eric, dont know if this is in your data base, but i thought i would ask anyway; i weighed myself this morning for the first time in a while; i have gained almost 10 pounds, and 10 pounds on someone with my frame is a lot of weight. my clothing isnt even fitting; just my gym clothing (lycra).
how would i go about losing appoximately 5 lbs? lessen my carbs?
also, today i am trying the newest experiement, we will call this EXPERIMENT # 3;
an hour and a half before i swim, i will lower my basal to 40%. i will eat 1/2 ucan bar (unless it seems i need to eat an entire one). i will test before i go into the pool to double check that my BGs are safe, and then i will swim for as long as my body allows. (up to 2 hours, no more) i have rested this w/end and i feel a bit tired, but strong. i am depressed by my weight gain, but i wont let that deter me. and i wont swim anymore than 2 hours, b/c i dont want to wear myself out too much, which would keep me from swimming tomorrow.
About your weight gain, let me as you something - apart from the number of pounds you have gained, and being worried about itâŚare you feeling stronger or weaker when you swim?
I really think 60 grams a day is not enough when you are swimming an hour every day.
An increase in carbs is going to add some weight if you are not burning it all off. So maybe you would want to cut back a bit. The best thing to use for that is simply by looking at your insulin totals over the course of several weeks. Look at last week, look at the week before, and the week before.
Not on a daily basis, but over the course of a longer period of time like weeks and months, more insulin usually means you had more carbs (as long as your activity has remained the same).
So perhaps cutting back a bit on the carbs if you are worried about it. Maybe go lower in the morning and for dinner, but please try to replace them right after your swim.
Just remember - how much you weigh is not as important as your body composition. If you are all muscle, you can weigh more and still be lean and fit. Strong fit stomach and muscles all over your arms and legs - nothing wrong with that, even if you did gain 10 pounds! But if you are feeling flabby and loose, then you can consider cutting back a bit.
i used to eat about 60 grms a day, but i looked over my daily totals the other day, and i realized that for the past few months i am eating about 90-100 grms/day.
i am not at all flabby; i am very fit and all muscle; also, i feel strong when i am swimming. but despite all of that, i am upset about my weight gain. so, if i understand you correctly, i can cut down on the evening carbs at dinner time?
these are the only changes in my diet since i began swimming, and my weight gain only started when i began swimming. it crept up kind of slowly. before i began swimming i weighed 98lbs, then i weighed 104, then 105, and now 108. i think i gained the weight concurrently with my carbs increase.
Donât focus just on weight! OMG, DaisyMae! You said, âvery fit and all muscleâ. Whatâs wrong with that?
You can do a BMI check (not the cheap kind where you enter pounds and height, but the good kind where they check your mass compared to how much volume your body takes up, either by doing skin fold measurements or submerging you in a tank and checking your body volume). That is more important than the number of pounds.
the only reason i am at all bothered by my weight gain is that my clothing isnt fitting me. i could care less about the actual weight. i am still very lean and have relatively no body fat. i just want to fit back into my clothing, thats all.
@daisymae, so Iâm not an expert AT ALL, but my understanding was that swimming was both a kind of resistance training and an aerobic workout (the water you push against, etc.). So itâs really hard to swim intensively and not put on a lot of muscle. Thatâs why none of the elite swimmers you see are truly skinny; they donât have any fat, true, but theyâre also very muscled. Their body type is just totally different from that of a long-distance runner because of that.
So it may be that you can cut down your carbs to lose weight, or it could be that in order to feel stronger and get better at swimming, your body is adjusting and extra muscle mass is the result.
2 things: i am NOT an elite swimmer by any means (lol) but my body did indeed change since i began swimming last year. second, i have ALWAYS been skinny and i am most comfortable when i am. also, i dont want to have to buy a whole new wardrobe just b/c i have become larger.
I totally understand about the clothes. I feel like this might be a big difference between men and women; my husband wears T-shirts 24-7 and gaining 10 or even 20 pounds has little impact on his wardrobe. For me, 5+ pounds here or there is the difference between comfortable and uncomfortable jeans, or a shirt looking bulgy and ugly or flattering. And finding fitted clothing that is flattering is such a pain in the neck, so I really want to stick to the clothes I have for as long as possible. This is one of my main motivations for staying in the same weight range over time, too!
the results:
12pm: BG 116; prep for swim: turned down basal to 30% for 1 1/2 hours; ate 3/4 Ucan bar
1pm: BG 154 and still climbing
1:15pm BG 163 ; brisk 10 minute walk to pool/ hydrate w/ water
1:45pm: BG 225 pre-swim
2:45pm: BG 139; hydrate with water & get back into pool & continued to swim
3:45pm: BG 120; post 2 hour swim; hydrate; manual bolus of 1.5 units (not certain if this is a reasonable bolus for the time that i was on the temp basal and the time detached from pump (2 hours), but i will see how that goes.
4pm: brisk walk home.
still depressed about my weight; my favorite jeans are VERY tight on me; they have always been loose. so i will not have carbs with dinner, just protein and more hydration (2% milk and lots of water)
and speaking of water, its a bi*ch when you have to p while you are in the pool. its very disruptive.
let me know your thoughts on this experiment; also, if i only want to do an hour long swim, what would be your recipe?
What happens if you turn off basal but then donât eat the UCAN bar? It almost seems like the rise is from the food, the drop is from the basalâŚbut Iâm guessing the body needs some fuel before two hours of swimming, too.
You started at 225 which seems a bit high. We donât like to be above 200 when starting strenuous exercise.
You were pretty much stable from 2:45-3:45. That part worked. Great!
It seems like the Ucan and 30% combo is still a bit too much?
[EDIT] Changed stable time frame to 2:45-3:45 (typo)
i was thinking of skipping the Ucan bar next time; it really does do a number on my BGs. its a slow carb, but it lingers with staying power. if i have just a nibble, it would bring me up to about 150 pre-swim.
1:45 - 2:45pm was my 1st hour. i am wondering how much of that stability has to do with the temp basal or just the beginning high BG.
if i do a 0% TB, would i set that for 1 1/2 hours, or perhaps only 1 hour? and then totally skip the Ucan bar?
Sorry, that was a typo â I meant 2:45-3:45. I donât think any of that stability is due to your high early BG. That would only affect how high you are, not how stable you are. I think the stability reflects your basal MO.
eric, youâre just not understanding the mindset of a woman who treasures her fave pair of Levis. they are perfectly broken in and are irreplaceable.
i am not capable of being a timid little thing. i can be timid about keeping BGs in perfect range 100% of the time, but when it comes to people, no way, dude.
But given that youâre quite stable between 2:45 and 3:45 â and youâve been off your pump at that point for almost 3 hours, if you do a 0% temp basal for 1.5 hours you might hit that stable sweet spot a little earlier in your workout⌠so Iâd guess that maybe your first hour would be less of a drop (Maybe 50 to 75 points) and then your second might even have a bit of a rise. Of course at some point you start getting liver dumping and ketone production if youâre off your pump for too long, so thatâs the other risk. What if you did something like 30% for half hour, off the pump for another hour, no UCAN bar? Or is that too complicated?
