Need to lose 7kg body fat over the winter

guttertrash

OK. I have been losing weight over the past couple of years, going from 95 kilograms down to 73 kilograms. My body fat has gone from about 35% to 25%.

Over the winter, I would like to lose another 7kg of body fat which would take me down to about 15% body fat, without losing much more weight, so I know that means doing some muscle building as well as fat burning workouts.

I would love to do a proper diet, but to be honest, I don't have the kind of money going spare to have a specific diet just for me. I don't particularly eat bad - but I do have a chocolate weakness every now and then. I think the diet is the area I need help on, but one that isn't going to cost an arm and a leg. I can't afford to be eating chicken breast every day of the week, so need a realistic one. I'm hoping i can manage the diet by carrying on as I currently do, but just cut the portion sizes down.

I know I don't drink enough water - probably only two or three glasses a day, and I know that 1 or two cans of diet coke a day probably does more harm than good regards hydration.

As I won't be able to ride to work again till the spring after the end of this month, I will be joining the local gym again for six months to try and get rid of the extra body fat over the winter. I'll also be getting into swimming again, after not doing it for about 15 years.

So ideas? What kind of work should I be doing in the gym? Can probably spare around three or four evenings a week at about an hour per visit, and maybe a half hour swim after that. The gym has pretty much all the equipment, and classes for spinning and body pump which I thought may be worthwhile.

Anonymous

Diet will be more important than what training...

If you can spare 95 notes, speak to Barry at www.optimumnutrition4sport.com.

Well, speak to him anyway! The consultation and plan costs 95 quid but it is worth every penny.

Plus, the plan is cheap to follow!!

Works wonders for me.

turboslave

Get a turbo, ride 4-5 times a week and you will have the weight off by xmas, no need to diet just drink plenty of water, do not miss a session, 30 min to 1hr, simple sessions, no need for heart rate monitor, cadence or power meter just ride 5 times a week with varying intensities and the weight will fall off.

Enjoy

phil s

turboslave wrote:

Get a turbo, ride 4-5 times a week and you will have the weight off by xmas, no need to diet just drink plenty of water, do not miss a session, 30 min to 1hr, simple sessions, no need for heart rate monitor, cadence or power meter just ride 5 times a week with varying intensities and the weight will fall off.

Enjoy

Really??? 7kgs will "fall off" just by doing 30mins to 1hr 4-5 times a week?

guttertrash

See, the problem is I don't necessarily want to lose a lot more weight, just lose the body fat percentage, so I need to do some weight training as well. 73 kilograms with a 25% body fat doesn't leave me with much in the way of skeletal muscle.

I honestly don't know what a healthy weight would be for me, at 5' 8", 36 years old, and wanting a bodyfat percentage of about 15%.

I would love to be able to just throw money at a nutrition plan, but the missus would question spending that amount of money on something like that. Maybe I'll send them an email, but I'd need a good idea of the kinds of things it will involve before spending any money on it.

Thick Tester

Just read the labels on packaged food, weigh your portions and don't eat crap..NO matter how hungry you feel.

GavH

turboslave wrote:

Get a turbo, ride 4-5 times a week and you will have the weight off by xmas, no need to diet just drink plenty of water, do not miss a session, 30 min to 1hr, simple sessions, no need for heart rate monitor, cadence or power meter just ride 5 times a week with varying intensities and the weight will fall off.

Enjoy

I too would doubt the ability of many people to lose 7 kgs of fat over the coming 3 months just by doing simple turbo sessions.

I did 30 mins on the Turbo yesterday - just a lastminute.com session to avoid a second blank day in my training log. Session consisted of 5 mins warm up, 10 mins at c.85% of HRmax, 2 min easy, 5 mins at 85-90%, 2 mins easy, 1 min flat out, 5 mins warm down. Whilst I doubt the 'quality' of that session (answers on a postcard please!), I reckon it was better than just 30 mins of aimless pedalling but I'd be kidding myself on if I thought doing that will help me lose any weight. I've lost 2 kgs in the last 4 weeks just by doing longer rides (between 35 and 70 miles) - no turbo sessions or anything 'fancy' and suspect that for me anyway, this is the best way to lose weight. 30-60 mins a day mincing on the turbo is not going to shed weight for me personally, not a chance.

To the OP, take NapD's advice and look more closely at your diet.

ut_och_cykla

I'm a female in a similar position to you. I'm actually soon to sign up with a coach for teh winter (a birthday prezzie) but last year I did ok over the winter managing to go down in weight 3 kgs instead of up 1 or 2 for the first time in my life.
From September
I built up to running 90-120 minutes every 5 or 6 days
I built up lifting quiet heavy/low reps (4-6) for the big exercises (squats/deadlift, etc) (little muscle growth size wise but good muscle fibre recruitment & strength improvements - (google stronglifts - which inspired me tho' I didnt follow thier programme.)
One long ride a week as long as I had time & weather for.
After Christmas I started doing hard intervalls twice a week on the turbo instead of the long ride - as here in Sweden the weather was truly horrendous for outdoor riding. I kept on running though.
ButI think the most important thing was I logged all my food on Livestrongs My Plate and really tried to keep a small calorie deficiency - perhaps only 100-200 calories a day. And didnt use the festive season as an excuse to indulge in booze & mince pies.
It was a bit tedious logging everything, but I was never hungry or lacking in energy.
So good luck whatever you do - and I'm sure you & the missus & the kids could benefit from buying the best quality food you can afford - but perhaps buying a bit less!

Anonymous

turboslave wrote:

Get a turbo, ride 4-5 times a week and you will have the weight off by xmas, no need to diet just drink plenty of water, do not miss a session, 30 min to 1hr, simple sessions, no need for heart rate monitor, cadence or power meter just ride 5 times a week with varying intensities and the weight will fall off.

Enjoy

In the immortal words of Winston Churchill -

"You, my friend, are spouting b0ll0cks."

Anonymous

Diet -

Low GI carbs except during/after training.
Lean meats/fish
Eat good fats like nuts/seeds/fish oils.

Plenty Veg.

The fat will fall off.

It did for me, I lost 6kg body fat in 6 weeks. Put it back on during my hols but back doing it again and already lost 2kg in the last 10 days.

This is in addition to your training BTW...

guttertrash

Well, I've fired off an email as you suggested. See what he says.

Pokerface

I need to lose 7KG over the winter also - taking me down to 75KG. 6 feet tall. But will do it in a slow, steady way. Less in, more out. Burning off the fat, keeping the muscle.


I already ride 6 days a week - 1-5 hours a day with varying intensities so I don't think 30-60 mins a day on the turbo is going to help me somehow.

pbt150

This might sound pretty unoriginal, but try keeping a diary of what you eat, and what exercise you do.

Weighing food also really helps, especially for things like cereal, rice, pasta etc, as it's very easy to take just a bit more out of the packet than you think. I know someone who made up 50g sachets of porridge oats to make sure he know how much he was eating in the mornings when he was trying to lose weight.

If you aim for a deficit of around 500 kcal per day you'll be losing about 1lb of fat per week. Making sure that the food you do eat is healthy (ie what NapD said above) is very important.

If you're trying to gain muscle at the some time though it gets more complicated, as it takes a hellovalot of energy to build muscle mass, in addition to eating enough protein.

SBezza

guttertrash wrote:

73 kilograms with a 25% body fat doesn't leave me with much in the way of skeletal muscle.

I honestly don't know what a healthy weight would be for me, at 5' 8", 36 years old, and wanting a bodyfat percentage of about 15%.

How are you measuring body fat percentage, as 73kgs and 5'8" would indicate that you possibly have less than 25% bodyfat, though that is a pure guess I will admit

I am 71kgs at 5'7" and I will have less than 15% bodyfat if I got it measured no doubt. When you can see your ribs and the like, you know you haven't got horrendous amounts of bodyfat.

If you want to burn fat and not lose too much weight, you are going to need a decent diet no matter what training you do. Cut out the snacks of crisps, chocolate and the like, eat plenty of fresh fruit and veg, and to be honest decent fresh meat, processed food is full of hidden fat and sugar, they are cheap for a reason.

Dave-M

I recently started couting calories and was horrified to see my lunch was well over 900 calories!

Cutting out the slice and a half of cheese and the mayo from my sanger has got rid of some bad calories!

My problem is booze at the weekends! at about 200 cals per can......4 or 5 of them and I undo all my good work!

guttertrash

SBezza wrote:

guttertrash wrote:

73 kilograms with a 25% body fat doesn't leave me with much in the way of skeletal muscle.

I honestly don't know what a healthy weight would be for me, at 5' 8", 36 years old, and wanting a bodyfat percentage of about 15%.

How are you measuring body fat percentage, as 73kgs and 5'8" would indicate that you possibly have less than 25% bodyfat, though that is a pure guess I will admit

I am 71kgs at 5'7" and I will have less than 15% bodyfat if I got it measured no doubt. When you can see your ribs and the like, you know you haven't got horrendous amounts of bodyfat.

If you want to burn fat and not lose too much weight, you are going to need a decent diet no matter what training you do. Cut out the snacks of crisps, chocolate and the like, eat plenty of fresh fruit and veg, and to be honest decent fresh meat, processed food is full of hidden fat and sugar, they are cheap for a reason.

I know its not an exact measurement, but I have the Omron BF500 scales that measure body fat and skeletal muscle. I know they aren't 100% accurate, but I know by the way I still have a bit of a chin, and still plenty of belly fat, that 25% is a pretty good estimate. My skeletal muscle comes out at about 35% i think. Like I said, I know they aren't accurate, but at least they give an indication of whether you are going in the right direction.

guttertrash

Dave-M wrote:

I recently started couting calories and was horrified to see my lunch was well over 900 calories!

Cutting out the slice and a half of cheese and the mayo from my sanger has got rid of some bad calories!

My problem is booze at the weekends! at about 200 cals per can......4 or 5 of them and I undo all my good work!

I was on a diet plan just after Xmas, and to be honest, I very rarely went over my recommended allowance, so I don't thinks its the number of calories I'm eating, its just the quality of those calories

I'm not a drinker either, so need to find other things to cut out...

Anonymous

guttertrash wrote:

Dave-M wrote:

I recently started couting calories and was horrified to see my lunch was well over 900 calories!

Cutting out the slice and a half of cheese and the mayo from my sanger has got rid of some bad calories!

My problem is booze at the weekends! at about 200 cals per can......4 or 5 of them and I undo all my good work!

I was on a diet plan just after Xmas, and to be honest, I very rarely went over my recommended allowance, so I don't thinks its the number of calories I'm eating, its just the quality of those calories

I'm not a drinker either, so need to find other things to cut out...

I was counting calories. It works up to a point. Then the type of calories comes in to play...

vorsprung

phil s wrote:

turboslave wrote:

Get a turbo, ride 4-5 times a week and you will have the weight off by xmas, no need to diet just drink plenty of water, do not miss a session, 30 min to 1hr, simple sessions, no need for heart rate monitor, cadence or power meter just ride 5 times a week with varying intensities and the weight will fall off.

Enjoy

Really??? 7kgs will "fall off" just by doing 30mins to 1hr 4-5 times a week?

In theory

7kg of fat is 53900 kcals
say the turbo session uses 700kcals
there are 17 weeks until xmas

53900 / 700 is 77

17 weeks time 5 sessions a week is 85 sessions

So if someone kept their food intake the same and did this level of exercise, yes they could loose 7kg by xmas

The problem is that if exercise is greater than approx 10% of your "normal" levels then it will tend to loose other stuff, ie muscle as well as fat as your body struggles to maintain it's weight

Also the turbo is extremely tedious so the OP would probably die of boredom

huuregeil

Here's my take:

Diet
----
A good vegan diet is getting pretty damn near to as healthy as you can get. Lots of whole foods, protein from plant sources, high in fibre, low in fat. This is backed up by various studies linking vegetarian and pariticularly vegan diets with lower body weight, and a whole host of secondary benefits (e.g. reduced heart disease) - e.g. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ ... 033106.php . It's also cheap! All the expensive things in your shopping basket will tend to be the chicken breasts etc. - rightly so, cos meat is expensive to produce.

Now, I do like my fish & meat and I have a soft spot for cheese in particular! I'm not going to go vegan :-) But, do take away the principles - lots of whole, plant-based foods and get your protein from beans & pulses if you can, reducing the amount of meat and dairy you eat. After that, try to eliminate processed carbs as much as possible. If you do this, you'll be on the right track. If in doubt, think like a vegan :-)

Exercise

---

Hit the gym for two high quality sessions targetting the "big" exercises with free weights - squats, deadlifts, pulls (pull-ups, rows), pushes (benches, shoulder press). These are the most effective for burning lots of calories and building muscle mass, which in turn boosts your base metabolic rate and helps with the weight loss. You only need (or should, actually, because of the recovery time you need) to do 2 or maybe 3 1-1.5hr sessions per week to see good gains.

The other sessions, swim for the full amount of time, and mix it up with intervals and shorter sets. Do weights one day, swim the next, followed by a rest day, so you're fresh for the gym again and can get a really good session in.

Do this and you'll be in shape in no time!

GavH

vorsprung wrote:

say the turbo session uses 700kcals

This is the flaw in your argument I think. The OP will need to be going some to burn 700 kcals in a 30 min Turbo session!

An hour session would maybe get close, but turboslave said this could be achieved using "simple sessions" that did not require HR, Cadence or Power metres. In other words, the type of endurance ride most of us would enjoy at the weekend for example. - just steady pedalling to 'get there'. A 1 hr 'simple session' on the turbo would probably burn more like 500kcals for me according to a plugin I have on SportTracks.

SBezza

To be honest, if all you are going to do is turbo sessions, and short ones at that, you are going to have to cut out about 500 calories a day, and get on the turbo every day.

Why can't you use the bike in the winter, commute to work?, long rides at the weekends?.

Also with your home scales forget what they say fat wise, mine are a joke, if they measure just through the feet, they are not really measuring the complete body, you need hand electrodes as well for a more accurate reading, though this reading will likely be rough as well.

Mine scales at home say I have nearly 25% bodyfat, considering my wife says I am all skin and bones, especially my torso, I find it hard to believe that figure. On scales that my pyshio has I was just over 15% bodyfat last year, and I have lost fat since. Not say you don't need to lose weight, only you can judge that really, just don't get hooked up with percentages, especially from home scales.

You don't need to go on a diet, short term diets rarely work, think of it as a lifestyle change, it can be hard work, but the rewards are more than worth it.

Getting below 70kgs is a bloody nightmare though, must leave the cakes alone

guttertrash

TBH i won't be doing any turbo work. Don't have the space to use the bike indoors, and don't want another gadget in the house that'll be forgotten about after a couple of weeks.

I can commute in the winter, but I value my life. Its a commute across countryside on an unlit fast A road. its bad enough in the daylight, never mind in darkness. I will carry on doing long rides at weekend though, as much as I can.

The scales are the ones with hand electrodes, and I agree they aren't accurate, but they do give a good idea. I know they say that the amount of water in your body has an affect on the readings, but the readings have been pretty consistant for me, and I only take readings every couple of weeks (when I remember).

It is as if my body has come to a point where its happy, but there is still quite a bit of belly fat that I want to lose. I'm not going to get obsessed with what the scales say, but it would be nice to see it start going down. ive got till next March before I start riding pretty much every day again, and it would be nice to be in the best shape possible.

Anonymous

If Baqrry's plan doesn't work there's always this...

Team Banana Spokesman

390w for half an hour would be 700 kcals

easy 8)

195 for 1 hr would be the same

easi.... er 8)

bexley5200

if i lose another 7kg i will weigh the same as a bag of sugar ha ha ha ha

Tail end Charlie

Eat well as outlined above.

But .............. if you're hungry, try having a drink of water. The sensations are similar and the body often confuses the two.

Anonymous

Tail end Charlie wrote:

Eat well as outlined above.

But .............. if you're hungry, try having a drink of water. The sensations are similar and the body often confuses the two.

Damn! I thought it was the other way round! Whenever I feel thirsty I try eating a chocolate eclair...

guttertrash

Now thats a diet I could do

vitesse169

I also need to lose 7kg over the winter. I agree that portion size as well as the quality of the food is paramount. I am going to change the format of my training this winter....
I am going to Cyprus early Dec for a week to train after about 4 weeks of endurance work. The training camp should consolidate the previous 4 weeks. Continue thru Dec with endurance - into Jan. Late Jan/early Feb start intervals twice a week, 1st race in early March..... this should also lead to weight loss thru fat useage... hopefully.

guttertrash

K, got some info back from Barry at optimumnutrition4sport. It sounds interesting. One thing though, is this plan all done over email. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it can't be done online, but i would have thought a consultation would involve a 1 on 1 so he can actually 'see' you.