crash diet and strength loss

[hardcore iv]

As JP suggests, get your body comp checked (skinfolds, or dodgy BF% scales as a last resort) so you can keep track of changes. Any gym instructor/trainer in Australia is technically supposed to be able to do this.

I crunched a few numbers following conventional diet guidelines and came up with this, based on the info you have provided so far. Going by your current bodyweight of 65kg, with a 500 cal deficit you would be on about 1100 calories per day, not taking into account physical activity. On a fairly conventional 40/30/30 macro breakdown that is about 440 cal from carb (110gms), 330 cal from protein (83 gms) and 330 cal from fat (37gms). This is almost ketogenic so you may want to up the carbs a bit on lifting days if you want to avoid the foggy headedness of ketosis.

[quote]I don't know if it was the cardio itself that was leaving me so worn out or just not having rest days

[muchluv]

I am trying to lose a little bit of weight at the moment but am doing a terrible job of it as I'm not really trying properly.

Before I was vegan or veggie, I lost about a stone and a half (10kg) before stopping and gaining a bit again, by eating around 1500kcals a day (actually, it could have been less, I think I used to assume my cereal and lunch was 500 but it was probably lower), and going to the gym maybe 3 or 4 times a week. At the gym I used to spend an hour (usually) on the crosstrainer/elliptical trainer. That thing burns a ridiculous amount of calories, around 700 an hour.

If you have access to a gym I would reccomend time on that machine. I don't know how it burns so many calories, sometimes I wonder if it's accurate. I don't know much about the HIIT or metcon stuff but I'm guessing you could do it there, maybe on a rower or something.

One thing you could do is to eat your BMR, then everything you do is extra calories burned. Maybe this would be good motivation. Walking is great for burning calories, for you roughly 74 calories for 20 minutes (1 mile at 3mph) walking. Walking is easy and can be done for long periods of time.

I guess it depends how fast you want to lose the weight, by the sounds of it you want to lose it quickly like 2lbs per week which would require more dieting on top of it.

Also weighing yourself can be funny, it may seem like your not losing anything then you have a sudden drop. Also the amount of salt you have eaten can vary the water retention, little things like that which can skewiff resutls and confuse you.

Apologies if this was all obvious stuff you already knew!

Thankyou everyone for the advice.

[quote="JP"]take a bit of a professional approach, like martial artists or powerlifters etc making their weight cuts. There wont be any room for strength loss, but the approach can be pretty strict.

I would first note down your daily eating, and your training, maybe write them here for criticism. Simple apprach is to just change small things to start with, cutting the "junk", cutting some portion sizes, upping the relative percentage of protein intake and so on. In training looking at the overall calorie expenditure impact of it, and maybe get more done in less time.

losing that weight is not an unrealistic goal, but since you have started lifting, perhaps you have put on fair bit of muscle too and that weighs more, so rather than looking at scales, maybe also look at body composition?

[JP]

hey tabatas on the crosstrainer

makes it a bit more fun...

you will look like a nutter though

"look at that woman, she is going crazy with the crosstrainer!"

"no, she stopped now..."

"there she goes again!"

...

[sosso]

I used to think all that tabata stuff was a load of crossfit nonsense, until I tried it with some kettlebell swings. It's brutal.

[fredrikw]

[quote="sosso"]I used to think all that tabata stuff was a load of crossfit nonsense, until I tried it with some kettlebell swings. It's brutal.

[vegieburger]

[quote="JP"]hey tabatas on the crosstrainer

makes it a bit more fun...

you will look like a nutter though

"look at that woman, she is going crazy with the crosstrainer!"

"no, she stopped now..."

"there she goes again!"

...

[hardcore iv]

[quote=fredrikw]... although I'd say most people don't do them correctly.[/quote]

Too true. Here's an interesting article about the tabata protocol.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/training/predictors-of-endurance-training-performance.html

And here's the original article by Tabata for those who are curious.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6562458/HIIT-VO2-Research