I have done this a couple of times over the years. When I was a bigger guy I just wanted to to see the other side of 200. Then when that was accomplished I set a new goal of 190. Etc, etc, etc, and now today I would like to go from my current, comfortable 160 pounds to 155.
Now, I don’t want to crash diet and touch 155. I want to gradually lose body fat and ‘reset’ my current weight. If I lose 5 pounds of mostly body fat I can then add a few calories back into my diet and maintain this weight rather easily. As I said, I have done this several times – see Coach James (before and after pictures).
So, how do I go about doing this? It just takes a little be of forethought. I already eat pretty good most of the time. I have joked about this before. Ask anyone and they will say that they eat ‘pretty good’. Most people that say that actually mean that sometimes, if they are lucky, they something that is not an abomination.
For me it means that I eat healthy, good for you food about 80 percent of the time and sometimes eat too much and sometimes I eat like crap. That being said, my crap is better than most peoples good. But I digress, ‘pretty good’ is not going to reset my current weight.
If you need to know how many calories you need in a day - I wrote a 3 part series on Basal Metabolic Rate (part1, part2, part3).
But for me to reset my weight, the first step is to start a food journal. I write down everything that I put in my mouth. You will discover that the simple act of monitoring what you consume will make you more conscious and you will begin to eat better. I know that it is much easier to pass up some cookies or candies in the work place if I know that I will have to write down what I am eating. Being conscious you now know that the cookie has x number of hundreds of calories. Many times that is all that I need to do.
However, to help with this resetting I have started to script my meals. This is also fairly easy for me to do. With regards to meals I tend to eat the same thing most everyday. I do not mind the routine. So, this week I am writing down what I am going to eat the day before. I could go ahead and script the week but most days will be the same. It is my training plan for food. You can use any of the many on-line diet tracking programs: fitday, the daily plate (livestrong), or the one that I am trying out – my fitness pal (there is an android app for you smart phone peoples).
Here is what I ate today:
FYI – the humus is homemade and I know that sandwiches are not the best items. I am working on the balance between convenience and health.
I will be honest with you, with the exercise I I did today I did not eat enough calories (I rode the trainer for an hour in the AM and ran 6 miles at lunch). But it is hard for me to force myself to eat if I am not hungry. Besides, eating thousands of healthy calories is tough work in and of itself.
Tomorrow will be just about the same but I will try to add another small 300 – 400 calorie snack. Maybe another yogurt with honey and almonds – you have to try that – it is delicious!
4 comments:
Eating thousands of healthy calories is actually VERY tough work.
I am categorized in your somewhat healthy category. I allow one day a week to be bad and typically I am not all that bad on that day. It's all mental for me, knowing that I can have crap that day makes it available to me... if it wasn't available to me, I would abuse it and eat it every day.
That's what works for me.
Shocked that this is all you eat?! You are a machine running on nothing haha.
i use my fitness pal too, and i really like it. it has helped me be accountable more than anything. i'm going to read your posts on how many calories a day i need, that's where i struggle.
Where are the vegies?
France - You are right. I normally eat a big salad in the evenings. I guess I am just getting a half pound of carrots right now.
I need to add a couple more servings. Should be easy to do.
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