Have lost weight. Want to find a balance.

Slydice

Sorry for the long meandering post. I'm a bit of a newbie at general health and fitness.

Right, so, a few months ago I was about 12.5 stone (just over 80kg on my parents scales). I'm about 5ft 11in. After checking a BMI calculator I found I was overweight.

So, I started cycling (over 100km a week) and running (maybe 10km a week) a good bit. I cut down on how much I ate but tried to keep eating healthy. I've also begun trying to do a small few pullups and chinups but I'm very new to them and have only gotten to 3 times a day of 3reps of 4 pullups (mon, wed, fri) and 3 times a day of 3reps of 8 chinups (tues, thurs)

So maybe two weeks ago I checked my weight again and I am just above 11 stone (just a few over 70kg on my parents scales). I've moved from being a tight size 36 jeans to a very much not-tight size 34 jeans.

I'd kinda been keeping going with an eye on my belly. There's a little bit down the bottom still that I'd like to get rid of and have a flat stomach but I think I'm getting close to the lower end of normal BMI so I think I need to relax it a little bit.

The problem is, I'm fairly inexperienced at this business. I'd always found it easy to put on weight (eating and not exercising) and don't think I've been down this far since more than a decade ago. I'd rather not stop and get fat again and I'd also rather not get unhealthily underweight. I'd like to find what I can best come up with as a "balance"?

Anyone have any advice on what stuff to "google" for on the internet?
or
Any advice on how to proceed from here?

I'd like to get to a point where my body is in good shape. I've also an interest in possibly taking up wall climbing (indoor kind) if I can. Currently my thinking to get to a place for the wall climbing is to be able to do 15 pull ups (not chin ups which I originally mistook for pullups which is why I can do more of them) and then see about joining a club.

Slydice

No replies so I get the feeling I might have got a bit too complicated. How about just advice on how to strike a balance in terms of diet and exercise with the goal of keeping my body in decent shape?

Would another board be better to ask on? Would there be some professionals who it would be better to visit and talk to?

SheFiend

Since it's quiet, i'll give you my tiny bit of opinion on the matter, but I'm new to weight loss myself. Well done on your progress so far

If you are eating healthy and getting regular exercise, you should not gain fat. Your weight may increase if you build muscle, but that's hardly a bad thing. If you are eating enough protein you will not become underweight, as this will keep muscle fed and prevent it wasting.

Im sure ill be blasted for giving my naive amateur opinion, but like i said, Im just trying to get the ball rolling.

Mr_Spaceman

This is interesting Slydice, as I am currently 12.5st and 5' 11".

I've never been overweight or anything like it at all, as my 'usual' weight is between 11-11.5st.

This is the heaviest I've ever been since I tore my ankle ligaments over a year ago and it's only now that I find I can get back to exercising properly.

It's hard NOT to put on weight when you can't really exercise but at least now I can get my s hit together again.

meijin

I'm 5'11" too. Started at 88kg almost two years ago, got down to 74kg in Dec 2011, BF 10%. Now up to 76.4kg, and 32" jeans are still quite loose... I'm actually trying to gain a bit of weight (muscles), but eating enough for that is a challenge, the weight hasn't moved at all since months :pac:

In general the best way to find where you are is get body fat measured, as people have different body shapes, etc. But 70kg and 34" jeans seems to me like not much muscles and still a bit of fat?

My recommendation for you would be to workout hard (I follow Convict Conditioning program), and eat more, but good quality natural food (something like paleo/primal).

Folski

Im exactly the same height and weight and was always very skinny growing up but 4 years of college and not being able to cook ended that. Any chance you could tell me what you ate on a daily basis if it's not too much trouble, as I find that the hardest part as Im very picky with what I eat. Well done though, Ive been trying to lose weight with ages now but keep struggling.

Harm Van Risk

First of all congrats on the weight you have already lost. If you don't overload the body then your body will just be maintained. My advice would be that once you get to a fitness level that you are happy with don't increase your workout routine to overload the muscles any further. This will result in a maintenance of the physique that you have worked hard to get. I would however recommend talking with your gym instructors to find alternative methods for the maintenance from time to time because doing the same routine constantly can be quite boring.

Slydice

Thanks for all the replies folks. Sounds like good advice and a lot of stuff I can do some google searching on.

My current impressions would be:

• I think I might cut down a bit on my cycling. I had a knee injury (that used to hurt when running) that a physio has helped me with so I'm probably gonna try and keep up my running.
  
• I'm gonna keep going for the pull ups goal (be able to regularly do 15 in one go). I'll also try to get to the 15 chin up and maybe take up push ups if I can time them in.
  
• I'm gonna have a think about my diet. I'll mainly be seeing if I can find good muscle protecting food while also trying to get enough calories not to get "too underweight"

A good few people seem to be telling me I'm looking fairly thin and I think they sound concerned. So I'm also keen to check out my body fat percentage and I don't want to be pushing too much until I'm be more confident that it's in a healthy way.

Folski wrote: »

Any chance you could tell me what you ate on a daily basis if it's not too much trouble, as I find that the hardest part as Im very picky with what I eat.

I can give you an idea.

First and foremost, if you're gonna do more exercise, drink more water.

Early on, I dehydrated myself without realising it and it had a dangerous effect. My skin dried and even started cracking around the areas where pullups and chinups were putting pressure on my hands. At least that's the 2+2 I made because when I drank water, the skin improved a lot.

Also, I think it's important to remember that coffee/tea can dehydrate you because of the caffeine. Same with Beer and other alcohol. So offset them or cut down on them. So... yeah... water, from what I can tell, is really important.

Then my diet on weekdays:
Breakfast
Porridge with milk + Glass of Apple Juice.

Lunch
Ham sandwich + 1/2 Pear(s) + 500ml bottle of diluted robinsons/ribena/miwadi

Dinner
Main course of beef/lamb/pork (with Lidl mixed salad and one not-potatoe veg such as an Onion with Steak or boiled mixed veg with pork/lamb) or chicken/fish with noodles and boiled mixed veg. I also like a lot of chef ketchup with my food.
Desert of Penguin Bar + Glass of Milk

With the dinners I kept in my head that carrots are important for eyesight cos I heard carrot salts are good for eyes so I would try to eat them.

Weekends would be less defined foods except I would have a ham and onion omelets (3 eggs) and mixed salad both days.

Harm Van Risk

Slydice wrote: »

• I think I might cut down a bit on my cycling. I had a knee injury (that used to hurt when running) that a physio has helped me with so I'm probably gonna try and keep up my running.

I'd be careful about this, cycling is a low impact exercise which a lot of trainers will recommend for someone with an injury so that they don't aggravate it again. If you are looking for a different form of cardio I would try the cross-trainer or swimming.

beanobee

Slydice wrote: »

No replies so I get the feeling I might have got a bit too complicated. How about just advice on how to strike a balance in terms of diet and exercise with the goal of keeping my body in decent shape?

Would another board be better to ask on? Would there be some professionals who it would be better to visit and talk to?

Hey Slydice, I would suggest looking up a programme called TruthAbout Abs by Mike Geary.
Worth a look

Sweded

Slydice wrote: »

Sorry for the long meandering post. I'm a bit of a newbie at general health and fitness.

Right, so, a few months ago I was about 12.5 stone (just over 80kg on my parents scales). I'm about 5ft 11in. After checking a BMI calculator I found I was overweight.

So, I started cycling (over 100km a week) and running (maybe 10km a week) a good bit. I cut down on how much I ate but tried to keep eating healthy. I've also begun trying to do a small few pullups and chinups but I'm very new to them and have only gotten to 3 times a day of 3reps of 4 pullups (mon, wed, fri) and 3 times a day of 3reps of 8 chinups (tues, thurs)

So maybe two weeks ago I checked my weight again and I am just above 11 stone (just a few over 70kg on my parents scales). I've moved from being a tight size 36 jeans to a very much not-tight size 34 jeans.

I'd kinda been keeping going with an eye on my belly. There's a little bit down the bottom still that I'd like to get rid of and have a flat stomach but I think I'm getting close to the lower end of normal BMI so I think I need to relax it a little bit.

The problem is, I'm fairly inexperienced at this business. I'd always found it easy to put on weight (eating and not exercising) and don't think I've been down this far since more than a decade ago. I'd rather not stop and get fat again and I'd also rather not get unhealthily underweight. I'd like to find what I can best come up with as a "balance"?

Anyone have any advice on what stuff to "google" for on the internet?
or
Any advice on how to proceed from here?

I'd like to get to a point where my body is in good shape. I've also an interest in possibly taking up wall climbing (indoor kind) if I can. Currently my thinking to get to a place for the wall climbing is to be able to do 15 pull ups (not chin ups which I originally mistook for pullups which is why I can do more of them) and then see about joining a club.

You need to do Cardio Exercises, and a fun way to do Cardio is to combine it with some music... Just Check this out http://sickshape.com/best-cardio-training-for-women/

Sweded

Your need some Cardio Exercise. This will definitely help you reduce some Fat.

Doug Cartel

Sweded wrote: »

Your need some Cardio Exercise. This will definitely help you reduce some Fat.

Cardio - like cycling and running?

Doug Cartel

Slydice, first up, don't pay too much attention to the BMI - it's only a very rough guide, and applies to populations more than individuals.

Secondly, 70kg at 5 10 sounds like fairly good going. A 34 inch waist is OK, not great, but within healthy ranges. (I think.)

If you're only 70 kg then you're probably not carrying that much muscle. You might want to look at doing some more resistance work and upping the amount of protein you eat.

Oh yeah, one other thing. If you're measuring your waist size use a tape measure, not jeans size. The measurements printed on jeans are often really far off from the actual size.