During my first year in triathlon and endurance athletics I went from 268 down to 212 in about 12 months exactly. During my second year of triathlon and endurance athletics I went from 212 to about 219 in about 10 months. Hmmm, what’s going on here?This season I have been much more active, which I believe has given me the feeling that I have a license to eat. I NEVER have that particular license. I have a driver’s license, a marriage license and even a license to practice psychology but never, never, never a license to eat. My weight loss/gain always goes in two year cycles where I will focus on weight loss for about a year and get down to some lower weight and then gradually my eating and weight creep back upward.
Now here is the upshot, in a typical two year cycle I will drop to a low that is not as low as the previous low and I will jump back up to a high that is higher than my previous all time high. In this two year cycle I dropped to an all time low and went back up to a weight that is below my last low.
Does that make sense to you out there? My new high is below my pre-triathlon low…Amazing! Now I’m not trying to say I am elated about this situation, I’ve got some weight to lose but man have I got a lot less to drop. The really nice thing about my current situation is that I probably need to change very little beyond just getting back on track with monitoring my food intake.
So what will be my secret weapon? Life Form of course. This is a cool little program that Wife found a few years back that you can enter a ton of information into with respect to diet, excercise, nutritional values, body measurements, medical information etc...and it has always worked well for me because it exactly tracks my calorie intake versus output and this is the thing that always amazes me...if I don't pay attention all the time my intake will typically drift up to be 1,000 or more calories per day than I am burning. I think I must have a defective "Hey, you're full stupid!" Mechanism.
Anyhow, check out the Life Form web site if you get the chance, it's pretty cool.
Love the blog name! Clydeologist..ha! There was a girl who recently joined the Urban Run. She was telling me how she is an audiologist, and she belongs to a group of runners who are also mostly all audiologists. For half the run I thought she was saying "Ideologist". ha! She's a hearing specialists, and I can't hear. greeeeat! ;P
ReplyDeleteGreat progress in the first year.. and hey, after a life of battling the lbs, I know how easy it can be to drift up (a cycle I have become quite familiar with.)
ReplyDeleteJudging by your race schedule last year, you've nailed your season nutrition. The rest is just minor tweaks in the off season... far cry from the wholesale changes to diet and lifestyle.
Keep fighting the good fight against the LBs! Taking this last week off, I feel fat and am afraid to step on the scale. Itching to get back in the saddle again!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to talk with you more via e-mail (dkn747@yahoo.com). I am going back up in weight even though my training is good. Are you a vegetarian? Here is what I just posted to triscoop and the forum at race athlete. Any input would be great!
ReplyDelete"Here is my scenerio. I started into this crazy tri world in early February of this year at 471 lbs. I went down to 389 by my race on Sept 10th. I took a month to recover but still trained about 4-5 times a week on the treadmill and 3 hours a week of weight training. I have been back on training 9-10 times a week for about a month. I have put back on about 5-6 pounds in the last 4 weeks even though I eat pretty well, about 2000-2500 calories per day on average.
So today I had my RMR measured and my number is 2890 (the second highest number she had seen). My trainer Jess has wanted me to eat more but it seems like I cannot embrace that emotionally, but after today's reading, maybe I should? (I understand the results from the device are pretty accurate, according to studies). My goal weight is around 240 pounds give or take 10 pounds (I'm 6' tall and could be a linebacker). I'm frustrated that I am not even losing 1 pound a week!
Here is my current training schedule:
Mon am - swim 20-25 mins drills; Mon pm - 20 mins treadmill wu & 1 hr weight training;
Tuesday - off;
Wed am -Swim 20-25 mins drills; Wed pm - 20 mins treadmill wu & 1 hr weight training;
Thursday am - 40-45 minutes treadmill;
Friday am - bike 40-45 minutes on stationary bike (intervals), Fri pm -20 mins treadmill & 1 hour weight training;
Saturday am - swim 35 minutes drills and form, walk 1 hr-1.5 hours;
Sun am - bike one hour outside on my mountain bike.
So the question is, is my body refusing to burn fat because of too few calories or am I still eating too much? I look forward to your input"!
Thanks,
Duane
Congrats!
ReplyDeleteI've gone through a similar year and know how tough it can be. Looks like you are doing all the right things. Great blog.