Weight / Fat loss

I've been sticking to a fairly strict regime of calorific deficit since January which has seen me lose 10Kg.

My weight has been measured at the same time every day and plotted on a graph. In that time, my diet has barely fluctuated and my weight loss has been (with the exception of a short cold) very predictable. These two days of consistent, high (based on the last 4 months) weight gain is definitely well out of the norm.

breathe a little less? all that oxygen weighing you down.
I'm a kilo down since I started trying to get things in order just over a week ago. 4 to go. Boring.

I rode 270 miles in 2 days on a fully loaded MTB, I lost my moobs!

Breath more you mean

Losing 10 kilograms of human fat requires the inhalation of 29 kilograms of oxygen, producing 28 kilograms of carbon dioxide and 11 kilograms of water. That’s the metabolic fate of fat.

it sounds so easy when put like that.

You should have seen me at 116kgs.

feel free to share and I'm sure I can find an appropriate gif reply.

This website doesn't want to play with my phone to upload pictures.

A shame, I had the gif lined up and everything.

I still swim like that.

you'll like this one then :)

How does one pick the correct food item in my fitness pal, when you don't have any nutritional info (in a staff canteen/whilst cooking/etc)?

Put in the meal and find the homemade version. For the occasional meal an approximation should suffice.

Don't do what I do and ask for a larger amount or if you do select x2 portions.

Hm I eat in the canteen every lunchtime, pretty much. Portion size varies massively too, based on the server!

With difficulty. In my experience it's fine if you're cooking for yourself but it's just a wild guess if you're eating out. It's part of the reason I got bored of using it.

I’ve two questions and just wondered if anyone could offer any insight/advice

1) Can your stomach shrink? And when I say that by a huge amount? (or hat feels like a big amount). I’ve been thinking more about portion control as although I exercise a fair bit I tend to remain the same weight. I started off with a protein shake in the morning and then did simple things to reduce position size (e.g. smaller lunch box). This all had a positive effect and for the first time in ages I started to gradually lose weight and broke my magic 80kg line for the first time I can remember. Thing is sometimes whenever I eat out or am fed by friends I regret it later that evening as it feels like I’ve had a cheese baby/sprained my stomach. It lasts for a few days and feels awful. It’s not like I’ve gone mad either and certainly haven’t eaten more than I used to for my evening meal for example. Anyone else get this and is it normal?

2) Other one is to do with feeling rubbish. This doesn’t always happen but after prolonged regular bouts of exercise: where I’ve been able to cycle each day to work and a get in a couple of gym sessions/yoga a week for a month or two I sometimes get a bout of viral illness (for want of a better description). I feel weak – physical activity is hard, my head feels fuzzy , i.e. intellectually challenging activity is difficult, I feel a bit dizzy and I get a headache. It usually comes on quick and clears up after 5 days or so. I’m not sure if it’s exercise related or whether it’s the thing I focus on because I can’t do it. Anyone else get this? I did wonder if it’s related to dropping weight levels/better fitness and whether there comes a point when a barrier appears? I know a v low body fat % can cause difficulties but I don’t think 16% is in the danger zone.

TL:DR – can stomachs shrink? Why do I feel rubbish after exercise sometimes?

After a while of kind of wanting to lose a bit of weight and using that as an excuse to go on rides a few times a week, to then going to the gym and discovering that I enjoyed lifting weights, my relationship with food has changed.

I still am a food seeky and will plan whole vacations based on restaurants I want to go to. For everyday food, though, I have started thinking of it in components like xx protein with yy vegetables and then zz carb == fuel for body to build the right stuff. It's weird, I wonder if I'd ever be able to go back to the relaxed old ways.

Back in high school days we used to laugh along with this song. Now I think it describes me :/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMKdovsjjGs

if your canteen is anything like german canteens, just scroll the calorie slider to the max. The one we go to you can add an entire schnitzel for like a euro extra.

can stomachs shrink?

Kind of. They tend to stay the same physical size throughout an adult's lifetime, but their usable capacity can change. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8561056

Why do I feel rubbish after exercise sometimes?

Dunno. Some people get something called "post-exertional malaise" which produces the symptoms you're describing, but they tend to also suffer from things like CFS or ME, for which PEM is a classic symptom. If it's irregular for you then it could just be that the combination of exercise volume, weight loss, and other things going on in your life could be increasing your stress levels, which compromises your immune system, which makes you more susceptible to infection. IANAD tho.

This has completely happened to me too, helped along by myfitnesspal.
Even gone to the point of suggesting to the employee committee at work that there be more protein rich options for vegetarians as for us the meal is usually the same as for meat eaters but with the meat replaced by vegetables.

71.9kg this morning = win!

I seem to be carrying the most visible fat in my legs which is a bit odd, but all my measurements are smaller than they were last summer as well, so confident the weight (re)loss is real and not just water loss.

The slight problem is that I'm right at the top of the sizing for the GB race kit I've just ordered, without having tried it on, just to make sure I can actually get in it Euro Tri Champs in a couple of weeks!

feeling shit after exercise while losing weight is normal AFAIK, essentially as you are running a deficit, you have less glycogen/easy energy reserves to pull on, so the point at which you bonk is much sooner, it's feck all fun, makes you slower than you actually are but at least is good for training your body to burn fat... can be easy to start metabolising muscle mass though which is a bit pointless if the overall aim is improving your power to weight ratio for athletic prowess type things, rather than just getting lighter according to the scales..

I think now that switch has happened, there's no going back. It's a good thing. Food is essentially fuel to give your body what it needs, what's wrong with looking at it like that?

Nothing really. Just the looks from co-workers as they walk past me happily eating a giant salad with chicken breast and cottage cheese, a few stalks of celery, and bowl of oat porridge for lunch.

I use The Oatmeal (TM) method: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/running2

I eat OK-ish but don't care if I eat too much, I just make sure I exercise more to compensate.

I was very surprised by the results of a recent cholesterol test. "Excellent results, you must eat really healthily" quoth the quack. Ha!

What's supposed to be the ideal composition of carb / protein / fat for holding weight but working on power? 60 / 20 / 20% respectively or something?

Read a good article on it recently but can't find it now or remember that % composition