Sunday 27 May 2007

My "diet"

Hate to say it, but the only way to lose weight is through the combination of diet, exercise and discipline! Any subset of these will not do (I've tried them all). In this entry I'll be discussing my "diet".

I've always been fairly active and generally never turn down an opportunity to play sport, so the exercise has never been a problem. Diet on the other hand, has always been an issue. I've got a very sweet (and savory) tooth and generally find it hard to turn food down (hence (I assume) my nickname of "Munch" in Reading).

This is not a good thing, no matter how much you exercise. Its suprising how easy it is to consume 2500kcal (recommeded daily allowance for an "average" adult male). I'm pretty sure I've done it in one sitting on occassion! On the other hand, its just as suprising how little calories you burn while exercising (i.e. during a 30 min jog I burn about 400kcal). In perspective, if I happen to gorge out and eat 2500kcal in one sitting, I'd have to jog for over 3 hours to burn it off!!!

My definition of "diet" at the moment is rather loose. The only restriction I currently have in place is that I eat less calories then I expend per day. This ensures that "some" of my energy needs comes from my body's energy reserve (i.e. fat (its a lot more complicated than that, but lets leave it at that for the moment)). The less calories I eat, the more "fat" my body uses to make up the deficit, or so the theory goes.

Now, there are two parts to the above. The first is how much energy my body needs per day and the second is how much calories that I eat per day. The latter I keep track of, mainly by reading the labeling, internet websites or simply guessing(by comparing with a similar food that has a label). I've started noting my daily food intake in a little notebook, which is actually quite inspiring.

The second I estimate based on weight loss, calories consumed via food and calories burned in exercise. Current estimates put my daily needs at approx 2900 kcal.

So far, I'm having pretty good results. Over the last 30 days, I've lost approx 2.9kg, estimating my daily calorie deficit at 743kcal. Not too bad.

So, how can I improve this? We considering I'm burning 400kcal per day on avg, this would seem to imply that I'm only eating 350kcal less than my daily needs. I should definitely aim to get this to at least 500kcal. Another thing that needs addressing is the nutritional aspect of the diet which I'm currently ignoring. I'm reading a book about this at the moment, so hopefully will incorporate that into future eating habits.

Anyways, thats enough for now. Next post will probably be on the exercise side of things, followed by discipline.

1 comment:

Paul Morrissey said...

Nice one Munch. Sounds complicated but appears to be working for you. Looking forward to your triathlon postings