYM and just updated my macros again. Right now aiming for 1,979 cals, 182 gm protein, 164 gm carbs and 65 gm fats. For exercise I've been doing Stringlifts 5x5 for the first half of the deployment. The last three months will be Kris Gethin's 12 Week program.