fatness

Wow. There were times in the past when I felt like I lost weight during hard training when I actually ate more than normal. Is there a summary for the Master's crowd that could be assimilated from this thread? Seems like age, family and professional issues complicate the reality as well. In my own personal case, maybe as with others, I have odd workout times - before work (shower, rush to the office, stress, stress, stress) and late (8:30 - 9:30 at night). One requires eating on the run from the food court, the other requires eating before (but not too much and early enough...) but I wonder if I should eat other strategies rather than go to sleep exhausted and possibly undernourished or eat a cheap breakfast. Would like to lose 20 lbs, swimming from 15,000 - 19,000 yds/wk over the last year and a half has not made one dent in my weight. But I am in better shape and swimming faster. Opinions welcome, this thread is fascinating. Thanks, DV

Actually, I think everyone who makes the effort to exercise and eat right is definately bucking the societal trend and deserves equal admiration. It's so much easier to stay in bed in the morning than to get up and exercise, so much easier to eat processed food then to take the time to buy healthier foods and cook-anyone making efforts to achieve those goals should be proud of themselves and supported by others-no matter what they look like.

Originally posted by Bags I know this is going to sound flippant, but the only way to reliably lose weight is to burn more calories than you consume. An equally reliable and much faster way to lose weight is to cut off an arm or leg. If this approach doesn't appeal to you, it's probably because what you really want to lose is not weight but fat. The two are not synonymous! You will lose weight if you lose fat and everything else remains the same. But it is possible (though increasingly difficult as you get older) to put on lean body mass as you lose fat, and as a result to have your total weight remain the same. And it is also possible to lose weight but to have a significant amount of that weight loss be lean body mass rather than fat. In fact, it has been estimated that if you lose weight through dieting and aren't doing heavy exercise when you do it, only about 75% of the weight you lose will be fat. And, to make matters worse, if you put weight back on and aren't doing heavy exercise, about 90% of the weight you put on will be fat. Bob

Here is an article to further support Bob's explanation: The Zigzag Diet For Fast Fat Loss! www.bodybuilding.com/.../drsquat6.htm

Sorry. Nevermind.