Wait a sec! I'm not supposed to be LOSING weight, am I?

[SteelWeaver]

Quick, help!! I've been faithfully carb cycling to gain LBM and leave the fat lying in the dirt - but I've lost 1.4 kg in 8 days!!!!

MS, is this the way it's supposed to work? I'm doing everything exactly like you said.

I don't LOOK any leaner, my clothes don't feel any looser, and my period is due next week, so technically, I should weigh more than ever right now.

I'm confused.

 

[wilson6]

Relax,

You total muscle and liver glycogen may be down. That would account for the loss. Try carbing up for a few days and see what happens. Bet it comes back quick. You may be a little low in the carb area.

W6

 

[new@gettinbig]

When you first start with any diet..if it is lower in carbs you will lose a few lbs in the first week or so..and a lot of it is just water weight. You may be going to low on your lower carb days..what is your goal and what exactly are you trying to do? How many grams of carbs are you cycling a day?

 

[SteelWeaver]

Thanks for the calming words, W6 and new@ - I just don't want to know that the LBM I've spent a year painfully gaining could suddenly go up in smoke - rationally I know that couldn't happen - especially not on the calories I'm eating, but it's the first time I've actually counted carbs, so it's new territory.

I'm sure MS will come along soon and sort me out. She helped me put it all together a couple of weeks ago. My carbs are hardly low, judging by some people here:

1 moderate day: 240g
2 days low: 160g
1 high day: 400g

For gaining LBM with minimum fat.

The whole thing's here if you're interested:

http://boards.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=85801

MS, sorry to trouble you again ...

 

[MS]

Yup, my bet is water weight. Don't judge a diet by weight change in the first 10 days. If you continue to lose weight then you'll have to tweak the diet.

If it's any consolation, I've just started a diet 3 days ago....150g carbs per day which is desperately low for me . I have already lost 4kgs of fluid!! But I'm a sodium sensitive bloat bag.

Fluid is one of the major probs with assessing LBM in folks. It would make a lot more sense if everyone low carb/low sodium dieted for a week before getting their LBM measured. A lot of novice competitors start a diet thinking "I'm 18%BF and 150 lbs and I want to compete at 10% bf, therefore I only have to lose 12lbs".

Wrong most of the time.

You have to lose maybe 5lbs water at the start of the diet, at least a pound of muscle for every pound of fat lost (so there goes another 3 lbs), and then maybe another 5lbs of water in the last few days with dehydration. Then there is the error in calculating %bf at two different weights. 10%bf at 150 is 15lbs of fat. 10% at 120 is 12lbs of fat, so there's another 3 lbs fat in there that has to be lost (and prolly another pound of muscle if all goes well). So they get freaked out when they realize they have to diet down to 120 lbs to look good on stage! But hey, at least 10 pounds of it is water, not fat.

 

[Debu]

What? MS dieting? What's the special occasioon? Are you going to compete? Can we get a before and after shot to inspire us please!

 

[SteelWeaver]

Yup, my bet is water weight. Don't judge a diet by weight change in the first 10 days. If you continue to lose weight then you'll have to tweak the diet.

If it's any consolation, I've just started a diet 3 days ago....150g carbs per day which is desperately low for me . I have already lost 4kgs of fluid!! But I'm a sodium sensitive bloat bag.

Fluid is one of the major probs with assessing LBM in folks. It would make a lot more sense if everyone low carb/low sodium dieted for a week before getting their LBM measured. A lot of novice competitors start a diet thinking "I'm 18%BF and 150 lbs and I want to compete at 10% bf, therefore I only have to lose 12lbs".

Wrong most of the time.

You have to lose maybe 5lbs water at the start of the diet, at least a pound of muscle for every pound of fat lost (so there goes another 3 lbs), and then maybe another 5lbs of water in the last few days with dehydration. Then there is the error in calculating %bf at two different weights. 10%bf at 150 is 15lbs of fat. 10% at 120 is 12lbs of fat, so there's another 3 lbs fat in there that has to be lost (and prolly another pound of muscle if all goes well). So they get freaked out when they realize they have to diet down to 120 lbs to look good on stage! But hey, at least 10 pounds of it is water, not fat.

Thanks, MS. Now you've got me so nervous I'm ready to puke!

I have to lose, like, 20kg! I'm going to look like a string bean on stage!

However, come hell or high water, at this stage, NOTHING will deter me! I'm not eating cottage cheese, tofu and egg whites for nothing! The Gay Games await - and I still have 11 months for that! The May show is practice, and prep for oodles of LBM to come after it. I don't call myself Steel for nothing

Sorry to hear about your new regimen, MS. It sounds dreadful. You must have REALLY savoured that gnocci. I am full of dread for the day that cutting starts - I'm still eating plenty, but am hungry, anyway, every afternoon. The thought of living on low carbs for almost 6 months gives me queasies. But if spatterson can do it for two years, dammit, I can do it for a quarter of that!

Thanks, everyone who popped in here to help (looks like I clicked the special privileges button unawares, for the star-studded line-up!) - a water lesson to add to my clever-ways-to-diet database.

MS, going to a show, by any chance?

 

[KBgrl]

Car - bo - HYDRATE. That last part of the word = WATER!

really???



sorry.... kinda in a wise ass mood tonight....feel free to slap me a roun a bit when u feel its time....

 

[MS]

Sorry gals (and guys) no competition in sight. I am doing a trial diet to ascertain my unbloated thigh measurements for a more rigorous trial after New Year. I am doing this out of personal scientific curiosity as well as thinking about the cutting edge potential of this supplement if it works. You gals will be the first on this planet to know if I find that this stuff works for me (hint: I will be testing it on one thigh and not the other to see if there really is a localized affect).

That is all off topic to Steelweaver's goals and progress.......

Steelweaver, the worst thing you can do is be nervous and ready to puke. Do you have ANY idea how catabolic cortisol can be in the wrong circumstances????

Chill out and stay in tune with your body. And have fun at this upcoming competition. Remember, you are still trying to gain sme muscle, so don't be too hard on yourself.

 

[SteelWeaver]

I'll save it for later

KB grl - I think you've got yourself a date! (Or ... something ).

MS: wait, let me guess. It's a new supplement which will completely eliminate the need to cycle carbs! Or, no - I know - it's a fat dissolving lotion! Or, even better - a lotion filled with tiny nanocomputers which rearrange the molecules of fat to convert them into muscle! HAHHAhaaaa. Wouldn't that be awesome! But then, we'd lose all the respect we get from people for being so disciplined - and there'd be some HUGELY musclebound people out there, assuming it got converted pound for pound. And we'd lose out on the fun of going to the gym - hmmph - maybe not so cool after all.

And we'd have to give up eating egg whites mixed with tofu

When do we get to know what it is and what it does? And I sure hope you're not the first human trial.

Steelweaver, the worst thing you can do is be nervous and ready to puke. Do you have ANY idea how catabolic cortisol can be in the wrong circumstances????

Wish someone would tell my boss this.

Anyway - back on topic - thank you for your concern! I'm not really going to puke although I am a little nervous about cutting. I don't think catabolic nervous though. Just first time jitters - and I was pretty blown away by how little weight I'll have left! 135 or so lbs at 5'11" doesn't make for much in the way of SIZE. I mean - quitting is not an option, but am I not going to look anorexic? I wanna look huge and ripped, but I'm just gonna look stringy ..... On the bright side, luckily people in Japan are quite polite and they don't laugh to your face.

If I've lost a bunch of weight (hopefully much of it fat) by the New Year, will I still have to start cutting in January? As far as I know my comp. is 26 May. Judging by the gains I've made prior to now, the most I can gain in the next few weeks is about 200g. Oh dear.