“The first time I got bugs from someone and it was a Good thing”
-Amanda McKay
Jake’s Mom has lost a lot of weight and looks fabulous as a result of changing her diet and activity level. She uses 24 hour fitness and the body bugg ™ system to keep an accurate account of her caloric intake versus expenditure. In my opinion the best way to lose weight and keep it off, through incremental changes and dedication. J
She won an extra body bugg ™ and she gave it to me to use in order to keep track of my calorie/exercise ratio. This has inspired me to make changes of my own.
A brief history of my weight gain/loss experiences…
“I wish I was fat instead of skinny” I said out loud after a couple of guys taunted me because of my rail-thin body and “flat chest” to quote them. I was always a foot shorter than the rest of my class and weighed less than most birds. I always thought it must be easier to be heavier, especially since they were the ones that were always threatening to beat me up. I mean look at all the confidence it gave them, picking on the smallest girl in school.
My lean body mass and high activity level (Chasing horses around) led to amenorrhea, which prompted my doctors to put me on birth control. This led to the departure of my former boy-like physique and the arrival of a much curvier and heavier person. I gained twenty-five pounds overnight, most of the weight cleaving to my hips and chest.
I was also the girl that was deviating towards chunky. It took a good year to notice I had a bit of muffin top going on and my jeans were too tight for my new body. I was getting what I thought I wanted, to be the “heavy” girl. I was actively pursuing mountain biking but the extra weight was not helping me be a stronger climber.
I decided at once that I wanted to be a professional mountain biker and I was willing to work hard to achieve that goal. I got off birth control and started running, cycling and swimming most days. I was a sophomore in college at Northern Kentucky University, so I had a great pool to work out in and a fast boyfriend to chase around on the trails.
It took about eighteen months to get down to the sinewy person you all may know today.
This leads to something more serious…
I went to the doctor last summer and was infuriated at the fact that he suggested I look up the definition of “Female Athlete Triad”. I was so angry because I figured if I walked in there as a male claiming to be an elite bike racer he would not make such a suggestion.
I did my research stood tall and proceeded to lay out the frame-work for why I was not a candidate.
The female athlete triad is composed of disordered eating, menstrual irregularity and bone loss. This commonly affects gymnasts, ice skaters and some long distance runners.
It took me another couple of months thinking about it before I realized that the doctor may be right. In short, I don’t eat enough to compensate for my activity level. As many cyclists know, eating can be a chore at times of peak training hours.
The body bugg is helping me understand the severity of my calorie deficit. Thanks to Jake’s Mom I am finding out that I am living in a perpetual calorie deficit.
I am maintaining a weight between 98-103 pounds, as I have the past six years or so, but I am not sure how. I guess there is some truth to the “set-point theory”. It was originally developed in 1982 (like me) by Bennett and Gurin. It explains the natural tendency of a body to assimilate to a certain shape.
To be a stronger and better cyclists we have to train efficiently but also eat the correct amount of food. I have a feeling that preparing my body for training and racing by fueling correctly will pay dividends when the race season starts. That is the goal at least.
Now eat, exercise and be healthy!
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