16 years ago a horse kicked me in the face, shattering my jaw. The damage was too severe for surgical repair so my jaw was wired shut for 8 weeks. I lived on blenderized orange juice and yogurt for those two months.

What's my point? While living off of liquids, my weight went from 210 to 160 pounds. I could track my weight loss by counting the holes on my belt. Every 5 pounds lost meant I was able to cinch down to the next hole. I had to punch new holes in the belt toward the end of the 8 weeks.

For the past several weeks I've been incorporating HIIT on the treadmill. And I've been tracking weight loss by seeing where my bent cinches. And again I'm about to punch new holes. I was 170 pounds two weeks ago. Now I am probably between 160 and 165 pounds, I believe.

Tale of the belt:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j...os/DSCN2602.jpg

That's great! HIIT is pretty good stuff.

Actually, while I think about it, can I ask you a question? I'm really torn right now about whether to try to lose more weight or not. Bottomline, I'm worn out, burnt out on dieting, so to try to lose more is tough for me. But... I LOVE my running, weight lifting, other exercise. I've turned into one of those people that love to work out. I'm wondering if I'd love it even more if I were 20 lbs less?

Do you find that the difference of 20 lbs (or even that 10 you just lost) makes a difference in your performance or enjoyment of your workouts?

Val

As long as I get some carbohydrate before the run, it will be a good run. If I don't take some carbs, the run becomes a horrible slog through deep mud with shoes made from lead.

I find I can eat very little carb for most meals but I must have some carbs shortly before the run to have a quality workout. You might look into Hammergel products. They use maltodextrin as a carb source. It's not supposed to trigger an insulin response, I'm told.

One of the biggest mistakes most runners make is not taking a day or two off occasionally. If you're burning out, that may be why.

You need enough carb on board to have a good quality workout. Some here have said they can work at 90% of max heart rate while not having any carbs, but that hasn't worked for me.

If you're just tired of your routine, maybe try something new. A bike allows as good a workout as running. Same goes for swimming. On my non-running days I ride a trail bike. During the winter I cross-country ski more than I run.

Being thinner allows for running a bit faster but I don't get much more out of it than that. Running slower allows for meditation. At faster speeds I don't seem able to do that.

That would be me. There are 2 caveats, though. You have to keep carbs low enough for your body to become fat and keto adapted. Once adapted, you will have plenty of energy. I keep my carbs below 20g per day at all times, usually between 5-10. I'm not sure what the limit is....it may vary from individual to individual. The other thing is that you must allow time for the body to adapt to burning fat and ketones. This seems to take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, depending on the individual. I do agree about taking a day off once in a while. The body does need to rest once in a while. 5-6 days per week of running is plenty.

I'll love HIIT. You really get a lot of bang for your buck.

Valerie,
I read an interesting study about endurance training and weight lifitng simultaneously..

The study showed that the body will "choose" the endurance part of the training over weightlifting.

Maybe there is too much endurance training in your routine hampering your ability to build muscle, thus you are burning out..

Just a thought.

Maybe yuo are doing too much

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I'm not burnt out on the exercise, I'm burnt out on dieting! I can't force myself to cut back calories to a point where I can lose any weight.

The exercise I'm loving and doing okay on. I do take time off, and much as I love running, I'm only doing it twice a week to give myself time to do weights twice a week and a HIIT session once a week, and then two days off. Okay, I cheated and did an extra upper body weights workout today instead of taking it off, but usually I take 2 days a week off.

I was just wondering if the improvement in performance and ease of the exercise I'd get from forcing myself to lose an extra 20 lbs would be worth the hell it would be for me to restrict calories at this point. Technically I'm overweight, around a 26 BMI, but aesthetically, I'm comfortable with my looks, so I'd be mostly trying to lose more for the fitness aspect of it.

Hey how about some pics?? lol

26%..are you sure?

If anything, I think it is important for one to do a "precontest" type of cut up. Why not try for 6-8 weeks? Drop your cals ,up the intensity and see what you can achieve.

I think we should do something like this twice a year.. Set a goal to really be strict in all aspects of your routine and diet and see how low you can get your bodyfat.

I bet you have lots of muscle there Valerie.

LOL! I'm only 5'7" and around 167-170, so yeah, there's lots of body fat there still. My scale told me 29% this morning and when I go to my sisters and measure on her scale, it tells me closer to 33-34%! Yikes! That 26% was a while back and probably a fluke!

I'm sure I will try to lose more at some point, it's a matter of when.

So what are you eating that you have problems doing without? A friend tried Atkins and lost a lot of weight but told me she "Got sick of eating eggs all day". She quit the diet and gained all the weight back and more.

My HIIT is done with a treadmill. I set it at 6% grade, walk a quarter mile to warm up then go to 7:00 pace for 1/8 mile, then drop to 12:00 pace for a 1/8 mile as a rest, then repeat for a total of 6 miles. When I first started this I could only do a level grade and an 8:00 pace. I've been doing this about 4 days a week for the past three months.

In the past I ran up to 80 miles a week. But all of it quite slow. And I still got injured, developed athletic pubalgia, and didn't get the weight loss that this HIIT is causing.

I lift weights but mainly for core strength. I'm not interested in big pecs or 'ceps, but I want more strength for running long distances.

BTW, those bathroom scale/fat monitors aren't very accurate. A cheap skin fold caliper will never lie to you. ;-)

Yeah Val, what Kaypeeoh said.

Ditch the scale and go have a caliper test done by someone who knows what they are doing.

I actually have a question about HIIT.. I know that you are supposed to jog at a moderate pace for 2 minutes and then sprint for 1 minute (at least this is what I've read in 2 different places). Since I'm not up to the point where I can jog constantly, let alone jog AND sprint, I'm wondering if I can walk at 3.3 mph for 2 mins and then jog at 5.3mph for 1 minute. 5.3 is new for me, I've been doing 5.0 for quite some time and .3 really makes a difference. Is it good to start out like this and will I still get results?

Hi intensity intervals - I think whatever high intensity is *for you* is what counts here. And the intervals don't have to be 2min/1min, they can be pretty much whatever you like, there's no definite, ultimate right answer.

I generally do a 20 minute HIIT session, 3 minutes warming up, then 30 seconds full out at as fast and as hard as I can go (and keep up for the 30 seconds). Then I do 90 seconds of recovery, normal effort, about the warm up pace. Repeat 7 times. Then I have a couple of minutes to cool down and that's my 20 minutes.

Anything you do will produce results. If 5.3 mph is all you can do for that minute, that's great, but if you want to up the intensity a little, do 30 seconds a 6.0 mph maybe! Play with it and see what you enjoy.

I have tried running at 6.0 its hard! but it feels like I'm doing something really great for my body! I'll try it tomorrow.. I usually only do 15 mins of cardio, but with the intervals, its MUCH easier and the time goes by WAY quicker so it'll be easier to go longer I think. Like I said, I'll try tomorrow (if I have time.. gotta work early tomorrow and after work I have to tan and sign up at CURVES)

Don't feel bad, I just recently started HIIT on my treadmill and my 30 sec runs are only at 4.5 right now. I know in time the speed and time will progress so I don't worry about it. In my opinion HIIT rocks and makes me feel so good after I do it.