Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Oooops

The Fiancé and I slept on the wrong side of the bed last night. That is to say, when we fell into an exhausted stupor, he was on the right and I was on the left, the opposite of our normal sleep mode. This meant that HE was sleeping on the side that the alarm is on. I was awaked this morning by him patting/shaking my hip and cheerfully stating, “It’s time to get up”

I looked at him blurry eyed and asked, “What time is it?”

He rolled over, looked at the clock and calmly stated, “Five Oh Eight”.

“&*^(!“

We have NO idea what happened to the alarm. I know I never heard it, and he doesn’t remember shutting it off. I disappointedly told him that I had ‘seven more minutes’ before I had to get up and went back to sleep. At Five Forty-eight he woke me up again. Five more minutes had turned into forty! Now, not only had I missed the gym, but I was going to miss my Ferry!

ACK!

So no workout this morning. I’ll figure out something for tonight though because I’m NOT missing! (Today is back day) Maybe I’ll do Bis and Abs today since they are easy to do at home and move the rest of my workouts over one day. We’ll see. I hate doing Back with pre-fatigued Biceps.

And now to the really geeky and probably boring part of my post (or maybe all of it is boring and I’m just deluding myself.)

Last night I sat down and started to REALLY crunch some numbers. Please, try and follow my train of thought here.

As we are all aware, I had my Resting Metabolism tested and it came back at 1788. Now if I modify that by an “Activity Level Multiplier” of 1.55* that gives me a Total Daily Energy Expenditure of 2771.4. For brevity sake and ease of calculation I’ll round that down to 2700. (Down because although I exercise 5 days a week, I do have a desk job and spend 4 hours sitting in a car/ferry every day commuting)

As many of you know – you need to burn 3500 more calories in a week then you consume to lose one pound of fat. 7000 if you want to lose two (a number that tends to be many people’s goal). That translates to 1000 calories a day. So, if I were to subtract 1000 from 2700 that means I would need to eat 1700/day to lose 2 lbs a week. That means daily eating AT or BELOW my Resting Metabolism Amount. If I were to eat that amount consistently, it only makes sense that my body would start to figure out ways to make me burn LESS. No wonder dieting fouls people’s metabolism up so much!

Anyway – My goal is to lose more like 1.75 lbs a week. To do that I need to drop my calories by 6125/week, or about 875/ day. BUT I’m still a little childish about my food and want to keep a free day – one that could easily reach my ‘maintenance’ amount of 2700 – so that means I’m only ‘cutting’ 6 days a week – and each of THOSE days needs to be lowered by 1020.

However, as we discovered above – cutting by 1000 puts me below my Metabolic Rate – something that’s not good. Not good on a DAILY BASIS, but, controlled it can be done. ‘Controlled’ means zig-zagging the calories. Now – I already have 1 ‘high calorie’ day planned because of my free day. I need at least one other – logically that would be Wednesday. That day I want to make sure that I get at LEAST my Metabolic Rate, and hopefully a bit more then that, So I’ll plan that day to be 1900 calories.

Monday is traditionally an easy day for me to go ‘low’ because I’ve just fed on Sunday. So that’s going to be a low day for me – 1500 calories. I also want to plan a ‘mini’ re-feed on Friday because as time progresses Saturdays are going to be my ‘long run’ so let’s make that day 1800.

That leaves three days and I’ll set those at 1700 each and be done with it. What does that looks like in simpler terms?

Mon – 1500

Tues – 1700

Wed – 1900

Thur – 1700

Fri – 1800

Sat – 1700

Sun – 2700

Total consumed = 13,000

Total burned (2700x7) = 18,900

Difference = 5900

That doesn’t equal the 6125, but I’m SO calling in the “I rounded down” card.

Really though, I think that’s the most I can expect to cut my calories and get away with it. If this doesn’t do it – I’m adding more cardio (just not running cardio)

What does all this mean and why should you care? It means that obsess WAY too much about this stuff. ;) It also means that if I’m going to do this I’m going to have to watch my calories and spend a lot more time planning meals than I like – cause I can’t just plan 1 meal for breakfast each and every day. It comes down to how much I want it. Right now – I want it! ;) it also means that I can’t be loosy goosy with my free day. That kind of sucks – but I’ll find ways to deal. Actually I could take a Friday Free day – but that means 1900 calories in cookies instead of 2700 (grin).

And why do you care? Well you probably don’t but I shared all of this in case some day – all this works, and I’m strutting around 130lbs 18% body fat and someone wants to know what I did – they can see not only what I did but my thought process behind it.

Have a fabulous week everyone – I’ll let you know how this experiment goes.

* 1.2 -sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job)

1.375 -Light exercise (light exercise/sports 1-3 days / week)

1.55 -Moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week)

1.725 -Very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/week)

4 comments:

  1. It's a work in process - we'll see how it goes and build from there.

    thank you for your input!

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  2. It's weird but you are on the same page I am today...I've just came up with basically the same plan and that was before I read your blog.
    And I do care...Keep up the good work.

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  3. That's tough though having to spend 4 hours a day on a ferry.

    As for the statistics, I had to read them again, to absorb things. I thought the first time I read it all, you were planning to eat 825 calories a day, I was very worried ha ha ha.

    Then I noticed second time around it said "drop 825 a day", not "drop to 825 a day". Pheew. I nearly had kittens first time around, thinking you were dropping to such a low level. Whoooooaaaa.

    I can't give you any sold input on the proposed calorie intake, as I never analyse mine, anywhere near as intensely and as passionately as you do :-p

    However I wish you the best, and you know whatever you do to get results, I'll always support and get behind you, because like everyone else here, I want the best results for you, and the best for you as a person.

    So GOOD LUCK with this new intake strategy, and I hope you get what you want from it.

    YOu are a true 24 carat shining star, and an inspiration to us all.

    THANK YOU :-).

    Matt

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  4. I don't think keeping a free day is childish at all. It's more like a very needed sanity break from a week's worth of clean eating! Keep up the great work.

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