Calorie deficit/no weight loss

[Veronica]

Do you know your body fat percentage? Losing 5 pounds may not really be feasible or it may take awhile.

If you weigh 125 and your BF is already say 18% - I'm guessing since you said "race" that it's already pretty low. That means you have 22.5 pounds of fat, leaving you 102.5 pounds of lean mass. If the 5 pounds you lose are purely fat, that drops you down to 14.6% body fat. And it's not easy to get that low. You'll have to experiment with getting enough fuel to do your workouts, but not so much that you're not in a slight calorie deficit. You might even look at what types of calories are you getting.

Now if your core is "mushy," building it will increase your muscle mass, burn more calories and help your riding.

Veronica

[tealtreak]

Do you know your body fat percentage? Losing 5 pounds may not really be feasible or it may take awhile.

If you weigh 125 and your BF is already say 18% - I'm guessing since you said "race" that it's already pretty low. That means you have 22.5 pounds of fat, leaving you 102.5 pounds of lean mass. If the 5 pounds you lose are purely fat, that drops you down to 14.6% body fat. And it's not easy to get that low. You'll have to experiment with getting enough fuel to do your workouts, but not so much that you're not in a slight calorie deficit. You might even look at what types of calories are you getting.

Now if your core is "mushy," building it will increase your muscle mass, burn more calories and help your riding.

Veronica

wow- glad I happened upon this thread- since I upped my mileage/intensity/training I have also gained 4 lbs...but (menopause)..also turned 50.............trying to decide??? should I lose it? can I? Really, the only thing I can cut out is my 3-4 glasses of wine/week..........It almost sounds like you are saying the only way to know is get a body fat analysis done and go from there.........are skin caliper measurements at the gym reliable enough?

[Veronica]

All depends on how accurate the person with the calipers is.

I've had the same person doing mine for the last few years so I feel like the numbers are accurate to themselves. If she's off, it's more likely to be consistently off.

I think it will at least give you a starting place. Personally, if I only looked at BMI or height/weight charts I would think I needed to weigh 125 - 135. And I can point to fatty places on my body. Knowing that I have 120 pounds of lean mass, means 125 is out of the question for me. I am actually working at getting down to 136. But I only want to maintain that through my season. IF I can lose it and still race well.

Veronica

[Wahine]

V. That is a fantastic post. Very well put.

As a coach and healthcare professional, I strongly recommend that anyone who wants to get down to some ideal race weight should have their body fat percentage tested to establish if it is realistic. If you get skinfold testing done, it will be more accurate if the person doing it has a lot of experience and also if they use more points. Having said that, hydrostatic weighing is of course the best option.

I participated in a research study once upon a time when I was really quite lean. The skin fold tests had my body fat estimate at 19% while my hydrostatic weighing put me at 14.5%. The explanation I got is that my BF distribution is not typical of women, that I have less intramuscular fat than predicted. So in my case the women's formula used to predict body fat percentage with skinfold testing is quite inaccurate. Having said that, what Veronica says about not worrying about the numbers as absolute values but instead using them as guidelines to look at trends in fat loss or gain is an excellent way to use these tools.

Lastly, think very hard about what the cost of losing that last 5 lbs is compared to what you will gain. I mean this in terms of performance, but also life balance. Is someone paying you to race? If not, is a trophy worth being unhealthy and prone to other issues like bone loss and immune system weakness? Is losing the weight really going to make you faster? Or is it possible that your performance may go down? Is what you will have to go through to loose the weight going to increase your life "stress-load"? If it is, your body may start to produce more cortisol which tends to make us hold onto/or gain weight instead of losing it.

[OJazzy1]

Those are some great posts ladies! It was great to "eavesdrop" on this one and get some perspective!

[alevinsky]

Thanks for the posts, ladies. Those are some great perspectives. In all honesty, I think if I can "get comfortable" with where my body is, I will stop being so obsessed with dropping those pounds.

Though, I think the biggest thing, is making sure that I'm fueling my body properly aside from the mindset of weight loss.

Like I said, I've been trying my best to eat 2100-2500 calories/day but I'm having a lot of trouble reaching that.

My NET calorie intake shouldn't be so low as 1,200, correct? Because that's what I'm hitting most days.

[Susan]

At 5'4 and 125-130 pounds, you seem to be very slim already. So I would consider that your body just isn't comfortable with losing more weight and is holding onto whatever fat it has left.
So what Veronika pointed out seems a good point to me: maybe it would make more sense to put on some muscles than to try to drop more weight. It's likely that you won't race stronger if you are starving yourself.


That said, your calorie-intake seems quite high for trying to lose weight. I wouldn't force myself into eating more if you don't feel like eating more. Of course it all depends on your body, how fast your metabolim is etc.
But if I compare your numbers to myself - at 5'4 and about 150 pounds (hope I got that right this time - is a little less than 70 Kilogramm), and fairly active (1hr/day, more on weekends) I maintain my weight at about 1800-2000 calories a day (not NET calories but total calorie-intake from my meals).

Edit: I don't feel comfortable with the thought that you could take this as a recommendation to lower your calorie-intake.
My personal recommendation would be: do whatever feels good for you. Maybe just stop counting calories for some time if you have the feeling that you obsess about it. Eat if you are hungry, stop if you are full. It's as simple as that

[Wahine]

My NET calorie intake shouldn't be so low as 1,200, correct? Because that's what I'm hitting most days.

IMHO - you are absolutely right. 1200 cal would be low for a somewhat active woman of your size. It's definitely low for an active woman.

Again, if you have your body fat tested, you can get an estimate of how many calories you need a day based on your lean mass, then add in what you burn with activity and you have a decent estimate of your daily caloric needs. Keep in mind of course that estimates of calorie expenditure are all over the map depending on the source, I usually use lower estimates to err on the side of caution.

Then finally, if you want to lose weight, you would be best off trying to hit a consumption level that is about 80% of your daily caloric needs. This level of restriction allows for weight loss while not upsetting you metabolic hormone levels.

I hope that helps.

[tealtreak]

Lots of good advice here! Thanks everyone (: