kingkeld's Journal, 11 April 2012

Good morning!

It's a good morning here in Denmark. I slept great, and I feel rested. It's 5:45 am, and in about an hour I will be going to work. I'll try to be there an hour early and save up more comp time. Wife is on vacation all of next week, and I hope I can clear my calender to have a day or two off with her again, maybe at least the Friday. It'd be nice.

I had no weight loss today, so I am still sitting a little high. That's okay. We had pasta for dinner yesterday, and it was great on the calories, but tends to really weigh me down. It'll come - I'm not in a hurry any longer, other than that I want to get down under the 80 kgs, and preferably eventually stick under the magical 77.

Sometimes I wonder if that 77 is too much of a fix point, as I seem to never be there. It would have been a lot easier for me if my target had been 80!
However, 77 is what I set out to do, and 77 is where I will end up being. Upping it to 80 would be cheating, I feel. However, it does seem like my body really likes to be around 80.

I can tell a difference in my weight though. I can tell that I am heavier than I was a week ago. The 5 kgs difference is clear, and that is kinda scary. I mean, I used to be 75 kgs heavier than I am today, and it is a really scary thing when I realize that 5 kgs makes such a difference.

My body feels much happier around 76-77 kgs than it does around 80, that's for sure.

Tomorrow, I'm not expecting too much of a weight loss either. Dinner tonight will be leftovers from yesterday, so it'll be more pasta with meat less tomato sauce. Yum! However, it does weigh me down. In a way, I'd rather have something else for dinner, but there is simply too much food to toss it away. I'm not gonna waste like that. So pasta for dinner again it is. That's okay - it tastes great and overall I still feel so much better than I have all my life - so a day or two more is no biggie.

I was going over my planned calories for today - I am gonna be LOW! Even without me getting on the bike this morning, I will still have a SIGNIFICANT calorie deficit - probably too much.

Nope - not getting on the bike today. I think I have over done it a little bit the last few days - my legs are aching today, and I think it's their way to ask me to calm down and take the day off. :) So I am skipping the bike for now. Maybe, if I feel up to it in the afternoon, I'll take 30 or 60 minutes.

The calorie deficit thing still puzzles me a little.

Since I am in maintenance mode now, I should be doing the same in as I have out, right? Eat what I burn, basically.

When I stuff my face one or two days, I should compensate for those calories, but nothing more. That would be my theory. However, I can't help thinking that I need a deficit, and many times it's a pretty big one. Often over 1000 - and there is just not a whole lot I feel that I can do about it.

If I eat more, to have more calories, then the food will weigh me down (more the actual food weight than a fat gain from calories), and I will gain weight. This is what I see happening right now. Sure, I did bad over the easter, and I gained a LOT of weight. But there is absolutely no way it's a fat gain, so it has to be water fluctuation, and food being processed. It's gotta be as simple as that.

If I am right about this, then I should simply compensate for the extra calories through the slacker-days, and then go for maintenance level, right? The added weight should come off over a period regardless.

This will of course always fluctuate some, as I will never stop eating pasta (now and then) or other heavy foods. I do NOT want to never have a heavy meal "because it weighs me down", but I do want to stay within my calorie limits. Temporary gains are fine with me, as long as it's not a fat gain, and as long as I remain in control.

Now, here is the next thing that makes this difficult: The exercise calendar. I think there is general agreement that the calendar is a little too generous with its counts. It tells us that we've burned more than we've actually burned. This is of course a little dangerous. If I see that I have burned 3000 calories in a day (an unwritten goal for me on a daily basis), then how much have I actually burned? 2000? 2500? 2800? I need to know this, if I want to match my calorie intake with my calories burned.

I've tried several other calculators, and even though they come out with different numbers, they all come out very - VERY - different from each other too.

Writing this, I just realized that I may have found a workable approach to this.

I need to find a "system" where I know what I have eaten exactly over a week - set a goal to have a specific calorie intake over the week. For example, start with an average of 2000 calories per day. This is 14000 calories in one week. It's rare that I get to 2000 in one day, but if I want to be at maintenance level, then I need to have those calories.

So, what I think could work is to simply take a look at the intake over the last week when I get to the last day - typically my Saturday Indulgence Day - and what ever I'm missing, I'll add on that day. So if I have had 1800 calories the last 6 days, then I'll have to add 1200 calories to my Indulgence Day, making it 3200 calories. That way I will KNOW that I have had something very close to a 2000 calorie average over the week.

If I still lose weight, then the following week I can up it to 2100 per day. If I have gained weight, I can lower it to 1900 - and so on. This I can do until I see that there is no change.

Mind you, the change these days is not very big, though I do see a new low now and then. The new lows should be very rare by now, and they are. I did one for last Tuesday's doctor's visit, but that was more of a principle thing. I had to push hard to get it, but I managed - and that was just to prove a point to myself. I'm not sure I'll get all the way down to 75.8 kgs again anytime soon.

I dunno, maybe I'm simply over thinking this part.

Anyways, back to the topic.

When I recalculate my calorie intake, I set my age, height, gender and weight. I set my activity level to "Low active". I don't see myself as more than that, as I am not the type who does a LOT of exercise, or have a job that makes me move constantly. However, I am in no way sedentary, as I do get on the bike almost every day, I stand up at work ALL day, and I try to get my butt out of the chair and get things when I need 'em. This last thing is actually a real change. Back in the day, I would make a mental note of things I needed when I get up, and get it all at once. Now, I get out of the chair all the time to get a pen, find a remote, get my phone, get water, refill coffee, etc. It's nice to NOT have that challenge. I just do it. Compared to two years ago, I feel like I'm Jackie Chan! LOL.

So, Low Active is what I choose as my activity level.

Fatsecret suggests that for maintenance level calorie intake I should be doing 2700 calories per day. That is a LOT of food on a daily basis. However, it seems to go fine hand-in-hand with my approx. 3000 calorie burn daily. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but usually just around there.

Eating 2700 every day is terrifying though. Will this really be good?

I see two sides of this.

1. Eating 2700 will make me eat OVER 700 MORE CALORIES per day, 5000 calories per week! In my mind, that's a LOT of extra calories.

2. Practice what I preach. I tell so many people that they're not losing weight simply because they don't eat enough. Is my body holding on to the last weight because I don't eat enough? Is 1800, which I normally stick to along with Indulgence Day, really enough? Should I UP it instead of restricting? This really could be the answer, but it's scary to start messing with. I know this from myself, and from the terror I see in the eyes of the people I tell to eat more. 90% of the time I'm right about this, though.

So, I think the game plan will have to be what I have deducted.

I will set out for a 2000 calorie plan this week. What I haven't consumed over the week, I will move to Saturday, and try hard to hit it dead on. I will then compare it with the exercise calories that FatSecret tells me that I've done, and see where it takes me.

By me comparing a fairly precise calorie intake over the week with my exercise calendar, I should over some time be able to see a pattern. How high will my intake have to me in relation to the burn? Will I have to match it? Will I have to be slightly under? Will I have to be 500-1000 under? As long as I can see a pattern, a place to be in relation to the calorie burn, then it really doesn't matter if it matches, right?

Wow, this got VERY analytical. I wonder if anyone actually will read though this and not just give up along the way. LOL. However, I got some things cleared up in my mind, I think. This will be my approach.

To summon up:

Record all food and exercise.
Set an average calorie intake per day over a week's time.
On the last day of that week (Saturday), compensate to reach that average - by eating more or less.
Compare with my average exercise over that week.
Conclude.

That's it. I can do this. Actually, I think I have done it more or less, just without that focus. This will probably still be a kind of Indulgence Day system, just slightly different focus. I can't wait to see if it works. Being in maintenance mode gives Indulgence Day another mission, I think. I no longer need it to keep my metabolism going. It should do that without any help, simply because I eat more. However, it will be a good "tool" to reach the right amount of calories over the week.

So what do you guys think? Does it make sense? I will NOT be using this as an excuse to eat more, I will be adding calories nice and slow, to find my "sweet spot".

Okay, Keld. Enough of that. :)

So, anyways, it's time for me to get ready to go to work soon. Gotta pack a little lunch, some of Wife's AMAZING home made salsa too. She made an awesome Habanero/carrot salsa just for me. It's hotter than hell and oh, so tasty! I love it!

Today, I am thankful for:
- Figuring out a way to approach maintenance mode that just might work for me.
- Salsa! Yum!
- Kitty Cat spending the morning with me. She does NOT mind that I didn't get on the bike! :)
- A fairly easy day at work today (I think).

It's hump day, folks! Life is good!

177.7 lb Lost so far: 164.0 lb.    Still to go: 0 lb.    Diet followed 100%.

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1091 kcal

Fat: 30.19g | Prot: 58.58g | Carb: 152.90g.   Breakfast: Sliced Ham (Extra Lean), Rye Bread (Reduced Calorie), Egg. Lunch: Frikadelle, Cooked Mixed Vegetables (Corn, Lima Beans, Peas, Green Beans and Carrots, from Canned, Fat Not Added in Cooking). Dinner: Whole Wheat Spaghetti, Tomato Sauce. Snacks/Other: banana. more...

3007 kcal

Activities & Exercise: Standing - 8 hours and 30 minutes, Walking (moderate) - 3/mph - 20 minutes, Sleeping - 8 hours, Sitting - 5 hours and 10 minutes, Desk Work - 2 hours. more...