Question:
How do I lose body fat? What are the % of protein, carbo, fat intake of you tri-geeks? Are you vegetarians, vegens, meat-eaters? I’ve been tri- training since October and haven’t lost weight or inches.
I, too, had your similar experience of not losing weight. However, when I started doing 2/day workouts I have lost 25 lbs over the last 2 years. I haven’t increased intensity or length of training. I just took those 2 hour after work training sessions, and split them to 1 hour before work and 1 hour at lunch hour. I can hypothesize or guess to what causes this, but it is probably an increase in my overall metabolism (OBW I eat more than I ever do). My .02 is to try 2/day workouts, be patient and see if in 2 months you see a difference. — Pat Brug, Ph.D. Los Alamos National Laboratory "Home of the TriATOMICS" compuserve: 72410, 3372
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I’ve got a related question: what is the best way to measure body fat? I’ve read in some tri books that health clinics use either fat tongs (calipers) or take measurements in a water tank. Which is the best method? Also, how much does each method usually cost? Joe Jankovsky Mechanical Engineering Yale University
Response:
I’ve got a related question: what is the best way to measure body fat? I’ve read in some tri books that health clinics use either fat tongs (calipers) or take measurements in a water tank. Which is the best method? Also, how much does each method usually cost?
The best method is under-water mass, which takes advantage of the different densities of fat, muscle, bone, etc… Fat is less dense than water and thus floats. A simple calculation which takes into account land mass and lung volume is done to arrive at the % body fat. Some of the caliper methods are pretty good but none are as accurate as the water weight method. I called a local place here in Houston and the cost is $66 for the water method. Most places do the caliper method which is cheaper. The water-weight places can be a little harder to find. I would suggest trying the sports medicine section of a University teaching hospital or the P.E. dept of a college or university. Sometimes companies will sponsor a free health fair for cholesterol testing or % body fat determination. Mark A. Jenkins, M.D. specializing in triathlons, internal medicine, and sports medicine.
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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I’ve got a related question: what is the best way to measure body fat? I’ve read in some tri books that health clinics use either fat tongs (calipers) or take measurements in a water tank. Which is the best method? Also, how much does each method usually cost? The best method is under-water mass, which takes advantage of the different densities of fat, muscle, bone, etc… Fat is less dense than water and thus floats. A simple calculation which takes into account land mass and lung volume is done to arrive at the % body fat. Some of the caliper methods are pretty good but none are as accurate as the water weight method. I called a local place here in Houston and the cost is $66 for the water method. Most places do the caliper method which is cheaper. The water-weight places can be a little harder to find. I would suggest trying the sports medicine section of a University teaching hospital or the P.E. dept of a college or university. Sometimes companies will sponsor a free health fair for cholesterol testing or % body fat determination. Mark A. Jenkins, M.D.
specializing in triathlons, I would also comment that you should be very careful with the caliper validity. Some people use very cheap(read unreliable) calipers and do an abreviated test and only take measurement in a few places. Then others have very accurate calipers (and are trained to use them)and take many measurements in many places a few times. For example, I get my BF measured about once a year by the same guy.(for consistancy of comparison). He takes the numbers from 8 different spots on my body and does this a few times. He takes the average for each location and then plugs these numbers into the formula. I would consider this a LOT more accurate then those the sample fewer locations. I also have very little faith in the electrostatic or infrared stuff. The usual technique is to just sample one location (the bicep). I consider these very inaccurate. I personally suggest (if you can’t do the weighing) look for someone skilled with calipers. The usual rate is about $15 This is usually the same amount that people charge for the electronic methods. John K.
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How do I lose body fat? I’ve been tri-training since October and haven’t lost weight or inches. I don’t want to lug my 130 lb frame up the mountains any more … … female, 32, who’s 5′5 1/2". I’ve done one triathlon in April; ran a 1/2 marathon in LaJolla; and have done a duathlon. HELP!! Any suggestions.
My question is: what body fat do you want to lose? This is a perfectly reasonable weight for your height if you have significant muscle mass. Have you tried getting a density test to find out whether your own impression of your "excess" body fat is in line with objective reality? My next question is: how does one deal with open water swimming for the first time?
My first advice is that losing what little body fat you have at 5′5 130# is only going to decrease your buoyancy and let you get cold, necessitating a thicker wetsuit that’s going to slow you down in the swim-bike transition (it’s easier to pull off a small, thin wetsuit than a big heavy thick one). My next triathlon is June 25 (The Utah Summer Games) 1.2 mile lake swim; 54 mile bike; 9 mile run. I tried ocean swimming when I was in LaJolla — scared the hell out of me.
Waves aren’t as big in a lake as they are in an ocean, and the water isn’t usually as cold. Nor are there tidal currents. Rip tides are what a rational person should be concerned about, since they will carry you miles out to sea if you don’t know how to respond. Longshore currents are just frustrating, they be strong enough to keep you practically in one place if you swim against them. And of course, without breaking waves, there is no undertow. And don’t worry about those big rogue waves that can dash you against submerged coral heads and knock you unconscious. Less common in lakes also are parts of fisherman’s drift nets gone astray that you can get tangled in to spend eternity with the dolphins and seals met with a similar demise… And then of course, 
there are the man-eating great white sharks, the stingrays, the barracudas and the giant octopii and squid lurking on the bottom just waiting to grab an arm or a leg to pull you down to Davy Jones’ Locker…none of which live in lakes. And you don’t have to worry about unreported large schools of pirhanas either. Although they can strip a steer of every shred of flesh from its bones in a matter of minutes, they’re not all that common in Utah lakes. I don’t want to panic come June 25; but I’m pretty nervous about the whole thing. Any suggestions for my mental state?
Just think: Shark, octopus, stingrays, pirhanas, barracudas, rip tides, longshore currents, big rogue waves, submerged coral heads. All the things you don’t have to worry about in Utah lakes. The worst thing you’re likely to run across is a big walleyed pike or largemouth bass. OOh, sca-ry! Or, just ask your competition to help calm you down! We’ll be happy to help! Cheryl
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How do I lose body fat? What are the % of protein, carbo, fat intake of you tri-geeks? Are you vegetarians, vegens, meat-eaters? I’ve been tri- training since October and haven’t lost weight or inches. I don’t want to lug my 130 lb frame up the mountains any more — nor do I want to add another 10 lbs to fit in the clydesdale category!! I think I eat a fairly low fat diet — no butter, no cream in my coffee; I’ve even given up Adams peanut butter. I eat skinless chicken breasts, fish, beans, tons of
Well, if you’re taking in 10-20% fat, you might want to try increasing your fat/protein intake and reducing your carbos. PR*Nutrition (You’ve seen the ads for PR*Bar by now I’m sure!) claims that a 40-30-30 diet will help to burn fat faster. Just make sure you don’t increase calories too! I’m not sure if this works, but I suppose it’s worth a try. veggies, 3 fruits, and skim milk. I refuse, however, to give up my homebrew – one beer a night. Don’t tell me I have to give this up to — at some point the law of diminishing returns is going to rear its ugly head and I’m going to give up triathlons and become a couch potato!! I’m a
No way! If I don’t have my pint of Guinness every night I become very nasty. It’s only about 250 calories or so, and you’ll burn that just in the warm-up of your workout! It *may* however help to temporarily give it up just in the "fat-burning" phase. Who knows. O Jason Mayfield `/ (*)/ (*) ’— __’ `
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Hi. I’ve been lurking in the shadows this past week and would like to ask a couple of questions: How do I lose body fat? What are the % of protein, carbo, fat intake of you tri-geeks? Are you vegetarians, vegens, meat-eaters? I’ve been tri- training since October and haven’t lost weight or inches. I don’t want to lug my 130 lb frame up the mountains any more — nor do I want to add another 10 lbs to fit in the clydesdale category!! I think I eat a fairly low fat diet — no butter, no cream in my coffee; I’ve even given up Adams peanut butter. I eat skinless chicken breasts, fish, beans, tons of veggies, 3 fruits, and skim milk. I refuse, however, to give up my homebrew – one beer a night. Don’t tell me I have to give this up to — at some point the law of diminishing returns is going to rear its ugly head and I’m going to give up triathlons and become a couch potato!! I’m a female, 32, who’s 5′5 1/2". I’ve done one triathlon in April; ran a 1/2 marathon in LaJolla; and have done a duathlon. HELP!! Any suggestions. My next question is: how does one deal with open water swimming for the first time? My next triathlon is June 25 (The Utah Summer Games) 1.2 mile lake swim; 54 mile bike; 9 mile run. I tried ocean swimming when I was in LaJolla — scared the hell out of me. I don’t want to panic come June 25; but I’m pretty nervous about the whole thing. Any suggestions for my mental state? Lisa Sewell
Response:
Lisa R. Sewell wrote ### ### Hi. I’ve been lurking in the shadows this past week and would like to ### ask a couple of questions: ### ### How do I lose body fat? What are the % of protein, carbo, fat intake ### of you tri-geeks? Are you vegetarians, vegens, meat-eaters? I’ve ### been tri- training since October and haven’t lost weight or inches. Hi Lisa, Have you heard of the Access bar by Melaleuca? It uses a patented formulation developed after more than 15 years of research in fat utilization to allow your body access to your stored fat reserves. Eating one bar on an empty stomach (1-2 hours post meal) enhances fat metabolism, increases muscle fiber recruitment, minimizes muscle fatigue and lactic acid build-up and maximizes endurance and recovery by enhancing fat store utilization. They come in 3 flavors, chocolate, chocolate mint and mocha praline, all very good! The cost is approx. $1.30 to $1.50 per bar depending on whether you purchase them singly, in a box of 15 or a box of 30. If you follow the the newsgroup rec.bicycles.misc, you might want to check out a reply I just sent to Scott about the Access bar. The heading is "re:Powerbars and puppy dung". It’s rather lengthy, but informative. If you don’t have access to it, let me know and I’ll email you a copy of it or any other information you might want. You can reach me in this newsgroup or through the Internet at the following: or Hope this helps. Regards, Gary * TLX v3.40 * Winning isn’t everything, but losing sucks * TLX v3.40 * Any Questions?
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