Disappointed with how LITTLE calories triathlon training burns. (Page 6)

FWIW, I did the atkins thing several years ago. Lost 60# in just over a year and a half. Only real exercise I did was walking. Lots of walking. Followed the carb rules (except I just couldn't stick with salads for more than a couple of weeks. I just hate the stuff, no matter how much bacon or eggs you put in it). Then I fell off the wagon during the holidays.

Maybe because you're already at a healthy weight??I may be . I weigh 153 pounds. My goal is too be skinny and healthy not just healthy. I would like to look like Jessica Biel for example. I do not think that she is very skinny-just skinny.

If you hit a plateau, then your metabolism was slowing down and maybe 1200 calories wasn't a deficit anymore.  Remember that a person's caloric intake requirement isn't static.  So it is still just as simple as calories in versus calories out.  If your metabolism slowed down, then the calories out went down.  If your weight loss had indeed hit a plateau because your metabolism slowed down, then eating 3500 calories is a very quick way to gain a ton of weight.

This is just my personal experience, but I have never found the "calories theory" to not hold true.  I tend to gain weight over the winter as my exercise levels go down some; it's just harder to run 2 hours when it's on a treadmill.  So in spring, I tend to be about 10 lbs heavier than before.  The solution is to simply run a caloric deficit by eating less and exercising more.  The closer I get to goal weight, the harder it is to drop.  But, it always comes off if I work hard enough at it.  This year I'm trying to cut another 10 lbs in addition to the 10lbs of winter weight I picked up.  The first 10 came off relatively easily, but now it's harder to get that last 10 off.  Having said that, it is coming off.  It's taking a lot more work than the first 10, and I've had to double up on some workouts while cutting more calories, but it is coming off.  When you hit a plateau, you will have to adjust things, but the solution isn't to go and double your food intake because you get frustrated.

I used to be the chubby guy who thought that I couldn't cut the weight because of genetics, slow metabolism, plateau, you name it, I figured it applied to me.  In reality, I'm no different than anyone else; it's calories in versus calories out.  I was fairly active before, running, cycling, weights.  But I realized that I simply wasn't doing enough of it and eating too much.  So I corrected both areas and went from 200lbs at 5'10 to 170lbs.  Now I'm looking to go down to 160 lbs and it's taking a lot of work, but the point is that it is working.  It just takes more work than I ever thought it would and requires being hungry a lot, but running a calorie deficit is pretty much the only way to cut weight, simple physics and chemistry, no way to violate that rule of nature.

Nobody ever said it was easy.

Thanks for your replay and good advice. I did not double my calorie intake simply because I was frustrated.I had been frustrated for months eating only 1200 calories and not losing, so I gradually started eating more and more. I have been monitoring myself  and I guess I'm   taking advantage of eating and not gaining.

I realize that losing takes a lot of work and it is not easy. For example  4- mile run follwed by  a mile swim without any fuel are no fun at all.

cellulose still has a calorie value.  this calorie value will not enter your blood stream. It is a part of TEF, because to pass it out your system requires energy.

I just did that very workout on Thursday. No fuel, only water.

You have no idea what TEF is.  Please stop.

It was. First OWS of the year.

NM

While I haven't lost a ton of weight during my lifetime, I feel that as a 5'8" male my optimal calorie range per day is somewhere around 1400.  If I go under, I risk illness, go over and I maintain.  One day a week I make sure to each over 2000 calories so my metabolism doesn't change. 

People get way too enamored with daily and weekly calories.  I tend to think that an 800 calorie breakfast, 600 calorie lunch, and 400 calorie dinner is the most effective way for me to lose weight while working out.  Giving people daily totals to reach gets taken advantage of, and eating nothing all day and a 1800 calorie dinner does nothing.  IMO, big dinners are wasted calories since you eat it and typically just go to bed.

I'm also in the camp that sugars are to be avoided.  I can't explain it, but unless you are going to burn it off immediately, they make you hungrier and somehow fatter.

So what your saying is the Cabbage Diet is BS

We had a live in babysitter who went on the cabbage diet. She got fatter and sicker and our house began to stink from her constant trips to the bathroom. We ended up getting a new babysitter.

Also complained about a weight problem..... 16 tons I believe.

fad single source food diets will lead to failure... with out other variables indicated here...  did she add cabbage to her diet of ice cream shakes and french fries?  Did she go on a binge the day after the diet? 

I do not believe one will gain fat on a pure, raw unprocessed cabbage diet of 2 weeks if they go to a well balanced diet afterwords.