Balancing nutrition and weight loss

Hi, I'm doing a 6 week course with a nutritionist, it is based on whole natural foods and includes 'fats' which for years people have reduced for fat free options- there is increasing research in this area and evidence that this knowledge was around the time fat loss was introduced. Since this diet I have gained lean muscle mass and lost weight- I have never been hungry and the recipies are easy and taste great, I have a bespoke menu plan geared for triathletes and my home made energy bars provide better lasting energy than energy gels and take a few minutes to make, my energy levels are consistently good - have you thought about seeing a nutritionist?

I have lost about 8 lbs of winter weight over the past 8 weeks during a pretty heavy bike focus. It's also the "last 8 pounds" which are notoriously hard to drop. I think what you do outside of training time has more effect.

To keep it simple:

-Start a food diary (myfitnesspal is a good one)
-Be HONEST when you're keeping it up
-Be HONEST when you're keeping it up...I'm putting this one twice because it's easy to say "that didn't count" if you eat it...it counts
-It's going to tell you what you don't want to hear...you're eating more calories than you burn, if it doesn't then you aren't doing it right
-Adjust your intake until you see 1 lb/week or so drop consistently (weigh yourself at the same time every day, preferably right when you wake up, after you go to the bathroom)
-Ignore day to day weight changes (your weight will fluctuate a couple of pounds, so look for trends over weeks
-Stop eating processed foods as much as possible. Anything that has been modified (energy bars, chips, crackers, etc)
-Stay away from anything refined (white bread, white rice, etc)
-Eat a Sh*t ton of fruit
-Stay away from gimmicks...

Do this and you won't have to worry about nutrition when training, but keep it under 300 cal/hr while working out.

in - out = accumulation

You have to burn more than you process. That could be reducing calories in, or changing the type of calories you take in, but you have to create a deficit of energy from outside sources. That's a restriction one way or another.

Edited by 3mar 2016-03-30 1:46 PM

+1, weight loss can only occur when you calorie restrict. There are many ways to do this, but this simple fact cannot be avoided.

Agreed, that is why I said "process" not take in. You say absorb, I say process, but we mean the same thing. The point is, you have to reduce the amount of energy from outside sources. That is why I had the; "stay away from processed food" line above. Processed food is already, in essence, digested partially, so you absorb more calories out of it. That's also why I suggested eating a lot of fruit; the fiber reduces the calories absorbed from the sugar. We're saying the same thing I think. However, once you switch over to a specific diet, you can track overall calories and calibrate it accurately. If you reduce what you think should have you losing 1 lb/week but you end up losing 2, you adjust your BMR and continue...same for the opposite. So you can make it accurate. I know how many calories of the foods I eat I can take in and lose, gain or stay steady. I've worked on it over time. I use the BMR to calibrate even though it's just as much to do with the types of calories ingested, but that doesn't matter.

Edited by 3mar 2016-03-30 2:20 PM

I was at a 500 deficit up until two weeks ago, and I lost over 40 pounds. Only now that I'm trying to get the last 25 have I switched to a 250 deficit. Some people are very anti-calorie-counting...I am not one of those people. The only site I'm on more than reddit or BT is MFP. It isn't hard, it is boring, and for me it works. That means logging everything, including every tab of nuun, every gu, etc.
That all being said, the last couple weeks when my volume went over 6 hours a week I was getting pretty tired, and made the decision to try to lose at half the speed.

I did! I'm 5'4 and ate myself to nearly 200 pounds, and most of it was b/c I was hugely depressed and parking myself in front of the television eating fruit from sunup to sundown was a problem. I told myself it was fruit so it was healthy....but at the end of the day, I ate more than I needed to.

No, I gained 70 pounds to be a total 200 pound person. I ate bananas and sweet potatoes. I was also incredibly depressed and barely moved, so it was quite the dark time.

IF you can stay strictly to that diet. I can't/don't want to....I like my rum. And meats. So I have to count. If I only ate plants, yeah, I agree.

Yes and no. Yes you need to have more energy output then input. However, if you do this formula daily over a long duration of time you will simply break down. The goal over a long period of time is in
Also, are we taking weight loss, or fat loss? Those are two far different concepts that seem to get thrown together.

My Race Log

I went from 194 to 200 lbs from 10/19/15 to 1/11/16. I started counting calories and primarily started eating less for breakfast and lunch and left room for more calories for dinner. This is probably not the best approach, but I like to have a good dinner. For calories I've been shooting for 1.5 lbs per week based on calorie intake (I use Myfitnesspal), but I cheat a lot. I'm down to 189 as of today. I generally weigh myself once a week at the same time of day (when I get to work and have had breakfast) I'm shooting for 180 lbs. I was working pretty hard on the bike and running, but it was getting to be too much. I've been focusing more on just the bike lately.

I am looking forward to hitting my target and having more for breakfast and lunch again.

Lots of good advice here. Calorie counting works. It's a PIA. But, it does work. Big supporter of MFP as well.

Don't underestimate the importance of sleep on weight and fitness. Make sure you're getting enough.

Everyone's different.

I went from about 175 lb to 155 lb over about 5 years. After that I have stayed around 155 for the last 5 years. My weight sometimes gets down around 150 if I'm in a heavy training cycle. I don't think I could gain 5 lb in three months if tried. I have never consciously restricted calories - I lost weight as I progressed from occasionally active, to regularly active, to training for races.

I'm 5'9", age 53 and I think that any attempt to lose more weight in order to increase my competitiveness would be pretty tough. (I'm not interested in finding out.) It's a good thing I have reasonably healthy habits that work for me. If I had to rely on willpower or self-deprivation I would be in trouble.