Gafoo's Blog

I have finally hit the wall. After 3 months of working out anywhere from 3-5 days a week I have finally hit the weight loss wall. I am still losing but not nearly as fast as I was before. I was really addicted to the notion that I could drop 2-3 pounds a week. Its a positive feedback thing: I lost weight a little weight, which made me work harder, which made me lose more weight, which made me adjust my diet, which made me lose more weight etc….
But I am now at the point where I can either push harder and diet more, or just accept that my body composition is changing. I am losing body fat and gaining muscle but just not losing weight as fast. In two weeks I have lost 2 pounds. Every fitness article I have read says not to worry about weight loss anyway. They say to pay attention to how your clothes fit and how you feel throughout the day. Well on that front I think I am doing great. My t-shirts all feel humongous on me and I have gone from a relaxed fit size 38 pants to needing a belt to hold up my size 34 pants.
I can’t even fathom dieting more at this point. I have been pretty strict with having a 1500 calorie diet for the last 2 months. At my heaviest, that meant I had a 1000 calorie deficit from what I was normally eating. Since I have lost the weight my maintenance calories have gone down to 1900 which means I am still at a calorie deficit, just not nearly as large as before. But like I said, I can’t even imagine going lower than where I am at now. I think it would be unhealthy and slightly impossible.
So I could work out harder but even that seems like a difficult process. Since I started training for the marathon I have been running 4 days out of the week. I am doing anywhere from 15-24 miles a week. As per the training schedule, I am running 2 days in a row of slightly shorter runs (3-4 miles), then a day of rest, then a day slightly longer (4-5 miles), then a day of rest, then one long run (7-10 miles), then another day of rest…repeat. I do this at the gym mainly since that is when I have the time. I do have 3 days of rest that I could work out on but I find that after doing these runs, I definitely need the rest to allow my legs to recuperate. On my rest days I really feel the effects of all this running so I don’t think my body would allow me to workout much more than I already am. Maybe as I progress further I could add another day, but as for now, it’s not gonna happen. By the way, kudos to Nacho for the sweet marathon training book. I can’t put it down. It’s a great book.
So I guess this post is my way of of working out that I am not gonna lose weight as fast as I have been. I now realize how fucked up this sounds so apologies to anyone who actually read this far. Hitting the weight loss wall definitely sucks. I feel like I am working out harder and eating better than I have in my entire life and seeing minimal returns. I knew it would happen but it definitely sucks to be at this point. Ah well, C’est la vie.