Thread: I'm more determined than ever!

I'm a pretty new member here, so I thought I should post my first post! I've been doing lots of reading on the forums and there's a lot of interesting info! Hopefully you guys & girls might be able to give me some feedback that will help me reach my goals!

I really want to decrease my BMI without 'bulking up' too much. I'm pretty happy with the muscle that I have - it's just hidden! In particular I'd like to show off my strong abs which are hiding :-(

By May (because it's my birthday) I'd like to be consistently under 65kg. I'm not sure what a realistic goal for my BMI% should be (maybe someone can make a suggestion?)

My stats:
Female
25 yrs
Weight: 68.7kg
Height: 5'7"
Waist:32"
Hips: 38 1/4"
BMI: 27.62%

6 weeks ago I upped my training regime and cleaned up my diet a lot. So far I haven't lost any weight, but my legs, arms and abs are noticebly more toned, so I'm sure I've increased in lean mass. At least no-one believes me when I tell them I am almost 70kg!!

Training in a typical week for me includes:
3 x 1hr "boot camp" (mostly HIIT with some boxing)
5 x runs of 6-10km (I run at about 12km/hr) - on the road, not a treadmill!
3 x ab/core strength
1 x 1hr yoga
HEAPS of stretching for flexibility

I don't have a gym membership (too pricey!) so do strength training in amongst everything, such as push-ups, squats, lunges, etc

I am a runner so can't afford to go on any diet that's going to mean that I have no energy! I don't eat a whole lot of carbs like bread, cereal, pasta etc because I avoid the gluten.

I don't have a strict eating plan (I find that if I don't have flexibility it all gets too hard and I give up) but I eat mostly:
Meat - chicken (breast, no skin), fish (no skin) and kangaroo only
Fruit - bananas, apples, pears, lots of berries, tomato
Veg - capsicum, leafy greens, sweet potato, mushrooms, asparagus, carrot
Dairy - A2 lite milk & 'no fat' yogurt for digestion
Brown rice
Whey protein shake with banana & 1-2 raw eggs
Breakfast - gluten-free museli with banana

I try to eat 5-6 times a day (is working a lot better for me since I switched to this 6 weeks ago!), and not for 30-60mins after exercise. My only 'cheat' so far is icecream! I have cut back from 2 to 1 scoops each serve though!

I'm determined to keep my diet 'clean' and keep my fitness up. Hopefully I keep dropping the inches!

Originally Posted by Chicken

My stats:
Female
25 yrs
Weight: 68.7kg
Height: 5'7"
Waist:32"
Hips: 38 1/4"
BMI: 27.62%

Training in a typical week for me includes:
3 x 1hr "boot camp" (mostly HIIT with some boxing)
5 x runs of 6-10km (I run at about 12km/hr) - on the road, not a treadmill!
3 x ab/core strength
1 x 1hr yoga
HEAPS of stretching for flexibility

I don't have a strict eating plan (I find that if I don't have flexibility it all gets too hard and I give up) but I eat mostly:
Meat - chicken (breast, no skin), fish (no skin) and kangaroo only
Fruit - bananas, apples, pears, lots of berries, tomato
Veg - capsicum, leafy greens, sweet potato, mushrooms, asparagus, carrot
Dairy - A2 lite milk & 'no fat' yogurt for digestion
Brown rice
Whey protein shake with banana & 1-2 raw eggs
Breakfast - gluten-free museli with banana

I try to eat 5-6 times a day (is working a lot better for me since I switched to this 6 weeks ago!), and not for 30-60mins after exercise.

Looks like you are doing everything right... plenty of exercise that's for sure, and your food choices are sound.

I wouldn't worry about BMI - it's not a good indicator for an athelete (my BMI puts me in "Morbidly Obese" range, which I think is a bit off).

Just keep doing what you're doing - you only have 3 or 4 kgs to lose in 3 months to meet your goal - should do it easy if you stay consistent. Bear in mind though - eating for weight loss and eating for performance can be 2 different things. If you do start hitting a plateau I wouldn't cut Carbs all together but you may wish to reduce them and / or particularly focus on when in the day you consume them. Similarly, reduce Fruit to one or two pieces a day and cut out Dairy (temporarily) until you get to your goal, but only as I say if you find yourself gettting stuck.

Just my thoughts - others may have a different take on it.

Welcome to Size Matters!

Wow that is a lot of running - how do your shins, knees and ankles hold up? Are you training specifically for a running event?

why do you choose not to eat for 30-60 minutes after exercise - this is the window for post workout nutrition. Your empty cells are crying out for replenishment!

Tim

Thanks for the replies guys!

VAS, that sounds like sound advice - cheers.

Tim, my shins, knees and right foot struggle sometimes! I do cut back on distance if I am having particular issues (especially in winter when my joints seize up a bit). I'm not training for a specific event (though I will be doing the City2Surf later in the year), but I do have a challenge to run 200km (or 300km stretch target) over the whole of March - I'm part of a group who have chosen 100 or 200km to run individually.

Not eating 30-60mins after exercise was the advice given to me by my trainer (and my previous trainer too) to maximise fat loss - 1) your body is still burning the energy it's already got, and 2) your digestion isn't functioning as well straight after exercise. It sounds logical to me, but do you know of advice to the contrary?

Originally Posted by Chicken

Not eating 30-60mins after exercise was the advice given to me by my trainer (and my previous trainer too) to maximise fat loss - 1) your body is still burning the energy it's already got, and 2) your digestion isn't functioning as well straight after exercise. It sounds logical to me, but do you know of advice to the contrary?

Convenional wisdom is that for optimal muscle recovery you need to get some protein and high GI carbs into your muscles quickly after exercise, to enable them to repair, and perform better next time. Whilst fat loss may be your goal, running 200km in a month requires you to treat your nutrition like an endurance athlete. I think that failing to eat for 30-60 minutes post workout is poor advice.

Hopefully Clown Boy (on this forum) chimes in, he is training for an Ironman triathalon and will have an opinion on this.

Tim

i think you need some wt work, at least to off set all the overload tour running does for your quads, hip flexors etc but if tyou're not building muscle then you're losing muscle and when you're losing muscle you're getting fatter...

for now i'd just keep qwith the running goal and attend the fat loss goal after that

i don't think you even need the bootcamp with all the aerobic training you're doing aleady and the cash could go to a gym membership

Originally Posted by swans05

i think you need some wt work, at least to off set all the overload tour running does for your quads, hip flexors etc but if tyou're not building muscle then you're losing muscle and when you're losing muscle you're getting fatter...

i don't think you even need the bootcamp with all the aerobic training you're doing aleady and the cash could go to a gym membership

I'm actually doing the boot camp since I'm not doing weight training - we use medicine balls and do a lot of other strength work too. Plus it's free (a benefit at work!), so not costing me anything. I cancelled my gym membership back in September because I was spending too much time on weights and not enough on cardio! (plus wanted to save the money).

Perhaps I should just invest in some dumbells?

yeah but then you need to keep adding to them to make them heavier...gym at work too?