Triathlon and UNDER eating (Page 2)

JohnnyKay - 2009-07-01 12:43 PM How about some whole grains (rice, pasta), peanut butter, nuts, granola, oatmeal, some more fruit (including some juice), some more vegetables (maybe some salad with dressing)...

You can even axe the bacon & the Clif bar.  You can still get there.  I "snack" way more often than that.  My wife wonders if I am ever NOT eating. 

Agreed, esp about axing the bacon.  For that mid-morning apple break, eat it with peanut butter and either raisins or nuts.  Oatmeal is an excellent snack, especially hearty for a workout later.  Oatmeal and granola are also great bases for extra nuts and dried fruits.  There's always room for more veggies and I add some olive oil based margarine, personally, to steamed veg for some healthier fats and overall more delicious flavor.

Edited to add after looking at menu choices: You could definitely add another 300-400 cals in vegetables alone.  Salads, tomatoes (okay fruit), broccoli, etc.  If you don't like veggies, keep trying.  I HATED veggies, but now have a bunch that I can eat all of the time once I learned to grill and steam things.

This is a subject that I need to become more knowledgeable as a coach AND athlete.

Here is my thing.  My RMR is 2300 Kcal.  That means that if I laid in bed and did absolutely nothing I would burn 2300 Kcal.  (this was figured out by a high end Tanita scale, so that that for what it's worth)

Add to that at least 1000 - 1500 Kcal that I 'burn' exercising a day.  So in order for me to KEEP my weight (goes in = goes out) I have to consume at least 3300 Kcal/day.  I too am constantly eating and find myself fluxuating between as much as 5 lbs in a couple of days.  I eat good and bad food all the time. 

Case in point, coming back from a trip where I only ran and ate tons of food for 4 days, I was 156 lbs.  Today I weighed in at barely 150 lbs.  I weigh myself every day to make sure that I am not losing weight. 

My standard diet:
7:00 am -  Glass of OJ (100 Kcal)
7:30 am - 4 sausage biscuits when I swim (Jimmy Dean)  (770 Kcal)
10:00 - 2 packs of Oatmeal w/ a large spoon of PB mixed in  (400 Kcal)
11:30 - Lunch of either left overs or Chick-fil-A (500 - 700 Kcal)
12 - 3 - Eat 2 zip lock bags of grapes and baby carrots (250 Kcal)
3 - 4:30 - Usually a couple of handfulls of Almonds    (300 Kcal)
7:30 - Normal dinner (500-700 Kcal)

That comes out to 2800 Kcal and I am 'eating' all day.  And I just barely covered my RMR. 

Marvarnett - are you sure the number was the "lay in bed and do nothing" number?  That seems really high.  Even with the expensive scale method margin of error built in, that seems high...  Just curious - have you found that to be reasonably accurate? 

I obviously do not suffer from this problem (see pic at left).  But after reading the various responses here I think that perhaps the issue has more to do with the numbers than out-of-whack metabolisms.    Often people make inaccurate assumptions about what they are ingesting and expending.  I think that a dedicated effort using a food journal for a long period of time is probably in order for anyone who fits these groups:

Group 1 (usually men!):  I eat and eat and can't keep on the weight

Group 2 (unfortunately usually women...):  I am really careful and still can't lose.

While no doubt genetics and other factors come into play, I would bet that these folks are not counting their calories accurately.   If you watch a challenge on Biggest Loser, the people often underestimate calories and don't take into account things like condiments.  I wonder if you guys, who are struggling to keep weight, are actually eating as much as you think.

If you've not kept a food diary before, I recommend it for a period of time.  I lost about 30 lbs a few years ago using this site:  www.myfooddiary.com  They have an excellent database of foods and make tracking recipes very easy.  I find the site here to be similar and free:  www.myfitnesspal.com   I can now very closely estimate what's going in, it's a fun party trick.

Now, knowing how many calories you burned is a whole other problem.  Using the standard settings on a heart rate monitor is probably not as accurate as you think.  Even worse if you're using a calorie calculator or the display on an exercise machine.  I'm not saying anyone here is doing that, but there is a HUGE margin of error with this stuff and you can't rest on generalizations.   Although I would say that combining an exercise and food journal will quickly help you see patterns that you can live by.

OP: For $200/hour I will teach you how to gain weight.

Ladies: I don't know where this "men can eat whatever they want" thing comes from.  I am basically starving all of the time and cannot seem to lose any more weight without working out 3 hours/day and not eating.  I still need to lose about 10-15 pounds.  So I feel your pain sisters.