I don’t understand the underlying physiology, but there definitely appears to be a link (on a cellular level) heavy resistance strength training and the whole fat burning - insullin resistance thing. Long term, it’s beneficial because it builds/maintains lean muscle mass, which increases the amount of calories you burn.
It’s pretty slim pickins at my Marshalls right now. They do have a few short sleeve tech shirts on he clearance racks – I saw one of the nice textured charcoal gray addidas shirtsf for $12. In long-sleeve, they have the similar addidas styles in white and black. The thinner smooth fabric tech shirts for $14.99 and a heavier/warmer version for $16.99 and the quarter zip mock-turtle shirts for $21.99. The lighter version is a great winter workout shirt because you can leave the sleeves down until you get warmed up and then pull them up and it’s basically a short sleeve tech shirt.
They also have a bunch of Nike Pro Combat shirts (short and long sleeve). That’s Nike’s version of the Under Armour compression style base layer shirts. Not really my thing.
<p>My weight is staying low and I haven’t been very careful with my eating. I know I will have to watch it a little more now that my butt is planted in a chair for most of the day. I seem to do pretty well with running 30-25 miles a week. Would be good to get one hot yoga class in a week. I missed last week with the job, etc. I am doing some of the core/PT/glute exercises and pushups at home. I’m still adjusting to this new schedule and the not-so-great work environment.</p>
<p>Last night I left work in the dark and had planned to do the change in the car/run on the path with a light routine, but the wind was bad and it felt really cold. I changd the plan to go to the gym and do 3 miles on the dreadmill, but traffic was backed up at the exit so I reverted to Plan A and changed in the car in the parking lot near the trail. Cover of darkness helps. I was protected from the wind, but, boy, was it dark. I was tentative even with my light. Leaves on asphalt can be slippery. I adjusted in a mile or so, and got in almost 4 miles. </p>
<p>Made myself get up this morning to run. It was freezing in my house and I did NOT want to get out of bed. 25 degrees outside. I over-dressed on purpose (dressed for sub-20 degrees) because I just couldn’t handle starting cold. It was very nice out. No wind, full moon (it was fairly light at 6am anyway) and clear. 4 miles done. Have the season opener of Vandy basketball tonight which I’ve been waiting for since March. The only drawback is that the game starts at 9 o’clock, which is approaching my bedtime! Will be a late night.</p>
Speaking of weight fluctuations, I had begun to suspect a month or so ago that peanuts had some kind of water retention effect on me. So, I switched my nut snacking back to pistachios and immediately dropped dropped three or four pounds (with no change in calories).
Just as a change of pace, I bought a bag of peanuts a couple of days ago. Unsalted, roasted peanuts in the shell. After being between 156 and 157.4 pounds every day for over two weeks, I stepped on the scale at 159.6 this morning after a couple of days of snacking on peanuts. A 2.5 pound swing in two days can only really be explained by fluid; I sure didn’t eat and extra 8000 calories this week! Hmmmm.
Needless to say, I’m going to lay off the peanuts and see what happens.
I think that anyone would do pretty well with 25-30 miles a week.
I’d like to dump daylight savings time. Last night it was windy, rainy and dark early - I’m pretty sure that there was an increase in accidents this past week with the change to DST.
I think that I need to read up on nutrition for runners again. The last time I looked at that subject was 15 years ago and I’m sure that the information is a lot better today. I have the feeling that the runners here do different things nutrition-wise compared to those trying to lose weight.
<p>A look through a bunch of running articles indicates that runners should get about 60-65 percent of calories from carbohydrates which would be quite a radical change back for me from around March. I may see if I can find a good runners forum to look through some nutrition threads so I can get a feel for what they’ve tried and what works and doesn’t work. It’s interesting that the recommendations for runners are similar to the governments overall but go even higher on carbs.</p>
Be careful. “Nutrition advice” is provided by “nutritionists” whether it’s on a running site or a fat loss site and will, therefore, follow the very high carb, very low fat recommendations that are currently in vogue. I think you also have to be careful because the “running” world seems be tilted towards distance running, which is very different physiologically from somebody running a 5K several times a week and even more different from somebody running for a sport (be it soccer, or whatever).
Carbs are a short-term fuel supply. You either burn them pretty quickly or store them as fat. So, the key is to match the carb intake to the period of high energy expenditure. For most exercise or a reasonable length run (say 30 to 60 minutes), it should be just a simple matter of consuming a carb/protein mix a couple hours before and maybe during and then a post-work meal (or shake). It really only becomes a more complex challenge for distance runners who might need to replenish while running.
There’s been quite bit of recent work on pre- and post- workout nutrition. One of the most respected guys in this field is a sports nutrition PhD from Canada, John Berardi. this guy’s stuff, and similar stuff from other researchers, is driving the current thinking in professional sports nutrition circles. He’s written a ton of stuff on workout nutrition. A good starting point might be this article:
<p>One of the authors that I looked at was a well-known marathoner.</p>
<p>At the moment, I’m limiting myself to 3 miles per day because of the
ketosis problem. I had cut back to four a while ago when the problems
started showing up and I suspect that I got to some body fat
percentage or upped my training intensity so that I can’t convert fat
to ATP while running.</p>
<p>I would rather get back up to 6-8 miles regularly than run 3 miles a
day. I do like training for speed and the 3-mile runs are good for
that but I want to get back into longer distances too and I can’t do
that at the moment.</p>
<br>
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<p>My carbs before workouts this week were 63, 25, 19, 16 and 91 (today).
I’ll find out if the big boost in breakfast carbs is an improvement.
It’s pretty clear to me that those 16, 19 and 25 numbers don’t work for
me.</p>
<p>Today’s run: 30 minutes, 3.25 miles. I tried to not look at my pace today, and just run, but curiosity gets the better of me. Next week I’m supposed to do a 5 mile run. That should be interesting…</p>
<p>Here’s one specifically on nutrition for endurance events, i.e. carb loading for a marathon with specific amounts of carbs to eat and when based on your body wieght:</p>
I miss my homemade pea soup, but at this altitude I can’t get the peas to quit being a little bit grainy even with fifteen hours in the crockpot. It works fine with a pressure cooker, but they make me nervous.
I am still feeling that glute exercise, so I think it is doing some good.
MOWC – I’m impressed at your willingness to run in such cold temperatures. I don’t mind dressing for the cold, but breathing in cold air in large quantities is uncomfortable, and can even cause me to start coughing if I’m moving along at fast pace (for me). I’ve tried the mask thingies, but they feel icky and sweaty.
<p>I’m not sure I’ll be able to dress for a walk/jog. I can dress for walking. I can dress for jogging, but anything that would be warm enough for the walking part would be too hot for the jogging part. That’s OK. I haven’t found that I really enjoy my little jaunts in the part much when it gets down near freezing. I’m also in much better shape than I was last winter, so I might enjoy just a plain old walk on a cold winter day now – you know, hiking boots and fleece.</p>
<p>If you can do 3.25 in 30 minutes, I can’t see 5 miles being a problem.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>3.25 miles, 9:32 pace. I had 130 grams of carbs this morning which is
over 500 carb calories and had zero ketosis issues with this run. I
didn’t get hungry either. I’ve had the problem for a few months on and
off and I first thought it was hydration and then caffeine and I made
ajustments in those areas but it showed up in spades last week on my
four-mile runs. So this week I cut back and it still showed up so I
tried upping the carbs today and that appears to have worked.</p>
<p>The symptoms would scare the daylights out of most people and I don’t
care to mention them publicly (PM me if you want to know). Suffice it
to say that those runners on low-carb diets should get enough carb
calories for their runs before their runs. I suspect that my carb
percentages were similar from day to day but when I had carbs varied
widely and that definitely had an impact. I was able to run longer
distance back in the spring and summer without problems so perhaps the
bodyfat percentage had something to do with it.</p>
<p>But it does look like I ran into an area of low-carb with potentially
serious health consequences.</p>
I started using dried beans when I took a look at all the sodium in canned beans. Once you eat the dried beans, it’s hard to go back to the canned. Problem is that most of the dried beans require soaking overnight, so it’s not something you do quickly. It’s fairly easy to cook up more beans than you need and then store them in the fridge. I make a couple different veggie/bean soups in the winter that are really good and healthy too; I usually cook several bags of the dried beans at a time. You can add lots of flavor by cooking the beans in chicken broth or vegetable broth.
<p>I ask my wife to cook the dried beans - it usually takes overnight. The big problem is that I usually wind up throwing out about two cooked cups because they go bad before I can finish a pound of them.</p>
<p>mowc, you are to commended for your determination to get out in the cold and dark and run.
interesteddad - hope the change from peanuts to pistachios continues to work out well. we’ve been snacking on almonds and we’ll have to try the pistachios now. i had some friends who used to snack on them all the time.<br>
bceagle - be careful. that doesn’t sound like anything to mess around with. i’d never heard of that but i am not a runner.
sewhappy - congrats on your run/walk with the ladies. it had to be a great feeling to get out there and participate.<br>
i cleaned out the winter coat closet today and sorted through the gloves/hats/scarfs basket…does that count as exercise? ha ha<br>
i’m trying to layoff the legumes and i definitely feel like there is less fluid retention today. i actually felt terrific this morning.<br>
when we are eating legumes though i make a killer crockpot soup/chili. i use the 15 bean soup mix and soak the beans overnight. i then cook them with water in the crockpot along with diced onion and green pepper during the day adding chili powder, mexican seasoning and cumin. once tender i stir in roasted tomatoes and diced tomatoes. yum !
i do not use the seasoning packet that comes with the 15 bean soup mix. i will miss the legumes for a while but i want to see if my weight loss efforts improve with staying away from the legumes.</p>
<p>So, went through the closet and have to admit that the chubby girl clothes really all are too big. </p>
<p>I can wear most of the things in my closet now, which is a huge relief. I have a few items that are still awaiting “awesome”, but I am very happy to be in my regular clothes. The range of sizes is ridiculous. The sizes that now fit me range from 10-6. Awesome will be a 4 and the occasional fake (I’m looking at you, Ann Taylor) 2.</p>
<p>I only purchased a few chubster outfits, generous sizes 10-12, and the amorphos non-sized Chico and Eileen Fisher item or two (not to disparage Chico’s or EF, I have friends who look fabulous in their clothes, but I was kind of hiding out in those outfits), so I am guessing I should get rid of them, yes?</p>
<p>I tend to be a tosser, donater or freecycler, but I am a little reluctant to rid myself of these items, although I have no attachment to them. Superstitious that I am tempting the weight gain gods, perhaps?</p>
<p>I’ve had a little experience going down in sizes! :)</p>
<p>I generally keep one size up. Just as a practical matter, one size up in shirts are very handy for use as pajamas, as grunge clothes for painting, etc. I just took all my LARGE coats, bundled them up in suit bag, labeled it, and hung it in a closet. Same thing with pants. </p>
<p>I’ve been a little hesitant to get rid of stuff right away, in part, because most of is stuff I just bought to replace stuff that was too big and then shrunk again.</p>
<p>my husband has lost 65 pounds. since he and i have both lost weight this year i have been getting the much larger clothes out of the house. we have a local consignment store where i have taken some of my things. i’ve also taken clothes (both husband’s and mines) to donation centers. i have bought many items from the thrift stores for me and a few things for my husband. at the thrift stores, it’s far easier to find women’s clothes that are in good shape than to find men’s clothes. i get a big thrill when i find designer clothes at the thrift store. it’s really ridiculous that i find some of the things that i do. for me, the biggest change was in my neckline. as my clothes got bigger, they hung horribly on me at the neck;ine and i just wanted to get rid of them. that was really surprising about the change in the neckline. i’ve also bought some things at the consignment stores. fortunately for my husband we had saved many of his suits over the years. i had packed them away in rubbermaid type storage totes and we retrieved them as he lost the weight. some required a trip to the cleaners but that was ok.
congrats to interesteddad and cjaneread on your weight loss and that you have gone down in sizes. great job !
interesteddad - i discovered that men’s belts are pricey and so now i am on the lookout for those at the thrift stores too. you won’t believe the men’s shoes that i’ve found. i’ve found a couple of men’s belts and some men’s shoes at huge price savings. bet you notice your shoe size has changed too. mine has. i think i am wearing a smaller shoe size overall. definitely back into some narrows at times.</p>