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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. :)
Good morning!
So, Easter break is over, and things are back to normal here at Camp Kingkeld.
It's been an enjoyable break from work, and I have been way more active than I had ever dreamed of.
I've been hitting the gym EVERY day. Today, as we are back to normal schedules (and gym opening hours) will be the first day in a full week where I am NOT going. I think I'll miss it. LOL.
What I WILL do instead is to go for a one hour walk before work. I can squeeze 5 kilometers in in one hour. Not too bad.
So far, it's just walking. No jogging or running, though I probably could. However, I don't wanna end up all worn out (or sweaty) at work. So walking it it.
Over the course of the Easter break, I have walked a total of 42 kilometers. That's a marathon, folks! I can't say I'm not impressed with myself. :)
Today, I'm WAY up in weight, by 1.2 kilos. I am not sure where it comes from - but certainly some is water fluctuation. I don't think I even ate 1.2 kilos of food.
I maintained 600 calories (well, 603 to be precise) yesterday, so it's all good. Maybe because the smoked lamb I had was salted? I don't know. If so, it'll be all tears tomorrow, as I am having lamb for both lunch and dinner today. It's okay, I'll survive it.
A clear sign that things are fine is that my fat percentage has changed dramatically since yesterday. Yesterday it was 11%, today it's 7.5%. I know, it's a super unstable number, but the massive drop shows that it's not a fat gain I'm having (and how could it be, anyways?)
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We had an AMAZING practice with Burnin' Live yesterday. It was so much fun. We got to play our songs, add a new one, and generally just played pretty well. We're becoming a more tight unit these days, and it's such a great feeling. I keep noticing how much I like my sound when I play. It's just the greatest feeling - knowing that what you do sounds good, and that it works.
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So, today I'll be back at the school where we play to go teach the kids. It's the usual Tuesday deal. It will of course keep me on my feet ALL day today, and that might be a little rough. Still, I want to and I like to. It's all good.
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This of course takes - as always - that I bring both lunch and dinner with me to work. I have it all planned, though it's not very inspired. I want to keep things under 600 calories, have meat with most meals and also have an egg when I arrive at work after my long walk.
The solution? My soups! :)
I had one this morning, just plain tomato/vegetable soup.
I'll have that same soup, with added lamb's meat for lunch and dinner, 100 grams of meat each time. Not enough to do bad impact I think, but enough to fill me up. I need the protein, obviously, or I'll end up being WAY too low on it.
I'm starting to get a little tired of 600 calories per day. It's not that it's hard, because it really isn't. I have it down pretty well by now, and I know how to move around in my normal food world to reach that goal, but there just isn't a whole lot of wiggle room for any kind of inspiration, and that blows. Food is BORING for me at 600 calories.
Sure, I like my soup. I really like it. But probably not three times per day over and over. Now and then is fine though.
But I am more and more looking forward to Friday. Friday is supposedly my last day of LOSING weight. That's my plan, anyways.
Technically, I could just stop today. I won't though. Because I'm stubborn. :)
I don't want to get too hung up on my weight number any longer. I mentally feel that I am there, and I am done. Sure, I would like to see a couple of kilos off me for my weigh-in Friday morning, but it's not THAT big a deal. I see that drastic drop in fat, and I feel how much better I feel, and I am happy with that.
I have been thinking a lot about the game of weight vs. fatpercentage vs. muscles. I'm still not sure what to go with for the future.
Normally, I would assume that a general weight gain is fat. However, lately I do see that my weigh gains are wither muscle or fluid.
So, I am severely considering to put a maximum accepted fatpercentage to follow and stay under, instead of a maximum accepted weight. I am in no way sure about this, but it makes sense these days. If I keep working out, and keep doing good on training, I should over time build more muscle, and genenerally lose fat. If this is the case, then I will start gaining weight again. Not a ton, but some. This might - as I have seen lately - bring me to a weight that I am not mentally comfortable with, unless I see that it IS in fact muslce.
So maybe it's a lot smarter for the future to keep an eye on that fat% instead? Put a max. Maybe 10 or 12 to begin with? Then train my way slightly lower (remembering, of course, that my scale measures it lower than the LOOP one, where I am a little more).
The numbers seem to go pretty much hand in hand, so it makes sense to me. I'd like to hear from you guys - what do you think of this?
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So, what's the game plan after Friday?
Well... here is my logic - and it's not TOO far from last time.
I have been checking my numbers, my BMR, RMR, and general calorie burn on several websites.
When I factor in what I burn at the gym on my normal schedule - NOT the more intense Easter one - I burn an average approx 2800 calories per day. I was kind of surprised by this number, but I have used several calculators online to check it, and they all give me roughly the same number. This includes FatSecret. It's a scary high number, so I have decided to start off with 2500 instead. That should give a little wiggle room.
Of course, I might be surprised by the number simply because it's a MAINTENANCE number, not a weight loss number.
Anyways...
Seven days per week gives me a calorie burn (in maintenance mode) of 17,500 calories.
I really want to go with my two days of 600 calories still. No more than two days. Subtract 1,200 calories from the 17,500, and I have 16,300 calories to spend the last five days.
This gives me a shocking! allowance (RDI) of 3,260 calories per day.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that this number is truly terrifying. I can't possibly imagine that this will MAINTAIN my weight. I can't help giggling slightly frantically by seeing this number.
However, it does make sense in a way. I do work a LOT harder than I ever have before. I'm building muscle, I'm optimizing my body quite a bit.
This number might actually make sense, as long as it's not all candy and chocolate.
So, my approach after Friday is basically this:
I will have two days of 600 calories per week. It doesn't matter which days I'm doing, but there HAS to be two days per week, no matter what. This will keep me in check, and keep my sense of hunger reset.
Then, the other days I will simply do good. At 3,260 calories, if I eat the kinds of foods that I know I'm supposed to, I won't get to that high a number. I am perfectly fine with that. I will NOT start "topping off" with dumb stuff, simply because I can.
On the other side - and this is the tough one - I do want to start eating more like "normal" people. I do want to be able to buy a bar of chocolate or a bag of candy. But I don't want it to be something that spins out of control.
So, with that high an allowance, my approach could be, as I have mentioned before:
- Do one "wrong" thing per day. Max. It's pretty simple, really. If I want a nice, higher calorie meal, then the other meals need to be at least very reasonable.
- If I want to have candy or chocolate, I'll set a max number of calories for a day - maybe 300 calories (like a snickers or something), and the rest of the day HAS to be all reasonable meals.
- If I already had a higher calorie meal and I then feel like candy or chocolate, then too bad - I can't have it. One bad choice per day. And no REALLY bad ones.
- Indulgence Day. This day I am thinking of changing up a bit for my maintenance mode. I don't really need a day of higher allowance than 3,260 calories. Every day is Indulgence Day when I look just the calorie allowance. However, the Indulgence Day could be the day where I do what I want - within the allowance.
- Weening off calorie counting altogether over some time. I'm thinking that maybe what I should do it keep counting my 600 calorie days, to make sure that I go low enough, and my Indulgence Day, if I make "bad choices", to make sure it doesn't to overboard.
Phew. It's a lot to swallow. It's a lot of new rules. Then again, it's pretty simple:
Two low calorie days. Four days of eating right, with just a little wiggle room, one day where I can do "what I want", if I do it under strict supervision from the calorie counter.
How does that sound?
I think this is how I will start this.
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I'm Essentially starting this new approach Saturday, unless I am told by the surgeons that I am not there yet. I doubt it.
Friday will be my last day of weight loss. And it's gonna be an interesting - and tricky - one to some extend. It'll be higher than 600 calories, but it'll definitely not be 3,260. But somewhere inbetween (which, I guess, could be anything).
I have scheduled my LOOP CHECK (the gym weight/stats checkup) that Friday morning. I figured it would be fun to have the "official" numbers on this day. It's scheduled to me done at 7 am Friday morning.
To do a LOOP CHECK, I can not eat, sleep, drink or work out three hours prior.
This means no breakfast. Easy. I can do that any day. And today is good, as I'll save the calories for later. They'll be needed. :)
I am considering taking the day off from work altogether, though I do have time to go before we travel to see the surgeons. Jury is still out on this decision.
Anyways, I will have one egg for breakfast, to get my metabolism going, when I finish gym.
Then, nothing until lunch - and lunch will be a salad, one of my soups or something else ridiculously low.
See, after we are done at the hospital, it'll be time to go to that devlishly good rib house close to the hospital. :) Wife loves it, I love it. But there's a twist.
Wife doesn't usually care too much for ice cream. However, a few times in the past I have had their "ice cream buffet", which is basically a dessert buffet. SO much good stuff there, but it's all fairly easy to calculate. Most of it is basically different ice creams, and they are all pretty much same number of calories per 100 gram. So all I gotta do is weigh it and I'll know what I've got.
Well, Wife has been raving about wanting to try it out, as it always looked good when I had it. I will let her COMPLETELY be the decision maker on this when we get there, but if she wants to go in, as she has told me she does, then I will join her. I will make sure I have PLENTY of calories for it, and I won't let the thing go out of hand. If she wants ice cream, then I'll make a smart move on the rest of the menu. Maybe a hamburger (and kick away the bun) instead of ribs and potates. Something like that.
Last time we went there, I actually did have the ice cream, and the day ended just above 1,600 calories. Nothing bad at all. It can be done.
After the visit in Roskilde for the doctors and the ribs, we're going straight to Copenhagen. We have booked a hotel there. It was either that, or going on a 90 minute train ride home, then a two hour train ride to copenhagen the day after. The price for the train rides is like 70% of the price for the hotel room. So we decided to save the time, and just go the night before. We could use a night out like this.
Neither Wife or I are big on going out for the bars and all that, so there probably won't be much more partying than maybe a diet coke. :)
In the morning, the hotel has a little buffet, it's dirt cheap and endlessly boring - exactly what I need to NOT go nuts. It's just gonna be good enough for me to get my metabolism going, and carry on until lunch and dinner. We're gonna be in Copenhagen all day, so it'll just have to be wise choices according to the above mentioned plan.
No counting. Just caution.
I think it's smarter to NOT make a Copenhagen trip an Indulgence Day. Smart choices and reasonable serving sizes will get me there safely.
This is essentially what I've got to learn. The common sense of my food intake. I know I can do it. I have ALL the tools, and then some. I just have to apply them on a daily basis.
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Wow, this is a pretty lengthy journal entry today. Sorry about that. I am deeply impressed with you, if you made it all the way to here. :)
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Today, I'm thankful for:
- Having an AWESOME Easter break. I slept like a rock every night. I exercised every day.
- Being back to my normal schedule. I missed it.
- Morning coffee!
- Just a few more days to go on losing weight. Then it's MAINTENANCE TIME!
Happy Tuesday! Life is good!
EDIT:
The above was written around 6:30 AM. It is now 12:00 noon.
I did not get to do my walk. I realized that I needed to work in a few extra hours if I want to NOT work on Friday. I decided that the time was probably better used by going to work early.
It's an amazingly beautiful day again here in Denmark, so I spent my lunch walking a few kilometers to compensate. Spending my morning in my office, I really missed walking, and I missed gym. Dammit. What monster have I turned into? :)
So, a few kilometers walk has been done, and I will be walking to the school tonight too. I think it's about one kilometer each way, but I don't know for sure. I can put on GPS when I go, so I know for the future. I'd like to know.
I'm planning on detouring a little bit on the way to put a little extra milage behind me.
Today, I am REALLY looking forward to Friday. I am REALLY looking forward to being done with 600 calories day in and day out. Today, I feel like eating some more. It's not hunger. It's probably not even emotional hunger. I think it's just me being tired of being so strict.
I have about 20 calories left in my budget for today, and I am spending them in the company of a large Pepsi Max. I'm so glad that I don't get the munchies from diet soda. This will help me significantly today. :)
I'm still calculating, finding the better way to approach the next chapter of this journey. Definitely 600 calories twice a week. That is settled. It's more the calculations of the rest. Do I go with a slight calorie restriction? Will it automatically be there if I just eat reasonable meals and have a few low cal days?
I think I'm just overthinking things. Let go, Keld. Let go. :)
I loved the walk, by the way. Just what the doctor ordered.
Life is STILL good! :)
END OF EDIT.
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190.9 lb
Lost so far: 150.8 lb.
Still to go: 3.5 lb.
Diet followed 100%.
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gaining 18.5 lb a week
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