Too Much Drinking, Now I Need To Diet

So seeing as how the Gadget Show proved that the Wii Fit was almost as good as a £5000 Power Plate when it comes to improving overall fitness I’ve decided to take the plunge and get one. Sounds easy but it was no mean feat, just finding a shop that has a Wii Fit in stock is a major expedition in itself. After a week of trying to get hold of the elusive Wii Fit I decided to try one of those online stock checkers, whilst it didn’t work directly within 2 days I was able to order one at the RRP.

My Wii Fit should be here in a couple of days, I’m then going to spend 30 minutes a night using it just to see if I can feel any improvement. Think I’ll concentrate on the strength training for now (so it fits in with what I’m doing at the gym). I’ll report back in a couple of weeks as to whether it’s worth getting one or not. With all the demand for Wii Fit surely it’s got to have some affect on your fitness?

This sounds like nonsense but as far as your breakfast is concerned it’s absolutely true if you believe this report.

When I was younger I was always told that breakfast was the most important meal of the day, in fact you have a big breakfast, a good lunch and then a smaller meal in the evening, this report seems to confirm that it’s a valid way to go if you’re interested in losing weight long term. My dad was always a fan of a full English fry up breakfast and he was never fat or even close to it. I guess it’s not that big a surprise really, kick start your body in the morning and get it burning calories, a larger breakfast will help to eliminate mid morning snacking and by concentrating carbs you’re likely to feel fuller for longer than if you pumped those calories into your other meals.

I also found it quite interesting how they dismissed a carb controlled diet as a long term plan. I couldn’t agree with this more. I’m no doctor but the only way I could ever stick to a diet was if it was a natural balance of the different food types that we humans are supposed to eat. I think that you’ll get away with tricking your body for so long but eventually nature will kick in and we’ll start to crave what is lacking from out diet. Nodoubt cutting out carbs will help you to lose wight short term but unles you can keep it going I don’t see the point?

So whilst it is vital to eat “something” for breakfast it looks like it’s best to make sure you have a big breakfast if you want to lose wight, now if only bacon wasn’t so expensive!

I initially set myself 2 goals to achieve, one was cross-trainer based, the other a rowing challenge.  When it became clear quite early on that I was going to do both of those I decided to set myself another challenge of lifting 125% of my bodyweight.  At that time I was looking at having to lift 97KG+ for at least 8 reps.  When I weighed myself this morning I was down to 72KG meaning that I’d need to lift 90KG.  I’m not going to do it.

Sure I can press that weight no problem, whilst I was training for the heavier weight I even managed 7 reps but I’m not going to complete my goal this time, unfortunately I’ve done my back a bit of a mischief.  My problem was that I didn’t build up properly for what I was doing, over the space of 4 weeks I went from what I consider my cardio weights (around 60-70KG) straight up to 85+ for my challenge.  Within a week of lifting the extra weight I was feeling a twinge down the right side of my back, it’s now developed into more of an ache and I’m certainly not capable of pushing out any heavy sets.  

Some New Goals 
So now that 2 month period is over I’ve got to set myself some new goals.  The first of these is going to be obvious, to finish my 125% body weight challenge.  By the 12th of August I will have pressed 90KG+ for 8 reps in single.  My next goal might come as a bit of a surprise but it’s to put on a bit of weight.  In the last 2 months I’ve continued to lose weight to the point I’m now lighter than I’ve been at any point in my adult life.  At the moment I’m 11 stone 4 pounds, ideally I’d like to be around 11 stone 8, so that means putting on 4 pounds in the next 2 months.  The trick here is going to be putting on the weight without putting on any fat.   

Nearly 6 Months On
I suppose at this point I should look back at how things have gone.  Since January I’ve lost 2 stone of weight, took my body fat percentage from over 25% to down to around 11% and dramatically improved my cardio vascular fitness.  I’ve managed to do it without starving myself or in fact any major changes.  I’d go as far to say I eat the same types of food now as I did then, perhaps maybe not quite as much but certainly the same types.   Overall I’m very happy with how things have gone and I’m looking forward to seeing what I can achieve over the next 6 months.  

I’ve now changed my body shape enough for people to start noticing. I don’t mind, other than the word skinny, I don’t think you could ever use the word skinny with me but each to their own. Of course as well as friends and family noticing people in the gym are going to start noticing, including the gym instructors.

Now back in the day a few of my friends were (are still) personal trainers. We used to drink together (ironic?) and so I knew quite a bit about their own little world. So when I was asked recently about how I lost weight somebody got an argument they weren’t expecting:-

Them:- Looking well, you lost more weight?
Me:- Yeah, been really hitting the gym this year
Them:- Oh right, what you been doing?
Me:- Mainly cardio, 30-60 minute blasts on the cross-trainer with some weight work
Them:- Cross-Trainer, they don’t work!
Me:- But I’ve lost a lot of weight?
Them:- It would have been the weights
Me:- Ha ha, you only don’t like them because they are effective and people can use them on their own
Them:- Ha ha, no. But yeah they’re good for burning cals
Me:- Yep, there would be no “weight loss” money for you guys if everybody knew how easy it was to burn the cals on a cross trainer

It seems to be a fact that the majority of fitness experts/personal trainers don’t like cross trainers. I’ve heard every excuse from “it’s not a natural motion” to “it’s not an effective calorie burner”. The truth is that going on a cross trainer is an excellent way of burning calories. Depending on your own weight and fitness levels then 6-700 calories an hour isn’t that hard to achieve. Maybe it isn’t the most natural motion but it’s also extremely low impact, combining that and swimming can be part of an effective recovery program for those with knee injuries. As with any excerise you need to mix things up and not do the same thing every day but to say that cross-trainers don’t work or are bad is just plainly incorrect. Personal trainers would much rather have you bent double over a fitness ball where you need constant guidance and support because it looks a lot better when you go to pay their £40 an hour invoice. If your goal is to lose weight then there is no better exercise than a good cardio workout on a cross-trainer, exercise bike or treadmill. If you’re looking at strength training, flexibility or toning then sure there is a lot of technique that personal trainers can pass on and can really earn their money. In fact if you need the motivation of having somebody tell you to “keep it up” whilst your on your Cross-Trainer then that’s money well spent, just be sure that if your main goal is weight loss to ignore your personal trainer the next time he says Cross-Trainers aren’t effective and tries to make you balance on a board on a fitness ball instead

I’ve written before about how my wife joined a weight loss study that means she’s only allowed 1200 calories a day. I’ve never thought this was a good idea, I don’t think it’s going to give her a life changing plan that will last the next 40 or years or until she pops her clogs! Short term however it’s been great, how great? Well about 10 pounds in 2 weeks great! That is some very serious weight loss, it’s also part of the reason why I don’t think this is such a good idea.

Some Basic Maths

Each of our bodies are different, we all need different amounts of calories each every day just for our bodies to function. Don’t get these calories and things start to go wrong. Sometimes it’s just the number of calories that are really important, not how they’re made up. The accepted guidelines for the average man is 2500 calories a day whilst 2000 is about right for the “average” woman. These are the amount of calories just to maintain an existing weight (go here to work out your daily calorie needs). The healthiest approach to consistent weight loss is to burn 500 calories less than that amount daily. So for the average woman eating 1500 calories a day would result in a weight loss of 1-2 pounds a week. 1500 calories is enough food to live your daily life by. Below this level there is a fine line between extra weight loss and when your body goes into starve mode. If you don’t eat enough (regardless of the types of food) you will get sick.

1200 Calories Isn’t Enough
My wife is a very small framed, about 5 foot 1 and naturally slender. She carrying a bit of weight at the moment but the fact that 1200 calories a day has resulted in such drastic weight loss means that I’d guess she’s right at the very lower limit of what her body can handle. For women naturally bigger than her on this study they are really going to start suffering if they aren’t already. If this study was for 3-4 weeks then I could understand the thinking behind it, but it’s 6 months! Some people are going to get sick from this. Six months at 1500 calories would still result in significant weight loss for most women, it would also have the added bonus of providing most of them with a daily nutrition routine that would enable them to sustain their ideal weights (1500-2000 calories) once they’d lost the weight. Starving yourself (1200 calories allows for very little in the way of treats, it is not a fun diet) for 6 months is bound to result in a reflex reaction at the end of the study and I’d put money on most people putting weight back on within a month.

Personally I find the whole thing a bit stupid, there is nothing wrong with studying a calorie controlled diet but each person on the study should be assessed as an individual and given requirements that will give them some sort of long term benefit. As it stands it’s a bit like seeing how long your gold fish can go without food before they start floating to the top.