Can you stretch out the goal for a slightly later date? That way, you could probably add back in a few more calories to maintain your muscles. As you know, one way to alter your body fat is to either lose fat, or gain muscle.

Musclicious, just kidding about the oreos. I used to room with a fitness comopetitor, and her diet amazed me. Unfortunately, she hardly ever splurged, which made me feel terrible when I was eating ice cream!




Quote Originally Posted by runnergirl
I do use fitday-have for about a year now, and it is a great tool. I have a personal trainer who sets me up with weight training every few weeks, and he measured me with calipers. I plan on dropping 7 lbs, and having him check it again-that way it's consistent even if there's some error. The difficulty is that to lose I have to be around 1700 cals a day, while I burn 3000-4000. I ride 200 miles a week (1 long ride, 1 sprint work out, 1 interval workout, 1 race or race like group ride, 2 recovery rides, and 1 moderatly paced group ride). (BTW, this is all under the supervision of a coach) It's really tough getting all my nutrients in with so few calories to work with, not to mention timing eating around daily training.

My sports medicine doc (also a cyclist-races on the same team) has strictly forbidden me to drop below 16 or 17% bf. According to him anything below 15% is risky and not helpful for an endurence athlete.

Leah Goldstien is the best female climber in North America according to some, and she looks a lot like me size wise (google her for a pic). If she can outclimb male cat 1/2 racers at that size, it makes me wonder if the size obsession in racing that is common among male racers translates the same for women. I'm begining to think perhaps it's not, superlight women are not the first over the top, at least not from what I've seen.

I'm going to try to get down around 17-18% (which is what the dr. said was an ok goal) by December or January, but as I'm continuing to train I won't know if weight is a factor in improvement at all, or if I would've seen the same results 5lbs heavier.