Kimmy321's Journal, 06 February 2016

Hi Kimmy, What's your diet like ? What weight loss method are u using ? 

Hi, im not really on a diet im just counting my calories and making sure i eat less than the recommended amount. I try eat and drink between 1600 - 1800 calories a day 

I also started my FatSecret journey by doing that and keeping to 1800 calories per day. Then I started adding fast days to my week by eating a maximum of 600 calories(500 calories for females) on those days. Its called the 5:2 Fast Diet where you add 2 non-consecutive fast days into your week. You can opt to make it a 4:3 Fast Diet and have 3 Fast Days. Read up on www.thefastdiet.co.uk for some info about it. It should fire up your weight/fat loss :) 

Wow how do you survive on so little calories for the fast days? Thanks will go have a look 

Its not hard at all :) Your body adapts to it but there are lots of tricks and tips to keep to that limit. One of the tricks is to follow 16:8 Intermittent Fasting where you stop eating at 8pm and then you skip breakfast the next morning and have your 1st meal after midday. From 8pm to midday u are allowed to have water, green tea, tea, coffee, coke zero, etc but use sweetener instead of sugar. Then you make meals using low calorie foods like cabbage, brinjal, butternut, cucumber, beetroot, lettuce, etc. some people prefer having just 1 big meal at dinner to make up the 500 calories whilst some prefer splitting it over lunch and dinner. When you use low calorie foods you get to eat a big quantity of food but calories will be low. For example, a cup of butternut is only 80 calories as opposed to a cup of potato which is 3 times more in calories. Go through my journal. I documented my journey from the beginning. I have advanced to no-food fast days on Mon, Wed & Fri. I used to be 134kg and now I'm 106.9kg. Fasting gives u lots of health benefits as well. Don't hesitate to ask for help as u go along. 

Thanks so much for the info. I got some lovely ideas from you. Going to try them out, thanks again 

U welcome Kimmy321. I sent you a message so check your inbox. It is perfectly normal to fail on your Fast Days. It takes some time to work out which foods will be best for you on such days. All the best :) 

Kimmy321 you don't really need a personal trainer. It is what you eat that helps you lose weight. I have a personal trainer and until I started following an eating plan I did not lose the weight. So when I started the eating plan and being disciplined about it the weight started to drop, and now the trainer is getting all the credit. We pay them a fortune but they don't tell you how to eat properly. If you do get a trainer make sure he works out an eating plan for you as well. Strong's and keep it up you will get there. Thanks to Big Boy Optimus for all his advise, really good to have that. 

My trainer never worked out an eating plan for me, I joined Weigh-less and that is how I lost my weight. It took time due to the fact that I have an under active thryroid, but I am now at my goal weight. Happy about that, now to maintain 

Ill throw in my 2 cents for what its worth. Ill start of by saying that I used to weigh 107 and managed to get down to 69. I did this but severely under eating. I trained heavy weights three times a week and ate for 1700 a day. I programmed a cheat day once a week either on a Saturday or Sunday and I binged like there was no tomorrow. When I hit a plateau I increased by cardio and incorporated some HIIT and dropped my calories to 1500 for that last push to get below 70. I felt like death. I binged often and I ended up being "skinny fat". I stopped training and wasnt so strict with my calories. My metabolism was wrecked. I couldn't eat pasta without feeling like a balloon. Over the course of two years my weight fluctuated and I settled on 82. I started training again last year April so it has been 10 months now. I started a reverse diet and slowly started eating more and more calories. I have worked up from a severely calorie restricted diet to eating 2900 calories on training days and 2500 on non training days. My body handles carbs fine. In fact about 50% of my calories are made up of carbs. I use the carbs to fuel my body to push heavy weights and to be as explosive as possible in the gym. My weight is still at 82 but I have built a lot of muscle and lost body fat. I am faster, stronger and more awake then when I was weighing 70. Long story short, think long and hard about which method you choose to lose FAT not weight. Severely restricting your calories for long periods of time is not good for your metabolism. There is no problem with doing this for a week or so before a physique competition. Other than that If you are not competing in a competition of such nature and using the severe restriction in calories to push you over the edge then you should not be restricting your calories to such a low level. I see you are only about 5kgs away from your goal weight so dont be hard on yourself. Keep at it. I am not sure of your measurements but i wouldnt go lower then what you are currently eating for now. My wife is 1.55m weighs 63kgs and is eating for 1900 on training days and 1500 on non training days and she is strong AF. Just my 2 cents worth :) 

PS check out my food log, I am not missing out on any type of food! :P 

Oh Yay! Someone I agree with ;-) Trevor Hattingh, I absolutely agree. Although I am doing a bit of carb cycling this week, my 2 days of less carbs will still end up about half of my usual day's carbs. The only time I cut my carbs was a week before a comp. ... And I suffered, I will add. Don't take away my carbs! Carbs gives energy. (not including refined carbs like bread etc.) Protein feeds the muscles, especially if you doing weight training, good fats are also needed. I try keep mine at 20% of my RDI (for fat loss). 1.5 to 1.8g of protein to 1kg of body weight. Hubby believes in 2g per kg for men. I never do fasted weight training. EVER. Have to have some protein, even if it is just a protein shake. I believe it will catabolise on your muscles. Fasted Cardio yes. There are many different ideas and methods, I will respect it, but this is my 2cents. ;-)  

Hi Bren.ec, looking at your profile pic tends to give the idea that you know what you are talking about! Awesome work!! ;). I carb cycle throughout the week. On non training days i eat 100g carbs less which = 400 calories. so training days i eat about 350g carbs and off days i eat 250g. protein and fat remains the same throughout at f85g and P175g. I might do a short 5km run without eating first thing in the morning but im definitely having a cup of coffee first! lol :) 

Interesting comments :) I love reading people's views and recommendations. Bren I'm not sure if it's the same situation for people like me with tons of body fat as I found I'm making good muscle growth from fasted weight training. I've also gaining strength. I think the situation changes when people are much leaner. I read an article about fasting that states that one wont catabolise muscles by training in a fasted state despite some articles saying one will. I guess we just have to try and see what works/doesnt work :) 

Thanks everyone for the advice, it really helps alot. You all awesome :-) 

Trevor and Bren, the lady that I weight train with and I do her 90 min spin class told me I eat far to little and all my efforts in the gym will mean nothing. I am trying to eat more of the right foods (Cleaner eating). But I struggle to eat so much so I try to do a little at a time. I lost almost 11 kg in total since I started in 2013 by restricting calories but only went to gym once a week. Now I go to gym 5 times a week with my restricted calories and not moving the scale at all for the past 4 weeks. I am up or down only 300g either way. So I am trying hard to eat more but still struggling. Thanks everyone for the advise nice to know what works for some and don't for others. 

Yolanda Henning perhaps you can get more calories by drinking a protein shake twice a day. It's easier to drink that amount of protein,carbs,fat than to eat the equivalent in food. Just make sure you get advice on the right type of protein shake as you get some that are high carb, low carb, various protein and fat content. 

Hi Big Boy Thank you so much the lady that is my mentor also told me to do two protein shakes a day to increase my calories and get the carbs, protein and fat that I need extra. I got the USN STS the carbs is a little high but it was on special. LOL I can't get myself to pay so much money for shakes. 

LOL - Yolanda Henning there's nothing wrong with shopping around to get the most out of your money. Opt for local brands rather than imported brands which are higher in price. I personally find ProNutrition to be decently priced. I pay R390 for a 1.8kg box of Whey Fusion which is 90 servings. There's tons of products on the market so its best to do some research online, compare pricing per serving by dividing the price u pay by the number of servings you will get. Sometimes they try to sell you a 5kg product that only gives u 30 servings and you think u getting more for your money because its bigger quantity.  

BBO, where do you buy that? ProNutrition is a fabulous brand. I normally buy Supplement SA's 2kg bucket for R389, but only one place sells it at that price. Yolanda, yes, often eating too little can interfere with your weight loss. Eat more to burn more ;-) (of the good stuff of course - not peanut butter like me!)