A Fattie Hoping to Get in Shape and Become an Athlete

Hey, recent college grad! I'm trying that whole making a living thing, too. It kinda sucks. Good luck with your training-tri to have fun!!

Your web address is not working -- would like to watch as you enter this new venture. I too have reentered the journey after a hiatus due to leg injuries.
Best of luck.

Welcome from yet another BT fattie. I'm down over 15 pounds so far (from 236 to 220) and would like to no longer be a Clydesdale (get under 200) for my 1/2 IM in September. Triathlon is a great way to get in shape. The variety keeps things interesting.

I didn't lose weight for a long time while training. I believe it was because as I trained more, I just ate more. And I was eating a lot of high glycemic foods. I've started losing because of eating somewhat less but also because I've been avoiding the more sugary and refined foods. If weight loss is one of your goals, then start looking into diet changes as well. They call it the 4th discipline, and it's true!

As an overweight triathlete, I believe I am more prone to injury. So my advice also is to make sure you have good shoes, try to run on soft surfaces (track, trail, grass, not pavement), and make sure you're notching your distances up gradually.

Best of luck on your journey. There are a lot of travelers here.
Mike

Welcome, Ryan - Fellow Cedar Rapidian here!  Did you make your way out to watch the Pigman Sprint on Sunday??

Yep....I was at the pigman the last 2 years taking photos for my friends, I swore after the first time, that I would do it this year, but I recently got married and moved and before that had a long distance relationship to attend to so the training fell by the side....I did put about 1000 miles on by bike last year though so thats a start.

Sorry about the link not working, Like I said...if all goes well. It might take a few weeks of development to get the site up and running.

As for Hawkeye......you may want to watch your tongue before calling someone a Hawkeye..... Im a Cyclone born and raised......all in good fun though!


Edited by RyLawnyo 2005-06-09 12:42 PM

Woopsies!  Rivalry Alert, Rivalry Alert!  Take shelter!

Oh...well then I take back all the encouragement and wish you nothing but the worst. (winky denotes JOKE!)

I'll wish the best for you and I can't wait to talk smack the whole week of September 4.

Finally, like it or not, you're a Hawkeye because you live in the Hawkeye State...not the Cyclone State...that would be Kansas.

In all seriousness, in spite of your misguided university choices, welcome to BT!

Welcome to BT from a native Californian transplanted to Texas after a decade in Georgia...totally Iowa neutral. There's a ton of support here for you for all of your goals. Just soak it up and work hard and you'll be posting your "after" pics here before you know it. Good lucl!

I know what you mean those darn Hawk fans. I grew up in Cedar Falls, graduated from Iowa State and had to work for Hawkeye Paving for the past six year...after a while you just go numb. But at least now that I live in North Carolina there are no Hawkeyes in sight, all I hear about now is Tar Heels and Blue Devils.

But seriously you have picked a great sport if your goal is overall fitness. I'm 5' 7" and before I started training last May I weighed 211, this morning I weighed in at 156. About the same time my wife started on Weight Watches, and since she's the one that cooks I was on Weight Watchers too, by default. The best way to loose weight is the old standby - diet and nutrition.So I wouldn't rationalize eating more since you are training.

A few suggestions for loosing weight:

Start on one of the training plans here like the Couch to Sprint program. Or if you can afford it pay for a trainer to design a custom program for you.

Find a race that matches up fairly well with the program and make it your goal to finish that race.

Get a heart rate monitor, figure out your aerobic heart rate level from these articles:
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=...
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=...
and train almost exclusively in those levels or below. Training above those levels won't help you loose nearly as much weight, or help your fitness level nearly as much.

Try to eat 5 small meals each day.

Don't skip meals.

Don't wait so long between meals that you get really hungry, that makes it really easy to eat too much.

Don't stuff yourself each meal, when you begin to feel satisfied stop eating even if you have food left.

Cut out he pop.

Drink lots of water.

If you have to eat out, just eat a single sandwich or entre with no fries or chips and water instead of pop. I lost 40 of my 55lbs that way, eating fast food almost every single day.

Weigh yourself regularly to see if what you are doing is working or not, but don't be too suprised if you don't loose any weight at first or actually gain weight. If you haven't been active for a while you will gain muscle mass and some water weight, and even if you are loosing fat this may show up on the scale as a net weight gain.

Don't expect to loose it all in a month or three months or six months. One to two pounds a week is a reasonable, healthy, and sustainable amount of weight loss.

If you are going to loose weight its going to take a few weeks for your body too adjust to having less in reserve. So you are going to feel hungry, or like you should be eating more. After the adjustment period this will get quite a bit better.

Good luck, its not super easy, but if I have done it, then so can you.


Dave

Cool! People from Cedar Rapids! I just signed up for my first Tri (Cornman). If this one does not kill me I hope to do more.

It will not kill you, and you will do more!  You HAVE to do Pigman next year for sure, great race!  Good luck, have fun and WELCOME!  Maybe we Cedar Rapidians should think about starting a tri club!

My brother used to live in Cedar rapids and is a triathlete. He knows many people in the sport there. I will try and get you some names. I think most of his team is still there working for Rockwell???.

I work for them also and would be suprised if there are not a number of triatlhletes that do. I just don't know any yet.

Hi, I'm the guy who used to live in CR and work for Rockwell. If you want to find some people who do tris I know a ton. If you work at Rockwell go to the Rec Center and ask for Brenda or Jenny.

Joe

Big welcome to Ryan!!! Best of luck, have tons of funs and watch the lbs melt away!!!

Edited by Denise2003 2005-07-27 8:41 PM