Relative stability today with my weight at 77 kg flat, up 0.1 kg from yesterday. 7 day average is 77.3, down slightly from 77.4 yesterday.
According to Garmin Connect and MyFitnessPal, for Sunday Jan 12:
Calories Burned – 2,491 (just Pilates today)
Calories Consumed – 1,444
Net Deficit – 1,047
I got up and snacked at midnight again, but chose a keto muffin to keep a lid on calories. I can work a bit more easily with that in terms of managing calories and macros. Macros were:
Carbs – 8 grams (and 8 grams of fibre so who knows how that nets out)
A combination of a bit of a late finish at work, feeling tired and a little sore from the long hot day at work yesterday, and the ride/gym combo saw nothing done in the afternoon. Monday’s sole activity was the usual evening Pilates session. I did bump a few efforts up, but that’s all there was to report.
No activities today – work ended up running 12 hours, and after spending that time in a fairly stressful, hot environment I just wanted to get a shower, have dinner and relax.
I have done my 12,000 steps so it’s not like I’ve done nothing, and I’m still running a solid calorie deficit, so it’s all good.
A 0.7 kg drop to 76.4 kg today, meaning we’ve passed the 5 kg lost since January 1. The 7 Day Average is 77.8 kg.
I’ll do a weekly summary once my calorie intakes for today are finalised
According to Garmin Connect and MyFitnessPal, for Saturday Jan 11:
Calories Burned – 3,672
Calories Consumed – 1,399
Net Deficit – 2,273
I have to confess to a midnight snack of a cheese and mayo sandwich made using Woolworths Macro Linseed & Sunflower lo-carb bread which is actually really nice. Nutrition break down:
Kicked the day off with a resumption of the old routine – meet my mate at his gym in Toowong at around 05:15, ride up to Milton to meet the group and head off for a reverse River Loop at around 05:45.
I knew with my transition to fat burning it was going to be a challenge. I was okay along Montague Road but the first climb proved difficult to generate power. One thing I’m finding at the moment is it’s hard to access the higher ranges of my heart rate – I can normally access 170 + on a climb fairly readily, but I was struggling to get to 165. Even cruising on the flat where 150-160 was fine, I was battling to get to 140 and once the group put speed on I couldn’t generate speed and got dropped along most sections.
I resisted the temptation to cut the ride short and did the full distance of 35.53 km in 1:12:35.
I felt pretty physically flat through the day. I walked to the shops to ensure my steps were going to get to my 12,000 target without some late night laps of the neighbourhood around lunchtime, and then late in the day mustered up the enthusiasm to get to the gym. I combined my two sessions and dropped the leg component, coming up with a session that took just over an hour. I’m pretty pleased with that effort.
With weight loss at 4 kg since January 1, my body’s starting to reflect the body fat percentage getting to around 18%, with hollowing out and definition happening around the obliques. 77 kg seems to be the point where I start to get leaner, so the next few kilograms should be interesting.
In preparing for the resumption of keto and calorie restriction come the start of the new year, I did some research into the calculation of calorie burning, taking into account things like weight, steps and so on, to work out a base calorie usage.
It all proved to be a bit of a rabbit hole, so I ended up just using Garmin Connect for exercise and activity tracking, and MyFitnessPal for calorie and macro tracking. The apps talk to one another to give an idea of the calorie deficits I’m running, plus the Garmin Index Scales auto log weight data so it’s all worked out for me.
One thing that I did some investigation was the calculation of base calories (what you’d use just being alive and breathing) and then base calories including steps. I work to do a minimum of 12,000 steps a day, a target I’ve managed to keep to this year.
This week revealed something interesting, specifically:
Activity
Jan 8
Jan 9
Jan 10
Walk
5.68 km 52:11
Run
7.40 km 38:08
Swim
1.00 km 26:56
Steps (inc walk and run)
14,189
13,943
12,275
Calories Used
2,692
2,751
2,978
Note the day with the swim has a higher Calories Used count than the days with the walk and run (the walk was logged as a specific activity using my Garmin Fenix 5 S Plus)
So, from what I’d worked out, Garmin Connect works out a base calorie usage, and then takes the calorie usage associated with the step count for the day and spreads that out over either the day or your active hours (in my case 05:00 to 22:00).
Going on the above, it appears that for steps based activities Garmin will not “double count” the calorie usage based on the steps that activity took. As an example, the walk on January 8 was probably 6,300 steps but I took 14,189 steps for the day, so truth is I only did an additional 2,189 steps of additional activity so the calorie usage as 2,692.
Compare this to January 9. I did a run of 7.40 km which was probably around 6,600 steps. I did 13,943 steps for the day which includes the run, so I only get a few extra calories for the day because of the additional exertion, ending up at 2,751.
The clincher is the result for January 10. I did 12,275 steps for the day, but the calorie count is 2,978, higher than for the 8th or 9th. Why is this? Well, the activity was swimming, so the activity associated 215 calories additional to the calorie count that Garmin Connect’s done for the steps, since the swim didn’t involve any steps.
So, those calories for step based activities aren’t double counted.
Half a kilo down from 77.6 kg to 77.1, which is a new low for the year. Thought it might have been a little lower given digestive issues but I guess this is a real number now. 7 Day Average is 78.1.
According to Garmin Connect and MyFitnessPal:
Calories Burned – 2,978 (just the afternoon walk)
Calories Consumed – 1,244
Net Deficit – 1,734
Hungry again this morning so had a couple of keto muffins, and then a light lunch to ensure I kept calories down. Macros were nicely balanced, with a much better carb result (refer earlier posting regarding artificial sweeteners):
Carbs – 30 grams (including 18 grams of fibre, so 12 net grams)
Fat – 87 grams
Protein – 86 grams
I feel like I’m a bit better on track. Going on how exercise is feeling I’m pretty sure I’m in a fat burning adaptation phase now, which is bringing its own challenges. I’m also starting to see results in the mirror now, with fat retreating from across the belly.
Got out with my wife for an afternoon swim at Dunlop Park Memorial Swimming Pool, pushing out an even slower 1 kilometre in 26:56. It actually felt pretty comfortable. Hopefully my breathing won’t be as disrupted as it was last week.
I hadn’t felt great through the day, with the digestive system making itself known through the morning. In trying to think of why I had a look at the Atkins Endulge bars we have from time to time and discovered they’re sweetened with Maltitol, a sugar alcohol sweetener that really should be counted for two thirds of its net carbs. I understand that Australian Atkins bars are flavoured with this – as ever, YMMV.
So, I did a bit of research and found stevia is much better regarded, and sourced some substitutes that use stevia instead, the Well Naturally range. Seemed quite nice.
2020 Hindsight 