May 31

Yesterday's meals:

Breakfast
Cottage Cheese

Lunch
Chicken, Thigh, Meat Only - Cooked, Roasted
Carrots, Baby - Raw
Bunny Tracks - Chunky & Gooey
SOUTH BEACH DIET SALAD DRESSINGS DRESSING ITALIAN
Lettuce, Red or Green Leaf - Veggie

Dinner
Wellements Protein Powder
Milk, Reduced Fat, Fluid, 2%
Blueberries - Frozen, Unsweetened
Fat Free Cottage Cheese - Cottage Cheese
Broccoli - Raw
Cauliflower - Raw

Total Calories Consumed 1,956

Fat - 34.0% (74 grams)
Protein - 42.0% (205 grams)
Carbohydrates - 24.0% (117 grams)

Daily Sodium Intake - 3,277 mg
Daily Sugar Intake - 76 grams
Daily Cholesterol Intake - 424 mg
Daily Saturated Fat Intake - 33 grams
Daily Fiber Intake - 17 grams

Exercise: Ran/walked 3.1 miles with J, training for Fun Run

Weight: 196.8 (-1.0) (-5.0)

Yesterday was weird. First of all, I am pretty sure this one of the few times I have ever lost weight after a Friday. Fridays are bad because I work at home by myself that day and the ice cream calls my name. It did yesterday, too, but I had just a little and fit it into my calories/macronutrients, for the most part.

I wasn't hungry all morning and had to basically force myself to eat in the morning and at lunch. Then I ran/walked with J. I came back pretty hungry and had a protein shake. That took me up to my calorie level (thanks to the ice cream snafu) and I was done for the day. I got hungry later, but it was that annoying "empty stomach" feeling more than true hunger so I pretty much ignored it except for some veggies with protein dip. The extra took me higher than I wanted to be, calorie-wise, though the exercise means I was still in a deficit.

Still, the one pound loss made it worth it.

May 30

Yesterday's meals:

Breakfast
Fish Oil Softgels - Fish Oil
Fresh Turkey Breast Cutlets
Milk, Reduced Fat, Fluid, 2%

Lunch
Chicken, Thigh, Meat Only - Cooked, Roasted
Carrots, Baby - Raw
Fish Oil Softgels - Fish Oil

Dinner
Fish Oil Softgels - Fish Oil
Fat Free Cottage Cheese - Cottage Cheese
Perch, Mixed Species - Cooked, Dry Heat

Snacks
Rainbow Fat Free - Sherbet
Bunny Tracks Ice Cream


Fat - 32.5% (61 grams)
Protein - 40.9% (173 grams)
Carbohydrates - 24.9% (105 grams)
Alcohol - 0.0%
Other - 1.7%

Daily Sodium Intake - 1,207 mg
Daily Sugar Intake - 82 grams
Daily Cholesterol Intake - 531 mg
Daily Saturated Fat Intake - 22 grams
Daily Fiber Intake - 8 grams


Exercise - 3 Sets of Tiger Moves (it rained so I didn't run with J)

Weight: 197.8 (-2.0) (-4.0)

I weighed a couple of hours later than usual this morning so that may have affected the loss. It will wash out eventually.

My macronutrients came out almost perfect today, even though it wasn't the healthiest way to hit it. Between the turkey cutlets and the chicken thighs, I had hit my protein target by lunchtime. Again, I had a bunch of broccoli and cauliflower with dinner that I didn't count, so calories would be slightly higher, along with carbs and fiber.

The lower carbs caught up with me today as I had a pretty good headache all afternoon.

Fat Burning Zone

Another interesting post by Lyle McDonald that I wanted to save here:

simplistically
as you move from lwo intensities to higher intensities, the amount of fat vs. carbs burned shifts from one to the other

at low intensities, you may burn near 100% fat
at the highest intensiy (acually just aoutanything about lactate threshold), you burn 100% carbs

at any intensity between, you burn a proportion

the issue with the 'fat burning zone' concept is that people confuse %ages with absolutes

say you're walking at 3mph and burning 5 cal/min, but you're burning 100% fat. That's 5 cal/min of fat.

Say you're running at 6 mph and burning 10 cal/min but you're burning 50% fat.

Ruh roh, that's less fat, isn't it? No, it's not. 10 cal/min * 50% 5 cal/min of fat. But you're also brning 5 cal/min of carbohdyrates.

Say that at 6 mph you're burning 10 cal/min but still 65% fat. That's still lower by %age than at 3mph. But yo'ure burning 6.5 cal/min of fat which is higher. And you burn more total calories. And you deplete some of the carbohdyrate in your muscle.

some studies have shown that that maximum absolute amount of fat burned occurs right around the lactat tehreshold (the highest, hardest, most painful intensity that you can sustain for an extended period) although it dpends on training status and some other factors

when you deplete muscle glycogen (via burning it during exercise and/or carbohdyrate restriction), this increass whole body fat oxidation. And, for the most part, what you burn during exercise is less relevant than than what you burn the rest of the day and none of this matters if you aren't in a deficit). So say you do a hard session wheer you burn a combination of fat and carbs. not only did you burn those calories, by depleting muscle glycogen

a. your body will burn more fat for the rest of the day (I'm not saying more in terms of 'metabolic rate' is increases, but more in terms of the proportions used)
b. incoming carbohdyraste tend to go to refilling muscle glycogen instead of being used for energy

which is why, to a certain degree, it doesn't matter what you do as long as the calorie burn is roughly similar

low intensity activity is sort of a direct fat burner, you burn mostly fat for fuel but that's all you get out of it.

higher intensity burns some proportion of fat/carbs but impacts more greatly on what you burn later in the day

intervals brns only carbs during training but the glycogen depletino and other factors may make you burn more fat later in the day

I think the bigger isse is that, if you do too much high intensity activity too frequently, you get overtrained and that causes too many problems.

elite athletes do 75% or more of their volumes at low intensities, what makes fitness people think that they can handle more than this?

May 29

Yesterday's meals:

Breakfast
Fish Oil Softgels - Fish Oil
Milk, Reduced Fat, Fluid, 2% Milkfat - With Added Vitamin A
Beef, Ground, 95% Lean Meat / 5% Fat

Lunch
Carrots, Baby - Raw
Brazil Nuts
Fish Oil Softgels - Fish Oil
Cottage Cheese, Creamed, Large Or Small Curd

Dinner
Fish Oil Softgels - Fish Oil
Chicken, Thigh, Meat Only - Cooked, Roasted
Pork, Fresh, Loin, Sirloin, Boneless - Separable Lean And Fat, Broiled
Apple
Fat Free Cottage Cheese

Total Calories Consumed 1,930

Fat - 41.2% (91 grams)
Protein - 44.1% (219 grams)
Carbohydrates - 12.2% (60 grams)
Alcohol - 0.0%
Other - 2.5%

Daily Sodium Intake - 2,671 mg
Daily Sugar Intake - 37 grams
Daily Cholesterol Intake - 595 mg
Daily Saturated Fat Intake - 33 grams
Daily Fiber Intake - 10 grams

Exercise: 3 sets of Tiger Moves

Weight this morning: 199.8 (+.6 lbs) (-2.0 lbs)

Had the expected bounce up this morning, since I had been dehydrated from the long ride. However, the weird thing is that my clothes are much looser today than yesterday, at the higher weight. Must be that infamous low carb body rearranging stuff going on.

I knocked the protein target out of the park yesterday and hit around where I want my carb level. The fat level was a little high, so my calorie level is higher than I wanted it. Also, the calorie level is very, very uncertain. For dinner, we had piglets (pork riblets). They aren't nearly as fatty as most ribs, so I wasn't exactly sure how to enter them in to calorie-count.com. I may be a little low there.

Also, I didn't bother to enter in the handful of cauliflower and broccoli I had with dinner as the calories are negligible, so my fiber and carb count would be higher. I may go lower today to compensate.

I was kind of dragging around yesterday. I think it was the sudden drop in carbs. Thankfully, I don't feel as bad as I usually do at the lower carb levels. I think the extra protein is helping there.

May 28 (Day 1)

Yesterday's meals:

Breakfast
Fish Oil Softgels - Fish Oil
Fresh Turkey Breast Cutlets
Milk, Reduced Fat, Fluid, 2%

Lunch
Fish Oil Softgels - Fish Oil
Pork, Fresh, Loin, Sirloin (Chops)
Carrots, Baby - Raw
Brazil Nuts

Dinner
Fish Oil Softgels - Fish Oil
Beef, Top Sirloin
Cabbage - Raw
Cream, Sour, Cultured
Salad Dressing, Mayonnaise Type
Cream Top 6oz Strawberry
Rainbow Fat Free - Sherbet

Total Calories Consumed 1,721

Fat - 31.4% (60 grams)
Protein - 38.8% (167 grams)
Carbohydrates - 26.4% (114 grams)
Alcohol - 0.0%
Other - 3.4%

Daily Sodium Intake - 823 mg
Daily Sugar Intake - 87 grams
Daily Cholesterol Intake - 435 mg
Daily Saturated Fat Intake - 18 grams
Daily Fiber Intake - 9 grams

Exercise:

3 sets of Tiger Moves
2 Hour trail riding with J

Weight this morning: 199.2 (-2.6 lbs)


Holy water weight loss, Batman! I imagine I am still a little dehydrated from the long bike ride, so I imagine that will bounce up a little at some point.

I felt good all day yesterday. However, after the bike ride, I was seriously hungry. I had only eaten 780 calories at that point. I should have had a protein shake right when I got home, but it was close to dinner time, so I waited. I had my swiss steak and coleslaw and was still very hungry. I had a yogurt, which helped but only a little. Finally, after the kids were bugging me about wanting some ice cream, I had a small bowl of sherbet, which finally did it. Felt fine after that.

I think my body was craving carbs after the long ride. I was probably seriously glycogen depleted. Fortunately, in that state, carbs go straight to the muscle and not to fat, so not much harm done.

I am pretty hungry this morning again, but it is starting to pass. I will eat a little bit later, after I go down to the store to get my coffee.

Can You Dig It?

My original plan with this personal challenge was simply to "get into shape". I was originally thinking of exercise plans and such, which were originally derailed by a sore elbow and knee. Well, circumstances beyond my control have gone a long way to helping me reach that goal.

About 6-7 weeks ago, our septic system's drainfield failed. This led to several weeks of frantic digging every night after work as I installed a partial new one by hand. I had to dig up the the old pipe, widen the trench until it was 2" wide and more than 6" deeper than the original, and then add gravel and new pipe before back filling. The first couple of weeks, I was just trying to expose the old pipe in an attempt to find the ends, so that I could clean them out. When I found our drainfield is actually on the neighbor's property and in the middle of an orchard (the roots were a major part of the problem), I decided to install a new one on our property.




Between the digging and moving, loading, and dumping the rock, I managed to get into a lot better shape. I definitely added muscle to my back, shoulders and legs. I did lose a little fat but not much as I didn't want to deal with being tired from a calorie deficit. I needed the strength to keep up with the project and get it done in a decent amount of time. Besides adding muscle, I also added a lot more endurance. Some of the problems I had before, like the shortness of breath and the sore knee, are gone, but my elbow is still really bothering me.

I consider this my "bulking phase". However, now that the project is done (for now - I'll be adding some branches later, when the sand isn't so dry), I need to reduce my intake. I can also afford to have a small caloric deficit. I am still trying to train to do the 5K fun run with J, so I don't want to go too low. I would like to drop a few pounds before the run to make it easier.

Since my metabolism is ramped up now due to the amount of physical work I have been doing and the amount I have been eating, I feel it is a good time to do a quicker fat loss diet. I am going to base it Lyle McDonald's's "Guide to Flexible Dieting".

The place I failed before on it was not getting enough protein and not following Lyle's recommendation on exercise (you need to do some but not too much or you can run into problems).

So, I am starting today (May 27) at 201.8 pounds. My protein target is 155 grams a day. Calories will fall where they may, especially since I am easing into it (not going quite as low fat as recommended). I plan on going until June 27th, when we leave to go to K's folks for a week.

I will probably eat at or near maintenance for the rest of the summer after that, since we will be doing more bike riding and hiking. Depending on where I am at that point, I may go back to this again in the fall, leading up to the holidays.

New Math

I found an interesting post by Lyle McDonald on his forum and I wanted to post it here for future reference.

Originally Posted by patriots

So this again becomes an issue with lower caloric expenditure from decreased NEAT, offsetting the low cal and higher activity?

Originally Posted by lylemcd

again, I think that may be part of what's going on, yeah

this has been discussed before although usually in a different context when people try to claim that thermodynamcis doesn't apply because the math doesn't work. the problem is usually that they are treating the system as unvarying on the output end

so for input we have food

on the output end we have
BMR: marginally variable for people at the same weight, can adjust slightly to changes in food intake (up or down). will generally adjust downwards to some small degree with food restriction/fat loss

thermic effect of food: fairly consistent although insulin resistant people show half the response of insulin sensitive. clearly this goes down as you eat less food

thermic effect of activity: this is formal exericse. there might be changes in efficiency/caloric expenditure during dieting, Im tryign to remember what I'e seen in the liteature and none of it comes to mine

NEAT/SPA: the big crapshoot. as the bugg users are finding out, non-exercise activity expenditure plays a MUCH larger role than any non-excessive exercise bout. simply moving from sitting to standing for many hours burns considerably more calorie and this will tend to adjust itself downwards with dieting.

so at least part of this is that you have a situation where, say at maintenance, your total energy expenditure is 3000 calorie. that includes everything above

now you reduce to 2500 calories per day. BMR may come down a bit in a while (depending on such things as deficit, iniial bodyfat percentage, etc), TEA may go down, TEF goes down (only about 50 calories), NEAT/SPA may come down.

suddenly your lovely 500 cal/day deficit has been offset coming out of the starting gate and the math stops adding up. what should have been a 1 lb/week fat loss is now 0.5 lbs/week becuase of the output adjustments. and 2 pounds per week can easily be masked by a touch of water retention

suddenly, nothing is making sense anymore and the 'math doesn't work'. except that

a. yes it does
b. water doesn't have calories