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WARNING! AWESOME ROCK VIDEO BELOW!
Disclaimer: I am currently doing a SUPER LOW calorie diet. I am only doing this a couple of weeks, going off and on it as I see it developing. I need to emphazise that this is not something I generally recommend doing. This is something I am doing to learn about hunger, behavior and other things. If you do want long, sustainable weight loss, then you need to work with an efficient diet, like consuming about 500-1000 calories less than you burn on a daily basis. I'm hoping that we can all learn things from these experiments, but please be VERY cautious if you decide to try what I try. Consider me the lab rat. We don't know the results. :)
Goodmorning, buddies!
Today is the big day - and I've got both good news and fun stuff!
First of all - if all goes according to plan, I am TODAY officially DONE losing weight again.
Sure, you're right. I am not at my goal of 80 kilos. I don't need to be. I am perfectly happy with my body where I am right now, I am 100% sure I qualify for my surgery, and I have built on muscle that I am pretty sure will count as some of the last kilos I need for me to be "done".
So, this is where I'm stopping.
Now, I am still gonna be a daily visitor on FatSecret. Why? Maintenance, baby. I know that if I just let it all go now, I'd slowly be putting on the pounds again, and I do NOT want that to happen!
I have a plan set up, and I intend to follow it to the T.
It's not really hard to do what I - at least in theory should be doing. I say "in theory" because we all know that our bodies don't always follow logic, and things don't always go according to plan. So this will take that I pay A LOT of attention, that I keep working out about as hard as I do right now, and that I keep doing right.
I have gone through countless calorie counters online, to find out what kind of calorie burn I have at my current weight, and in maintenance mode.
They all suggest 2700 calories.
Now, I have a plan to do TWO days of only 600 calories. First of all, I would like all the health benefits from this (check out the BBC Horizon show "Eat, Fast, Live Longer" for more on this), but it also make it a lot easier to keep a daily average of 2700 calories over the course of a week.
So, here's the logic:
7 days of 2700 calories is 18900 calories. This is what I can - in theory - consume in one week and maintain my weight.
Subtract two days of 600 calories (I'll make it 700 to make sure I have wiggle room) - 1400 calories and you have 17,500 calories left for the last five days.
This equals 3,500 calories PER DAY that I could do.
Now, that is a ridiculously high number. This is essentially a daily Idulgence Day. I'm not gonna want to do that. I have learned too much about what this could lead to.
I also remember discussions here on FatSecret about how people who have had massive weight loss will have a disadvantage on the calorie intakes for sometimes years to come. We simply store the calories faster than "normal" people.
So, my thought is this: If I generally eat reasonable meals as I have learned to do over the last few years, I will have a calorie intake of maybe up to 2500 calories on days where I relax. SOmetimes more, sometimes less.
My ground rules on these days are simply to do good. Eat what you know is right. Don't eat stupid stuff. And if you do - compensate. There can be no more than one "stupid choice" during a day. If I want pizza for lunch, then I need to eat a reasonable breakfast and dinner. No snacks. If I want snacks, then I need to have reasonable meals. And so on.
Then there is Saturday. Saturday will be my "eat stupid stuff" day, where I will allow myself this. It will be my Indulgence Day, so to say, even if my RDI for that day is no different from the other days.
If I choose to eat bad things on a day I WILL HAVE TO COUNT CALORIES! This, I feel, is important. First of all, it puts me at a disadvantage. Go I really want to bother recording the WHOLE day for a little candy? Maybe that could help me resist. And if I do decide to eat it, I need to know what kind of damage it does.
On non-600 calorie days, when I generally just do what I'm supposed to, I don't think it would be necessary to count. If I feel that I lose control, I'll get back to counting. Pretty simple.
...
So, today is my last weigh-in, of course. I had a HUGE drop in weight yesterday, and I did not expect any kind of weight loss today, obviously. Experience tells me that this never happens two days in a row.
Of course, never say never! :)
I am down a full kilo!
Talk about ending on a high note! ...or is it in this case a low note? I'm not sure. But I am ALL smiles.
Not only do I end up at the lowest since surgery in June, but I get a taste of the BLUE ticker here on FatSecret. It's been ages since I've been there.
....
I'm feeling hungry this morning. I am writing this on an empty stomach. I'm going to the gym in an hour and a half, and I am doing my "official" weigh-in there for my records. I found that today would be a more than appropriate day to do this.
Now, to record this, I am not supposed to sleep, exercise, eat or drink for three hours prior to it. Gym opens at 7, so it fits perfectly that I am up at 4 am as usual, and just skip breakfast. I'll eat after the weigh-in.
After that, obviously, I'm gonna work out, and have that done for the day.
I have the day off from work, so I think I'll hang with the gym owner a little longer this morning, and then go home for breakfast. It's gonna have to be a reasonable one, and I WILL be counting calories today.
Wife and I are going to the rib house for both dinner and dessert! Wife is STILL raving about the ice cream buffet. I think I've earned it. I probably won't have as much as I would have even a few weeks ago. The 600 calorie diet has really changed my perception of portion sizes. I don't want that to just bounce back.
After seeing the surgeons today, and going out for dinner, we're gonna take a train to Copenhagen, and spend the night at a hotel. Then tomorrow we're gonna go do some shopping, maybe a little sight-seeing (to walk off the ice cream buffet!), and just have a good time. It's gonna be cold, but beautiful weather, and if we dress for it, it's gonna be an awesome trip.
We'll be back home Saturday night, and Sunday will be my first 600 calorie day in my "new" system. I'll be spending the whole day with Burnin' Live!, and I will have my focus on other things than food. It should be easy enough.
...
So... the video is in!
For those who missed yesterday's journal - I was at a jam session a few towns over on Wednesday nights, and we got to jam an AC/DC song, "It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock'n'Roll) with some other guys - including the appropriate bagpipes that are on the original version of the song.
I recorded the audio, and the singer - who is Burnin' Live's new singer(!) asked his girlfriend to record the video. I did a little mix so we had it all put together for higher quality. It came out pretty nice, I think.
Now, mind you, this is in no way rehearsed. None of us have ever played this song with each other before. We really wanted to play it a little lower, as the notes are VERY high for our singer, which makes him not sound at his best. However, you can only play songs with a bagpipe in a certain key, so we were stuck with this.
Anyways, enough excuses - it's only rock'n'roll! :) (Oh, and I am the bald guy, if you have trouble spotting me).
As always, please put on headphones or play this through proper speakers. The sound quality on laptops, tablets and cell phones is an insult to any music lover or musician.
Here goes - comments are welcome:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gRAu18Wo1o8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Was that fun or what? I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did playing it.
...
So, since I am done with going super low cal daily, I think I'd like to comment on that.
Please don't try it. Sure, it gives you a few quick drops in weight, but it is REALLY mentally exhausting. Much more than I thought it to be.
Hunger? I experienced nothing that I can't count as emotional hunger. I never had my stomach (or the rest of my system) telling me that I needed to eat. I truly believe that hunger for most of us is nothing but a mental thing.
I can HIGHLY recommend that you try a day or two doing this, or maybe even do it weekly.
I feel that by going 600 calories a few days per week (before I went on this three week adventure), I really learned a lot about myself. I learned that I am generally NEVER hungry to the point where I am in physical danger. I can easily skip a meal, or more, if I like to.
This is knowledge that is essential for our success in weight loss, I think. Imagine how much easier this is if you're not hungry? Hunger, imaginary or not, is what brought us to overweight. But obviously, if we are overweight, we are not hungry all that often. At least, we shouldn't be. We just made bad decisions.
I hope this makes sense.
Again, I do NOT recommend a day-in-day-out 600 calorie diet. All you will accomplish is a fast, quick drop in weight, loss of energy over time (I feel it today), and trouble sticking to your diet. You should instead find a much more reasonable level of calorie intake, use the tools on the Fatsecret site and app, and go with that. It works. I've used it all the way.
...
Today, I'm thankful for:
- DONE DONE DONE losing weight.
- A NICE new low!
- Blue ticker!
- Going out with wife, and spending the night at a hotel.
- Awesome weather!
- Off from work!
- Finished the music video!
- ...and I could keep going today.
I will make sure to write a little edit at the end of this journal after I see the surgeons, and I know what they say. :)
LIFE IS GOOD!
EDIT:
I decided to change my goal weight to 83 kilos, instead of 80. If this is an acceptable number for the surgeons, then it's an acceptable number for me. I might go lower if I want/can, it all depends on muscle build from now on. In general, I want to be MUCH more focused on bodyfat. I have a goal for now to keep it under 10%.
END OF EDIT
ANOTHER EDIT:
Just a brief note, as we are out celebrating. I passed the "test"! I qualify for the surgery! I'm officially done losing weight and now going into maintenance mode! More in Sundays journal. I don't expect to do one tomorrow as I won't be home at all. Life is good!
END OF EDIT.
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182.8 lb
Lost so far: 159.0 lb.
Still to go: 0 lb.
Diet followed 100%.
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losing 15.4 lb a week
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