Oh, to be a loser...

[e.e.cummings]

It is frustrating to find the right balance between eating less to lose weight, but eating enough to fuel my workouts and rides. I saw my trainer yesterday - I am part of a 4 month program at my local gym - and there was no weight loss this week despite the fact that I did a 200 km ride on the weekend, and worked out during the week (I gave myself three days total rest before the ride). I know that muscle weighs more than fat and my body composition is doubtlessly changing. Actually I think a gained a pound since last week. I paid attention to eating very well, I was a good girl.

The evening of my first day of riding on my 200 km tour, I ordered a good meal and could only eat a quarter of it, my appetite seems to have shrunk. It is good on one hand but not so good on the other, I need to eat! What a problem to have ... I don't feel like eating as much, I get tired, I don't have good fuel for my workout. I am forcing myself to eat. In the back of my mind, I don't want to lose control and go back to my evil eating habits. I am paying more attention now to recovery nutrition, making sure I eat the right things immediately after my workout. That helps.

One of my issues was wanting to lose my protruding tummy. I look around in my spinning class and see women who have the same goals, but they have been spinning a lot longer than me and still have the tummy - they have the great legs, etc. but the tummy seems to be the stubborn bit. The trainer says the only way to work off that tummy is with cardio to burn the fat off to reveal that six pack, but it is discouraging to see others who have spent much longer at it who still have the same issue (people who I know are working hard and watching what they eat).

I read a post by tctrek (hey, Altanta - great town! I go there for AmericasMart! Amazing people...) and she said that she seemed to have more success shedding pounds with a more sedentary lifestyle than when she upped her training when it seemed to level off. Is this common? I feel like I am starting to experience that.

I am working on pacing myself on my workouts, and not overdoing it, alternating days, etc. I know overtraining is like one big sleeping pill that can knock you out and it is not an effective approach to weight control. I need to find balance!!!! By the way I am not premenopausal or have a thyroid issue, that's been checked. Any advice, referrals to books or websites, and experience is welcome....

[papaver]

relax... you'll lose weight eventually. Give it some time.

[GLC1968]

Unfortunately, some people are genetically predisposed to carry extra fat/flab in the belly and only some serious strict eating and disciplined workouts will get rid of it (and sometimes, not even then!).

Me? I have very little belly fat. Whoopdie do. I've got a lot of visible fat on my legs though and would kill to have a the long, lean legs that some of my 'belly-hating' friends have! Genetics can be a b1tch!

[Veronica]

Still have a bit of a belly myself at 21% BF. All that fat is below my belly button in the belly and my legs.

Upper body looks fantastic, but sometimes all I see is the belly and legs. Upper body was so easy to get to look good. I get lots of compliments, but I feel like a fraud because it was so easy...

I always get a little concerned when people start throwing out terms like overtraining or talk about not fueling enough. Training wise, listen to your body. It will tell you when you've had too much, if you listen.

Nutrition... well everybody has an opinion.

Veronica

[ny biker]

Not sure if this will help, but, I used to find I would stay at a steady weight or gain a few pounds when I was training for a century (100 miles, not metric). I would be very hungry after the ride so I'd eat a lot, and then would be so tired for several days afterwards that I had no energy for any exercise. I'm much better off doing more moderate efforts and doing them consistently.

I still do a few long rides each year but no longer than 60-70 miles, and most weekends during warm months I keep it to 30-45 miles (2-3 hours or so). That way I'm still able to exercise during the week and my appetite doesn't get as messed up by burning 4000+ calories in one day. During the winter I exercise indoors so I keep it to about an hour per session.

[Starfish]

I too am in month 4 of working in the gym with a trainer. I wanted weight loss and cross training for better overall strength, balance and athleticism. And, I am hoping to train for a really hard ride that is next August.

In about 4 months, I have lost 18.5 pounds, and it seems to have come off of everywhere pretty equally. I have 23 pounds more to lose. I am ADAMANT that I want them off by the end of January, because I plan to start harder training for the bike by then.

It is my experience, just for myself, that once I start hard outdoor bike training and mileage building, that it is VERY difficult for me to lose weight (and therefore work off the belly fat, or other fat).

So, for right now, instead of biking much or building volume, I am doing a 4-day split of resistance training, and only 30-45 minutes of cardio those days, plus one other day of cardio. I will start to build cardio volume on that day, and hopefully be up to 3 hours by end of January so I can start harder bike training.

I guess my long-winded point is, for me, for weight loss, frequency of workouts combined with weight training works better than really building volume and doing a lot of long rides. Once I start long hard rides, balancing the rest and fueling, let alone dieting, is challenge enough.

[shootingstar]

You know eecummings, sometimes our body bone frame just seems to keep certain lumps..positioned in place. How gravity pulls down on skin and over the bone, with remaining slack /firm skin over.

It makes me giggle when one used to read measurements of female model curvaceous measurements of 36-24-36 or similar.

Really? I've never had a 24 inch waist after I was approx. 11 yrs. old. And I never will. Waist has been and will always be bigger. I'm 50. I will always be one of these women who has only 4-5 inch difference between her bust and waist measurements.

And I'm slim, even underweight to some folks.

Just enjoy the regular cycling and other workouts. Throw your cycling passion in there and then weigh yourself in 5 months. Weighing yourself daily helps some people, but obviously it's driving you abit nuts. Great things happen when you aren't always paying attention daily. So better, to exercise consistently, eat healthy and weight yourself only occasionally.

[e.e.cummings]

It's like when they tell you not to open your investment statements every month - the ups and downs of the market will drive you crazy. So will stepping on the scale every five minutes. Being in this program for four months makes me too conscious of all of this. However, I will live through, take some of the good advice here and try to enjoy the ride. I am not shooting for barbie doll, but I would like to get some fat off of this tummy and feel more fit.

[e.e.cummings]

nybiker - according to my program I am supposed to eat 1600 calories a day.

I used to be slender and very athletic before I had my son. I have always been athletic from the time I was a young teen - cycling, running, swimming, scuba diving, kayaking, etc. Once I had my son, and went through other attempts at pregnancy, my body went soft. It just does not feel like the me I always knew. As far as genetics go, my mother is in amazing shape for a 75 year old - very fit, lots of walking. I want to get back to being her size again (we could wear the same clothes), not because I want to be some magazine version of an ideal, but because I felt natural at that stage of fitness.

[Biciclista]

Crankin, I didn't mean you shouldn't care about how you look. I just have seen so many well built lovely women on here griping about their imperfections. Then we get gals on here who are 100 lbs overweight; how must THEY feel?

[Kano]

Crankin, I didn't mean you shouldn't care about how you look. I just have seen so many well built lovely women on here griping about their imperfections. Then we get gals on here who are 100 lbs overweight; how must THEY feel?

The thing about being 15 pounds overweight this evening is that it's a slippery slope. ESPECIALLY if one has been 100 pounds overweight in the past. It really DOES require constant vigilance, because it creeps up way too easily and way too fast!

karen in Boise

[channlluv]

Crankin, I didn't mean you shouldn't care about how you look. I just have seen so many well built lovely women on here griping about their imperfections. Then we get gals on here who are 100 lbs overweight; how must THEY feel?

Well, as one of the gals with 100 lbs to lose, I can only speak for myself. When I hear the uberfit complaining about their bellies or whatever, I just sort of shrug. It shows me that we all have body image issues. It sort of blows me away what some of my superfit friends say. Once I was at a dinner party with four friends and me - they're all thin, fit, active people. We were talking about pregnancy and they all have more than one child. I've got one miracle child and I've lost five. I just sort of stay quiet for conversations like that, when women start talking about how challenging it is to juggle more than one kid's schedule, all the work it is, and so on. I feel really blessed to have my daughter and we get to do an awful lot together that I'm sure would be more challenging if there were a younger sibling inthe picture, but oh, to have that opportunity. Anway, in the course of the conversation, one of the women said she got up to nearly 200 pounds when she was pregnant the second time, with her son, and she felt like a total cow. She's 5'11". She could carry 200 pretty easy, but she weighs about 130 now, runs, swims, black belt, etc. I just about sank through the floor, sitting there weighing around 250 at the time. I wanted to leave, but it would have been really conspicuous.

I just think sometimes really fit people forget how lucky they are (and maybe lucky is a bad word - it's a lot of work being that fit, I know), or maybe they figure they've worked themselves into this kind of enviable physical shape, why can't they conquer this last little flaw, whatever it is.

Another friend, also 5'10-11" and the wife of a professional athlete and she's got legs down to there and plays volleyball and looks like she just jumped out of a magazine ad most of the time, she's doing this triathlon I'm doing this weekend, too. They both are, actually, she my other tall friend (I have a lot of really tall, thin friends, go figure). She was trying to convince me to do the triathlon, too (I'd brought it up that I'd like to do it, but hadn't been able to find a wetsuit to do the swim portion - I can swim the distance, but it would take me over 45 minutes because I'm just not fast yet, and hypothermia is a real concern, so I hadn't committed to doing the race), and she said they'd all been talking about how I'm probably the strongest of all of us, with my 50-mile bike rides, and how it's unfair that I've had so much trouble finding a wetsuit to fit, but mentioned that she has, too, being so tall and thin.

It gave me a new perspective. As someone once told me when I was lamenting that woman in black who rides around my lake on my path looking all gorgeous and powerful and leaving me and my mtb in the dust, everyone has their own issues.

I'm just so grateful to be moving around under my own power at all. I don't need assistance for anything physical. I'm way overweight, yes, but there are people who are so much more challenged than I. I feel lucky to be able to go ride my bike and feel like an athlete, and to get in the pool and swim ten laps with little breaks here and there, but ten laps, and sometimes fifteen, under my own power.

I do weigh frequently - every other day or so - and it helps keep me focused on the goal. I don't freak if the scale moves up a pound or two. It's all relative. I've lost 15 pounds over the last month and hardly anyone has noticed. Really, it's all relative. I'm still very weeble-shaped. (reference the photos on my new used Ruby Comp off Craigslist thread)

And maybe when I'm down to 135 and struggling with the remnants of the belly roll, I'll be lamenting the same way the uberfit are now. Who knows.

Roxy

[Crankin]

Well, I am fit, slim, and have no belly (genetic), but I still care about looking good, even at almost 56. There, I said it. I am pretty happy with my body and have accepted the fact that my bum will never be firm (it is smaller, though). My power to weight ratio sucks. I am weak. Even when I worked with a trainer, I was weak. I have to work on this...
I have found, the older I get, the less cardio I need to do to maintain my weight. It gets to a certain point (3-5 hour rides), I just get ravenously hungry. My appetite seems more consistent when I moderate my cardio. If I do at least 30-60 minutes 4 times a week, I will maintain. But, if I miss my yoga, core, strength stuff, I notice the difference. Try adding in more core work??
I weigh myself everyday. I look for a trend. Over two pounds up, I cut back on carbs. Since I like to eat and cook, this works for me.

[tctrek]

e.e.cummings>> you are correct, I did post about losing weight when I wasn't working out. I actually lost 30 pounds by eating 1200-1300 calories a day. I was completely sedentary.. went to the office and sat at the computer all day and came home. After losing 30 lbs, I started feeling so good, that I joined a gym and went to spinning classes. I loved that so much, I bought a bike... then a road bike... here I am 3 years later and I still weigh exactly the same as I did when I went into my 1st spinning class.

I go to an endocrinologist for my thyroid, and he tells me everything is perfect. I am post-menopausal and he says "sometimes that just happens". Big help he is... not!

I still have 25 pounds that I would like to lose, but it won't budge. 3 months ago, I decided to give up on *trying* to lose weight. Now, I just ride my bike, eat healthy and that's it. I don't eat whatever I want, but I don't diet either.

I still think that I SHOULD lose weight, because I know I burn more calories than I eat. After years of logging my food intake and my exercise I am 100% sure I do not eat too much. Posts like this, make me think about it and then I get kinda p.o.'d again that it won't come off... but I have to not dwell on that.

So whatever it is, genetics, age, hormones... I'm not going to let it take my joy anymore.