I also find that I lose weight when working on my diet and running. Not so much with swimming, as I think it stimulates my appetite more and I'm so much more effective in the water.
One thing on your diet - I find I can't lose weight if my overall calorie count is too low and especially if my fat intake is too low. If I add a bit of olive oil and some nuts into my diet, my body seems to believe it's not in a famine and will regulate better. It's something to consider and try - I fully believe that we are all a bit different and your body likely has it's own ideal mix of food.
Yep. I have added more nuts and things that I thought were no-nos. One key point I took away from the nutritionist is that I can't be on a diet. I need to just add more food to my day. I'm eating fine (except for the soda), I just need to add more.
Another key element to my storage of fat, according to her, was not getting adequate sleep. My kids were all horrible sleepers. On average I get about 6 hours of sleep per night and it's usually broken sleep. The "baby" who's now 2 still wakes up once/night, and while he'll get himself back to sleep, I still woke up :badday: I forget what hormones she said that this effects, but one is an appetite suppressant and I forget what the other one did. She said that partly explains why I don't eat enough...
Anyway, I've learned a lot. The number one thing for me was that swimming does not help weight loss per se, even though I burn a lot of calories, but it is good at maintaining my weight.
I wonder how many master's swimmers agree? I should put a poll. Maybe I will do just that. :agree:
Hi Lindsay,
I think someone else posted that somewhere too.
I don't like that article at all because my original theory was the same: eat less, exercise more = weight loss. WRONG. This article doesn't get into all of the complexities there are to weight loss in much detail, but thanks for posting it. :)
Hi Lindsay,
I think someone else posted that somewhere too.
I don't like that article at all because my original theory was the same: eat less, exercise more = weight loss. WRONG. This article doesn't get into all of the complexities there are to weight loss in much detail, but thanks for posting it. :)
Karen,
How many more calories did your nutritionist ask you to add in per day? I've been trying to keep my intake around 1200, but I've kinda hit a plateau and still have more to lose. I feel like I should find a nutritionist for some help too.
Hi Atlantic-
When I first went to see her I was consuming between 800-1000 calories per day. She said I needed to be closer to 2000 with as much as I was working out (2-4 hours/day- running, P90X, swimming), but that I should shoot for eating 1200/day for 2 weeks, and then add slowly from there.
I looked on-line specifically for a sports nutritionist and found that she works with a lot of swimmers, so she "gets it". :bliss:
She also asked that at my next physical that my NP check for certain labs, I can look them up for you if you want to know what they are.
Hi Atlantic-
When I first went to see her I was consuming between 800-1000 calories per day. She said I needed to be closer to 2000 with as much as I was working out (2-4 hours/day- running, P90X, swimming), but that I should shoot for eating 1200/day for 2 weeks, and then add slowly from there.
I looked on-line specifically for a sports nutritionist and found that she works with a lot of swimmers, so she "gets it". :bliss:
She also asked that at my next physical that my NP check for certain labs, I can look them up for you if you want to know what they are.
WOW! I did not expect for you to say double! That is amazing. That would be great about the info on the labs! Judging by what you said, it sounds like I need to go see a nutritionist. I don't know how you managed to do 800 - I'm still hungry after 1200! ;)
How long have you been eating around 2000? Have you noticed a difference?
The HR monitor I got was a Polar F90. It's a pink watch w/black strap. Someone on another site suggested it, and it was perfect for my needs. I'm sure they have a comparable model in something other than pink!
I got it at www.heartratemonitorsusa.com. I shopped around on several different sites and they were the cheapest, no tax, no shipping, and I got it in 2 days :)
This site has all different brands and models.
Wah, that model doesn't seem to be on the site anymore. Do you mind sharing what features you liked about it? I can try to figure out what the next closest thing is. I don't know a thing about heart rate monitors, but I'm very curious to track my heart rate while I swim.
I found the article gave as many theories as the "experts" it quoted, but found a few things interesting:
The effects of exercise on the appetite and energy systems, however, are by no means consistent. In one study presented last year at the annual conference of the American College of Sports Medicine, when healthy young men ran for an hour and a half on a treadmill at a fairly high intensity, their blood concentrations of acylated ghrelin fell, and food held little appeal for the rest of that day. Exercise blunted their appetites. A study that Braun oversaw and that was published last year by The American Journal of Physiology had a slightly different outcome. In it, 18 overweight men and women walked on treadmills in multiple sessions while either eating enough that day to replace the calories burned during exercise or not. Afterward, the men displayed little or no changes in their energy-regulating hormones or their appetites, much as in the other study. But the women uniformly had increased blood concentrations of acylated ghrelin and decreased concentrations of insulin after the sessions in which they had eaten less than they had burned. Their bodies were directing them to replace the lost calories. In physiological terms, the results “are consistent with the paradigm that mechanisms to maintain body fat are more effective in women,” Braun and his colleagues wrote. In practical terms, the results are scientific proof that life is unfair. Female bodies, inspired almost certainly “by a biological need to maintain energy stores for reproduction,” Braun says, fight hard to hold on to every ounce of fat. Exercise for many women (and for some men) increases the desire to eat.
On the other hand, if you can somehow pry off the pounds, exercise may be the most important element in keeping the weight off. “When you look at the results in the National Weight Control Registry,” Braun says, “you see over and over that exercise is one constant among people who’ve maintained their weight loss.” About 90 percent of the people in the registry who have shed pounds and kept them at bay worked out, a result also seen in recent studies.
But the exercising rats metabolized calories differently. They tended to burn fat immediately after their meals, while the sedentary rats’ bodies preferentially burned carbohydrates and sent the fat off to be stored in fat cells. The running rats’ bodies, meanwhile, also produced signals suggesting that they were satiated and didn’t need more kibble. Although the treadmill exercisers regained some weight, their relapses were not as extreme. Exercise “re-established the homeostatic steady state between intake and expenditure to defend a lower body weight,” the study authors concluded. Running had remade the rats’ bodies so that they ate less.
actually a 2lb (900g) 30% fat 4 patty hamburger with Mayo and 4 slices cheese from www.heartattackgrill.com/index.html
they claim it was 8,000 calories, I also had a coke and fries.
I've got a picture posted on FB
www.facebook.com/photo.php
Thank you for making me feel better about myself.
