The tank visited our gym last week. I'm not so happy to report the results......
On January 31st I weighed 112 pounds and my bodyfat percentage was at 12%.
Although I was satisfied with my body composition, I wanted to see if I could gain more muscle, and consequently lean out a bit. At the same time, I the Zone was beginning to consume my life and drive me a little insane. Specifically, it doesn't allow for any flexibility. Just as CrossFit is founded on constantly varied movements, I believe my diet should follow a similar pattern. So, in my effort to "change things up" producing muscle gain and fat loss, I played around with my Zone block prescription. Recently, I've even experimented with the NHE eating plan.
Six months later, I had increased my bodyfat by 1%, taking me up to 13% at 114 pounds.
I guess it could have been worse, but I had a hard time swallowing this one. Clearly, my efforts were fruitless. I don't think it was a mistake to allow myself to stray from the strict 10 Zone block allotment however, the caloric restriction may have been too aggressive signaling my body to (gasp) store fat.
Thankfully, I attended the Nutrition seminar at NorCal Crossfit and got a lot of good insight into my diet and nutrition in general. Robb Wolf is the man, he really knows his shit. Most importantly, I learned that I am carb sensitive and how to modify my diet to control this sensitivity.
My diet modifications:
1) Eat 4 meals/day
2) 3/4 meals; add fat blocks and subtract carb blocks.
3) 4th meal; add carb blocks and eliminate all fat blocks.
4) Time my "carb-up" meal after my workout.
5) Weigh and measure ALL my foods.
3 comments:
I would suggest another dietary improvement: stop worrying about it. 13% bodyfat is plenty low enough. I would be impressed if the margin of error in measurement of that hydrostatic tank was better than 0.5 or 1%. Yes, I realize how accurate they claim it to be. If it was so damn accurate, why does it matter what you eat and when you eat before the test? That is probably because the testing method is easily influenced by other variables besides lean body mass. You are a scientist. Think about measurement error.
Connie, you look really good and you are an excellent athlete. I would not obsess over whatever silly numbers appear on the printout.
To follow up on my previous comment, let's say you actually are at 13% body fat. According to your friends and mine at Wikipedia, you are at the very edge of essential body fat stores. Percentages between 12 and 15% for women are considered necessary for normal health and functioning. Some can go below that and remain healthy, but I doubt that most could.
If a woman that you were training came up to you and said, "I'm at 13% body fat and I need to seriously redouble my efforts to get leaner," what would you say to her? I imagine your advice might be, "Start drinking whole milk and doing heavy back squats. You need to put on some weight."
This is just about what I am doing:
I have settled on a “Zone-Like” diet as follows:
18 Matched protein carb blocks (7/7)
Whatever X fat
Carbs not to exceed 130 g per day
Low GI sources only
Example is here:
http://crossfitzonediet.blogspot.com/2008/02/stellar-4-blocker-via-trader-joes.html
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