Need to lose weight but am not overweight
en28
Posts: 4
In fact, I'm pretty skinny. I'm 5'7" and 135 but I need to lose weight for the crew team at my university. They want me to be 125. Over winter break, I managed to get it down to 128, but since then I have lost all motivation and the tricks that used to keep me from eating don't work anymore (ie. bubble gum, distraction, willpower) and I've gained back all the weight and then some more. My 1500 calorie/day diet is no longer working - whenever I binge (pretty often now), I get all the guilt and depression that I would get if I was actually overweight. I really want to get down to 125, for the good of the team, but now I am not sure how to go about it. I can't seem to control my binges anymore, especially at the college buffets. I'm also trying to keep what muscle I have - I realize that it will be extremely hard to get down to 125 and not lose any muscle. Any suggestions? Ways to go about it that are different from what I have been doing? I do not want my relationship with food to be terrible for the rest of my life.
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Do you need to maintain that weight over a period of time or just hit it occasionally for competition? If it's the latter, you could look into all the tricks that powerlifters, wrestlers, and others who need to make a weight class use.0
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If you are on a crew team at a university how about asking the coach or a trainer for help.0
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Perhaps you can try filling up on water before every meal? There was a lady who wrote a book about food volume which I think was targeted to overweight people, but I think some of the concepts might help you. The idea is to lower your caloric intake without too much pain, fill up on high volume foods with lower calories. I think you're facing a big challenge being at a healthy weight and being physically active as you are, because, well, you're hungry for what your body needs, and there's no physical need to lose weight.
You mentioned the college buffet, so if one issue is eating more than you want to at the buffet (which technically speaking, you're probably NOT overeating), then maybe try a new routine of filling up on low calorie foods? Eat soup and salad with lots of lettuce before getting whatever else you want, but get a smaller portion of the higher calorie foods.
Also, I'm sure you drink a lot of water, but if you go for a cup of water before you're thirsty and certainly before you eat, you may eat less. When you have those binge days, do the same with some low calorie foods (green veggies, cut peppers, low calorie fruit) or water.
Outside of that, maybe squeeze in an extra 15 minutes of aerobics at the end or beginning of the day, every day, on top of what you normally do.
If you're logging your calories here, you'll need a deficit, which I'm assuming you know, so it sounds like you're just trying to figure out how to chuck those 10 lbs for your team without agony.0 -
I only need to hit it for competition about once every weekend, but I figure that it would be healthier to maintain a weight of 125 rather than fluctuate between weights, is this correct? I will certainly look into the techniques that wrestlers use though, that's a good idea, punkin.
@anifani; I have talked to the nutritionist, but I think the problem is not so much I don't know what to do (which is, create a calorie deficit) but rather the problems I have trying to implement it. If I could have the coach sitting next to me and regulating my food for me, I certainly would. I have problems regulating myself.
Thanks for the tips, devrinator! I will have to try to consciously try these next time because whenever I walk in, all my dieting plans go out the window.
Just to clarify, I am the coxswain, not an actual rower, so I am essentially dead weight in the boat. I do, however, get my fair amount of exercise in, by running every day. I am training for a half marathon in April0 -
Hmmm, once a week is fairly frequent to be cycling weight, so I'm not sure if that will be appropriate in the long term. You could at least try it once or twice and decide if it's sustainable or at least a good interim solution. I don't know that much about it, but I know it often involves water loading and then temporary dehydration. Because you aren't actually rowing it might be fine, since it shouldn't affect your performance.
Normally I would tell you to lift heavy weights, because it will make you physically smaller, but the number on the scale usually goes up, so probably not appropriate in this case.
I think I might know what the problem is. Your Basal Metabolic Rate, which is the number of calories your body would use if you were in a coma, is 1450 calories, and you say that's what you've been eating only 1500. You pretty much always want to eat more than your BMR or you just won't be able to stick to your diet. I'd be willing to bet that because you binge sometimes, on other days you go under your calorie goal, and thus under your BMR?
Give yourself a goal of 1800 calories a day, but make sure you eat at least 1500, and don't eat back your exercise calories. Depending on how active you are, this will give you a deficit between 200-500 calories a day, still more than enough to lose weight. This should be an easier target to hit. The goal is to lose between one pound and half of one pound a week.
I eat 1800 cal/day and I usually still have room in my calorie budget for a little sweet or something every day. Because I allow myself to eat anything if I want it, I don't get cravings the same way I would if I were depriving myself. Focus on putting more protein in your diet, it will help stave off muscle loss and will keep you feeling full for longer. Eat more green veggies; not only are they good for you, but you can pretty much eat as many as you want because they are low cal and filling. And when you eat grains, try to pick whole grains; they have more fibre which will also help you feel fuller. Drink more water and less juice - why waste the calories? haha
If you give yourself a bit more food, and focus a bit more on the types of foods you're eating, you should be able to eat at a caloric deficit without feeling hungry all the time. I actually feel like a pig when I eat at maintenance levels and have a hard time hitting my targets while eating clean, because I've learned how to fill myself on less. But don't eliminate things completely. You want a cookie? Have a cookie. Plan to have a cookie, leave enough room in your caloric budget for the cookie. You can lose weight eating only twinkies if you want, but you will be hungry all the time, haha.
Good luck!!0 -
The problem with how wrestlers and other athletes drop weight for competition is that they drop as much water weight as possible out of their bodys, by running in sweat suits, sitting in saunas and other things to get as much liquid out of their body before weigh in. It is possible to get 7-9 lbs or more off this way. However, I will leave you drained and depleted for the rest of the day. You will be incredibly weak. So what they do is after weigh in they rehydrate themselves and get a lot of calories back in. They usually have a day between weigh in and actual match time to do this. Or in my case in HS we had half a day. But by doing it this way lets say they hit their goal of 135 for the weigh in. They will probably be close to 150 by the time the match starts.
First off doing it this way isn't healthy at all. Second from your sport it doesnt sound like it works for you anyway. Just get your diet under control and things will fall into place0 -
Laci labeu's super dieters tea... thats bot real though. Crew doesnt have weigh ins or weight limts... does it?
No Fat, No Sugar.0 -
You are correct in thinking that I often cycle through eating too much and too little, though recently it's moved from day to day cycling to meal to meal cycling. I never thought that eating more would help but I will try it out and see how it goes. Thanks for the advice! Hopefully I can move past the binges. Any thoughts on being able to resist food?
Heavyweight crew does not have weight limits, but I am on the lightweight team and everybody has to be under 160, with the average weight of the boat at 155. Technically, I do not have to lose weight to be a coxswain, but I would like to so that the boat is lighter and the crew has less to pull.0 -
I've been though really similar stuff with my weight (I'm 5'6 and started at about 135), and what really worked for me was taking a step back from obsessing about calories. Instead of thinking about calories, I started thinking about the nutritional content of food. I am not an "eat whatever you like as long as you make deficit" type, because I'm pretty all or nothing when it comes to junk food. I can say "no" to chips no problem, but if I have "just one" I won't be able to stop myself from eating the whole bag. By finding ways to really enjoy healthy foods, I don't eat the unhealthy ones. I also don't feel compelled to binge on healthy food because it doesn't have the addicting (salty, sugary, etc.) things about it.0
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It's hard for me to say what would be causing you to binge and therefore what would help you stop.
For me personally, if I tell myself I can't have something (no cookies ever!) then that's all I think about, and I end up eating a lot of them (eat the whole bag of cookies). So I have dispensed with the idea of off limits foods. I allow myself to eat anything I want, but I plan for the things I want in my daily budget. I do my best during the day to eat foods that are very filling but low calorie, and then whatever I have left in the budget after dinner, I will allow myself as a treat if I like. I also have an upper and lower calorie limit that I try to stick to, and won't allow myself to go to bed if I haven't eaten my minimum number. This keeps me from being ravenous and going way over the next day. My lower limit is my BMR, by the way.
On days where I really want something, but it's not in the calorie budget, I will log it in MFP before I actually eat it. By seeing what's in it and what effect it will have on me meeting my goals that day, it helps me decide if it is worth it or not. If it is, I eat it, if it's not, I don't feel the temptation anymore. And I refuse to feel guilty for going over on calories, guilt has never gotten me anywhere other than unhappiness.
I also track my weight every day and look only at the trend line, not the daily fluctuations. It makes it very easy to see the cause and effect between what I eat and what happens on the scale. It's really hard to stick to a diet if you aren't seeing results.
One thing you might consider trying is to just cut out almost all carbs and sugars for one week. For most people this results in a huge first week weight loss due to decreased water weight. It can help with diet adherance to see results like that. You won't ever maintain that rate of weightloss, and it wouldn't be healthy if you did, but it can be helpful nonetheless to kick start things. I haven't done it, and I don't think it would be enjoyable, so maybe save it as a plan B if eating a little more and allowing yourself to eat the things you like doesn't help with the bingeing. I just worry that something like this wouldn't help with bingeing.0 -
Thanks for all the help, guys. I think what I will do is try to change the way I think about food in general, though you all know as well as I do that such a mental change is the hardest part about dieting. The idea of planning for the things I want in my daily budget is a good one that I have never thought of before, at least for a start because my goal is more about losing weight in the short term, and then eating healthier in the long term (for example, eating healthier after crew season ends so the weight I gain back is not all from junk food). I think this whole calorie counting thing is actually very stressful so I definitely need to view things in a different light. Thanks0
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solution is Fat Loss Factor Diet Plan
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