Weigh-in Week of January 28

[Wahine]

I didn't really word that very well. I started weighing myself every day to monitor my hydration levels. What was alarming me, wasn't so much "am I losing fat" but what the... is going on with my hydration. It seems bizarre to me that you can lose that much water in one day, and how can that be good for you?

Wahine, it's the weighing yourself every day. I know my body weight fluctuates two pounds either way. Of course when it's fluctuating down I'm kind of happy.

And do you really think you need to lose any weight? It sounds like you're wicked active and the low 140s may be right for you.

V.

You're right. I am very active and low 140s this time of the year is not a bad weight for me. Usually once I start my truly long bike rides, I'll drop another 3 to 5 lbs in a month or 2. I am hoping to be happily hanging out at 135 come race day. I think this is pretty reasonable, I still have some trouble spots that have the good ol cottage cheese look and when I was 25 or 26, I weighed 125ish lbs at 5'7" and 14% or 16% body fat, (I can't quite remember).

If I don't get down to 135, that's OK. I'm not going to be upset. But there are a lot of hills at IM Canada and my strength to weight ratio could use a little help. Notice that I am not part of the climbing club, because my climbing sucks.

The other option is to drink beer like a feind and hit 150 lbs. That would land me in the Athena category. What do you think? Just kidding. I love the Athena athletes and what they are doing. I don't think it would be very cool of me to purposefully gain weight just so that I could sneak in at the bottom end of the category.

[velogirl]

Down 50 pounds! Yup. But I had gained about that much over the course of 3 years. In April 2002 I weighed 144. By May 2005 (after finally being diagnosed with a thyroid condition and then having two major surgeries), I weighed over 190 -- all the while eating right and riding 15-20 hours a week.

By Feb 2006 (9 months later), I was down to about 155 (about 35 pounds of weight loss). I fluctuated a bit last season (back into the low 160s). On Novemer 13th, 2006, at 159 pounds, I decided the last 20 pounds had to go. I began a serious caloric restriction program -- deficiting myself 500 - 1000 calories a day. I've been losing about 2 pounds a week since then and am now down to 141. I think I'll cry the morning I step on the scale and it reads 130-something.

My original goal was 140 by Feb 28th, but I revised that to 130 by March 31st, so I've got 11 pounds to go. I finally look like myself again and I can finally climb hills again, too!

[kelownagirl]

Well I'm just here to pout that I weighed exactly 124.0 this morning. If I had been 123.9 I wouldn't owe dh a back rub tonight. I told him it was going to be a rough one because I need to burn off some calories.

[Wahine]

Wow velogirl, that's amazing. congratulations!! I'm glad they figured out what was wrong and that you've been able to fight to get back to where you want to be. That's some pretty amazing discipline to restrict your diet by 500 to 1000 cal less a day. Yikes! I hope I never have to do that. I love eating too much.

Edit: sorry you have to give the backrub KG. Maybe you should go out and buy one of those hand held massagers, they require significantly less effort. There was nothing in the deal that said you couldn't right?

[velogirl]

Here are my lessons from this process (well, a few of them anyways). All of this assumes a normal, functioning thyroid. Although I work in the industry and studied nutrition and physiology, these were big lightbulbs for me, probably because this was the first time in all the years I've used a food and activity journal that my body has done exactly what it was supposed to do.

#1 -- Our bodies are extremely efficient. If we follow our gut instincts (pun totally intended) we will eat exactly the number of calories we burn each day. When I plateaued in February, this is exactly what happened to me.

#2 -- We over-eat for emotional reasons -- loneliness, sadness, celebration, boredom, fatigue, etc. Over-eating is not a natural physiological response. Our body doesn't want us to injest more calories than it needs and you can feel the negative physical effects when you do.

#3 -- It is extremely hard to under-eat/deficit. This takes discipline, commitment, and the ability to make rational desicions (even when you're glycogen-deficient). Each night I review my food and activity journal and make a conscious decision not to over-eat.

But the good news is that once I reach my goal weight, I can go back to scenario #1.