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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 18 March 2007 05:10 am |
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Saturday
Workout: Body Combat, Body Pump. Instructor was doing her best to embarass the two class participants who met at the gym and will be getting married next week.
At Sainsbury's I went to the chocolate isle but they were out of the one I was after (100g of dark chocolate for 25p) so I went off the idea. Got reduced-price pig kidneys. At the market got 1.8kg of red plums for £1.
In the afternoon popped out to the shopping centre (mall) where one of the salsa promoters is advertising an April event - got 4 dances (in front of an audience of onlookers) and then got bored and returned home. Starbucks provided salsa dancers with free refreshments - I had a small 'slushy' drunk that I wish I hadn't (estimate: 50 calories). Back at home tried a chocolate variation on my tomato ice cream, and made plum sorbet (which benefits from artificial sweetner).
My sister and her boyfriend (who I stayed with in early February) and I were taken out to the pub by my brother (who was buying dinner for everyone). I opted for a baked potato topped with Chilli Con Carne, with a side-salad (asked for no dressing. they forgot so they had to take it back and replace the salad). Plate came to about 360 calories and reasonably healthy (minced beef had nutrient density 8, kidney beans 48, baked potato 35, salad between 50 and 100). Also had a Mocha with a Biscotti, and a large water (which I 'spiked' with sugar-free lemon squash I brought along). Chocolate ice-cream for dessert. Had a serving of pig kidneys to bring protein back on track. Conversation spanned investing-in-properties and (less seriously) mishaps in the dating arena.
Meal pattern: 200 @ 7am, 200 @ 9am, 100 @ 11am, 500 @ (12pm - 3pm), 50 @ starbucks (3.30pm), 250 @ (5.40pm-6.25pm), 84 @ (7.30pm-7.55pm), 610 @ pub (9.20pm - 10.50pm), 206 @ 0.50am
Animals: chili-con-carne(136) pig-kidney(55) beef-medalian(50) =291 (13.2%)
Rubbish: pub:Mocha-topped-with-whip-cream(100) pub:chocolate-ice-cream(58) starbucks:freeze(50) pub:biscotti(31) sf-jello(25) pub:medium-white-wine(12) =276 (12.5%)
Totals: 2200 calories, 105.4g protein. 567 is 25.8%.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 19 March 2007 05:17 am |
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Sunday
Someone I know from OA joined my gym and turned up to one of my classes. This is cool. I have more allies. Workouts: Body Jam, Body Step, Body Pump.
Sainsbury's had dark chocolate. I was very close to buying it (was wondering around the shop holding it) but eventually put it back on the shelf. About 49 grams of sugar. Instead, a few improbably things (cauliflower, spinach etc.) got the cocoa-powder treatent instead. On the high-carb front finished all my plums and sweet potatos today. Mum was baking cream-cakes today and promised me one which she may deliver to me tomorrow.
My first 500 calories today were peanuts. Early on my objective was to spend very little time on eating, and peanuts are one of the ways to go. In the afternoon I wanted to eat lots of bulk and switched.
100 @ 4.17am, 100 @ 6.23am, 100 @ 8.01am, 100 @ 9.01am, 100 @ 10.03am, 100 @ 11.00am, 200 @ (11.50am - 12.10pm), 182 @ (1.43pm - 3.03pm), 318 @ (3.34pm - 4.33pm), 255 @ (7.30pm-8.17pm), 78 @ 9.20pm, 567 @ (11.30pm-1am)
Yes, spent lots of time eating - mostly healthy foods.
Animals: pig-kidney(100) Sainsbury's-sample:cheese(25) =125
Totals: 2200 calories, 104.2g protein. 125 is 5.7%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 19 March 2007 04:47 pm |
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Monday
ok, let's get the confession out of the way. This was pre-meditated. I think this was brought up by SmallerMe's discussion about quality of calories, and general junk-eating in some other diaries on the one hand - and my 'protein balancing' approach which I use to prop up the protein level when I'm eating things like sweet potatos and various fruit e.g. bananas/plums. Oh and the observation that I'm not _that_ interested in eating bulky foods early on in the day but I should be consuming my fair share of calories, especially before a workout. So this is what I've had:
8.25am: haddock (50 calories, 11.6g protein, nutrient density 15) chicken breast (50 calories, 10.8g protein, nutrient density 11)
9.10am: dark chocolate (400 calories, 3.3g protein, nutrient density 0)
9.30am-9.45am: a couple of tracks of Body Jam
9.45am-10.30am: Spin class
10.30am-11.00am: Ab Attack class
11.12am: the rest of the dark chocolate (113 calories, 0.9g protein, nutrient density 0)
[It should actually say 'Dark' chocolate, not 'Milk' chocolate, but evidently they have neglected to list this product on their online-shopping site!. As this is part of the Basics range and only costs 25p, the nutrition is poor - only 41% of it is cocoa solids - compared with 70% on a more expensive, high quality bar.]
Sub-totals so far: Food weighed 170 grams, 613 calories, 26.6g protein (only 17.4% of calories from protein, 2.2g protein behind schedule). At 100 calories per hour with a nominal start of 6am, I'm "eaten up" until 12.08pm.
I already have Animals: 100, Rubbish: 513, so if I eat healthy for the rest of the day, my percentages are still ugly (at least at 27.9%)
On the plus side, last week I said that my abstinence should also be measured in terms of the weight of my food (heavy = over-eating) and the length of time the meal takes. This was a very light meal and it weighed practically nothing and took just seconds to wolf down  but in terms of food obsession, thinking about it, plotting and scheming and planning, no so good  Last edited on 19 March 2007 05:58 pm by Nir
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 20 March 2007 06:38 am |
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Monday continued
Shame that I have to count chocolate as 'rubbish' - really messes up my percentages. Had lots of vegetables after my AM workouts.
PM workouts: Core, BOSU, Body Step.
Finally got some popcorn happening after a long break. Had another one of those soups with hydrogenated oil -
Calories from peanuts today: 559. Between peants (48g fat) and chocolate (32g fat), my fat calories (720 calories or 32.7% from just those two foods) is very high today. All foods (even vegetables) have some fat too so my actual fat intake is higher still.
Calories from protein 416. That means calories from carbs: less than 1064 (less than 266g, less than 48.4%). So despite high-fat day it isn't really a low-carb or even moderate-carb day. I guess I usually have high-carb days and I'm just having a normal-carb day instead.
Could I use peanuts to experiment with a moderate-carbs diet?
Assuming that 10% of the calories in my (non-nuts/seeds) is fat:
Daily calories are 2200. About 414 from protein.
X calories from nuts/seeds, (2200-X) from other foods.
Fat calories = ((X/617)*53*9 + (2200-X)*0.1)
For carb calories to be 770 (35%), solve equation 414 + ((X/617)*53*9 + (2200-X)*0.1) + 770 = 2200
X = 796/(477/617 - 0.1)
Solution is X=1183. So if 1183 of my calories come from peanuts, my carbs will hit 35% [1346 of calories from peanuts to hit 30%, 1019 of calories from peanuts to hit 40%, 856 calories from peanuts to hit 45%, 692 calories from peanuts to hit 50% (bffm baseline level!), 39 calories from peanuts to hit 70% (which must be my normal level on a non-peanut day)].
Once more, all of the above assumes my typical food is just 10% of calories from fat - just an assumption
The bottom line is: I'm unlikely to accidentally end up moderate-carb through over-consumption of peanuts - it would take a concious sacrifice of calories to end up there - calories I'd usually use for vegetables.
Meal times: 100 @ 8.25am, 400 @ 9.10am, 113 @ 11.12am, 252 @ 12.50pm-1.37pm, 64 @ 2.20pm, 121 @ 3.15pm, 349 @ 5.20pm, 417 @ 8.30pm-9.52pm, 384 @ 0.06am-0.30am
Animals: haddock(50) chicken-breast(50) =100 (4.5%)
Rubbish: Sainsbury's-basics-dark-chocolate(513) chicken-vegetable-soup(84) sf-jello(25) =622 (28.3%)
Totals: 2200 calories, 103.9g protein. 722 is 32.8%.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 20 March 2007 10:17 am |
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On Tuesday March 6th I increased my calories from 2100 per day to 2200 per day. I have three digital scales. They all report weight in kilograms (multiply by 2.2 if you want it in pounds)
57.5 56.7 56.9 (Tue, March 6th)
57.5 57.3 57.5
56.5 56.8 56.5
58.0 57.7 58.1
57.0 57.2 57.5
57.5 57.3 57.3
56.5 56.3 56.9
57.0 56.2 56.6
56.5 55.9 56.6
57.0 56.3 56.2
57.5 56.7 56.8
58.0 56.8 56.8
57.5 56.9 57.5
58.0 57.3 57.5
57.5 56.7 56.8 (Tue, March 20th)
Looking at all these figures, the thing that strikes me the most is just how much error there must be in the figures reported by each scale. After all, sometimes they agree with each other and sometimes they differ. It is the same 'me' stepping on them in succession.
Analysis: did my body mass increase? By how much? I am not seeing a clear pattern of increase here. If the objective is to increase, I would have wanted a 1lb (0.5kg) increase over a two week period - it isn't showing. Time to increase up to 2300.
[My RMR calculates as 1450. I will maintain if my activity factor is 1.59. If it is less, I should gain.]
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 20 March 2007 10:48 am |
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I have to re-do those peanut calculations (even more peanuts now required to lower carb %)
414 + ((X/617)*53*9 + (2300-X)*0.1) + 23*c = 2300, C is desired carb%
X = (1656 - 23*C) / (477/617 - 0.1)
C, X(grams of peanuts), % of calories used on peanuts
70% X=68 (3.0%)
65% X=239 (10.4%)
60% X=410 (17.8%)
55% X=581 (25.3%)
50% X=752 (32.7%)
45% X=923 (40.1%)
40% X=1093 (47.5%)
35% X=1264 (55.0%)
30% X=1435 (62.4%)
25% X=1606 (69.8%)
Can you believe this? I need to eat 1/3 of my calories from peanuts if I want to get my carbs down to 50%. Unbelievable. My macronutrient ratios will then be: 50% carbs, 18% protein, 32% fat.
If I eat 17.8% (approx 1/6) of my calories from peanuts, I'll have 60% carbs, 18% protein, 22% fat.
The balancing of evils  . Protein places load on the kidneys and liver. Fat may increase cancer risk, encourage a fat metabolism and more triglicerides in the blood (or perhaps even storage of fat). But one (or both) have to go up  if carbs are to come down!
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SmallerMe
Senior Member
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Posted: 20 March 2007 08:48 pm |
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Helllloooo Nir, funny I was just coming over to ask about peanuts lol.. Hey I think I am eating way too many.. I have raw peanuts in the shell I was counting them as 1 peanut but then I got to thinking is the calculations for 1single unshelled peanut if so I am in trouble lol
What the calories for 50 peanuts in shell? I haven't gained any weight but I think I have over loaded on peanuts! eating maybe 100 nuts a day ..eek! How many shelled peanuts should be eaten in a day?
Everything I have read says how wonderful peanuts are in weight loss and healh but how many peanuts are in 1 oz? Oh, help me :o)
~SmallerMe 
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 20 March 2007 08:53 pm |
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I just weighed 10 peanuts (no shells) and it came to 6.09 grams. So that's 37.57 calories (call it 4 calories per peanut).
When you open the shell, does it have one peanut or two inside? each counts as 4 calories.
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SmallerMe
Senior Member
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Posted: 20 March 2007 09:07 pm |
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Most have 2 some 1 so 50 peanuts in shell is roughly 400 calories right? Do you have the rest of the stats so I can add them in?
Thanks Nir I was eating way more than I thought
~SmallerMe
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Ella Luka
Past Member
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Posted: 20 March 2007 11:24 pm |
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SmallerMe wrote: Helllloooo Nir, funny I was just coming over to ask about peanuts lol.. Hey I think I am eating way too many.. I have raw peanuts in the shell I was counting them as 1 peanut but then I got to thinking is the calculations for 1single unshelled peanut if so I am in trouble lol
What the calories for 50 peanuts in shell? I haven't gained any weight but I think I have over loaded on peanuts! eating maybe 100 nuts a day ..eek! How many shelled peanuts should be eaten in a day?
Everything I have read says how wonderful peanuts are in weight loss and healh but how many peanuts are in 1 oz? Oh, help me :o)
~SmallerMe
Hi there Nir and SmallerMe,
I too eat peanuts in shells and did my own little experiment. For about 3 weeks I would break open all my shells to get to 1/3 cup. Each peanut shell has 2 peanuts in it. My 1/3 cup always came out to 25-28 peanut shells. As we know 1/3 cup of peanuts is 330 calories. If you are eating 50 peanuts in shells this is 660 calories give or take 20 calories.
If you have smaller peanut shell sizes go for 28 to make 330 calories. If you have a little bigger shells go for 25 peanut shells to make 330 calories.
Hope this helps! It took all my efforts not to snake on the peanuts while I was measuring them  If you want to try this experiment yourself, you can do so too. Just get a bowl and a measuring cup and you're set.Last edited on 20 March 2007 11:26 pm by
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SmallerMe
Senior Member
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Posted: 21 March 2007 12:13 am |
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Oh I had to go back and refigure all my days :o) Krogers where I shop has 1oz (30 peanuts) @ 168 calories 7 carbs 14 fats I think.. I have 3 oz peanuts at 494 calories, 42 fats, 16 carbs, 22 proteins.. does that sound about right???
Give or take... peanuts are all different sizes, some had 2 peanuts some had 1 lol Oh why didn't I just buy a jar of peanuts ...lol oh well damage is already done, it was fun.
I popped on the scale (midday) and I am holding my weight loss Yeaaa!! I weigh in Thursday so will see  Oh boy!! I picked up a peanut in shell and thought it 1 peanut my goodness sakes
Thanks for all the help, SmallerMe
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 21 March 2007 01:28 am |
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The reason that we can get two figures (400 calories and 660 calories) for the same thing (50 peanuts in shells - i.e 100 peanuts) is because of the (in my humble opinion) rather inaccurate way of measuring things by volume. I much prefer measuring things by weight. [The second possibility is that your peanuts are a lot larger than mine]
Here is a set of figures from one of my packets [Tesco value roasted salted peanuts]
Per 100g of peanuts: 600 kcal, protein 25.2g, fat 51.5g, carbs 8g, fibre 10.1g.
Translating this to 1 Oz (23.375 grams): 170 kcal, 7.2g protein, 14.6g fat, 2.3g carbs, 2.9g fibre.
[These figures are quite similiar to the ones you quoted above]
If you have a good (accurate) kitchen scale then you could weigh some peanuts and figure out how many of them make an ounce (or any other amount you like) and you'll be able to figure the stats per peanut. If the peanuts are the same size as the ones I have over here then (once more) they'll be about 4 calories per peanut.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 21 March 2007 11:07 am |
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Tuesday
I'm reading a chapter about obesity in my book and it isn't all good news. For example if you take the weight off you have to 'fight your body' more to keep it off.
peanuts: had 72.82g (~2.6 Oz) in the morning, costing me 449 calories.
Workput: Body Pump. The instructor asked me to lower my warm-up bar to 5kg (each side, i.e. 10kg bar). She said nothing last week. I've been using a 12.5kg bar for warm-up under different instructors for well over a year. I have even seen guys using a 15kg warm-up bar (I'm not quite up to that yet). This did leave me deflated. I made sure not to go as low as 10kg on any of the tracks. Not even on Biceps, when I'm sometimes tempted. We did the new music for the first time.
Shopping in fruit/veg market stalls. You can buy produce by weight, at advertised prices - or you can take your chance on goods displayed in bowls under the "£1 per bowl" system. Today I bought 5 bowls (for £5) and this is what I ended up with:
28 bananas (4.5kg) =3.6p each
16 sweet potatos (2.6kg) =6.3p each
15 pears (2.5kg) =6.7p each
3 iceberg (1.6kg) =33.3p each
4 aubergine (1.2kg) =25.0p each
Mum came over, bought half of my bananas and took me to LIDL, where for just under £4 I bought: 4kg onions, 2.3kg (3 heads) celery, 1kg carrots, 1kg (10) pears, 1kg (8) apples, 750g red onions.
Before we went shopping, though, I helped her with two telephone-related matters (a step in the right direction for her cashback claim, and getting her a good deal for her service for next year). She in turn supplied me with a small (42.55g) cream-filled chocolate-covered pastry (home-made profita roll). Initially estimating at 300kcal/100g (like the store-bought ones), after she described it a bit more I decided to play it safe and estimate 400kcal/100g. So it was 170 calories. I'm glad it wasn't any larger!
Last minute dash to the gym when I realised I could fit a Circuits class (5.15pm - 6pm) before my film.
popcorn: at 6.30pm I watched a preview of the British film "I want Candy", which was not as good as I hoped. It is not a British version of American Pie (in my opinion). Made me cringe in too many places. I contemplated getting up and leaving half-way through (but didn't). I came prepared with a prepacked salad, and 4.5 boxes of air-popped popcorn. 86.78g (~3.1 Oz), 322 calories.
The gym class was more rewarding than the film!
After the film, my friend went on at some length about a free flirting website he had recently started using and is clearly quite excited about.
I'm quite happy at my new gym, but to mix things up I plan to go on a free trial to another gym (Dragons) this coming Sunday, Monday and Tuesday - to experience some 'freestyle' Aerobics and Step classes I don't normally have access to. I last trialled at this gym some time ago, back in late 2004. This isn't fully arranged yet but watch this space.
I used three portions of beef today, to prop up protein: once to cover up the protein disaster that was mum's cake, and twice more in the evening, to compensate for lots of frozen bananas and frozen pears.
Animals: beef-medalian(150) =150 (6.5%)
Rubbish: mum-profita-roll(170) sf-jello(25) =195 (8.5%)
Totals: 2300 calories, 104.0g protein. 345 is 15.0%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 21 March 2007 06:23 pm |
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Wednesday
I have an ultrasound at 4pm so I have to fast from 10am, but because I have an AM course I knew I wouldn't have an opportunity to eat after 8.30am so I knew I would have to wake up early - In the event I got going at 5.30am and finished my food just before 8am. I chose to have 825 of my 2300 calories for breakfast. Produce in the meal |(vegetables and fruit) was over 1.8kg (4lb).
Yet let me tell you this, it is 6 hours later (2pm) and I feel hungry (or at least my stomach is growling, and I am thinking about food. craving some. obviously I must resist or I'll mess up in a big way). Actually this is worse than the 14-hour fast before the blood test a couple of weeks ago - at least most of those 14 hours were me sleeping. Here it'll be at least 9 hours of day fasting. Hats of to those fasting during Ramadan, that's all I'm saying.
If I get the chance to eat before I leave hospital, my 'break-fast' meal will consist of prepackaged salad and peanuts, as that's what I've brought along. I'm currently at campus, passing time until my hospital appointment catching up with food diaries.
And... yay, for the first time ever, this diary has had more page views than Tracy's (both currently standing at over 31,000 views) 
[EDIT: that didn't last long, she's in the lead again...]
Last edited on 21 March 2007 06:26 pm by Nir
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 22 March 2007 06:53 pm |
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Wednesday continued
Ultrasound finally happened around 5pm, 1.5 hours after they told me to turn up with a full bladder. I was bursting by the time I finally could go. Not pleasant but necessary.
My emergeny meal (400 calories of peanuts) came at 5.30pm, after 9.5 hours of fasting. Managed to make Body Combat but I didn't have much energy to give. Got some mushrooms and strawberries at Sainsbury's. Got home and had a nap. Woke up to continue eating at 11pm.
calories from nuts: 954. Rubbish would have been higher if I took some chocolate I found on my numeracy course, but as I was fasting at the time I wasn't sufficiently focused.
Animals: beef-medalian(100) =100 4.3%
Rubbish: sf-jello(25) =25 1.1%
Totals: 2300 calories, 103.6g protein. 125 is 5.4%
Thursday
Microwave oven worked early on (around 8.30am), then stopped working without warning (light on, turntable turning, no actual heat). Rushed to gym for Body Pump, looked at prices of microwaves in shops on the way back and researched prices on Amazon.co.uk (as I have a gift-voucher to spend there). At 1pm the microwave still wasn't working. I repeated the test at 2pm and my cup of water did heat up - so 5.5 hours later it spontaneously decided to work again.
Despite having various other means to heat things up: kettle, toaster, george foreman, regular oven, grill, 3-tier steamer, fry pan and sauce pan: I still feel quite helpless without a microwave oven!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 23 March 2007 03:35 am |
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Thursday continued
After establishing that Microwave Oven was operational, had some food, napped, had my pre-workout meal and (late at this point) rushed to the gym for Body Step, Body Jam and Abs classes.
At Sainsbury's, spent £2.41 on various reduced fruits and vegetables.
Also paid 40p for this (original price £3.99): Pizza Express PADANA - 'A prefect balance of big, bold northern Italian flavours - rich goat's cheese, red onion and spinach, with a caramelised onion confit.' [100g as sold provides 205 kcal, 8.3g protein, 32.2g carbohydrate, 4.7g fat, 2.4g fibre, 0.4g sodium]. Package had it weighing at 279g but I cut it into slices that weighed 89g, 88g, 79g and 72g (a total of 328g - 18% more than it was supposed to weigh!). Decided to do the grown-up thing and only eat two slices today (so I had enough calories for fruits and vegetables too).
Definitely enjoyed my  fruit today!
Vegetables: broccoli(138) prepackaged-salads(76) cucumber(46) aubergine(34) cauliflower(28) mushrooms(20) =342 (14.9%)
Fruit: banana(510) pear(478) grapefruit(264) strawberries(98) =1350 (58.7%)
Legumes: TVP(27) =27 (1.2%)
Animals: beef(150) =150 (6.5%)
Rubbish: half-pizza(366) Sainsbury's-sample:pork-sausage(40) sf-jello(25) =431 (18.7%)
Totals: 2300 calories, 103.5g protein. 581 is 25.3%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 24 March 2007 12:46 pm |
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Friday
meal #1 @ 3am: pizza(159) =159, 6.4g protein
meal #2 @ (7.30am - 8.30am): grapefruit sorbet/smoothie made with 497g grapefruit and artificial sweetner(149), pizza(146), 224g cooked broccoli(54), 294g cooked aubergine(44), 328g cooked sweede(36), 120g prepackaged-cabbage-lettuce-salad(23) =452, 21.7g protein, weight>1.5kg
Clearly I greedily wanted more of the Pizza, but as you can see I used some common sense and complemented with lots of fruit and vegetables so I've got plenty of bulk, fibre and protein.
Workout: Fab Abs Killer Butt. Then cycled over to campus.
Meal #3 @ 11am: 286g cooked brussel sprouts(100) =100, 8.3g protein
Had my counselling session, cycled back into town, arranged to delay my complimentary Personal Training session (due around now) to some point in the future. Met Rob in the Moon Under Water pub and invited my brother along.
Meal #4 @ 2pm: hot chocolate(100) biscotti(41), red lentils(50), mung beans(50) =241, 8.9g protein
Moved on to Lloyds Number One bar.
Meal #5 @ 3.20pm: hot chocolate(100), biscotti(33) =133, 1.2g protein
I ordered a mushroom curry meal. Exchanged 1/2 my Naan bread, 2/3 of my yellow basmati rice and my pot of mango chutney with my brother for the garden peas that came with his deep-fried-battered-cod and potato fries.
Meal #6 @ (3.45pm - 4pm): 267g mushroom vegetable curry(152), 41.4g naan bread(124), 72.5g yellow basmati rice(100), 15.1g popadoms(45), 92.3g garden peas(41) =462, 18.4g protein
Rob had convinced my brother to go with him to try out pubs in Northampton - I avoided the hassle, headache and expense by pointing out I really value my OA meetings (so much so that I'm prepared to skip gym classes to attend them). I know Rob will enjoy Northampton - it will be interesting to find out whether my brother does.
Meal #7 @ 4.45pm: beef medalian(50) =50, 9.8g protein
OA: it turns out the room costs £13 per week to rent. On average 7 people turn up so £2 per person will keep them afloat. That seems like a lot of money for an hour, but what will I do without them? I think I'll up my contribution
Meal #8 @ 8pm: Mum's sample of chocolate flavoured squirt cream =15
Meal #9 @ 8.30pm: Sainsbury's sample of roast pork leg =22, 3.7g protein
Meal #10 @ 9.25-9.40pm: 147g banana(140) 77g brussel sprouts(27) sf-jello(25) 120g prepackaged-cabbage-lettuce-salad(23) =215, 5.5g protein
Meal #11 10.40pm - 23.10pm: 334g frozen pear(134), 139g frozen banana(132), 169g brussel sprouts(59), beef medalian(50), 15g raisins(43), 218g cooked aubergine(33) =451, 19.8g protein
It was only when I added it all up that I realised just how poor my percentages are for today!
Vegetables: brussel-sprouts(186) mushroom-vegetable-curry(152) aubergine(77) broccoli(54) prepackaged-cabbage-lettuce-salad(46) garden-peas(41) sweede(36) =592 (25.7%)
Fruit: banana(272) grapefruit(149) pear(134) raisins(43) =598 (26.0%)
Legumes: red-lentils(50) mung-beans(50) =100 (4.3%)
Animals: beef-medalian(100) Sainsbury's-sample:roast-pork-leg(22) =122 (5.3%)
Rubbish: pizza(305) hot-chocolate(200) naan-bread(124) yellow-basmati-rice(100) biscotti(74) popadoms(45) sf-jello(25) mum-sample-chocolate-squirt-cream(15) =888 (38.6%)
Totals: 2300 calories, 103.7g protein. 1010 is 43.9%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 25 March 2007 03:12 am |
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Saturday
#1, 7.50am - 8.45am: 884g frozen pear(354) 449g brussel-sprouts(157) beef-medalian(50) peanuts(28) brazil-nut(11) =600, 26.9g protein
Body Combat, Body Pump. Cut my shopping trip short when realised I forgot my wallet at home.
#2, 12pm - 12.35pm: 300g cooked brussel sprouts(105) 229g frozen pear(92) 325g cooked onion(55) Sainsbury-sample-pork-sausage(24) 120g prepackaged-salad(23) =299, 13.6g protein
Dozed off for a short nap.
#3, 2pm - 2.23pm: 272g cooked brussel sprouts(95) 238g frozen pear(95) peanuts(11) =201, 9.1g protein
#4, 4.48pm: cube of Sainsbury's pick'n'mix fudge(50) =50
Didn't buy anything else at Sainsbury's, but got 10 sharon-fruit and 1kg of baby-corn at the market (£1 each).
#5, 5.30pm-5.55pm: 106g sharon-fruit(74) 200g baby-corn(50) 200g salad(38) sf-jello(25) =187, 8g protein
#6, 6.20pm-7.03pm: peanuts(82) 97g sharon-fruit(68) beef-medalian(50) 49g frozen banana(47) 172g baby-corn(43) 70g frozen apple(32) 58g frozen pear(23) =345, 19.5g protein
Clocks go forward in the United Kingdom tonight so we lose an hour. Decided to change clocks at this point in the evening, to make sure I go to bed early. (in fact, went for ANOTHER nap at this point)
#7, 9.45pm-10.15pm: 246g sharon-fruit(172) 358g baby-corn(90) =262, 10.4g protein
There was a (false) fire alarm in my building. The fire brigade came out to turn the noise off.
#8, 11.15pm-11.35pm: 262g sharon-fruit(184) beef-medalian(50) mung-beans(50) 45g banana(42) sunflower-seeds(30) =356, 17.2g protein
Percentage-wise it was another fruit day
Vegetables: brussel-sprouts(357) baby-corn(183) prepackaged-salad(61) onion(55) =656 (28.5%)
Fruit: pear(564) sharon-fruit(498) banana(89) apple(32) =1183 (51.4%)
Legumes: mung-beans(50) =50 (2.2%)
Nuts+Seeds: peanuts(121) sunflower-seeds(30) brazil-nuts(11) =162 (7.0%)
Animals: beef-medalian(150) =150 (6.5%)
Rubbish: Sainsbury's-cube-of-fudge(50) sf-jello(25) Sainsbury-sample-pork-sausage(24) =99 (4.3%)
Totals: 2300 calories, 104.7g protein. 249 is 10.8%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 25 March 2007 12:58 pm |
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I trialled at this gym (Dragons), I think the deal was 6 weeks for £42, back in November/December 2004. I was looking forward to this free 3-day pass. I turned up at 9.10am (not as easy as it sounds: this gym is 15-20 minutes cycle ride away AND we lost an hour due to the clocks going forward last night) and what happened? The offer to try the gym for 3 days is not open to anyone who has tried it before, and my trial (over 2 years ago, in 2004) disqualifies me. It would have been nice if they let me know of this restriction on one of the 4 ocassions I telephoned last week. As I'm typing this I am still feeling anger, resentment and frustation. However I know these feelings will subside in time. Let's look on a bright side: I was looking forward to this change of routine, but I am actually a member of a BETTER gym and I'm due to do 3 classes today. So let's get over it.
ps they have my phone number, email and address, so I am pretty sure that in the crosswires I will get follow-up calls and junk mail, which will serve as reminders of this happy ocassion. 
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 26 March 2007 03:40 pm |
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Sunday
It was a busy day. The morning was the Dragons disappointment (above). Then at 12.30pm I turned up at my gym for nothing (as the Body Jam class was cancelled and although they claimed they phoned everyone on the list to tell them about it, I didn't get a call).
Mum took me to ASDA, which was almost 3 hours of my day. The only full-price item I got was Bleach. Otherwise it was vegetables, fruit, whole-wheat bread, deli meats, naan bread, a lot of stilton-type full-fat blue cheese, one ready meal ("chicken vindaloo"), two custard tarts and two 100g slices of cheesecake. Mum volunteered to take one of the cheesecake slices from me, which was cheeky of her but made perfect sense to do.
Had a quick meal involving some of the cheesecake, some of the chicken vindaloo and some stirfry. Rushed over to the gym for Body Step and Body Pump. Got home and spent the next 4 hours dealing with my purchases and making them freezer-ready (e.g. weighing and portioning). My percentages for the day are not pretty.
Apparently the main bffm Yahoo group has been a lot quieter for the last 6 months, partly because Tom Venuto has created a premium ($10 a month - that's a lot!) website called the 'Inner Circle' with exclusive forums, and partly because someone else has set up yourfitnessjourney.com which is also BFFM-focused. So I spent some time browsing that.
Animals: chicken-breast(119) beef-medalian(50) turkey(22) cooked-ham(9) =200 (8.7%)
Rubbish: cheesecake(341) custard-from-custard-tarts(82) blue-cheese(50) naan-bread(50) ASDA-sample:cappucino(13) =536 (23.3%)
Totals: 2300 calories, 108.9g protein. 736 is 32.0%.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 27 March 2007 04:51 am |
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Monday
Woke up after 7am and within half an hour I was out shopping with mum. We got to one LIDL just before 8am (they sometimes get special non-food stuff on Monday mornings). We got a waterproof cycling jacket. Then we drove to the other LIDL and exchanged it for another one (the first one was yellow in men's "size 40". the second one was gray in ladies' "size 16" and was therefore a better fit, the first one was too large). Mum has the jacket - it will be my (non-surprise) birthday present in April. Also got some pears.
Skipped the morning gym classes (last week did Spin and Abs). Did some online reading and listening to the radio (and cooking, eating and napping). Missed another two gym classes I did last week (Core and Bosu). Finally made the gym for my Body Step class. Bumped into mum at Sainsbury's around 8.20pm - we drove to ASDA where nothing was reduced to our liking. We walked over to IKEA and had free teas and coffees. Got back to ASDA around 10pm and got luckier (I had 17 items for a total of £1.90). Some items were healthy, others were mixed (e.g. stir fry vegetables, but with egg-noodles).
Nash is missing in action, was expecting a call after 11pm but can't get hold of him. My working theory is that he got home and went to bed early (perhaps disconnected the phone too).
I had an idea about reducing calories, but I had it relatively late in the day AND there were lots of tempting samples and bargains that wanted tasting, so I ended up lower than usual but higher than I intended to be. More on my change-of-plans soon.
Animals: chicken-breast(100) cooked-ham(100) cooked-turkey(50) corned-beef(50) =300 (16.0%)
Rubbish: naan-bread(100) sf-jello(75) Sainsbury's-sample:feta-cheese(56) IKEA-sample:cookie(38) blue-cheese(36) Sainsbury's-sample:apple-lattice(32) egg-noodles(25) =362 (19.3%)
Totals: 1880 calories, 103.0g protein. 662 is 35.2%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 28 March 2007 03:39 am |
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Tuesday
After the Body Pump class cycled over to mum's to print the bills for the cashback claims (for myself, mum and my sister). Mum then drove us back to my place where I prepared vouchers and envelopes and we went over to the post office to send them. We bought 36 bananas in the market for £1 and went halves on them - I also bought a kilo of baby-corn (one of my favourite vegetables) for £1. Mum drove us back to her house where I had some junk and some home-cooked vegetable dishes too. She gave me a box of frozen raspberries (from the allotment) which became a sorbet when I got home.
Had a nap and went over to the gym for workouts (Circuits, Spin). They had some fish at Sainsbury's - I got some Mackerel and Salmon for myself and called mum over (she enthusiastically bought 2 kilos of salmon steaks).
1600 feels like so little if you've been eating 2300. Cutting back 700 calories certainly means cutting back on the quantity of fruits and starches. With this few calories there is less scope for messing around. I was doing 1600-calorie low days at the end of January - just 2 months ago, but it feels quite strange now. My current idea is to do a 3 x 1600, 1 x 2300 zig-zag (today is low day number 2). The idea is that if 2300 is maintenance, 1600 is a radical 30% deficit (and above my unadjusted RMR which is 1450!). This has been brought about by fear that I just can't bring myself to do useful hypertrophy workouts at the moment
Notable food for today: pineapple sorbet = food-processed frozen pineapple chunks are surprisingly (unbelieably) creamy 
Animals: chicken-breast(100) ham(50) mackerel(22) salmon(11) =183 (11.4%)
Rubbish: sf-jello(50) mum:lemon-flavour-wafer(36) mum:chocolate-flavour-squirt-cream(25) egg-noodles(5) =116 (7.3%)
Totals: 1600 calories, 105.9g protein. 299 is 18.7%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 28 March 2007 11:32 am |
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| My breakfast was perfect until the postman dropped off a padded envelope containing a freebie I had (obviously) filled some online form for a few weeks ago. A free sample of a 'Heaven' chocolate bar. They're quite generous: 100g. Don't worry, I didn't have it all at once, I had an 8g cube (at 564 calories per 100g, that works out about 46 calories). The quality: wow. No comparison with the 25p-per-100g basic bar. (Oh, it turns out these bars sell for £2.49 per 100g - that's 10 times as much!). The big issue for me is: can I ration these to one cube per day, or will the chocolate disappear on my high calorie day (i.e. Thursday - tomorrow)
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 29 March 2007 04:10 am |
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Wednesday
My shame-box tells the story - it's a miracle I had the odd calorie (or 543) left over for healthy foods.
Animals: turkey-breast(227) chicken-breast(50) =277 (17.3%)
Rubbish: heaven-hazelnut-cream-chocolate(549) chocolate-chip-cookies(106) naan-bread(100) sf-jello(25) =780 (48.8%)
Totals: 1600 calories, 105.0g protein. 1057 is 66.1%
Came home after the numeracy course and spent the day online. Skipped the gym (first time in quite a while, though). Tomorrow I have both AM and PM workouts, though.
New word for the day is conditioning - the idea that a high-calorie period is required to pump up one's metabolism before zig-zagging. Also, saw a website that had a zig-zag scheme that looked like this: day 1: 2800, day 2: 2200, day 3: 2400, day 4: 2600. Trying to learn more about this but info is thin on the ground.
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Hisgal
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 30 March 2007 03:01 am |
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Nir wrote:
New word for the day is conditioning - the idea that a high-calorie period is required to pump up one's metabolism before zig-zagging. Also, saw a website that had a zig-zag scheme that looked like this: day 1: 2800, day 2: 2200, day 3: 2400, day 4: 2600. Trying to learn more about this but info is thin on the ground.
Nir, would that maybe explain why I didn't seem to being too good on the zig-zagging?
Are they using those caloric numbers for everyone???? Or are those what you figured out for you? Seems like a hugh number of calories for my weight or yours! I can't imagine losing on that high of intake
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 30 March 2007 05:43 am |
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Hisgal, I've seen the same numbers used for 2 different people (who are presumably different sizes - but I don't know what either one's stats were!) Yes, that number does look huge for me, but maybe that is the point. They caution you that during conditioning you may gain - but not necessarily much. You don't lose at the conditioning phase itself (unless you are lucky - some do) but it sets you up for the follow-on fat-loss (zig-zagging and cardio) phase which makes the most of your revved-up (or at least well-healed) metabolism. [learning about this is still on-going].
Incidentally, one thing about the above schemes: not only do they have you watch your calories, they make you aim for specific macronutrient ratios (unknown to me at this stage). The fat-burn phase has fat down to 10% of calories, and calories from sugar are just 10% of calories from carbs [so the zig-zag cycles down the carb calories, and hence also the sugar calories - I'm guessing fruit is a rare treat in the fat-loss phase]
Thursday
Also ongoing is my quest to eat badly, it seems, picking out frozen portions of naan bread and egg noodles (both are refined flour) just because they're on my forbidden list? After my Body Pump class and a trip to the market (10 grapefruit and a kilo of baby corn for £1 each) I made contact with mum who offered to take me shopping. Our first stop was ASDA where we just had samples (deli beef, a piece of candy, some minced beef with cook-in sauce), we next had IKEA samples (potato chips, a cookie and dime chocolates) and teas and coffees. Then some actual shopping: LIDL, Netto and ALDI. I got celery, cabbage, pear, leek, dried apricot and luxuary coffee-flavour ice-cream (480ml, 224 calories per 100g. Yes very helpfully the packet does not specify the weight - something like 250g though). PM workouts: Body Step, Body Jam, Ab Attack. Nighttime bargain: 30kg (!) of potatos for £2.10 (now I don't have enough refrigeration space for all my produce!)
So watch me eat a lot of rubbish even on my high day.
Animals: turkey-breast(150) ASDA:beef-in-sheppard-pie-sauce(57) ASDA:roast-beef(9) =216 (9.4%)
Rubbish: CaffeCaramello-ice-cream(577) IKEA:dime-chocolate(111) egg-noodles(100) naan-bread(100) IKEA:potato-chips(49) IKEA:cookie(46) Sainsbury:dutch-edam(20) ASDA:candy(7) =1010 (43.9%)
Totals: 2300 calories, 103.6g protein. 1226 is 53.3%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 31 March 2007 03:59 am |
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Friday
Fab Abs Killer Butt class. Counselling (now 3 week gap until next session). Back home for a bit. OA had 17 people - more than double the usual number! we were advised to limit our share to 3 minutes and still at least 3 people didn't get to share. Afterwards cycled over to pub where Rob had his leaving do (he and a couple of others were made redundant today). Only stayed for an hour - on way home found an abandoned clear box containing 6 mini profita rolls (small cream cakes)! Percentages still leave room for improvement.
Animals: turkey-breast(150) =150 (9.4%)
Rubbish: Scavange:6-small-profita-rolls(219) egg-noodles(100) Sainsbury's:goat-cheese(52) naan-bread(50) sf-jello(25) =446 (27.9%)
Totals: 1600 calories, 103.9g protein. 596 is 37.3%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 1 April 2007 02:19 pm |
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Saturday
Briefly contemplated a simple 1x1600,1x2300 zig-zag which would entitle me to a high day today - but then dismissed that thought. Had my breakfast in record time and rushed to the gym (why is it that unhealthy foods are so easy to prepare and eat?). Body Combat, Body Pump. At the market got 3 punnets of red grapes and 20 sharon fruit for £1 each (bumped into mum who bought 10 of the sharon fruit). Incidentally mum thinks she heard that you're only allowed one of those per day or else risk the need for surgery, I don't believe her but I haven't really followed it up. Anybody heard about this?
Afternoon bargains at sainsbury's: my shoppoing was certainly varied: papaya, mango, plums, red cabbages, broccoli, red pepper, mushrooms (all for £1.55).
Animals: turkey-breast(150) mackerel(50) =200 (12.5%)
Rubbish: egg-noodles(200) naan-bread(50) sf-jello(50) =300 (18.8%)
Totals: 1600 calories, 103.7g protein. 500 is 31.3%.
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ObsessedwithFitness
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 1 April 2007 08:18 pm |
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| never heard of that...but what IS sharon fruit? Is it delicious??
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 2 April 2007 01:14 am |
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It is delicious
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 2 April 2007 03:26 am |
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Sunday
Woke up early and did some reading. Paused for Body Jam. Mum picked me up for ASDA - I spent £4, buying mostly vegetables and fruit, but also 3 egg custard tarts (eating the custard but discarding the pie crust) and a packet of ice-cream cornets (wafer cones - each is 13 calories). The idea is that I can put my fruit sorbet things in these ice-cream cones. Returned to gym for Body Step and Body Pump. Made strawberry sorbet and pear sorbet and used up a total of 10 cones (out of a total of 21).
I thought my percentages were ok, until I calculated them. Well, that's three consecutive days at 1600, tomorrow must be a high day [yippie]
Animals: chicken-breast(250) ASDA-sample:prawns(6) =256 (16.0%)
Rubbish: custard-from-egg-custard-tart(240) wafer-cones(127) ASDA-sample:pizza(29) =396 (24.8%)
Totals: 1600 calories, 104.9g protein. 652 is 40.8%.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 2 April 2007 01:47 pm |
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I am currently re-reading bits of BFFM. I found this little nuget:
Very high carbohydrate, low fat diets are also a bit light on essential fats, and the protein levels are too low to support serious weight training. Some extremely carbohydrate-sensitive people actually see increases in cholesterol and triglycerides when their carbs are too high.
Remember that last month I was at a loss to explain why my bad (LDL) cholesterol and triglycerides are higher this year, when I've been eating healthier. Well, maybe i am 'exteremely carb-sensitive', then ?
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 3 April 2007 04:07 am |
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Monday
Tried sorting out my freezer. Decided to defrost a bottle of milk and use it with my fruit sorbets (resulting in milky creamy texture i.e. thick milkshakes). Today's ice-cream flavours were banana (With cocoa powder), pears (with milk) and red grapes (with milk).
Selected Body Jam instead of BOSU (these classes run concurrently) and followed it with Body Step.
Unbelievable bargains at Sainsbury's - spent £3.50 on a very large quantity of romaine lettuce and celery. Recall the month I spent with my large fridge unplugged as there was nothing I could put in it. Now both fridges are so full to capacity. It has taken me a long while to cram my purchases in - and I still had to take 5 kilos of potatos out of the fridge to make room (and some beetroot packets too). I do love this feeling of "plenty". I hope not much food gets wasted.
Today was a high day, and I don't feel like going low so tomorrow will probably also be a high day. And minimising those percentages does not seem to be a priority for me at the moment. The packet of 21 wafer-cones ('cornets') I bought on Sunday afternoon was gone by Monday evening. Tomorrow I'll see if Sainsbury's has a similiar product.
I spent a fair amount of the day listening to radio comedies and dramas.
Animals: semi-skimmed-milk(173) chicken-breast(100) cooked-ham(50) beef-medalian(50) corned-beef(50) =423 (18.4%)
Rubbish: wafer-cones(135) naan-bread(100) egg-noodles(100) chocolate(29) sf-jello(25) =389 (16.9%)
Totals: 2300 calories, 104.5g protein. 812 is 35.3%.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 4 April 2007 12:23 pm |
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Tuesday
As I finished my ice-cream cornets I wanted to buy some more. Went to Sainsbury's in the morning but I was put off by the price (35% more expensive than ASDA - what gives?) so instead I bought some flat wafers. Same nutrition (refined flour, so poor = nutrient density ~2) but easier on the pocket. Wafters are only 6 calories each and have a large surface area to calorie ratio - better than rye crackers. Also scored some reduced-price mushrooms. Then crossed over the road to do Body Pump.
Main part of the day was online. Amongst other things listened to the radio, discovered that the AA Big Book (which is used in OA) is available to LISTEN to online for free (ht tp://www.recoveryzone.org/docs/bigbook.htm). Also upgraded my free NaturalReader demo to version 6.3. There is a bug in the software which means that if you paste some text into the application and it highlights the text as it reads it, the 1000-character-limit does not apply, so the software is somewhat more funtional than before, and I'm delighted.
Decided to skip the afternoon workout and head straight for the cinema. The film was 'Blades Of Glory', which was sufficiently funny. Saw it with my brother and with Phil. I took celery and lettuce with me but actually didn't eat anything whilst there.
We then moved on to the pub where in addition to brother and Phil we were joined by Rob and his sister Verity. I skipped the calorific drinks. My plan was to have the baked-potato/baked-beans/salad meal which would have been 300-350 calories, but as my brother was splurging on a mixed grill for himself I decided to follow suit. I was somewhat aware that a 'mixed grill' featured in a previous outright binge of mine (in December?), so I got myself prepared: whilst the kitchen was grilling, I was busy looking up calories for the various anticipated components, I then decided to follow the rule that I would only dish myself approximately 50 calories of each item at a time.
9.30pm: a mixed grill consists of gammon steak, rump steak, lamb chops, pork steak, lincolnshire pork sausage, jacket potato, peas, tomato and mushroom. I counted a total of 597 calories and 55.2g protein [yes, pointless to have more than 30g of protein at one sitting, I know. My daily protein target is 103.5g notice that I exceeded that today.]
I still had 366 calories for my next snack. I was feeling quite munchy after the food but I made myself wait until 1.30am for my last meal.
Animals: pub-meal:pork-steak(104) pub-meal:rump-steak(92) pub-meal:lamb-chops(64) pub-meal:gammon-steak(59) semi-skimmed-milk(55) chicken-breast(50) =424 (18.4%)
Rubbish: egg-noodles(200) wafers(121) naan-bread(100) pub-meal:lincolnshire-pork-sausage(98) =519 (22.6%)
Totals: 2300 calories, 124.4g protein. 943 is 41.0%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 4 April 2007 04:17 pm |
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Forgot to say that my pub-meal totals would have been somewhat over 597 calories if I had actually finished my gammon steak, rump steak or lincolnshire pork sausage. Somewhere in the region of 150-300 was passed over to my brother, who had by this point already finished his mixed grill [which was more calories than mine anyhow, as he opted for fries instead of a baked potato].
He is going to have to get his act together at some point!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 5 April 2007 02:34 pm |
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Wednesday
Body Step workout. Internet session. Afternoon hospital visit to discuss upcoming Upper GI endoscopy and Colonoscopy. Consultant has a hunch that my problem (low blood hemoglobin levels) is not gastrological but hemotological and will ask my GP to refer me to a blood specialist.
Just prior to hospital visit I arranged to be high on protein and low on calories as I was anticipating a 50g chunk of chocolate, which was duely delivered by mum (it was a 100g block, addressed to me, but I permitted her to take half of it for distribution between her and dad. In the end I only received 42g of chocolate). This was all planned. What was not planned is encountering a gormet coffee/hot-chocolate machine in the hospital, dispensing free drinks. I had 3 (estimating each one at 100 calories).
The hospital thing took about 2.5 hours from start to finish. I had a quick protein snack and rushed off to the gym for Body Combat. Got home and had some more protein. Finally by 10.50pm I had waited enough to be 'back on schedule'.
Animals: chicken-breast(200) semi-skimmed-milk(49) Sainsbury's-sample:leer-dammer-cheese(46) Sainsbury's-sample:pork-luncheon-meat(12) =307 (13.3%)
Rubbish: heaven-chocolates-cafe-latte-filling(241) wafers(115) hospital-complimentary:hot-chocolate(200) hospital-complimentary:hot-chocolate-milk(100) sf-jello(50) =706 (30.7%)
Totals: 2300 calories. 104.8g protein. 1013 is 44.0%
The upcoming Colonoscopy (on Tuesday morning) involves me taking a laxative called Picolax the day before. I also have to follow a special "low residue" diet. I am still not clear about what this means - I know it means low fibre but I also saw "low fat" on the internet (on exactly one website). This will make quite a difference:
PLAN A: salmon, mackerel, hard cheese [low fibre, low carb, high fat (including saturated fat)]
PLAN B: chicken breast, sugar candy [low fibre, low fat, high refined carb]
It is also not clear whether I will have to just follow this diet for 1 day or as many as 3! I'll be phoneing the hospital on Thursday to find out.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 6 April 2007 01:10 am |
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Thursday
Only slept for 2 hours between 0.30am and 2.30am. I was online for the rest of the night/morning.
Mum picked me up around 7.30am for some early morning shopping, mainly sleeveless shirts for the gym (ones that are not too big for me) - I kept one for now, she has the rest (which I'll receive on my birthday, as they're part of her present to me). I bought 3 x 250g packets of jelly beans (the cheap stuff, not Jelly Belly) in case I needed to follow the lean protein + no-fibre carbs preparatory diet. Mum dropped me at the gym where I did Body Pump.
For someone who has had minimal sleep I did pretty well. Felt as strong as I've been for a while. Is this a reflection on getting enough 'rest' from muscle work? or on eating more of my protein from complete, animal sources? My weights were (weight of entire bar, in kilos:) Warmup 12.5, Squats 35, Chest 20, Back 22.5, Triceps 17.5, Biceps 12.5, Lunges 20, Shoulders (each dumbell is 4), Abs (with a 5 plate).
I called the hospital and later they called me back. The outcome is: despite earlier being told I would eat twice on Monday, I am now to only eat once (between 8am and 9am) that day. It is to be the low fibre / low fat option [lean protein and low-fat low-fibre carbs, i.e. chicken breasts and jelly beans]. For the rest of the day the only calories I can have are from calorific drinks (like sugar versions of fizzy drinks; energy drinks etc.). With no fibre and lots of sugar, my blood sugar and insulin will run riot. I am sure to feel abdominal cramp. Unless I allocate sufficient calories to the sugary drinks, my metabolism may also be injured - I shall have to go and buy plenty of sugary drinks. On the other hand, they didn't go for the "be on preparation diet for 3 days" scheme, which seems to be widely subscribed on the internet.
What will I do with my £1.32 investment in Jelly Beans, which are no longer part of the plan?
Nash spent most of the day wasting my time by calling me from work. He has a lot of free time as he works at a school and the kids are off for the Easter break. He is wasting my time but I can't be resentful as he is also spending much of this free time preparing some computers the school would have otherwise discarded, one for me and one for my mum (which will be a surprise for her).
The bottom line was that when it was time for my afternoon workouts I was so shattered, having never been allowed my nap, that I fell asleep and skipped my gym visit!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 6 April 2007 05:12 am |
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Animals: semi-skimmed-milk(100) haddock(50) salmon(50) ox-liver(50) pig-kidney(50) corned-beef(50) =350 (15.2%)
Rubbish: wafer(165) LIDL-scavange:chocolate-bunny(20) =185 (8.0%)
Totals: 2300 calories, 106.0g protein. 535 is 23.3%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 6 April 2007 09:35 am |
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| If you have the time and have not done so already, check out the Tom Venuto tele-seminar - hear him speak about fat loss. [recorded on April 3rd]
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 6 April 2007 04:16 pm |
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Have continued to contemplate calories for Monday (laxative day, low fibre/low fat)
Meal #1 (solid)
3 x portions of lean protein from the freezer: 150 calories, 30g protein [no fibre, virtually no carbs, fat approx 3.3g]
82g jelly beans [300 calories, 0.2g fibre, 0.1g protein, 0.3g fat, 74.3g carbs]
Total: 450 calories, ~30g protein, 0.2g fibre, 3.6g fat
Meals #2 .. #6 (liquid only)
19.76g Banana Flavour Whey Protein [73 calories, 15g protein, 1.1g carb, 1.0g fat, 0.1g fibre]
???g sugary lemonade [157 calories, mostly carbs, no fibre]
Total: 230 calories, ~15g protein, 0.1g fibre, 1g fat
Day totals: 1600 calories, 105g protein (26.3%), 0.7g fibre, 8.6g fat (4.8%), 275g carbs (68.9%)
Normally I only have 103.5g of protein, but if I feel particularly hungry I can tweak the whey protein / lemonade ratios for the 230-calorie liquid meals. For now though, I need to go shopping and buy 785 calories' worth of sugary drink - probably 2 x 2 litre bottles will do.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 9 April 2007 03:28 am |
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I'm a bit behind on my diary!
Good Friday
Decided to have a low-calorie day (1600).
Fab Abs Killer Butt: Going through the gym reception I passed instructor Vicky wearing a bow tie, rabbit ears and fluffy tail and holding a large tin of chocolates. Going through the changing room I was thinking of nothing but the chocolates and how many I could accomodate into the day - I decided more than 4 would be a problem. The class was enjoyable but my mind was too much on the chocolates. Had my first one when Vicky was walking around handing them about 15 minutes into the class - and at the end of the 1-hour class when she invited anyone who wanted one to come and collect a second one. I ate without weighing but I've had these chocolates before (at sister's) so had a pretty good idea of weight/calories. Body Step was uneventful by comparison.
In the afternoon Nash arrived with the machines he assembled for me. One complete PC (minus a mouse) and one is just a base unit. Spec is slightly ancient (733 Mhz processor) but good value (I'm not paying anything). Both machines were supposed to be 512MB but one only reported 256MB (despite the two memory DIMMs being labelled as 256MB each) so we tried investigating by swapping memory between the machines. Probably memory is high-density and not compatible with the ancient motherboard. This took ages!
OA: funny how when it is your moment to share you don't remember it all. I shared about my anxiety about being hungry on Monday when I'm on the liquid diet but didn't mention my chocolate-themed week [Wednesday: chocolate and hot-chocolate at hospital; Thursday: scavanged at LIDL; Friday: chocolate at the gym] but others mentioned chocolate. I like someone at this meeting, but I'm afraid of "complications".
Visited my brother on the way home. I was disappointed that although I sat through whatever he wanted to show me ("Darth Vader" supermarket-based comedy on You Tube, amongst other things) he wouldn't even let me play a second of the Tom Venuto seminar to him. "I'm not interesting in dieting".
At Sainsbury's the only bargain was cabbage and leek, but at least I did my low-fibre low-fat liquid research and ended up with Apple Juice From Concentrate (fibre: trace).
Throughout the day I had lots of animal protein to balance against "fruit ice-creams" but I wanted to eat more substantially so focused on vegetables instead. At around 10.45pm, whilst in the middle of a long vegetable-cooking session, the microwave oven stopped working [again - this happened 2 or 3 weeks earlier]. I've got my first microwave oven with grill shortly after leaving Uni (in 1995) and it has served me well. After some research I decided to order this one:
ht tp://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000179I1E/026-8482599-3347634 which will take a week or slightly longer to arrive.
Animals: chicken-breast(150) semi-skimmed-milk(72) seabass(50) ox-liver(50) tuna-steak(50) ox-kidney(50) =422 (26.4%)
Rubbish: gym:Roses-chocolates(90) wafer(63) sf-jello(25) =178 (11.1%)
Totals: 1600 calories, 102.5g protein. 600 is 37.5%
Saturday
Again, decided to continue with another 'low' day: the rationale is that I want Sunday to be a high day because I don't know what Tuesday will bring, and with Monday being a day of liquids and low-fibre I don't see the point of making it a high day (I'll expect to be hungry whatever I eat or drink due to lack of fibre).
I've been wearing the same Nike trainers since Jaunary 2006 (i.e. since I started this diary!). There is a small hole near the toes on the left-hand side, but the thing that bothers me is that the velcro fastenings on both sides keep coming undone whilst I'm working out. This morning I decided to retire the pair and open a brand-new pair (also Nike, also purchased in January 2006 sales, never worn). I was aprehensive about working out with the new trainers but I survived Body Combat without pain or them accidentally coming off. In the break between Body Combat and Body Pump, instructor Angela got out her... yes, you guessed it, tin of chocolates. I came over to claim one. Then she went around putting a piece of chocolate on each person's Step (used as a bench in Body Pump classes). Finally I had a third chocolate at the end of the class (this one I weighed before eating, so I have a good estimate for the overall calories of the 3 pieces).
I had a row with Nash, relating to him lying to me. This relates to his behaviour on March 2nd. He announced his telephone service itemised bill has arrived so I asked him to read out the itemisation for that evening and he dropped himself in it (he has clearly forgotten our dispute). I was once more incensed by his selfishness and the outright lies he used to cover up. I avoided talking to him for the rest of the day but I recognised that I wouldn't be taking this too seriously. What is called for is less reliance on him.
Apparently friend Tracy tried contacting me at 3am regarding weight-loss but I only noticed the communication this morning. I let her know I'll be happy to see her any time as I have no plans. By the time she contacted me though, "plans happened".
First, there was a pub outing (at least 3 hours) with my brother and Rob. I was keen to get out as it was too warm and stuffy indoors but it wasn't as hot as I imagined when I got outdoors. We covered 2 pubs. I had a diet coke on one and a sugar-free lemonade-squash with tap water in the other. Had 34 calories from brother's bag of Sensations potato chips and 250 calories from a meal of Baked Potato with baked beans and undressed salad. Rob took issue with my weighing-and-measuring at the table and moved over to the next table until I was done with the food. I had to have a further 100 calories from TVP to balance the low protein level in the foods I had just consumed. I made contact with mum and had to leave them (and after 3 hours I was quite happy to - I'm easily bored by such situations). Apparently they stayed together for a further 6 hours! They ran into a couple of girls they knew. Nevertheless I would have probably pronounced the 9-hour session a disaster if I had to stay with them for the long-haul.
Instead, I spent about 3 hours with mum, stalking the produce section at ASDA. Our idea was that, as the supermarket is closed on Easter Sunday, there would be plenty of reduced-price produce. We got there shortly after 7pm and for 2 hours we were playing a game of nerves. We were both tired and bored and it looked like nothing was going to happen. Then suddenly the operatives received instructions to reduce and we jumped into action, ensuring we bagged the majority of what we wanted. I spent £5.30 on 53 items. An entire shopping trolly, and I dare not imagine the full-price cost of the goods (but certainly well over £53).
I then made time to see Tracy. Her BMI has climbed back to just over 30, and she was giving me the classic "I have to attend a wedding in 5 weeks" so I did my best to coach her on forgetting about crash dieting (and we worked out her RMR so she has a target to aim for). There are so few real-life people I can talk to about diet matters. Tracy is a hard customer as far as fruits and vegetables are concerned, so I decided to gift her a couple of shopping bags' worth of goods that I just bought - she accepted all but a couple items.
I got home around 1am and was shattered. I didn't have any energy to store any of my shopping - after all it isn't a simple matter of shoving stuff in the fridge - my fridges are packed with food.
Animals: weight-watchers-mature-cheddar(100) cooked-turkey(50) chicken-breast(50) =200 (12.5%)
Rubbish: gym:chocolates(89) pub:Walkers-sensations-potato-chips(34) sf-jello(25) =148 (9.3%)
Totals: 1600 calories, 103.7g protein. 348 is 21.8%
Sunday
I woke up and realised I had to do something about the fruit and vegetables which have been sitting unrefrigerated in the flat overnight. Without a microwave oven, decided that my 3-tier steamer would be my primary cookware and I certainly used it for longer than I have ever done [previously I mostly used it to batch-hard-boil 18 eggs at a time]. Being 3-tier makes it quite flexible as I can swap them in and out whilst the other tiers keep on cooking (and I only burnt myself a little doing that). As it is a (planned) high-calorie day and I have lots of high-protein vegetables to get through, I hardly needed any animal products today.
Body Jam may not be the most effective cardio workout, but it is certainly lots of fun, and I like the Sunday instructor (and apparently she has a dance background) so it is a really nice distraction - in this case coming after about 4 hours of cooking and eating.
Between one thing and another, another 4 hours passed without much getting done [more sorting of yesterday's produce, making up with Nash, napping] and I was off to the gym again for Body Step, Body Pump and a relaxing shower. (and another nap when I got home). It is coming up to midnight and I've still hardly had any time to be online for the last 48 hours!
I'm still determined to continue eating almost all of my calories from fruits and vegetables today - as I won't be able to eat any fibre on Monday, or Tuesday morning (and perhaps not even in the afternoon). Monday currently looks like chicken livers and jelly beans for breakfast, with apple juice, banana whey protein shakes and black decaff coffees for the rest of the day (and no gym).
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 9 April 2007 05:34 am |
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Sunday continued
Today was definitely vegetable and fruit-ice-cream  day. Used 18 ice-cream wafer-cones (yes, refined flour). Fruit ice-cream batches today were:
12.15pm: white grapes (100)
3.30pm: white grapes (169)
4.45pm: blueberries (157)
8.05pm: blueberries + banana (174)
10pm: pear + banana + cocoa-powder (166)
0.50am: sharon-fruit + banana (206)
2.30am: apple + banana (114)
"healthy ice-cream" project totals (including cones): 1086 calories (47.2%)
Animals: chicken-liver(14) =14 (0.6%)
Rubbish: wafer-cornets(215) sf-jello(25) =240 (10.4%)
Totals: 2300 calories, 103.8g protein. 254 is 11.0%
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Peter
Founder, caloriesperhour.com
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Posted: 9 April 2007 09:47 am |
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My microwave oven broke about two weeks ago and I don't know when I'll get around to doing something about it. It's half of a built-in unit with the oven being the other half (which still works).
I miss the popcorn, but I do have an air popper. Everything else can pretty much be done on the stovetop.
Peter
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 10 April 2007 12:22 am |
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Today (Monday) is laxative day. I was given the impression that I would be constantly running to the toilet. However this failed to materialise, so amongst other things I ventured out to do Body Jam in the morning, met up with Matthew (who was visiting town for a few hours), Rob and my brother in the pub - and went with them to a pizza restaurant [I'm on liquids at this point - so all I oculd do is watch them eat pizza  whilst I'm drinking my Diet Coke and tap water]. Matthew was treating so I would have probably had a pizza and then struggled to stay within my calorie limit.
I left them to go home and take the second dose of laxative, on the way picking up 60 eggs reduced to just £2. Had a nap and ventured out again to do the BOSU workout - then spent another 1.5 hours in the pub before making my excuses and leaving.
Let's look at the facts: first dose: 8am; 2nd dose: 3pm; Last time I went for a #2: last night at 10pm; Amount of fruits and vegetables eaten last night after 10pm: 1.2 kilograms; It is now after 9pm, I've not had a bowl movement for almost 24 hours despite eating plenty of fibre-rich foods last night and taking strong laxatives. I have a colonosopy in about 13 hours, and I am worried!
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 10 April 2007 04:03 am |
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Monday
[little more than sugar] apple juice from concentrate (799) 49.9%
[animal] banana flavour whey protein powder (358) 22.4%
[rubbish] jelly beans (294) 18.4%
[animal] pate made from chiken livers (149) 9.3%
100% of it is sub-optimal, but I had no choice! A few times I had 'hunger' stomach cramps, but they went away after a while.
Totals: 1600 calories, 103.5g protein (25.9%), 267g carbs (66.8%), 13g fat (7.3%), 0.6g fibre.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 11 April 2007 04:23 am |
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Tuesday
Woke up early and drunk 2 litres of water before 8am. Arrived at hospital for my gastroscopy/colonoscopy. They performed the first one but couldn't do the second one - evidently the laxative did not work as intended. What's next? I have that procedure rescheduled (in 2 weeks). I've been given a different kind of laxative (instead of 2 sachets of picolax, I now have 4 sachets of Klean Prep). Instead of having one solid meal in the morning it is now liquids for the whole day - and the consultant wasn't sure about the suitability of the Whey Protein shake so that's out too. So that is one whole day without protein, my poor muscles!
I think I was out for about an hour. After going with the telescope through my throat (I wasn't awake for this, but I can feel a slightly sore throat right now) they wanted to check I could eat, so naturally they did so with the healthiest food available. I'm being sarcastic - it was cookies, luckily the nutrition info was on the mini-packet. 3 small ones (34 calories each). I then tripled the calories by having two delcious hot choolate drinks. Spent the drive back arguing with mum about whether I should go to the gym today. She made me promise not to. (Walked with her to the market and got 18 red pears for £1.) At home I meant to take an iron tablet but instead took another medicine (which I already took earlier in the day) and spent the next few hours calling people to find out what I should do [stay at home, skip tomorrow's dose].
By the time I was home and ready to eat it was 2.20pm and I had only had 350 calories at that point - so rather than trying to cram 2300 calories into approximately 10 hours, I decided to make it a 2nd low-calorie day (I can have up to 3 of them in a row).
I was 10g behind on my protein intake so it was time to get serious. Without a microwave, and not being a fan of oil, I decided to hard-boil my eggs (in the steamer) rather than dry-fry them. Then I wondered what would happen if I food-processed hard-boiled eggs together with fruit. I'm always trying wierd things like that. It certainly gave those defrosted sharon-fruit a very omletty texture. Later on I repeated the experiment with other fruit.
Animals: egg-white-hard-boiled(167) chicken-liver(50) =217 (13.6%)
Rubbish: hospital:cookies(102) hospital:hot-chocolate(100) hospital:chocolate-milk(100) wafer-cornet(96) sf-jello(25) =423 (26.4%)
Totals: 1600 calories, 103.6g protein. 640 is 40.0%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 12 April 2007 03:33 am |
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Wednesday
Body Step - tried doing it as semi-fasted cardio, only ate 150g of hard-boiled egg whites beforehand [which is just 54 calories]. Got a voucher for a free 500g tub of Anchor a lower-fat margarine.
Mircowave oven arrived a day early, luckily I was home to receive it. Smaller than my previous one but hopefully it'll do the job.
I read an article ( ht tp://www.mindandmuscle.net/mindandmuscle/magpage.php?artID=35&pageNum=1 ) by metabolism expert Lyle McDonald where he suggests that the maximum calorie restriction (that results in loss of fat rather than LBM) is 31 calories for every pound of body fat. You do need to know your body fat% in order to calculate how many pounds of fat you are carrying. The implication is that the very obese can have relatively large deficits, wheras lean individuals can only have small deficits. He also talks about the concept of your metabolism adapting to calorie restriction after a short while by dropping its value by 10-15%.
I read another article which suggested this scheme (percentages are for men but can be converted for women): if you're 15% or more, you should be shedding fat. When you get to 10-12% you should now switch and try to build muscle. When, whilst putting on muscle (and unavoidably also putting on some fat) you've increased to 15%, switch again to shedding fat etc.
Briefly met up with mum to give her the tub of margarine (I've not used this type of spread since 2003, I have no use for it).
did Body Combat
Tomorrow (Thursday) will be a bit of a challange: I've had 3 low days so it has to be a high day. There is a big gap in the middle of the day where I cannot eat. I'll be able to eat before 9am. Ideally I should get up quite early and fit in two meals, as I should eat around 50g protein in the morning. Then my ultrasound is scheduled for 3.30pm so perhaps I can eat at 4pm or 4.30pm (but then I want to rush to the gym and will only get home at 8pm). I do realise that I can have some liquid calories so perhaps I'll have some liquid sugar at 12.30pm (I have 300ml of apple juice left over from Monday). So my challenge is to fill myself up with 1000 calories in the morning and then survive 7.5 hours with no solid food.
Animals: egg-whites(200) ham(50) =250 (15.6%)
Rubbish: wafer-cones(49) sf-jello(25) =74 (4.6%)
Totals: 1600 calories, 104.1g protein. 324 is 20.3%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 13 April 2007 05:28 am |
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Thursday
An inconvenient day on which to have my 'high-calorie' day. With a bit more planning I would have had Wednesday as my high day. Today was a bit wasted, what with being unable to eat for the majority of my waking hours (9am-4pm)! Got up at around 6.30am so I could have two mini-meals before leaving home at 9am - crammed in 1000 calories and 52g protein in those first 2 meals. A couple of people seeing me just before Body Pump told me I looked weary and tired (but I did fine with the weights once the class started). Napped when I got home.
Mum decided she was busy and still in pain after her operation yesterday so I had to cycle to the hospital (this newish hospital is further away than the regular hospital, but still managable at 3 miles each way). As I've never cycled that way I left early and got there early (just as well, they had a cancellation and could fit me in earlier). Afterwards I mentioned to the nurse I would be having a hot chocolate and she responded by offerring two types of cookies (I opened both packets and had one of each type, keeping the rest in my bag for another ocassion). The ultrasound found nothing suspect about my spleen or liver, but my kidneys look like they might be infected??
Initially I didn't know whether I'd have to sacrifice my PM workouts but in fact I had time to go home and snack before doing my Body Step, Body Jam and Ab Attack. Picked up 3 'ugli fruit' at Sainsbury's and had to Google a bit for calorie information. Went for a nap before finishing my calories. Nash woke me up just before 1am and I used that opportunity to catch up on calories.
Back to low-days tomorrow.
Animals: egg-whites(159) sainsbury-sample:chicken-cashew(30) =189 (8.2%)
Rubbish: hospital:hot-chocolate(100) hospital:borbon-cream(68) wafer-cone(72) sf-jello(50) hospital:fruit-shortcake(34) =324 (14.1%)
Totals: 2300 calories, 103.4g protein. 513 is 22.3%
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 15 April 2007 01:53 pm |
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I had Friday's diary all written-up but I never posted it - oops.
Friday
Breakfast took 45 minutes to prepare and eat; did Fab Abs Killer Butt and rushed off to do blood-tests (nurse pricked me in 4 places (twice in each arm) before she hit a vein in the right way - not happened to me before). Appointment letter arrived regarding Hematologist - I'm seeing them on Wednesday (the bloodwork is meant for them). In the afternoon felt tired and had to nap. At OA I claimed my 2-month chip (actually it is exactly 2 months since my last binge on February 13th at that Thai buffet restaurant in London). In the evening called Tracy for a longish chat with a weight-loss focus.
Animals: egg-whites(251) corned-beef(50) =301 (18.8%)
Rubbish: wafer-cones(69) sf-jello(50) flat-wafers(30) =149 (9.3%)
Totals: 1600 calories, 104.9g protein. 450 is 28.1%
Saturday
Enjoyed my Body Combat and Body Pump. Rushed back home to eat lunch and pack food and other things for my journey to Aylesbury: left 12.45pm and got back at 6pm (roughly 1.5 hours each way). A lot of waiting around at the Medical Examination Centre - the main session (spending 30 minutes going over my medical problems with a doctor whose job is to determine how unwell I am) was a relatively small part of the 5+ hour ordeal.
On the way home I got off the bus a few stops earlier, got collected by Nash who delivered some memory DIMMs that I need to test in a computer (at some point) and we visited ASDA - where I identified many cream cakes which needed reduction to 10p on account of their date. Unfortunately (or let's face it, fortunately!) they refused to do anything about the cakes until 6pm and Nash didn't want to hang around, so I was spared the calories (so I only left with 42 additional wafer-cones for fruit ice-cream). We drove to some shoe-shop he wanted to go to but it decided to close 10 minutes early so he was out of luck.
797 of my calories for the day were peanuts and brazil nuts, so the rough approximations for macronutrient breakfdown are: protein 26%, fat 44%, carb 30%. This certainly isn't typical of what I eat. For example I analysed my penultimate meal (194 calories, between 10.50pm and 11.10pm). Components were sea-bass (white fish), wafer-cornets (refined wheat flour), frozen banana and frozen orange. Breakdown was 26% protein, 9% fat, 65% carbs - that is a lot more representative of my general intake (but obviously not representative of today's food).
Animals: chicken-breast(100) seabass(50) turkey(50) ham(50) =250 (15.6%)
Rubbish: wafer-cone(58) sf-jello(50) jelly-beans(25) =133 (8.3%)
Totals: 1600 calories, 103.6g protein. 383 is 23.9%
I spent the evening napping to catch up with sleep, reading CPH, and then re-reading chapters 12, 6 and 2 of BFFM (I'm trying to answer the questions in Hisgal diary so I'm brushing up on carb-cycling, zig-zagging, working out TDEE and avoiding starvation response). One interesting outcome of this reading is that I rediscovered these paragraphs (BFFM, Chapter 2, "Use a small calorie deficit", Page 33):
Always start with a small deficit. In other words, cut calories out slowly. It’s better to start with a small deficit and then progressively increase towards your maximal deficit than to make a sudden drop in calories all at once. The body cannot be forced to lose fat – you must coax it.
Based on what you now know about the body’s weight-regulating mechanism, the optimal amount to decrease your caloric intake for fat loss is as little as possible – as long as you’re still losing body fat.
How does this fit in with what I've been doing? After being a 'good boy' and following BFFM's advice to the letter over the previous few weeks (Chapter 2, "Don't stay in a negative calorie balanace long", Page 35)
When fat loss stops or begins to slow down after being in a substantial calorie deficit, most people panic and cut their calories even further. Sometimes this works and it breaks the plateau. More often than not, it digs you into an even deeper metabolic rut. The best thing you can do is to raise your calories for a few days or sometimes even for a few weeks.
Your body’s weight regulating mechanism works both ways: It can decrease your rate of energy expenditure when there is a calorie deficit, or it can also increase its rate of energy expenditure when there is a calorie surplus. When you eat more, your body burns more. A temporary increase in calories when you have hit a plateau will “spike” you metabolic rate. It sends a signal to your body that you are not starving and that it’s ok to keep burning calories.
by gradually increasing my calories to 2000, 2100, 2200, 2300 over several weeks, what do I do? I hit it immediately with an agressive 30% zig-zag  (3 x 1600, 1 x 2300) which certainly is not compatible with "always start with a small deficit" or "as little as possible". I may have already done some short-term damage - how annoying. Change of plan: less agressive zig-zag (3 x 1900, 1 x 2300). Let's be honest here - I'm looking forward to the extra food so it is win-win for me.
Last edited on 15 April 2007 01:55 pm by Nir
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 15 April 2007 02:27 pm |
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One thing that is eating me up is my unwise investment in Jelly Beans. This is not the fancy stuff (not Jelly Belly). I bought 3 x 250g packets of the cheaper stuff (44p each, £1.32 total) when I was looking for low-fat low-fibre solid foods for colonoscopy prep. However, wasting my calories on these sweets unless there is a 'medical' reason to do so really seems like shooting myself in the foot (seriously, it is essentially like injecting glucose into my veins) but on the other hand I do hate wasting money.
Part of me is thinking about hanging on to these (they are 'best before' December, that's a long time so 2400 calories over that time-span (over 8 months) isn't too scary. Part of me is thinking about which friends/family who are not particularly health-concious would genuinely appreciate this as a gift.
My ideal resolution is for the store to buy it back from me. Unfortunately the store doesn't have this kind of returns policy. For the amount involved (£1.32) it is certainly causing me a disproportional amount of angst. Had a 25-calorie serving (that's a pathetic 7 jelly beans) yesterday. If I could be trusted to do that (and only that) each day then they'll be gone in about 100 days.
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