Hi All!!
I just registered on this great forum and wanted to introduce myself.
I'm a 48 yr old male, currently 6 ft and about 163.
In the past I have competed in marathons and triathlons so am no stranger to
endurance training.
Due to some personal issues and a battle with alcohol, I managed to gain
almost 60 pounds.
Happily I was able to quit drinking and have been slowly working on getting
back into racing form. Unfortunately, the losing weight part has not been
easy and now I am down to that last 10 to 15 pounds of fat.
Caliper measurements and girth measurements show me at about 16 percent
bodyfat. So while 163 might sound good (or even too light to some guys) I
still have too much excess body fat. Even though I am fairly tall, my frame is
small, with size 8.5 shoes and a 14.5 inch neck. So I still have some fat to
lose.
Recently some back problems prompted me to work harder at losing weight. So a
combination of a low calorie diet and lots of exercise was able to drop
another 20 pounds. But it was too fast and I know that probably a third of it
was muscle.
I am now concentrating on weight lifting and think I have added back all the
muscle that I lost. I am not doing a lot of running as I still want to build
just a bit more muscle. I do not wish to turn into a bodybuilder and plan to
continue with endurance training as it is my plan to enter a triathlon next
year, my first in about 10 years.
The problem now is I am not sure what is the best way to achieve that goal:
building a bit of muscle (i.e. a few pounds) and losing 10 pounds of fat.
I am perfectly capable of counting calories and following a strict diet as
well as doing whatever exercise will help that. I do need to continue to do
enough running, cycling and swimming through the winter so that in the spring
I will have an adequate training base to start serious triathlon training.
Obviously I need to burn more calories than I ingest. But all those formulas
for BMR, etc... just don't make a lot of sense to me. The 20 cal per pound of
body fat puts me at about 3200 cal to maintain current weight. Then taking 500
cal off of that for a daily intake makes sense. But I don't believe it. BMR is
based on lean body weight, not some rule of thumb (i.e. 20 cal/ pound body
weight).. that was probably determined from someone that was already lean.
And then the next problem (really the biggest problem for those that exercise
a lot while dieting) is how much more to eat to account for that exercise. I
know that 100 cal per mile of running, two miles on the bike or 400 yards in
the pool are rough guidelines. But depending on the intensity, that can all be
glycogen and not fat. This is why I lost so much muscle before.
I also know that such weight loss is unhealthy, but sometimes I think it is
just easier to do it fast and then put the muscle back on later.
Rather than training at the aerobic level, I am interesting in switching to
more HIIT. As someone who has trained in the past with intervals, this seems
like a no brainer. Of course too much interval training can result in
overtraining. The question I do have about HIIT is how to adapt it to the
pool. I also used to swim with a Master team and all we did was intervals so
that is how I train in the pool. It sounds to me like this already is HIIT.
But I have also read about some HIIT where you sprint hard for a short time
(15-20 seconds) followed by a very long (4 min) rest. I tried this in the pool
and the rest was so long I was starting to get cold in the water!
Okay.. that's definately too long. So will stop and ask for recommendations.
Thanks for taking time to read this.. if you did!
AJ
I just registered on this great forum and wanted to introduce myself.
I'm a 48 yr old male, currently 6 ft and about 163.
In the past I have competed in marathons and triathlons so am no stranger to
endurance training.
Due to some personal issues and a battle with alcohol, I managed to gain
almost 60 pounds.
Happily I was able to quit drinking and have been slowly working on getting
back into racing form. Unfortunately, the losing weight part has not been
easy and now I am down to that last 10 to 15 pounds of fat.
Caliper measurements and girth measurements show me at about 16 percent
bodyfat. So while 163 might sound good (or even too light to some guys) I
still have too much excess body fat. Even though I am fairly tall, my frame is
small, with size 8.5 shoes and a 14.5 inch neck. So I still have some fat to
lose.
Recently some back problems prompted me to work harder at losing weight. So a
combination of a low calorie diet and lots of exercise was able to drop
another 20 pounds. But it was too fast and I know that probably a third of it
was muscle.
I am now concentrating on weight lifting and think I have added back all the
muscle that I lost. I am not doing a lot of running as I still want to build
just a bit more muscle. I do not wish to turn into a bodybuilder and plan to
continue with endurance training as it is my plan to enter a triathlon next
year, my first in about 10 years.
The problem now is I am not sure what is the best way to achieve that goal:
building a bit of muscle (i.e. a few pounds) and losing 10 pounds of fat.
I am perfectly capable of counting calories and following a strict diet as
well as doing whatever exercise will help that. I do need to continue to do
enough running, cycling and swimming through the winter so that in the spring
I will have an adequate training base to start serious triathlon training.
Obviously I need to burn more calories than I ingest. But all those formulas
for BMR, etc... just don't make a lot of sense to me. The 20 cal per pound of
body fat puts me at about 3200 cal to maintain current weight. Then taking 500
cal off of that for a daily intake makes sense. But I don't believe it. BMR is
based on lean body weight, not some rule of thumb (i.e. 20 cal/ pound body
weight).. that was probably determined from someone that was already lean.
And then the next problem (really the biggest problem for those that exercise
a lot while dieting) is how much more to eat to account for that exercise. I
know that 100 cal per mile of running, two miles on the bike or 400 yards in
the pool are rough guidelines. But depending on the intensity, that can all be
glycogen and not fat. This is why I lost so much muscle before.
I also know that such weight loss is unhealthy, but sometimes I think it is
just easier to do it fast and then put the muscle back on later.
Rather than training at the aerobic level, I am interesting in switching to
more HIIT. As someone who has trained in the past with intervals, this seems
like a no brainer. Of course too much interval training can result in
overtraining. The question I do have about HIIT is how to adapt it to the
pool. I also used to swim with a Master team and all we did was intervals so
that is how I train in the pool. It sounds to me like this already is HIIT.
But I have also read about some HIIT where you sprint hard for a short time
(15-20 seconds) followed by a very long (4 min) rest. I tried this in the pool
and the rest was so long I was starting to get cold in the water!
Okay.. that's definately too long. So will stop and ask for recommendations.
Thanks for taking time to read this.. if you did!
AJ
