Prof40's Group -- Technically full but ... (Page 33)

Here's my 2 bits on weight loss. After doing a lot of research into the subject with an eye towards a lifestyle change vs. a diet, I've come up with a few things that really help me.

First and foremost, the reason that most diets fail is that they put your body in starvation mode through the over-reduction of calories. A problem that I ran into all too much. What this means is that while you consume less calories and lose weight in the beginning, you are really telling your body to go into starvation mode, your metabolism will slow to a crawl, and every calorie you take in will be turned into fat almost immediately.

What you need to do is to calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate and work off of that. Your BMR is basically the number of calories that your body requires in order to sustain regular function if all you did all day was lay on the couch. If you consume your BMR in calories each day and don't do anything at all, you should stay at the same weight. Experts recommend that you don't go below 1,000 to 1,500 calories a day to keep your body out of starvation mode.

Experts also recommend that you only lose 1 to 1.5 lbs a week to be on the safe side. 1 lb of fat is equal to 3500 calories. So you want to create a caloric deficit of 3500 to 5250 calories a week.

The approach that I've taken is to calculate my BMR and then try to consume that many calories as a base. The weight loss part comes in the form of the calories that I burn off throughout the day in the form of daily activities plus exercise.

The Harris-Benedict Equation is considered to be one of the most accurate calculations for BMR: W = Weight, H = Height, A = Age

Males: 66 + (13.7 x W) + (5 x H) - (6.8 x A)

Females: 655 + (9.6 x W) + (1.7 x H) - (4.7 x A)

A great website is the sports fitness one at Cornell U.

http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/Courses/ns421/NS421.html

(scroll down the bottom of the page as their homepage is kind of whacked)

They recommend that men eat 5 to 6 meals a day and women eat 4 to 5 meals a day. I find that when I do this, that I do not get those cravings that often derail healthy eating and I am acually full throughout the day.

As far as the ratio that I follow as to protien vs. carbs vs. fat, I try to maintain a 60 percent protien, 25 percent carbs, and 15 percent fat ratio. Your body needs carbs and fat for energy and healthy functioning but your body is also more likely to turn them into fat, that's why they recommend that you get as much protien as you can. I've found that protein shakes are an excellent way to up the protein in your daily intake without adding a lot of calories.

Try to get your Carbs in the form of dietary fiber vs. sugar. You will find that you get plenty of sugar in your regular diet anyway and most food items now list the dietary fiber vs. sugar when they list the carbs in them. Also, try to get your sugars in the form of natural sugars vs. processed sugars. Plus, studies are showing that sugars feed cancer and may contribute to the develpment of cancer.

The next piece of the puzzle is your metabolism. You need to keep your metabolism fired up in order to burn fat while you aren't exercising.

There are many sites devoted to ways to do this but it basically comes down to this: Cut the things out of your life that artificially raise your metabolism (e.g. caffeine, sugars, etc) and start raising your metabolism naturally (e.g. eating smaller meals more frequently and getting up and moving about during the day) and most importantly, START BUILDING LEAN MUSCLE !!!

Lean muscle burns fat. Period. It also is one of the only things that you can do for your body to keep yourself younger as you get older.

There is a lot of talk about HGH (human growth hormone) and it's ability to keep your body young, increase lean muscle, decrease fat, improve eyesite, enhance sexual ability (my favorite, and it also burns calories ;) http://www.sexinfo101.com/se_index.shtml), etc... And it's all true. HGH is wonderful. Unfortunately, as we age, our HGH production goes down. You can boost it up again through HGH injections, but they are very expensive. -OR- you can make your body to produce more HGH naturally.

HGH is produced in our muscles, therefore, to increase the HGH in your body, you need to add muscle. The best place to do this is in our major muscle groups. Primarily the legs as they contain the largest muscles in our bodies.

Lastly, EXERCISE !!! Our favorite topic here. If your goal is to burn fat, then you should be working out at 70% to 80% of your max heart rate. Any higher and you start entering an anabolic vs. aerobic state and you start eating away at your muscle tissue instead of fat. This is called catabolism. Your muscles will initially use glycogen as a fuel and will then turn to your body stores for additional fuel. If you are working in your aerobic zone, it will turn to fat to get the energy. If you're working in an anaerobic zone then it will turn to your muscle for that energy.

Finally, I usually do a 2 or 3 mile run an hour or so before bed. This way, I jack my metabolism up and I can burn fat while I'm sleeping. Your metabolism will stay fired up for 2 to 4 hours after exercise and what could be better than burning fat while you sleep ???!!!! If you have trouble falling asleep then you probably won't want to do this but if you've cut out the caffeine then you probably won't have that problem.

Oh, and one more thing. Pheonix has already mentioned it also, but keeping track of your food is extremely helpful. BT.com has an excellent nutrition tracker that I have been using. I slacked off over the last couple of weeks but I am getting back on track now. Mostly because I didn't want to track all the Easter candy I've been uh... disposing of. I have a weakness for stale peeps :) .

As always, your mileage may vary, but I've been on this rollercoaster ride way too many times and I've finally managed to figure things out. Essentially, what they've been saying all these years is true. Exercise and a good diet is the key to getting the weight off and keeping it off. I've just been too lazy to do it until now. I've got friends that have had great success on other diets, especially the Atkins diet, but they always end up putting the weight back on, plus more.

Cripes !!! I almost forgot the most important piece of all. WATER !!! Make sure that you are drinking at least 8 8 oz. glasses of water a day. You're body needs a way to shed all of the excess fat and other stuff that you're trying to get rid of and the main way that it does this is through your natural elimination process.

Personally, I drink about 8 to 10 liters a day but I'm also much bigger than most people so I can handle it. YMMV and after the hyponatremia issues we had a month or so back, you should be very careful not to consume too much water without adequate electrolyte supplementation. I'll mix in a gatorade or two throughout the day.

I hope this info helps. Good Luck !!!!

Sean

Phoenix - LOL !!!  Not my cake.  I found it on the net when I did a search for triathlete birthday cake.  I didn't expect to actually find anything much less that masterpiece...

Sean 

Pheonix - A general rule of thumb is that if you are working out at your max aerobic level, then you should still be able to hold a conversation albeit with moderate difficulty. If you are huffing and puffing, then you're muscles aren't getting the oxygen that they need and you will start to build up an excess of lactic acid which leads to muscle fatigue (e.g. "The Burn" and that catabolic state where you are actually doing more damage than good as an endurance athlete.

Some runners use a rule-of-thumb that if you can easily carry on a conversation while running, then you're probably taking it too easy. If it is very difficult to carry on a conversation then you are probably working too hard. In between, if you can carry on a conversation with only a moderate amount of difficulty while running, than you're probably at the right level of exertion.

I'm not entirely how this will translate to someone with asthma so your best bet would probably be to calculate your max heart rate and do it that way. At the very least, it should help you to gauge your level of exertion compared to the effect that your asthma is having on your workout.

Sean

Phoenix - You may not want to give up on the coffee.  Coffee contains caffeine which is related to theophylline which is a known bronchiodialator.  Either that, or caffeine itself is broken down into theophylline by the body.  I can't remember which exactly.  Your doctor can tell you more. 

There are studies that have show that 3 to 4 cups of coffee a day help to reduce the onset of asthma symptoms and in an emergency, strong black coffee can be taken to help an asthma attack.

Sean 

Hey !  I just earned my first green star !  Yahoo !!!

Ha ha ha... Easy with the inter-continental chemistry talk Phoenix or you'll have the DEA and other three-letter agencies knocking on my door.

Actually, I'm a big green tea proponent myself. More for the anti-oxidants than anything else but Mark has re-kindled my interest in its other properties. I came across an article stating that white tea actually has all of the benefits of green tea in greater concentration. I drink a cup a day with some honey. Sounds like I may need to up my intake.

Also, my tri photos have been posted on Fotojack. Here's the link.

http://www.fotojack.com/photo/?race=882&sid=a5ec3d800c8c9d737636de96eb9c7fe0&pg=1&val=406&submit.x=0&submit.y=0

Thank God they didn't get any of me in the wetsuit...

Sean

It looks like you get a green star for every 25 posts and a pink star for every 100. So a pink with 3 greens would mean that you have posted at least 175 messages.

Prof has 3 pinks and 3 greens with 380 posts.

Phoenix has a pink and 3 greens with 177 posts.

Mark will get his first pink in 2 more posts. C'mon Mark !!!!

BGT get's her first pink in 3. C'mon BGT !!!

Mark or Prof - How in the hell do you include the original post in the reply with that vertical bar ?  I've looked around but cannot find it as a setting.

Jeanette - You can upload a display picture and a photo by going to your control panel (click on control panel under the add to Yahoo button in the upper left corner of the page)

When you get to the control panel page, scroll to the bottom and you will be able to select and add the photos.

Sean 

Mark - You have to wet it down first and then squeeze it into the 3.5 inch slot in the front of the computer. If there is any problem getting it in, you can use a pencil or paper clip to shove it in further. That should do the trick.

Sean

Ah yes !  You have your pink star.  And I'm talking about the one on the computer... 

Bonne nuit, dors bien, fais de beaux rêves !

Sean