Okay, how did that happen?

ktthegr8

I am working on the last ten pounds and I have seriously bumped up my exercise routine and been very strict about my calories. My weigh in was this morning and I have lost 5 pounds since last week. I am happy about that, but am not sure if it's accurate and don't know if I should take credit for it.

I know at the beginning a 5 pound loss is normal, but I didn't think it was possible this late in the game. Is it going to come back to haunt me?

I have been at a 500 calorie deficit from what my calories would be to maintain. And I have been trying to burn 600-800 calories a day. I have been leaving about 200 calories at the end of my day, so I am eating back most of my calories. And I always drink my water. So what is going on? Is that right?

ktthegr8

I am working on the last ten pounds and I have seriously bumped up my exercise routine and been very strict about my calories. My weigh in was this morning and I have lost 5 pounds since last week. I am happy about that, but am not sure if it's accurate and don't know if I should take credit for it.

I know at the beginning a 5 pound loss is normal, but I didn't think it was possible this late in the game. Is it going to come back to haunt me?

I have been at a 500 calorie deficit from what my calories would be to maintain. And I have been trying to burn 600-800 calories a day. I have been leaving about 200 calories at the end of my day, so I am eating back most of my calories. And I always drink my water. So what is going on? Is that right?

SHBoss1673

when you change your routine, the way the body handles glycogen changes, glycogen has a major influence in your fluctuating body weight and fluid retention. Usually that means you GAIN weight as most people are using more muscles, but if you are doing different work, sometimes that can mean a release in glycogen and fluid as well. I wouldn't put a ton of stock into it as it's probably not fat you lost. I know that sounds sucky, but I know you'd rather know the real why then just assume something else.

on a side note, that's AWESOME for you, no matter what the scale says, being able to move from a purely fat loss scenario to one where you are adding muscle density and dropping body fat % is great!

ktthegr8

when you change your routine, the way the body handles glycogen changes, glycogen has a major influence in your fluctuating body weight and fluid retention. Usually that means you GAIN weight as most people are using more muscles, but if you are doing different work, sometimes that can mean a release in glycogen and fluid as well. I wouldn't put a ton of stock into it as it's probably not fat you lost. I know that sounds sucky, but I know you'd rather know the real why then just assume something else.

on a side note, that's AWESOME for you, no matter what the scale says, being able to move from a purely fat loss scenario to one where you are adding muscle density and dropping body fat % is great!

Thank you! And I can tell that it isn't fat that I lost because it is still there.:laugh: My next question would be how do I lose the fat? Can I work those "problem" areas and go to maintaining weight or should I keep myself at a deficit until my jiggles go away? I don't think it would hurt if I lost another 5.
I should add that I had my bf% checked at the gym the other day(hand held machine) and it was 21.6% which is right around where my BMI is.

fjtcjt

When I really cleaned up my diet a while back, I cut out sodium as much as possible and substituted good carbs for bad carbs and dropped 5 lbs in a week without even trying. Mostly dropping excess water to begin with...

fjtcjt

If your caloric deficit is too large when you don't have much left to lose, you might start losing muscle instead of fat. Continue to workout and eat clean and reduce your deficit to 100 or 200 hundred calories so you don't lose that muscle that you work so hard to gain. The closer you get to where you want to be, the long it takes to get there.

One of the hardest things to do when you don't have much fat left is to add muscle, while getting leaner. I guess it isn't that hard, it just takes time to see the results...especially when you look in the mirror every day. It helps to take pictures about once a month and gauge your progress that way, or get your body fat measure once a month and track it that way. The scale doesn't hold much value at this point...

SHBoss1673

If you're BF% is around 21.5 then you are doing very well. Losing the fat will entail some relatively aggressive High Intensity training (google HIIT training), you can't spot reduce, but with only 21.5% left, there's not many places it can come from anyway. At that level though, make sure you are eating a sufficient amount of protein and also encorporating some full body weight training work to keep your muscle level where it needs to be. This has a 2 fold effect, you are offsetting the body's natural compensity to burn muscle along with fat by adding more muscle, and you are keeping your muscle levels higher, this raises your overall metabolic rate, thus increasing the fat burning.

One additional benefit is that weight training and other types of anaerobic activity raise the levels of testosterone and Human Growth Hormone in the body,and when combined with normal cortisol levels(which happens naturally, no need to alter your eating or dietary patterns other then enough protein) this triggers the burning of adipose (body) fat and the growth of muscle.

So get out there and do that High Intensity work and weight training. The key is, push yourself beyond being comfortable when working out. If you are comfortable, at your level, you aren't doing much for your body. That means fatigue, that means sweat, that means working muscles close to or right up to technical failure.

cardigirl

So get out there and do that High Intensity work and weight training. The key is, push yourself beyond being comfortable when working out. If you are comfortable, at your level, you aren't doing much for your body. That means fatigue, that means sweat, that means working muscles close to or right up to technical failure.

Sigh. Guess that means upping the resistance on the AMT machine. Again.

SHBoss1673

So get out there and do that High Intensity work and weight training. The key is, push yourself beyond being comfortable when working out. If you are comfortable, at your level, you aren't doing much for your body. That means fatigue, that means sweat, that means working muscles close to or right up to technical failure.

Sigh. Guess that means upping the resistance on the AMT machine. Again.

Heh! Welcome to my world.

cardigirl

So get out there and do that High Intensity work and weight training. The key is, push yourself beyond being comfortable when working out. If you are comfortable, at your level, you aren't doing much for your body. That means fatigue, that means sweat, that means working muscles close to or right up to technical failure.

Sigh. Guess that means upping the resistance on the AMT machine. Again.

Heh! Welcome to my world.

The only machine I've not gotten comfortable quickly on is the stair mill or stair stepper or whatever the heck it's called. That thing kills me everytime. Working on extending my time on it, but also trying to get up to level 8. Still stuck on 6 for the highest that I get to. :sad:

ktthegr8

So get out there and do that High Intensity work and weight training. The key is, push yourself beyond being comfortable when working out. If you are comfortable, at your level, you aren't doing much for your body. That means fatigue, that means sweat, that means working muscles close to or right up to technical failure.

Thank you! You are always so infomative.:flowerforyou: I have been stepping outside of my comfort zone as far as my strength training goes and I have a personal training session in the morning. So, it looks as if I'm heading in the right direction. And I am always over in the protein category but I know MFP is set low. How much protein should I aim for? I get between 70-90 g a day. Most of that comes from lean meats and nuts.

SHBoss1673

So get out there and do that High Intensity work and weight training. The key is, push yourself beyond being comfortable when working out. If you are comfortable, at your level, you aren't doing much for your body. That means fatigue, that means sweat, that means working muscles close to or right up to technical failure.

Thank you! You are always so infomative.:flowerforyou: I have been stepping outside of my comfort zone as far as my strength training goes and I have a personal training session in the morning. So, it looks as if I'm heading in the right direction. And I am always over in the protein category but I know MFP is set low. How much protein should I aim for? I get between 70-90 g a day. Most of that comes from lean meats and nuts.

dunno what grams you should be at, since I don't know your numbers, but usually between 18 and 30% is a decent amount to shoot for (30% being if you do a lot of muscle building activity, 18% being if you are focusing more on cardio type stuff, and for the majority, somewhere in the 20's).
That's 18 to 30% of your total macronutritents by the way (protein in grams divided by carbs plus fat plus protein in grams equals % protein)

protein from lean meats is great! Be aware though, with many nuts you aren't getting complete amino acids and need to couple it with certain other foods to complete the protein. You can google complete proteins and see what I mean, it's not hard to complete them, but you need to do so or the protein isn't going to work for you. Meats are always complete proteins by the way.

staceyw37

So get out there and do that High Intensity work and weight training. The key is, push yourself beyond being comfortable when working out. If you are comfortable, at your level, you aren't doing much for your body. That means fatigue, that means sweat, that means working muscles close to or right up to technical failure.

Sigh. Guess that means upping the resistance on the AMT machine. Again.

Heh! Welcome to my world.

yeah--i have a q about that. what if you couldn't maintain that level of intense training--for whatever reason. what happens to the built up muscle?

i've always stayed away from upping my cardio and/or wt training to something really serious partly b/c i can't guarantee that i could keep that pace "forever." (and partly cuz i don't have that level of mental commitment)
even with my goals now, weeks like this one make it hard. (kids sick, i'm recovering from asthma flare-up, hubby's long hours and general housework to catch up on...) i'm not complaining, just being realistic at where my time goes and how i have to switch priorities.

so anyway, i'm just curious what happens to the body if you go down to a much "lower" level of exercise after having built up those muscles and reduced body fat #s??

any info is appreciated. :flowerforyou:

SHBoss1673

yeah--i have a q about that. what if you couldn't maintain that level of intense training--for whatever reason. what happens to the built up muscle?

i've always stayed away from upping my cardio and/or wt training to something really serious partly b/c i can't guarantee that i could keep that pace "forever." (and partly cuz i don't have that level of mental commitment)
even with my goals now, weeks like this one make it hard. (kids sick, i'm recovering from asthma flare-up, hubby's long hours and general housework to catch up on...) i'm not complaining, just being realistic at where my time goes and how i have to switch priorities.

so anyway, i'm just curious what happens to the body if you go down to a much "lower" level of exercise after having built up those muscles and reduced body fat #s??

any info is appreciated. :flowerforyou:

Well, the thing is, you don't need to work as hard or as long to maintain muscle as you do to build it. Remember, when building muscle you're actually pushing the body far enough for it to say "OH, I can't do this very well, I better add some more muscle to help myself out."
But when you are trying to maintain your body is saying "OK, this is strenuous, but not OVERLY taxing, I'm good where I am."

So with that in mind, all you really need to do to maintain is work hard enough to keep the muscles developed, not so hard that you are building more. No need to kill yourself if you like where you're at.

I'm not sure of the exact ratio, but I would estimate somewhere about 70% of your max effort should keep you solid where you are. I could be a little off there, but 70% is usually pretty doable without feeling worn out all the time.

staceyw37

yeah--i have a q about that. what if you couldn't maintain that level of intense training--for whatever reason. what happens to the built up muscle?

i've always stayed away from upping my cardio and/or wt training to something really serious partly b/c i can't guarantee that i could keep that pace "forever." (and partly cuz i don't have that level of mental commitment)
even with my goals now, weeks like this one make it hard. (kids sick, i'm recovering from asthma flare-up, hubby's long hours and general housework to catch up on...) i'm not complaining, just being realistic at where my time goes and how i have to switch priorities.

so anyway, i'm just curious what happens to the body if you go down to a much "lower" level of exercise after having built up those muscles and reduced body fat #s??

any info is appreciated. :flowerforyou:

Well, the thing is, you don't need to work as hard or as long to maintain muscle as you do to build it. Remember, when building muscle you're actually pushing the body far enough for it to say "OH, I can't do this very well, I better add some more muscle to help myself out."
But when you are trying to maintain your body is saying "OK, this is strenuous, but not OVERLY taxing, I'm good where I am."

So with that in mind, all you really need to do to maintain is work hard enough to keep the muscles developed, not so hard that you are building more. No need to kill yourself if you like where you're at.

I'm not sure of the exact ratio, but I would estimate somewhere about 70% of your max effort should keep you solid where you are. I could be a little off there, but 70% is usually pretty doable without feeling worn out all the time.

thank you so much for explaining. i honestly thought it just turned to flabby parts. thanks for the prompt and informative reply--as usual.