Body weight composition

Mikefrog wrote (see)

Can the body top up stored glycogen from stored fat then? (Serious question, I'd love to know the answer)

Hmm, well techincally "no" , not directly anyway ...  fat is broken down into glycerol and fatty acids ... aninals cannot convert fatty acids into glucose (the buiding block of glycogen)... the glycerol part can be converted into glucose in the liver but I don't believe this is a major route to glycogen synthesis (I may be wrong - perhaps it is more important in low carb diets? Dunno!).

But, actually my point was that if you're using your fat supplies as an energy source, you need less carbs in your diet to keep glycogen levels topped up. Fuelling your running with carbs makes sense if you're at "steady-state" ... if you're trying to lose weight then it's better to keep carb calories down and burn fat. If you fuel your runnign with calories from ingested carbs, obviously you won't lose weight.

Rach,

 You said it yourself that you are losing weight; so I struggle to see the problem. Diet looks OK, you seem to be clocking up the miles so you should carry on losing wieght. It is never as fast as we hope.

If you have hit a plateaux then you must break it by changing something. Either more running or a few days on tougher rations. Alternatively my preference would be chill out for a week or two and don't concetrate on diet. Then refocus diet and begin the process again, set new bench marks etc.

Muslce is good, it burns calories all day long so increases actual BMR (although doesn't show up in calculated BMR). It should also help you run faster.

Do you have a set of body measurements to compare against. I like these to go along side weight measurement as it can give some motivation where weight loss may not seem to be happening. Ultimately who cares how heavy you are as long as you look good. I think Johnny Wilkinson was technically obese on the BMI scale when he was playing for England - but my wife didn't think so.

Try some runs on empty as this forces the body to take energy from fat, burning the fat. Eat afterwards. the body will use the food to run life, repair muscle and only return to fat what is spare. Even on a perfectly calorie balanced diet this will make you lose wieght as energy into and out of fat takes energy.and therefore you would not be perfectly balanced.

Stick with it.

Dave

Hi,

Some great responses and i'd like to back up Pug here.  Don't read too much into the figures themselves (unless they are so extreme that seeing a Doc would be a good idea)  keep as many variables as constant as possible, time of day, clothing etc etc then just use the figures as a benchmark and if they are going in the right direction job done.  The best evidence is the response from people you know to how good you look,  looking in the mirror and how you feel/increases in performance.

Now this is vital to losing weight and fat as it so often gets overlooked......Ultimately your body only cares about keeping it self alive (thankfully) so you have to cheat it a little to make it let go of the fat - basically lead it in to a  sense of security (but not a false sense).  The main thing is hydration - 3L a day of water not including water required during trainning will help to shed fat alot.  If your body feels that it will get water on a regular basis it won't retain additional stores and with the excess water loss goes a load of fat aswell - for some reason.  Strangely as a result your body will be more hydrated and your % water weight will go up.  Bit like a camel - fatty humps filled of water cos their bodies know that it's not getting any for a long time.