loosing the last 15lb

[idit85]

About a year ago, i lost some 30 lbs by excercising, with KB and walking AND by reducing my calories intake from ~1800 a day to 1200. for the last ~ 6 months i have managed to keep all that weight down by continuying my excercise program and by increasing my calories intake to some 1400 cals a day.
I am a 55 years old woman
not an athlete [i actually "hate" excercise, but clearly see the benefits]
i cannot manage to increase the amount of excercise per day [about 50 min to an hour currently: 15 min of Z-health, 10 min of either KB or other excercise on alternate days (i have a hard time -muscle wise- using KB daily, even with proper form) and another ~ 20-30 min on the treadmill]
I can't really reduce much my calorie intake because its already quite low at ~1400/day, and i'm NOT loosing weight with that.
My diet is mostly fruits and vegetable plus some good fat [nuts, fish] and some carbs. some protein from dairy mainly and fish.not a big meat eater.

Any advise what to do to get rid of these last 15 extra pounds????

Is the "flat belly diet" a good option, with my excercise regimen???

[mc]

1400 cals sounds way low.

you may well be eating too little. It is harder to loose the last bit of fat physiologically because you're not able to get as much energy for your daily caloric needs from that source.

Consider upping your calories 250 a day for two weeks and see what happens - it needs to be for two weeks to eliminate any metabolic spikes up that could happen. it also sounds like you may be really low in protein. that is a key ingredient for building lean mass. If you're not eating enough, and you're not eating enough protein on top of it all, your metabolism may be stalling out, and it may be using your muscles for fuel.

for some ideas on diet here's a 40 page overview (free) on one approach that is habits based. you don't need any special diet; just well balanced eating and likely more fuel to counteract starvation mode.

best
mc

[idit85]

Thanks for the reference. I will def check it out!

Believe me, I have tried to "up" my calories for a few weeks, and its def causing me weight gain. After loosing 30 lbs [slowly over a year, and maintaining it for the last 6 months], my body has a hard time not going back to my fat times, which lasted about 20 years....
When I say 1400 calories/day, I do NOT count any vegetables as calories even though they def have some [tomatoes, peppers of all colors, carrots etc], so with them, i could be getting 1600 calories [at most]. That should be enough, no?

I probably am too low on protein. I did not think that at my age [55] i needed much of it. Even though i excercise between 40 and 60 min a day, i only do weight excercises 3x a week for maybe 10 min each time, so i am not into real "muscle building" [which requires lots of protein]. do i still need more protein, and how much is more? what % of my calories should be in protein, and what KIND of protein is good [at my age]?

I am 5'7" and weight now ~157 lbs, which is about 20 lbs more than i weighed in my late teens. i am of a medium frame. I think that loosing another 15 lbs will be healthier for me, giving me more energy.

Thanks for any more advise. Always welcome

[SteveFreides]

Originally Posted by idit85

About a year ago, i lost some 30 lbs by excercising, with KB and walking AND by reducing my calories intake from ~1800 a day to 1200. for the last ~ 6 months i have managed to keep all that weight down by continuying my excercise program and by increasing my calories intake to some 1400 cals a day.
I am a 55 years old woman
not an athlete [i actually "hate" excercise, but clearly see the benefits]
i cannot manage to increase the amount of excercise per day [about 50 min to an hour currently: 15 min of Z-health, 10 min of either KB or other excercise on alternate days (i have a hard time -muscle wise- using KB daily, even with proper form) and another ~ 20-30 min on the treadmill]
I can't really reduce much my calorie intake because its already quite low at ~1400/day, and i'm NOT loosing weight with that.
My diet is mostly fruits and vegetable plus some good fat [nuts, fish] and some carbs. some protein from dairy mainly and fish.not a big meat eater.

Any advise what to do to get rid of these last 15 extra pounds????

Is the "flat belly diet" a good option, with my excercise regimen???

Exercise programs need to be cycled (a week taken off or easy every 4-6 weeks) and also changed periodically. Consider meeting with an RKC to discuss your training and coming up with a plan, with specific goals for the next 4-6 weeks of your training.

Also consider a cyclic approach to eating, e.g., I eat more on the weekends, less during the week.

Find exercise you like, e.g., something that doesn't make you so sore, and do it every day - and enjoy it.

No idea what the "flat belly diet" is.

-S-
KBNJ.COM - Steve Freides, RKC II

[Chiggers]

Idit,

I think the advice already given could be helpful.

I would again emphasise the need to cycle your training and ensure that you have back off weeks.

Since you are currently doing KB training followed by running it reminded me of a free article that could be useful to you with this in mind Low Body Fat Percentage Course - Home I think interval training or HIT with weights / KB's followed by running can be a great fat burning method.

I would also consider diet wise looking into Eat Stop Eat. You don't have to buy anything if you look at that, Brad Pilons blog and free you tube videos it will give you a good idea. Rusty also did another free report where Eat Stop Eat was very good for loosing the last 'stubborn fat' (again free) Vacation Body Blueprint

Most of all rememer you have done very well with your weight loss so far. Really well done. Also dont be so scared of the 'athlete'! You train and run which makes your pretty athletic.

Hope i may have helped a little and good luck,

Chiggers

[Semonides]

Idit,

would your current physical abilities allow you to up the intensity of your cardio?

Instead of the slow, ineffectual burn of the treadmill, could you do farmer-walks with your kettlebell: pick your kettlebell up by the handle as if it were a bucket of water, walk briskly for 10 meters or so, put it down, pick it up with the other hand and walk back? Keep doing that for twenty minutes. Or you could get an extremely light weight dumbbell and keep moving it overhead. That is what I do and gets me breathing hard and it causes EPOC extended fat-burning. As an example, here is 81 year old kettle-granny doing jerks with 8kg.

YouTube - Carol Evans, 81 years old does 10 minute Kettlebell set

[idit85]

Thanks for all the great advise, downloads and , WOW! this 81 year old granny's sure strong - and cool- ! Looks like she's using a 12kg, not a 8kg KB too... Wonder if she's been athletic all her life [prob so]..
good day to all!
idit