Body Composition - Revisited
I thought I would share the results of my body comp "project now that I'm 6 months plus into it.
History
I'm fairly lean to begin with, with a thin frame and small bones. I was a high school and college basketball player, and graduated high school at 180 lbs. I've been competing in triathlons since 2003, and haev always hovered between 185 and 200. My leanest was Ironman Wisconisin in 2004, when I raced at 185. For Lake Placid last year, I was at 190. I decided after that race that in the outseason, I would start working on losing more weight to see where my "sweet spot" might be.
Start date: 11/1/2010
Starting Weight ~195 lbs (@ 6'4" tall)
FTP=290
W/kg: 3.27
VDot: 46
Results to date
Current Date: 5/25/2011
Weight: 172 lbs
FTP: 310
W/kg: 3.97
VDot: ?? - achilles injury has forced no running for the last 2 months. 2 months ago, VDot was 49
Plan
My plan was to use Lose It! (as recommended in Rich's body comp thread earlier in the year) and to start seeing where my calories came from. It was eye-opening. Fully 50-60% of my caloric intake was carbs... in the off-season. I can see 50% or so when volume ramps up, but at 8 hrs/week of training, that was too much. Also interesting was that protein hovered around 20% of caloric intake. While fat intake percentage was pretty decent, I noticed my saturated fat intake seemed a little high. almost 1/3 of the fat was saturated.
Summary of my analysis? Carb intake was too high, protein too low, and fat was too high in Sat. Fat.
So, over the last 6 months, I've worked at changing these three aspects of my diet. Primarily, I've started doing these things:
- eating less red meat
- eating more fish, chicken and eggs
- carbs are primarily whole grains and copious amounts of fruits & veggies
- supplementing with whey protein
- reduce refined sugar as much as possible I haven't touched a soda in 6 months, although I was not a big soda drinker before, either.
- eat 5-6 times/day with breakfast typically being the biggest calorie meal
- carb-laden meals are typically placed immediately after workouts (particularly hard workouts)
- fats come from nuts (mostly almonds) and oils lower in sat. fat.
There are probably a few other things I could putin there, but these were my main focus points. In 6 months, I'm down nearly 25 lbs. I feel pretty strong, and things have improved. My FTP has not improved as I would have liked, but most of that I think was a crazy travel schedule in February, March and late April that has interfered with the ability to get workouts in. Add to that a weeks or two of total rest trying to heal the achilles, and it makes sense that the fitness improvements for the bike are not as high as I'd like. However, at ~25 lbs less, my W/kg is WAY up, even at a modest FTP gain. I'm climbing MUCH better than I was, and I sure enjoy not lugging around an additional 20+ lbs.
Now, if I can get back to running, I'm hoping to see if I can go sub-5 hours at Boulder 70.3 this year... and actually finish the race for once.
FYI, I put the bullet about sugar in bold, because I think this is key. Reducing sugar carbs and replacing them with fruits/veggies is far more preferrable. You get MORE food in you (so you feel more full), and it's not metabolized straight into glucose, which helps reduce/prevent an insulin spike. I feel better. I have more energy, and things are looking pretty good.
The one downside is that my wife now says I'm too skinny. I probably am, but I don't plan to stay this skinny. This was more an experiment than anything. After Boulder 70.3, I'll probably start trying to put on a little weight... at least until next year. 
Comments
Congrats! 25lb is legit and your plan/execution is textbook. Nice work!
I'm looking for ~12lb in the 16wks between now and IMWI. That will be crazy lean for me. Friend me up on LosIt, rich@endurancenation.us
For whatever reason I can't find you on LoseIt! You aren't coming up in the search section.