The weight loss 'wall' - keep banging my head :-/

[WindingRoad]

I have about 10-15 Lbs I'd like to drop and I have yet to be able to hit this weight. I'm getting frustrated. I gather I probably need to mix up my workouts more. I am adding some Jullian workouts in hope of gaining more muscle. My time is really limited so I am trying to do the 'extra' workouts at home so not to add an extra trip to the gym. I'm tracking calories. I eat 1800 per day. I have had a hard time setting an ideal weight for myself. I'm a pear shaped figure, I have ridiculously muscular legs from riding. That was the first place I bulked up when I started riding. That doesn't bother me I just wanna get more muscular elsewhere. I usually hit my calorie goal but sometimes I'm over. I'm also waaaay under some days too so i feel like im usually running a deficit. Generally I burn 1000 calories at spin because I spin for 90 minutes on average. Like I said I do extra long spins bc of time restraints. Any of you have any suggestion to get rid of the last 10 or so lbs?

[tulip]

I lost 10 lbs when I cut out sugar, bread, pasta, potatoes...but I ate plenty of great food! It's hard to break the sugar and bread habit, but it does work, and it feels great.

[OakLeaf]

Generally I burn 1000 calories at spin because I spin for 90 minutes on average.

That seems like a way high calorie burn estimate. How did you calculate it?

Also, are you sure your goal is realistic? What percentage body fat are you now, and what would you like to be? I honestly don't think most women can sustain anything below about 20% or so without long endurance workouts, which you say aren't in your time budget ... and really the only reason you'd need to be at a lower % would be if you are competing at something. Bodybuilders don't sustain their competition BF% year round, only during competition, so if you're thinking you want to look like that, that isn't necessarily healthy.

I think reducing grains is a really good idea for most people and it should help you with blood sugar control, which ought to help with weight control also, though I can't speak to that from personal experience since I was already sustaining an acceptable BF% for me before I started reducing grains.

[Crankin]

+1 to adding strength training/functional fitness. This helped me drop 5-6 pounds last winter. Right now, I've reached a plateau and I'm trying to switch a lot of things up with both eating and exercise. Reducing grains does work, especially at first.
There's no way I could spin or do the trainer for 90 minutes. Generally 45 minutes on the trainer and an hour spin is all I can take. If you have any snow around, what about sow shoeing, up some hills?
It's a fine line between fueling your efforts and not eating so much you can't lose. Although it's counter intuitive, sometimes, backing off of hard efforts while losing weight, helps. I've found my days of greatest loss comes during my rest days or days when I just walk or do an easy spin on the trainer.

[Becky]

My experience has been similar to Tulip's, since I ditched grains and most added sugar. I've lost about 7 lbs since this time last year but, more importantly, my body composition has changed. The number on the scale hasn't changed much in the past 3-4 months, but my clothes are all looser. I've definitely gotten leaner without doing too much calorie counting.

[Catrin]

Ditto - same experience with Becky and Tulip. It is important to note that the "reported" calories are often incorrect, I've read that they can be over or under by as much as 20%. I pay less attention to over-all calories than I once did (though I average between 1700-1850 or so) and more to protein/fat/carb macros - with the same caveat.

[WindingRoad]

I think my calorie count is correct because I'm usually under what the spin bike says. I have a polar which is pretty accurate, it's calibrated for my age and weight. It's a long hard workout no doubt. As far as food goes I can try cutting some carbs. I'm not racing but I would like to do some long, hilly rides this spring/summer if I can get myself back in any kind of shape for it.

[OakLeaf]

I still think the calorie burn estimate is suspicious. It depends on your condition, obviously, but for me, a calorie burn of nearly 700/hour is past my anaerobic threshold, i.e., I simply couldn't sustain it for an hour and a half. It's more like my 5K pace. Does your VO2 max - or at least your resting and MHR - go into your watch's calculations?

Outdoors, it's true, your weight will matter on hills and start/stops, and your surface area to the wind will matter all the time (which has as much to do with your riding position as with your size). On a spin bike your size and weight really don't matter to your calorie consumption.


And, most importantly, this sentence "I have had a hard time setting an ideal weight for myself." is the place to start. Get your body composition tested, and set your goal in terms of BF%, not in terms of total body weight.

[Becky]

Get your body composition tested, and set your goal in terms of BF%, not in terms of total body weight.

Winding Road, if you find a place to have such testing done, could you please share it? I'm not far from you, and struggling to find a place that does hydrostatic testing. Thanks!

[Kathi]

I'm not the best person to discuss weight issues but I agree with the others. We ski 3-5 days a week and pack lunches. My breakfast includes yogurt sprinkled with cereal, not a whole serving and an energy bar. We pack lunches for the slopes but trying to find good food to pack in a small pack that my SO carries with him is not easy. He packs the lunches and often uses packaged meats, and soups, which means a lot of sodium. We include some small oranges and share an apple but I also drink a packaged chai tea drink. When we get home I enjoy a small glass of brandy but then I munch on chips or cheese and crackers. Then we eat dinner which usually includes a half a glass of wine. At this altitude I can't drink alot. I drink a lot of water but still felt thirsty, (dry air and high altitudes).

I didn't think the sugar and salt I was consuming meant much as I'm very small but I am gaining a pooch, common for a woman my age. After my rant last week about my friends on weight watchers I took a look at my own diet. I had already gotten rid of the processed meats, peanut butter sandwiches instead. This week I made my own energy brick, which is filling enough that I don't eat a lot of it and can grab it for a quick snack when I need a pick me up. This morning for breakfast I added a hardboiled egg along with my cup of yogurt sprinkled with cereal. At lunch yesterday and today I substituted herbal chai tea for the sugary, processed stuff and included a couple of dried apricots along with my pnut butter sandwich and half an apple.
I can't believe the difference in how I feel. I didn't feel bloated when I went to bed last night. This morning I woke feeling energetic, even though I skied pretty hard yesterday, and got to the slopes an hour earlier than normal. We've gotten lots of snow this week and spent the morning skiing powder and bumps. I was starving when I got to lunch and did ski more relaxed this afternoon but I'm still not hungry and passed on the nacho chips, instead drinking a cup of mint tea. I don't feel as thirsty but that could be due to the high humidity (snow) right now.

I do still eat some bread and pasta, we had it for dinner last night. I also don't drink pop (sodas), eat fast food etc. lots of desserts or candy. Keep in mind that I'm not on a diet, or ever will follow any particular diet, but I find it interesting that making a few small changes in my diet has made a huge difference in my energy level. It's too soon to tell if the pooch will go away but the bloaty feeling is diminishing.

In addition, at 5'2 and 105 lbs an 1800 calorie is approriate for someone my size when exercising, a little less when not exercising, so maybe you're not eating enough.

[WindingRoad]

Kathi that's interesting. I have been trying to figure out ways to tweek my diet differently. Maybe i need to get rid of all sweets for a bit. I love chocolate which is a very hard habit to break. My weeks are absolutely insane right now and I'm not getting time to snack like I need to. This is VERY hard. I get so hungry I want to eat like a freak when I get home.

Oak I am estimating this but my VO2 is about 45. I can easily hold a HR of 175 for a long time and not be maxed out. I don't redline till 180+. I have done some racing in the past but I do a lot of long distance rides when I can. Not to mention I was a wind player for several years.

[Kathi]

Kathi that's interesting. I have been trying to figure out ways to tweek my diet differently. Maybe i need to get rid of all sweets for a bit. I love chocolate which is a very hard habit to break. My weeks are absolutely insane right now and I'm not getting time to snack like I need to. This is VERY hard. I get so hungry I want to eat like a freak when I get home.

Oak I am estimating this but my VO2 is about 45. I can easily hold a HR of 175 for a long time and not be maxed out. I don't redline till 180+. I have done some racing in the past but I do a lot of long distance rides when I can. Not to mention I was a wind player for several years.

I did some searching on Paleo diets. Mainly because I didn't know what it was. I found lots of recipes and was surprised at the number of sweets that included chocolate. The difference was homemade not processed. Some of the recipes recommended leaving out the sugar ingredients if one is dieting. The sugars aren't the normal sugar you'd think, I couldn't find brown rice syrup in the grocery store for my trail mix. The paleo diet is heavily meat based, which I don't care for but many of the meat recipes look very good and we may try them.

I've always had problems with being hungry and finding foods that keep me satisfied is hard. It's just too easy to fall into the "mindless" eating habit. Even my cat is on a grain free diet!

[thekarens]

Take this as anecdotal, but last year when I was dedicated to counting every calorie and working out 7 days a week I was losing about 1lb a week. When my birthday week came around I took that week off from work and I didn't exercise at all and I ate what I wanted, but in small portions. I lost 3 lbs that week. I think some times your body needs a break in routine and maybe just a break in general. Of course, it might have been a fluke too, but the following week when I got back on the stick I fell back into the 1 lb a week routine.

[WindingRoad]

I have decided that maybe a personal trainer is in order here. I really don't have the time or the brain power to go through the process of finding a way to get my body responding again. I need to find ways to max out my workouts in a short time frame. Since I am naturally inclined toward distance riding, I don't think this will be easy for me. That's okay I'm up for a challenge. My knee has been giving me fits too which is another reason I would like to consult a trainer. That and I need a sustainable workout routine that works more efficiently. I found a private gym relatively close to me that has very good online reviews. Unfortunately they also don't mention how much they charge for personal training. I think the gym at my school also does personal training so maybe they would give me a better price? What do you girls think about personal training? How do I find a good one? What is a typical cost

[Veronica]

I've been working with my personal trainer for 4 years and for me it's been a perfect fit. To find a good one ask about what degrees and certifications they have. You can also ask for client testimonials. My trainer just opened her own place and her pricing depends on the number of sessions you buy, $40 - $55 per hour.

https://www.facebook.com/flexstudiotraining

This is a link to her facebook page. There's a video of my husband doing TRX push ups. He's been working with her once a week for two years. He's gone from flabby (his words) to super fit. His once a week session with her inspired him to find more time to work out on his own. He's got a three hour commute - round trip, and works an 8 hour day.

Veronica