lots of exercise, lots of muscle, ... and lots of fat HELP!

[motovacuum]

How to get rid of the fat...?

Since the middle of last year, I run for 45 mins a day or I cycle for 1h 30 a day. One day off per week, sometimes two if I'm tired.

I have built a lot of muscle - particularly my rectus abdominus, quads and gluts (six pack, thighs and bum) with the cycling, as my bike only has one gear and I tend to load up the panniers with food shopping or books.

This summer I've slackened off in August/ September as I was ill, away working 18 hour days, ill again, worked some 20 hour days, got ill again. I've started exercising again now.

I've really noticed the weight piling on and basically can't fit into anything but jeans. But if I eat less, I get extremely cold, dizzy, nauseous after exercise... so after exercise I eat half a loaf of bread, I drink lots of hot (herbal, weak) tea... and then by the next mealtime I am absolutely starving.

I eat:
*Breakfast
-cup of peppermint tea
-uncooked porridge & sultanas with milk, a spoon of plain yoghurt, fruit on top
-cup of strong black coffee
-glass of juice

(then cycle for 45 minutes)

*midmorning
-about a litre of water between arriving at work and lunch
-1/4 to 1/3 of a loaf of rye bread
-cup of black coffee

*lunch (canteen)
slice of cold meat/ quiche/ frittata
pasta or couscous (about 2 handfuls cooked)
fill the rest of the plate with salad
often apple crumble or something for dessert

*mid afternoon
-about another half a litre of water
-a sultana scone or more bread
-banana

(cycle for 45 minutes)

*dinner
-something like brown pasta with diced pancetta, fresh tomatoes, herbs, rocket. It would be a full dinner plate with pasta on top of half a packet of rocket; the meat is a small handful of diced pancetta, or a small tin of tuna, between two of us. So mostly carbs and vegetables.
-a pint of water
-cup of herbal tea

I often wake up in the middle of the night hungry (and go and drink milk to stop my stomach rumbling).

I'm eating too much but am SO hungry all the time!

I should say I don't put butter on the bread/scones. and I don't put sugar in tea or coffee, and I don't add salt or anything to cooking - I use the smallest amount of olive oil i can get away with, and I don't make sauces or anything - I flavour stuff with herbs and try to cook vegies as little as possible.

and I'm about to cycle home now and I am so hungry I feel almost dizzy....

Firstly I reckon you have a routine blood test because from what you eat and how much you exercise, I would have thought you would lose weight - although I think you need to have less processed carbs perhpas and increase your protein.

So something more like...

*brekkie - banana/fruit smoothie
Poached eggs on rye bread

*snack - fruit salad mixed with cottage cheese

*lunch - something like quinoa/quorn/fish with salad/veg and yoghurt afterwards.

*snack - 3 oatcakes

*dinner - sliced chicken/fish with green veg and tomato based sauce or similar

Where is your protein and fat? Your body will be crying out for both especially with all that exercise. That's probably why you want the milk in the night too.

You do need fat in your diet. Just try to make it good fat where possible (from nuts, seeds, pulses, avocados, oily fish, olive oil etc). And up the protein too - more meat, cheese, pulses and nuts again.

well done on the muscle building!

thanks for the suggestions minipie and luciemule. I do often have a mackerel or salmon fillet as protein/fat at lunch.

I was trying to follow NHS/NIH advice on nutrition - but you have both suggested more fat and protein.... I might well feel less hungry with more of those. Might look up some sports nutriton research to try and see if I should change the balance a bit. I was always a bit wary of the "eat steak you need protein if you're playing sport" argument, having been brought up by (admittedly sporty) parents who ate steak 3 times a day from childhood and (surprise surprise) now have rather narrow arteries.

You definitely do have a point re more nuts and pulses - am quite lazy about not bothering with them.

Thanks again for the advice :)

Also - if you want to lose fat and not put on more muscle, you need to do high reps, low weight/resistance to begin with. Once you find it easy, increase the time and reps.

hmm... that would mean fixing the gears on my bike then. Probably should do that anyway as the weather gets less pleasant.

I was quite shocked at the volume of muscle I suddenly put on, particularly my quads (think thunder thighs, dinosaur size chicken drumsticks - size 8 to size 14 in a few months), but that would be because of being stuck in bottom gear, i.e. very very high resistance to go with the high reps...

hmm - I too have large bum and thigh muscles, unfortunately covered with wobbly-ness! However, I'm sure that my large leg muscles were down to horse riding and biking miles in my teens and 20's.

To lose the fat, you need to burn calories and then, the muscles will look more slender.
You need to burn cals first, before building moer muscle on top....I think?

I think part of the problem is also starting from a pretty weedy baseline - it's the first time I've ever done anything that could really be called proper exercise, day in, day out.

despairing of ever fitting into anything but jeans though... have to go to a dinner tonight and everything else either won't do up or looks like a comedy outfit (think VPLs and audibly creaking trouser seams, or alternatively a kilt done up over the gut and riding up to my ribcage...)

Are you drinking enough water? When you start an exercise programme, particularly a weight bearing/resistance training one then your muscles often hold onto water as they need it to help them repair themselves so they retain it to make sure they have enough and swell temporarily. This often causes women to think they are 'bulking up' and stop whatever they are doing. If you are drinking enough water then your body realises it doesn't have to retain it and the initial swelling disappears. The vast majority of women find it very hard to build muscle as we do not have the right hormones. You could be in the tiny percentage of women who do find it easy to build muscle but otherwise from the low amount of protein in your diet, you really don't need to worry about bulking up, regardless of the exercise that you are doing.

It is untrue that if you want to lose weight you need to do low weight, more reps. I was told that and had been doing it for years and my body never changed I was always a bit plump and wobbly. A year ago I changed to mixing up workouts of 2 sets of 15 reps, or 3 sets of 8 reps or 4 sets of 4 reps, changing the weight accordingly so that by the end of any set I wouldn't have been able to do more than one more rep as my muscles were so tired. This is what most people would call 'lifting heavy' and since doing this I have gone down 3 dress sizes and have never looked better.

For the type of exercising you do you should have a fairly balanced diet of carbs, protein and fats. You need the carbs for slow energy release on your long bike rides and the protein to help your muscles repair themselves. Good fats also help this process and the combination of all three will help keep you feeling full and energetic throughout the day. If you are waking up hungry in the middle of the night then your body clearly needs more, so try adding some more protein to your evening meal, for example one whole tine of tuna to yourself (the normal size ones, not the tiny ones) with the pasta would probably make a big difference to your hunger. Lean protein keeps you feeling full, is generally low calories and will help your muscles recover.

It sounds like you are a bit like me and when you couldn't exercise and began to put some weight on it decided to all go on your thighs! It will come off again with your cycling and running and a healthy, balanced diet but it just takes time. Don't be afraid to build muscle though, the more muscle you have the more calories your body burns throughout the day, and the more quickly the fat will come off. Your weight may stay the same if you lose 10lbs of fat and gain 10lbs of muscle, but believe me, your body will look so much smaller you wouldn't believe. The rest days are as important as the days you exercise as this is when your body will have time to repair itself.

Sorry to ramble on! Give it time, and make sure you are eating enough.