Weight Loss Warriors (a.k.a. Team A) (Page 4)

It's doesn't sound crazy at all. I consider 1200 kcal. as way to little for the average woman who doesn't sport.
The problem with most overweighted people is indeed that they loose weight too fast when they loose weight. As soon as the deficit of energy intake is too large then the body simply breaks down muscles. As you might know muscles consist for the biggest part of proteins (especially actin and myosin) and these proteins can be metabolized to generate energy (ATP).
This has been prooven scientifically. According to the experts you should always take in at least 75% of the energy you use.
If the average female sporter uses 2400 kilocalories a day then she should take in at least 1800 kilocalories a day. To loose one kilogram of fat you need a shortage of approximately 7800 kilocalories.
7800/600=13
So when you only want to loose fat and no muscles you can loose 1 kg of fat-tissue in 13 days which is a bit more than 2 kg in a month. That is if you're a woman who burns 2400 kilocalories a day.

All these people who loose 6 kg. in a month are loosing fat but they are also breaking down muscles. Because of the breakdown of muscles the body uses less energy (muscles use a lot of energy) and because of this the body uses less energy in the long term and you gain weight again. So there is only one way to loose fat permanently: slowly.
If you train at the same time the muscles: great. But keep an eye on the evolution of your weight and eat a bit more when you loose weight too fast.

Of course that 75% is an averages, it might differ among individuals. But I think it's wise to assume that the average also counts for yourself when you don't know it yet.

 
So, knowing this I was a bit shocked when I read this topic title. A race in losing weight is asking for problems on the long term. 2 kg. a month is still 24 kg. a year.

 

Speculative explanation of this phenomenon
It's quite logical from an evolutionary point of view. Too much energy in food has only been a problem for the majority of the people for less than a century while we've had hundreds of millions of years in which it happened frequently that we had a shortage of energy in food. The body has adapted to that, so as soon as the body detect a large deficiency of energy intake the body prefers to bread down some muscles to conserve the fat-tissue.
Yes, an excess of fat is not healthy but a shortage of energy is much more damaging.

I just wanted to post this warning for anyone who might think 'the faster the better', especially because of programs like 'the biggest loser' and all these hypes in diets. Being a medical student and a guy who has experince with this I know how much damage that can cause.

One tiny correction in my previous post:

"To loose one kilogram of fat you need a shortage of approximately 7800 kilocalories." has to be "To loose one kilogram of fat tissue you need a shortage of approximately 7800 kilocalories." One kilogram fat contains abou 9000 kcal. Fat tissue also contains other components.

60 minutes on the trainer (350 cal burned)

Did not track today but I think I am OK on calories.  Had Chipolte for lunch but did a bowl with meat, veggies, no rice or beans

Yes, and still drinking

No, but I will before bed

Thanks for keeping me accountable  

From my blog today...

I have been pissed off at the scale lately.  I have been eating clean but the scale is not cooperating.  Could be not enough water, going to work on that today but, maybe this is just where my body wants to be.  I am not a bad eater for the most part.  I stay away from the junk.  I certainly workout enough.  I don't feel fat, or think I look fat, but according to the scale, and every BMI chart there is, I am overweight.  Oh well, what do they know! 

The funny thing is, here I am, all concerned about being overweight when I know that I am doing all I should be, and I walk into my building in front of a very large girl, drinking a venti frappuccino and she stops at the elevator to ride up one flight of steps.  I'm doing it right!

dcrunningdiva - 2008-06-05 5:22 PM

Maasen - 2008-06-05 4:31 PM

Javamom - 2008-06-05 2:42 PM
I think also, we are not really racing to lose the weight yet racing to stick to our goals. We each set our own goals and are trying to meet them...it's not the person that loses the most.

I hope so.
As I told, I have struggled with this myself. I know how hard it is to loose weight permanently.
Rapid changes in weight can be more damaging to the body then the excess of fat itself.

I just wanted to post this warning for anyone who might think 'the faster the better', especially because of programs like 'the biggest loser' and all these hypes in diets. Being a medical student and a guy who has experince with this I know how much damage that can cause.

One tiny correction in my previous post:

"To loose one kilogram of fat you need a shortage of approximately 7800 kilocalories." has to be "To loose one kilogram of fat tissue you need a shortage of approximately 7800 kilocalories." One kilogram fat contains abou 9000 kcal. Fat tissue also contains other components.

Maasen - thank you for the information. I agree (well - I think I agree - I can't convert from metric! hehe!) with what you have said but I have one question for you. How do I determine how many calories I am burning per day? That has always been my hardest part. Thanks for any info you can provide.

When you want to do such an educated guess then you could do the following:

• Search your estimated BMR, Basal Metabolic Rate, this is the amount of calories the average person of your age, height, weight and gender burns when he/she would be in bed all day. Just fill in the numbers on this site (don't worry, you may use feet, inches and pounds ): http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ This calculator uses this formula: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/bmr-formula.php
  
• Determine your activity factor. http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equati... I guess that most people here will have an activity factor between 1.55 and 1.725. This might be an interesting link (with Firefox you can open it as a html but then you miss the tabel): wellnessways.aces.uiuc.edu/walkday/physicalActivity-CaloriesBurned.pdf
• Use the product of your BMR and your activity factor

Now you have an estimation of the energy you schould burn theoretically. As I told, it is and stays a guess.

The BMR might differ because every person has a different constitution. Someone who has the same age, gender, height en weight, has a lowere percentage of fattissue and a higher percentage of muscletissue (bodybuilders are the extreme examples) will have a higher BMR, people who are little muscular will have a lower BMR. People who have lost weight too rapidly might be less muscular and have a lower BMR.
There might be more important factors but this is certainly an important factor.
In this regard it might be interesting that it's also quite difficult to determine the fatpercentage excatcly (read: it's possible but it costs so much money that it's only being used for scientific research) so this is also an estimation (base upon the resistance of the skin for electrical current and measurements).

The activity factor is of course also hard to determine exactly. How much do you move on your job? What is a moderate intensity? What is a hard intensity? Do you walk or cycle a lot to transport yourself? Etcetera

There are lists on the internet wich shows how many calories you approximately burn with sports but I can't find one in English right now. To give some indication, when a guy of 100 kg. runs, swims or cycles for an hour he burns close to thousand kcal (it might be less, it might be more), which can be one third to one fourth of the total amount of energy he burns during a day. Of course, a girl of 70 kg.

So, all you can do is guess how much energy you might burn during a day. 2000-3000 kcal. is in my opinion a good estimation for the average active woman since the average woman burns a little less than 2000 kcal. a day. When you start regulating your food you can use such an estimation and based upon the loss of fat you can eat a bit more or less. When you loose 5 kg. of fattissue in a month then you probably have eaten too less compared to your activity, when you loose 2 kg. of fattissue in a month then you're doint it great.
Be careful, don't only look to the weight, it's about the fat-percentage!! This you should monitor more intensively then your weight. I can't emphasize that enough. Though the absolute measurements with electrical current are not very accurate they are very useful to monitor your change in fat-percentage as long as you measure always under the same circumstanses. I myself had accidentally a crashdiet 2 years ago. I meant to eat less and to sport even more but I did it a bit too extreme. I tried out if I could preven the loss of muscle with a lot of fitness.
Result: I lost aproximately 26 kg. in 4 months (probably at least 10 kg of muscle wich I lost). This was not my intention, it just happened. Before that my abdomen muscles were very strong, after this my abdomen muscles were very weak. Because I lost muscle-tissue, especially on my torso, I gained weight after a while even despite my food habits and sport habits didn't change.
Because I lost a lot of muscle-tissue on my abdomen I might have injured my groin on both side a year later and I haven't been able to run for six months with. Too weak oblique muscles are a very probable cause of groin injuries. This caused me to gain even more weight, close to where I came from. It took one and a half year to recore from this mistake, not including the time it will cost me to loose the fat which I lost and gained again. 2 years later I finally feel that my abdomen muscles regain there strength and still they're not as good as they used to be. My abdomen muscles have been weaker then for the average guy of my age despite I sport a lot, now they are about average again. I expect it might take 1 or 2 more years before my abdomen muscles are as strong again as they used to be but I consider myself lucky that I didn't cause any permanent damage and I made this mistake at a young enough age to be able to recover from it relatively fast.
The first 1 - 1,5 year I had the feeling they were not trainable although that might be an illusion, it might be that they went from very weak to weak because of which I couldn't observe a difference.  

I learned my lesson and I advice you to learn from my lesson too. There is no shortcut to loose weight. Slow and steady is the only way to do it well. Sport a lot, don't loose a lot more than 2 kg. a month, certainly not more than 4 kg. a month and if possible monitor your fat percentage (which in retrospect was a clue I chose to ignore). When you loose too little weight try to cut down on the 'fast sugars' (chocolate, cookies, candy...) and unhealthy fats (there are also healthy fats which the body needs!!), when you have too much fat-tissue and you loose 1-2 kg. in a month you're probably doing it well, when you loose 4 kg. or more a month you probably better take in more energy. Loosing one pound a wheek is probably the best result to keep the weight off.

One more thing, not all loss of weight and gain in weight is due to fat and muscle, water also can easily cause a difference of 1 kg. or more (not only the hydratation, also the glycogen wich absorbs a lot of water). Because of that it's advicable to weigh 1-4 times a month. Weighing each day is not realy useful, it can even be damaging when you let it influence your behaviour because you happen to have 1 kg. more because of water.

1. Did you exercise at least 30 minutes? No, super busy
2. Did you stay within your calorie range? I think so 
3. Did you drink 8 glasses of water? No, I am slacking on this
4. Did you take your vitamin? No, gosh I am not doing very well

This week has been crazy between work and school and honestly not feeling all that great. Hopefullly I will kick it in to high gear starting tomorrow. I am going to check out a new gym becuase the one I am at now kind of sucks, their schedule just doesnt match up with mine. I also am going to join WeightWatchers, I have had success with this in the past and think it would be good to jump start things.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I am definitley going to hit up the gym tomorrow!

Question: how much vitamin and minerals do you guys take?
There's also a thing like too much vitamin and it is already added to many products. Pregnant womand also need to be very careful with vitamin A, normal doses are not a problem but an overdose can damage the baby severely.

Vitamins are needed, often they function as an enzyme or a precursor (a molecule wich is being used to form other molecules). The enzymes wich aren't being used become toxic above a certain dose. See that you don't exceed the dietary reference intake too much.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_Reference_Intake