A small increase of 0.3 to 75.6 kg this morning, further confirming the move to the middle 75 kg range.
According to Garmin Connect and MyFitnessPal, for Tuesday Jan 21:
Calories Burned – 2,274 (the lowest recorded since the start of the year, so I guess we know my base number now)
Calories Consumed – 1,370
Net Deficit – 904
Macros were:
Carbs – 30 grams (I am a bit dubious on this, as 7.1 grams of this comes from a Roast Chicken product from Coles and I suspect the dietary numbers for this includes the stuffing, which I don’t eat. Sugars were 9 grams)
Fat – 93 grams
Protein – 76 grams
Sleep was much better quality, with only one interruption. I made a point of doing a wind down starting about an hour before bedtime, which included some stretching, and felt more relaxed when actually going to bed. I maintained the morning fast, eating at around 11 am.
I had set the alarm early to get out for a run but it was apparent on rising that my calves weren’t in a state I was comfortable to run on, with a bit of a tight spot in the left most noticeable.
It proved to be a very hot day at work and with DOMS from EMS and a harder than expected pilatees becoming increasingly evident as the day goes I’m electing to take it easy today. I will complete my usual baseline of 12,000 steps.
I’ve had a little fine tune of my diet with my 11 am first meal now just consisting of protein and fat, cutting out the cauliflower rice. Just having a bit of a fiddle with things, getting carb counts nice and low. From there I seem to be able to push through to around 4 pm where a snack of a single keto muffin gets me to dinner. From there I can usually “top up” calories to get to 1,200 after my main meal.
I’m having a pick through my macros right now to try and get a bit more aligned with a keto program. I’m running 29% Protein/63% Fat/8% Carbs averages since the start of the year, so I need to have a think about reducing protein and increasing fat.
Oh, and another thing. My food this week has included a Coles Roast Chicken, the dietary information on which includes 5.5 grams of carbs per 100 grams. I’ve realised this likely includes the stuffing, which of course I don’t eat, so it’s likely the carbs from when I’ve had that chicken weren’t actually there.
A small movement of 0.1 to 75.3 kg this morning. Not much else to report, just confirmation of the drop that happened January 18.
Reading back through the entries it seems the only thing that changed after the Jan 11-17 period where my weight got “stuck” was a period of midnight snacking which I’m pretty much back on top of. I don’t think it’s caused any delays as such, maybe a case of the body retaining some food bulk in the face of continued calorie deficits.
According to Garmin Connect and MyFitnessPal, for Monday Jan 20:
Calories Burned – 2,832
Calories Consumed – 1,246
Net Deficit – 1,586
Macros were:
Carbs – 20 grams (I will now just report the total number on this)
Fat – 87 grams
Protein – 86 grams
Didn’t sleep well. Felt like four blocks of 60-90 minute dozes.
A day off work today, so a good chance to slip in an EMS session in the morning, ahead of the usual Monday evening remedial pilates session.
A friend runs an EMS studio as part of his gym. The concept is you strap a suit with electrodes strategically placed around your body (calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes, lower and upper backs, abs, obliques, upper chest, triceps and biceps) and you’re subject to a mild electric current whilst performing some basic exercises.
I had a session just prior to New Year’s and found it very effective in getting deep into the glutes and obliques particularly, to the point that they were DOMS’d for a few days – and it was that classic DOMS where you think you’re okay until about 30 hours later when it really sets in…for three days.
The trainer and I pushed pretty hard so it’ll be interesting to see the results. I’m trying to get in there every three to four weeks, time allowing.
I spent most of the day pottering about the house, although I will confess to visiting two local shopping centres and walking around to get steps up, as it was 34 degrees C and I didn’t fancy doing that in the heat. Plus I had some stuff to buy.
Off to pilates to find our instructor had rewritten my program, so there’s lots of new exercises to learn, including some upper body/shoulder stuff I found quite challenging, so that’s something to look forward to in the coming weeks.
I was good and didn’t eat until 11 am after a reasonable night’s sleep. I’m fine-tuning lunch to just be protein and fat (basically cutting out the cauliflower rice and applying the mayo/dip direct to the protein) and trying to aim for that meal to be around 400 calories, so that gives some flexibility for eating for the rest of the day. Seems to be working okay.
There’s an old adage getting around about a pound of fat being around 3,500 calories, so following that through to my measures it’s around 7,700 calories for a kilogram of fat.
I ran some numbers before starting this regime and worked out that hitting my goal weight of 69.3 kg by February 29 meant I would need to run an average calorie deficit of 1,600 calories a day.
The maths is pretty straightfoward – to get from 81.7 kg to 69.3 kg is 12.4 kg. 12.4 kg * 7,700 calories is 95,480 calories, so I would need to run a total deficit of 95,480 calories between January 1 and February 29, so 95,480 calories over 60 days is an average 1,591 calorie deficit per day. I’m currently at 1,688 so tracking really well on that front.
So, since I know my weight and my calorie deficit, I should be able to track my weight vs my calorie deficit converted into weight loss. Like so:
Note the horizontal axis on this chart goes to March 1 vs March 31 on the prior post
The green line represents the linear path to achieving the goal weight on February 29. As mentioned, I’m tracking slightly better than the 1,600 average calorie deficit required to achieve that goal so the blue line, which represents the weight implied by my average calorie deficit is sitting just underneath the green line.
What is interesting is the behaviour of the 7 Day Average line. It starts at around 1.1 kg under the blue line and hovers between 1.1 and 1.7 kg different. I’m going to suggest that this is likely the water weight that people who start keto typically shed in the first week or so on keto, seen in the steep descent on the red line, representing the actual daily weight.
Again, I’ve set this up to auto update and I’ll continue to track the difference between actual weights and the implied difference according to calorie deficits.
Mucking around with data this morning and cobbled together a quick chart to show my progress so far. The chart compares my daily weight, my 7 day average weight, and the weights I need to be to achieve my goal on February 29 (leap year!) or March 31
Well ahead of schedule thanks to the massive drop in the first week but we’re starting to level out to run parallel with the green line for the February 29 target. The 7 Day Average line will take a day or two to incorporate the drops over the weekend, which I guess is the actual point of taking the average!
I’ve set this up to automatically update in Excel when I enter the base data. I’d like to do something showing calorie deficit vs weight as well, so that will likely come up later.
Brisbane Road Runners 10 km today – and I had a feeling it was going to be a bit of a struggle, with depletion and generally fatigue. 23.5 degrees C and 98% humidity compared to 22.5 degrees C @ 75% humidity a fortnight ago.
I got out a bit hard and spent much of the first 5 km managing pace and heart rate, getting through the half way in 24:22 after seeing a 170+ HR on the climb heading to the end of the 5 km loop. At 5.5 km my biceps started to tighten, a sign I was running on fat stores and it was just a case of shuffling it out from there, at about 5 minutes per kilometre going on the splits. Pace was sub 4:50 to 5 km and then started to leak out from there. The HR kept above 170 bpm from that point so I guess I know I can hold that heart rate for 25 minutes now…
Finished in 49:30 by the timing chip (49:23 by my watch which is a curious discrepancy, given the halfway times matched) which gave 18th place outright, and 6th in my age group.
Look, it’s way to early to be disappointed. Truth is I’m in low calorie/weight loss mode and that’s incompatible with strong athletic performances. My only real plan is to keep extending the long run, pushing it to 15 km and then beyond, get the legs strong, and get light. I knew the fat adaption was going to be hard.
One thing that did come to mind yesterday – I’m at a point where I can get out and do 5 km and not really think about that being anything remarkable. I couldn’t have said that six weeks ago so there is progress being made.
2020 Hindsight 