March/April Weight Management Challenge

[Catrin]

Your body sure did a good job of adaptation! I find it interesting that you weren't hungry. I still battle hunger all the time. I ate roughly 1200 calories a day for about 8 months, then upped it to 1300 as my activity increased. Now I am running close to 1600. I was hungry at 1200, hungry at 1300 and hungry at 1600. I am surprised though that I seem to be doing fine with the increase in calories. And I enjoy having the extra to eat.

I sure would like to have the body fat and nutrition analysis done that you had done. I am not sure what my body fat is running now. My rough guess based on the army calculator which uses height and weight, plus neck, waist, belly and hip measurements is about 28%. I still need more muscle as compared to fat. I don't know if I run artificially high because I have too much extra skin around the belly, from birthing children and my large weight loss.

Apparently I need 1600-1800 on REST days, and 2000 on workout/ride days. This approach allows me to not have to worry about "net" calories...and on long ride days whatever I consume on the bike or in the 1st hour afterwards doesn't "count".

My body fat is a bit high, right at 33% and that is all belly & boobs. THAT is nothing new though the belly is far smaller than it was 90 pounds ago, but haven't had any luck moving the needle there in the last year. Sports nutritionist said that is because my body thinks that starvation is around the corner so it won't give up those fat stores without more consistent fuel.

I've been strength training for quite some time, but I am coming to think my previous trainer was more focused on "toning" rather than actually building muscle. Considering the shape I was in 2.5 years ago when I started with him that was certainly a valid and proper approach - but that needs to change now He did hit my legs pretty hard, but there are so many different ways to get there. To be fair I HAVE had a couple of injuries with...protracted recovery periods. That has an effect as well.