So my question is more about losing body fat rather than losing weight. I’d like to lose weight to get down to a better race weight but obviously my goal is to lose body fat not just see the number on the scale go down. I KNOW that weight loss comes down to fewer calories in than calories out. The question is: Do you have any tips/experience/insight on the issue that will be helpful? I’m 5’1, currently 121 lbs, medium frame, large ches, I don’t know what my current body fat % is. I’d like to be down to around 113-115. I’m probably considered fat to most triathletes, so please be kind with your comments :).
Any insight or advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance your your help and support!
If you can afford it get your body fat % measured. sports medicine clinics can do this.
Weight lifting.
Refine your diet to include only plants, whole grains, some fruit and lean proteins in meat, powders (ie whey, soy) and beans. limit the sugar and dairy.
the book “racing weight” might help- do a search on the main forum.
If you don’t know what your body fat is , then that would be necessary to find out before beginning your fat-loss quest.
Most of the major big-box gyms, (Gold’s, 24 Hour Fitness, etc.) have calipers available for anywhere from a 3 to 9-site body composition analysis, usually for free.
I think for the most part if you have fat to lose, you’ll lose body fat. you have to be pretty low on body fat before the body stops using fat and starts burning other things (of course this is aside from the whole using glycogen reserves etc…) but if you’re gonna lose weight it’s gonna be fat first and for a long time. Another exception to this is water, but I don’t think you meant you were concerned about losing water weight. But if you were. Drink water
The biggest one - cut out sugar. Switch from flavored yogurts to plain; no sweets; no soda; etc. Chocolate milk is OK after a workout (when you need the sugar) and for long training, some gatorade or something else sugary is ok, but aside from that, no sugar.
Charcran, like you I am 5"1. I am just under 130 pounds. I worked with a nutritionist last year to lose about 10lbs. She did the body fat measurements and basically as I lost weight the at measurements went down as well. Basically, as someone has already said, I had to cut out all refined sugar and refined carbs. I now eat little if any bread and no sugar. I would love to lose another 5-10lbs, but my body just doesn’t want to part with it … grrrrrr!!
Hey there, I’ll tell you my story of the last couple of years. I’m “normally” 5’2, 120pds and a BF% of 22 , not really athletic body type. In 2008 I trained for my first ironman, I didn’t place any caloric restrictions and gained 10 pds (no it was not muscle!). When I trained for my next ironman (2010), I kept a closer eye on what I was eating and I managed to lose some weight but the BF was pretty much the same. I raced around 114pds and 21% BF. So this year I made losing BF a priority- along with improving my diet. At this moment I’m about 110pds and 18% BF.
For me, I needed to start focusing on this in the off-season (oct to feb) and I knew I needed some help so I started working with a nutritionist. First thing was to keep a food diary (I used training peaks), it takes a lot of time to enter everything, but it’s worth it. My nutritionist helped me with the caloric amounts that I needed, FYI at the beginning my caloric allowance was about 1300/day- and I was training about 6-8 hrs/week. When my hours increased to 10-12 I was upped to 1500-1700. I was a bit shocked that it was so low, but I think my problem has always been overestimating the calories needed. FYI a lot of the hours were running and I always made sure to ‘fuel’ my workouts. I also did 2-4 hrs of strength training a week.
After I figured out the amount I could consume I started looking at quality- I used to have very poor eating habits- surviving on protein powders, bars etc. So I started getting all my calories from real food- some of my staples are steel cut oats for breakfast and a lunch of quinoa/lentils and chicken (slowcookers rock!). I cut the carbs drastically and was limited to 1 diary serving/day.
I own a home scale with a bf% analyzer, which I thought was helpful. Personally I don’t think it really matters about the accuracy, as long as the trend is in the right direction. The difference between my scale and caliper measurements was 2%. I don’t know which one is closer to the truth, but it was easier and cheaper to see the numbers drop on my scale.
A lot of people questioned why I was doing this so early in the year. They thought the pounds would just melt off once the volume increased, but I think it’s much harder to change body composition then it is to lose weight. It took a solid 4 months of eating very clean to bring my BF down. But it’s worth it- Good Luck!
1500-1700 is about right for me on those hours to lose about a pound a week. I started logging as well in order to help determine my needs. I used calorie-count.com It amazes me when I read stuff that recommends 3000 on that kind of training!!! I’d be packing on pounds. I am 5’10" and 46 years old.
Sorry I’m a terrible cook- hence the really bad eating habits. My slowcooker receipe is 1/2 cup of quinoa, 1/2 of lentils 2 chicken breast and 1 cup of water. That’s it! I know pretty bland, but it works for me.
You’re getting some really good solid advice from people so I don’t have much to add, just my personal story. I didn’t NEED to lose weight over the past year - everyone would have said I looked fine but I felt the creep of pounds. I slowly cut out most of the white refined stuff and added lots more fruits and veggies. Most importantly though, I think, is that I started going to the gym and yoga regularly. At the gym I do an abbreviated whole body workout twice a week and I do Bikram yoga twice a week. My weight has gone down while my lean muscle % has gone up. I have actually reshaped myself and as a result I have gotten faster in all three sports without putting any more time into them.
I can’t thank bodybuilding forum enough. It sounds kind of weird, but there is a lot of really good information. Many people post pictures, recipes, food/workout logs, etc. Obviously, you don’t need to look at the contest prep subforums, but the Nutrition and Fat Loss subforums have a ton of great recipes and tips in there.
