I read a book called The Complete Guide To Strength Training by Anita Bean. I know what you are thinking all ready, I dont want to be a body builder, right? Let me assure you, it is practically impossible to become a body builder by accident. Most people who actually do want bulging muscles dont even acheive the look they desire, genetic make up also has an influence on your body's capability to bulk up. Unless you have a very specific training program you will not accidently end up with bulging biceps. So forget any worries along those lines.
Having said that, If you are looking for some miracle diet or something that wont take much effort, you are definatley in the wrong place. I have never really followed a pre planned diet structure, weightwatchers, low fat, low carb etc Partly because I dont like many of the foods suggested but also because I have always believed that you should be able to have healthy balanced diet.
So what this book does is explain what a healthy diet consists of, how many calories should you eat, how many carbs, how much protein, how to eat balanced meals and so on. It then goes on to explain different exercise methods and which ones are most suitable to meet your goals whether you want to lose weight, gain weight, increase speed or indurance and so on. I love this book because it gives me all the info I need to make sure I am getting a healthy diet and an effect workout program without damaging my body (any more than it is already lol). I must add though that I never take a single source of information as gospel, so I frequently cross reference what I read with information available on the internet and make adjustments where neccessary.
So here are the numbers:
My resting metabolic rate (RMR) (thats how many calories my body needs if I just sat on the sofa all day) is 1629
Taking into account my lifestyle (not including periods of actual exercise) which is classed as sedated because I am mostly sitting with some walking at work, my calorie needs become 2281
Then we add to that the fact that I will be exercising which takes my needs up to 2452
So if I ate 2452 calories a day I would maintain my current weight (calories in = same as expended)
In order to lose weight I need to reduce this to 2084
All of these calculations are explained in the book but you can find plenty of calorie calculators online.
Of the 2084 calories I should include 550g of carbs and 138g of protein
Ideally I should eat 6 meals per day
The exercise consists of:
3x sessions of weight training per wk (2 sessions for first 3 wks)
2x 30 min bike rides per wk
1x 20 min run/walk per wk (building up to 30 mins)
1x 30-40 min cardio workout per wk
1 day of complete rest (hooray!)
First thoughts
I find it difficult to comprehend eating over 2000 cals and still losing weight. I have found it difficult to reach 2084 cals per day without eating unhealthy foods. It is even more difficult to reach the carb and protein requirements. the problem with that is that in order to keep the GI count low (avoid sugar hits) you should eat carbs and protein together. I could eat lots of chicken but I have to have it with carbs and then the calorie count starts to go up!
Since I know I will never give up drinking, I have to account for the cals and carbs in the drink too. Then it becomes hard to eat a healthy diet and not go over the calorie count for the day!
A typical day looks something like this at the moment:
Breakfast: cereal or porridge
Snack: 10 almonds & 20g of raisins
Snack: 1 Ryvita 30g cheese
Lunch: Ham pasta salad, clementine, pear
Snack: Egg mayo sandwhich (1 egg, 1 small wholemeal slice, extra light mayo, no butter)
Snack: Banana
Dinner: cod baked in tomato with medium jacket potato
Snack: small Low fat fromage frai
Beverages (excluding alcohol): 4x low cal (less than 50Kcal) hot choc, 2-3 teas with skimmed milk & no sugar, unlimited water.
I think you will agree that you would struggle to be hungry with all that lot! (some of the snacks go out of the window on days that I know I will be drinking alcohol).
I have told myself that I will do everything by the book for at least 4 weeks before changing anything. Then if it is not working I will make some adjustments. I will keep you posted :-)
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