If you were to look at the graph, you might think that my diet has gone completely to hell for the last couple of weeks. You couldn't be more wring, it's done exactly what is was supposed to. I have been able to indulge - fairly significantly - and enjoy myself for a good couple of weeks, and end up weighing less than when I started this whole thing off.
In another few weeks, I'll have lost another few pounds and will be able to indulge all over again.
I'm not trying to win any prizes for losing the most weight in the shortest period of time, nor do I want to see just how light I can be. I just want to be in a position where I can drink wine and eat huge portions of curry and cakes when I want to and not have to worry about it.
Okay, I'll admit, after a good couple of days in the middle of the week, closing it out on back to back >3000 calorie days wasn't in my original script. Thursday got away from me with an event that we put on at work - with beer and pizza - and Friday I was just in that sort of mood. Still, it's the start of a new dieting week and I intend to make it a good one!
Truth be told, it probably looks quite good that the weight went up at yesterday's weigh in. My whole point about this diet is that if you take in more energy than you use, you'll put weight on. What with a couple of mid-week weigh-ins this week, if you'd seen I'd had consecutive 3000 calorie days and not put weight on, you'd probably think this whole thing was a sham.
Well, there you go. If I eat too much and don't exercise it off, I put on weight.
So where do we go from here? Down in weight hopefully. I've made it through the first challenge - Saturday (day 75 below) - under 3000 calories. It's been a while since I've done that. If I can have a sub 2500 calorie Sunday, then I should hopefully be set up nicely for the working week, which is always a bit easier to manage in terms of snacking.
The aim is to get to the end of the week average 2200 calories a day. If I Sunday is a 2500 calorie day, that gives me a Monday to Friday energy budget of 2010 calories, which shouldn't be too challenging, particularly if I can start with a strong Monday.
One thing's for sure though, with 2000 calories a day allowed, there will be plenty of space for cookies and doughnuts. Good stuff.
Day 75 - 2850 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
Poached eggs and ham on toast (350)
Toast (150)
Lunch
Venison grillsteak and carrots (300)
2x Jaffa cake bar (200)
Dinner
Beef stew (500)
Wine (350)
Beer (200)
Sticky toffee pudding (400)
Cream (300)
Exercise
60m walking
Day 76 - 4000 calories (so much for the 2500 calorie day...)
Breakfast
Milk (100)
Hot cross bun (400)
Lunch
Stew (400)
Ham sandwich (250)
Bread (100)
Afternoon tea
Mum's home baking - Damn you!!! - (1700)
Dinner
Wine (350)
Stew (400)
Toast (300)
Exercise
75m walking
Day 77 - 1900 calories
Breakfast
Weetabix (250)
Lunch
5x ham sandwiches (900)
Dinner
Venison grillsteak and carrots (250)
Doughnut balls (300)
Wine (200)
Exercise
(40m walking)
Day 78 - 1500 calories
Breakfast
Toast (100)
Jaffa cake bar (100)
Lunch
5x ham sandwiches (650)
Dinner
Stew (400)
Beer (250)
Exercise
75m walking
Day 79 - 2200 calories
Breakfast
Poached egg on toast (200)
Jaffa cake bar (100)
Lunch
5x jam doughnuts (1150)
2x ham sandwiches (300)
Dinner
Yum yum (350)
Sausages (100)
Exercise
45m walking
1x 2m plank
1x 2.25m plank
Sunday, 19 March 2017
Wednesday, 15 March 2017
The wake up call and keeping the weight off
If you read my previous post - in which I went to France and ate and drank a lot - you will know that the diet took a bit of a holiday. I may then have said that I would have a great week and get back to below where I was at the previous weigh-in.
That was a foolish thing to say. I thought I'd get on the scales yesterday: I have put on pretty much 10 pounds in 10 days.
How do I feel about this? Well, not great at first, until I thought about it for a little while and a few things dawned on me.
The first is that I haven't really put on 10 pounds. For one, the difference in my weights from the last Saturday weigh-in to yesterday was actually only 9.75 pounds. Also, as I'd stepped onto the scales only a few hours after finishing binge eating, I still had a good amount of food in me, and I was likely also quite hydrated from the 3 giant-sized Coronas I'd had the previous night.
Maybe things weren't all that bad. Of course, I had put on weight, and a good few pounds at that but, in some ways, it's reassuring. It's good to be brought down to Earth occasionally of course, but it also adds additional evidence to the central hypothesis of this diet - what causes your weight to change is a difference between the amount of calories you eat, and the ones you get rid of through work and heat.
Since the 3rd of January, the difference has been in favour of losing weight, with my net intake of energy being less than my output of energy net, leading to the consumption of my body's internal stores of energy and a concomitant loss of weight.
In the last 10 days, I have eaten significantly more - and have drunk even more significantly more - and spent the majority of my time parked on my arse in meetings, at airports or on buses, trains and planes.
There was no way the net energy output would be greater than the net energy input over this period. So, extra calories stored internally and weight goes up. As the current graph shows all too clearly:
And the laws of the thermodynamic diet are conserved!
The big realisation though, is that it doesn't really matter. I'd had a couple of weeks where two times of indulgence had run together: the work trip to France followed by a weekend away at a music festival and a day off where the holiday spirit had continued and I got a bit carried away - not great when you started the day with a ridiculous hotel buffet breakfast.
It's the mini Danish pastries that get me every time. I imagine that's what crack must be like.
How often is this juxtaposition of circumstances likely to arise? Not very. And, as I've said before, the whole point of this diet is to put me in a position where I can have indulgent binges and not really worry about it. If I put on weight, as I've done here, then I have the tools and the confidence to know I can lose it again.
The reason for being on this diet is not about seeing how much weight I can lose just for the sake of it. I love eating and drinking. They are a big psychological release for me. A big wine and steamed pudding binge can be just what my mind and body needs some times and I have no intention of sacrificing that; it's too important.
This diet isn't about getting myself to a point where I'm lighter than I've been since I was a child. I'd look terrible for a start. Yes, I like having a defined set of abdominal muscles and being relatively toned, but I don't want to turn into a wee thin shadow of a person who would be unstable in a stiff breeze. That's just not my scene.
I think my initial down-heartedness about the weight gain was more about this blog. I wanted to show how losing weight could be easy. How you didn't have to follow any fad diet, or spend money on esoteric foods or weight-loss consultants. You just needed to be able to count and apply a bit of common sense.
I thought that having a data-point on the graph that was higher than the previous one would make people think that the diet didn't work and that there was no merit in this simple scheme. However, I think, what I've actually done, is actually confirm that it does work.
Hopefully you'll see that when the graph heads down again, which, as of this morning, it's already starting to do...
For now though, it's possibly time to close out the month of March without any additional binge days, get the graph heading down again, and be ready for the next round of Sauvignon blanc and sticky toffee puddings!
Day 72 - 1800 calories
Breakfast
2x scrambled eggs (200)
Lunch
5x double chocolate cookies (1100)
Dinner
2x Weetabix with milk (250)
Wine (250)
Exercise
2m plank
75m walking
Day 73 - 3000 calories
Okay, not in the plan, but it's been a long day: up at 0530, home from work at 2245.
Breakfast
Sausages (200)
Protein bar (200)
Snack
Jaffa Cakes (600)
Lunch
Chicken curry with rice (500)
Snack
Chicken curry with rice (500)
Dinner
Beer (200)
Pizza (800)
Exercise
80m walking
Day 74 - 3050 calories
Breakfast
5x chocolate cookies (1100)
Lunch
Chicken breast (400)
Dinner
Beer (300)
Egg on toast (300)
Yum yum (500)
Weetabix (300
2x biscuits (150)
That was a foolish thing to say. I thought I'd get on the scales yesterday: I have put on pretty much 10 pounds in 10 days.
How do I feel about this? Well, not great at first, until I thought about it for a little while and a few things dawned on me.
The first is that I haven't really put on 10 pounds. For one, the difference in my weights from the last Saturday weigh-in to yesterday was actually only 9.75 pounds. Also, as I'd stepped onto the scales only a few hours after finishing binge eating, I still had a good amount of food in me, and I was likely also quite hydrated from the 3 giant-sized Coronas I'd had the previous night.
The flip side of the thermodynamic diet
Maybe things weren't all that bad. Of course, I had put on weight, and a good few pounds at that but, in some ways, it's reassuring. It's good to be brought down to Earth occasionally of course, but it also adds additional evidence to the central hypothesis of this diet - what causes your weight to change is a difference between the amount of calories you eat, and the ones you get rid of through work and heat.
Since the 3rd of January, the difference has been in favour of losing weight, with my net intake of energy being less than my output of energy net, leading to the consumption of my body's internal stores of energy and a concomitant loss of weight.
In the last 10 days, I have eaten significantly more - and have drunk even more significantly more - and spent the majority of my time parked on my arse in meetings, at airports or on buses, trains and planes.
There was no way the net energy output would be greater than the net energy input over this period. So, extra calories stored internally and weight goes up. As the current graph shows all too clearly:
And the laws of the thermodynamic diet are conserved!
The big realisation though, is that it doesn't really matter. I'd had a couple of weeks where two times of indulgence had run together: the work trip to France followed by a weekend away at a music festival and a day off where the holiday spirit had continued and I got a bit carried away - not great when you started the day with a ridiculous hotel buffet breakfast.
It's the mini Danish pastries that get me every time. I imagine that's what crack must be like.
Keeping the weight off
How often is this juxtaposition of circumstances likely to arise? Not very. And, as I've said before, the whole point of this diet is to put me in a position where I can have indulgent binges and not really worry about it. If I put on weight, as I've done here, then I have the tools and the confidence to know I can lose it again.
The reason for being on this diet is not about seeing how much weight I can lose just for the sake of it. I love eating and drinking. They are a big psychological release for me. A big wine and steamed pudding binge can be just what my mind and body needs some times and I have no intention of sacrificing that; it's too important.
This diet isn't about getting myself to a point where I'm lighter than I've been since I was a child. I'd look terrible for a start. Yes, I like having a defined set of abdominal muscles and being relatively toned, but I don't want to turn into a wee thin shadow of a person who would be unstable in a stiff breeze. That's just not my scene.
I think my initial down-heartedness about the weight gain was more about this blog. I wanted to show how losing weight could be easy. How you didn't have to follow any fad diet, or spend money on esoteric foods or weight-loss consultants. You just needed to be able to count and apply a bit of common sense.
I thought that having a data-point on the graph that was higher than the previous one would make people think that the diet didn't work and that there was no merit in this simple scheme. However, I think, what I've actually done, is actually confirm that it does work.
Hopefully you'll see that when the graph heads down again, which, as of this morning, it's already starting to do...
For now though, it's possibly time to close out the month of March without any additional binge days, get the graph heading down again, and be ready for the next round of Sauvignon blanc and sticky toffee puddings!
Day 72 - 1800 calories
Breakfast
2x scrambled eggs (200)
Lunch
5x double chocolate cookies (1100)
Dinner
2x Weetabix with milk (250)
Wine (250)
Exercise
2m plank
75m walking
Day 73 - 3000 calories
Okay, not in the plan, but it's been a long day: up at 0530, home from work at 2245.
Breakfast
Sausages (200)
Protein bar (200)
Snack
Jaffa Cakes (600)
Lunch
Chicken curry with rice (500)
Snack
Chicken curry with rice (500)
Dinner
Beer (200)
Pizza (800)
Exercise
80m walking
Day 74 - 3050 calories
Breakfast
5x chocolate cookies (1100)
Lunch
Chicken breast (400)
Dinner
Beer (300)
Egg on toast (300)
Yum yum (500)
Weetabix (300
2x biscuits (150)
Sunday, 12 March 2017
The work trip diet holiday
I did start the week with the best of intentions. Well, obviously that's not quite true given the amount I ate on Saturday and Sunday, but I had planned for last week to be a diet week. However, that turned out not to be the case. Much as when I was sitting in Bella Italia with my family a couple of weeks ago, I realised that I could make the most of this one and not worry about the weight - I was away in France for work for a few days.
To go to France - where I haven't been in over ten years - and not maximise the food and wine opportunities would have been a waste. Time for another diet holiday.
The trip started quite respectably, a couple of protein bars on the train down to Stevenage, and I'd made it to Luton airport (I refuse to call it London Luton, it's just not. It's Luton) on 600 or so calories by 2.30 pm. And then the inevitable: the (most recent) French air traffic control strike meant a delay of nearly two hours.
What do you do in an airport for a couple of hours when you meet a few new people who are heading out on the same trip as you? You have a few beers.
In some ways, that made things easier, when that happened I realised that there was really no point in trying to hit a target that week, and eating out always makes it a bit harder to try and keep track of what the calorie numbers are anyway, so the decision was swiftly made to take another break.
After the weigh-in success of the previous Saturday and the taking stock of where I was after being on this diet for two months, I didn't really mind. Again, the whole point of the diet is to give me a sensible baseline weight so that I can go wild and eat and drink myself silly every so often.
And if you're going to do it, doing it in France is a pretty good place for it.
As of Friday (ish), I was back to counting the calories again, and as far as Saturday's go, yesterday wasn't great, but with some effort it's all to play for this week, let's see if we can be a pound or two down on the last weigh-in, not just back to where I was after a few days' indulgence.
As for today, it's probably back to Bella Italia again as I'll be away in Glasgow enjoying Jennifer Nettles and Brad Paisley at the C2C festival!
Day 67 (Friday 10th March) - 2300 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
2x Protein Bar (500)
Lunch
Triple chicken sandwich (650)
Snickers (250)
Dinner
Pasta, chorizo and peppers (350)
Shortbread (450)
Exercise
35m walking
Day 68 - 5450 calories
Breakfast
Milk (200)
Leftover toast (50)
Lunch
Beef olives (400)
Egg on toast (300)
Ham sandwich (200)
Shortbread (450)
Dinner
Curry and rice (500)
3x naan bread (1350)
2x beers (600)
Wine (1000)
Chocolate (400)
Exercise
100 press ups
30m walking
2 1/4m plank
Day 69 - 2500 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
Beef olives (400)
Lunch
Garlic bread (600)
Pizza (600)
Wine (200)
Dinner
Leftover pizza (600)
Exercise
45m walking
2m plank
Day 70 - 7000 calories
Breakfast
Ridiculous hotel buffet breakfast - I forget the details but the fry up portion included 3x black pudding, fried egg, 3x bacon, 1x hash brown, tomato and mushrooms. On top of that there were Danish pastries and a croissant with jam. There may have been more... (3500)
Dinner
Chicken tacos (800)
3x large Coronas (900)
Bottle of wine (700)
2x Tesco bread and butter puddings (800)
Single cream (300)
Exercise
45m walking
2m plank
Day 71 - 1250 calories
Lunch
5x chocolate cookies (1100)
Dinner
1x Weetabix with milk (150)
Exercise
80m walking
To go to France - where I haven't been in over ten years - and not maximise the food and wine opportunities would have been a waste. Time for another diet holiday.
The trip started quite respectably, a couple of protein bars on the train down to Stevenage, and I'd made it to Luton airport (I refuse to call it London Luton, it's just not. It's Luton) on 600 or so calories by 2.30 pm. And then the inevitable: the (most recent) French air traffic control strike meant a delay of nearly two hours.
What do you do in an airport for a couple of hours when you meet a few new people who are heading out on the same trip as you? You have a few beers.
In some ways, that made things easier, when that happened I realised that there was really no point in trying to hit a target that week, and eating out always makes it a bit harder to try and keep track of what the calorie numbers are anyway, so the decision was swiftly made to take another break.
After the weigh-in success of the previous Saturday and the taking stock of where I was after being on this diet for two months, I didn't really mind. Again, the whole point of the diet is to give me a sensible baseline weight so that I can go wild and eat and drink myself silly every so often.
And if you're going to do it, doing it in France is a pretty good place for it.
As of Friday (ish), I was back to counting the calories again, and as far as Saturday's go, yesterday wasn't great, but with some effort it's all to play for this week, let's see if we can be a pound or two down on the last weigh-in, not just back to where I was after a few days' indulgence.
As for today, it's probably back to Bella Italia again as I'll be away in Glasgow enjoying Jennifer Nettles and Brad Paisley at the C2C festival!
Day 67 (Friday 10th March) - 2300 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
2x Protein Bar (500)
Lunch
Triple chicken sandwich (650)
Snickers (250)
Dinner
Pasta, chorizo and peppers (350)
Shortbread (450)
Exercise
35m walking
Day 68 - 5450 calories
Breakfast
Milk (200)
Leftover toast (50)
Lunch
Beef olives (400)
Egg on toast (300)
Ham sandwich (200)
Shortbread (450)
Dinner
Curry and rice (500)
3x naan bread (1350)
2x beers (600)
Wine (1000)
Chocolate (400)
Exercise
100 press ups
30m walking
2 1/4m plank
Day 69 - 2500 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
Beef olives (400)
Lunch
Garlic bread (600)
Pizza (600)
Wine (200)
Dinner
Leftover pizza (600)
Exercise
45m walking
2m plank
Day 70 - 7000 calories
Breakfast
Ridiculous hotel buffet breakfast - I forget the details but the fry up portion included 3x black pudding, fried egg, 3x bacon, 1x hash brown, tomato and mushrooms. On top of that there were Danish pastries and a croissant with jam. There may have been more... (3500)
Dinner
Chicken tacos (800)
3x large Coronas (900)
Bottle of wine (700)
2x Tesco bread and butter puddings (800)
Single cream (300)
Exercise
45m walking
2m plank
Day 71 - 1250 calories
Lunch
5x chocolate cookies (1100)
Dinner
1x Weetabix with milk (150)
Exercise
80m walking
Saturday, 4 March 2017
The thermodynamic diet - two month progress report
Let's just start with a quick weight loss progress report: this thermodynamic dieting really seems to be working. That's me now about two months into this diet and I'm 12 1/4 pounds lighter than when I started. Here's the graph as of this morning, Saturday 4th March:
Yes, the internet is full of lots of things saying that the laws of thermodynamics have nothing to do with dieting and a calorie isn't just a calorie, but it's all a matter of interpretation: don't forget about that second law and remember that your body doesn't do things with anything close to 100% efficiency and all is good.
My food diary for the last couple of months certainly doesn't look like the food diary of a dieter. It's full of beer, pizza, doughnuts, cookies, wine, chocolate, and the occasional can of Dr. Pepper or glass of fruit juice just to prove a point.
It really doesn't matter what you eat: just don't eat more than you burn.
Again, that efficiency thing comes back into play. If you eat 2000 calories of simple carbohydrate and burn 2500 calories that day, you'll have a 500 calorie deficit on paper, the same as if you ate 2000 calories of protein.
However, the protein may take a bit more energy to process, so the actual calorie deficit from the high protein diet may end up being more than the carbohydrate deficit.
What I'm going to say though, is "who cares"? Do you really need to micromanage things like that? Do those extra few calories really matter enough to make you change how you eat?
For me, and I'm sure for a lot of people, the easier something is, the more likely you are to do it. I'm writing this at 6.30 am on a Saturday morning. It's cold and raining outside and really doesn't sound very appealing at all.
If I were a member of a gym, I don't think I could summon the effort to go to the gym on a morning like this (even if I were a member). However, if I had a rowing machine in the house, I'd probably get half an hour in before breakfast. I've got my dumbbells here, so I'll try and get some weights in: maybe a set each time I go upstairs. It's easy.
And I like easy.
The last thing I would want to do when wanting to lose weight is have an overly prescriptive eating plan that breaks down what I need to eat into various components and forces me to come up with a daily diet plan that needs its macronutrients assembling like a game of Tetris. I don't have time for that.
I'm also limited in what I can eat during the day. I don't really have access to a kitchen at work, there's a kettle and a microwave, so I can reheat my leftover curry in a Tupperware, but not much more than that.
I also don't particularly want to spend any more time than I currently do preparing food. Don't get me wring, I really enjoy cooking, I find it a very nice way to spend a Saturday evening: glass of wine in hand - Keith Floyd style - deftly plopping a poached egg on top of a nice piece of smoked haddock; but I don't want to have to spend precious time each evening or morning preparing a scientifically-constructed meal plan.
And I don't want to spend any more on food.
I like the food I eat: it's tasty and it makes me feel happy. While I don't get my 5-a-day (although I never have, it's not simply a diet thing), I think I actually eat nutritionally better than a lot of people and, while I've stopped adding it to the daily food diary, I'm taking my multivitamin every day as well.
I was about to say I just don't get why so many people try to make losing weight so complicated, but then I remembered they need to make it complicated so that you need to buy their book or sign up to their program.
Lots of people want to lose weight, and lots of them are prepared to pay for it. It's big business. I'll admit, that for a lot of people, cost is associated with value: if you pay for something, you value it more. Taking that into the diet world, if you pay for the plan, maybe you're more likely to stick to it, maybe you'll make more of an effort.
For the diet plans where you go and do your weekly weigh-in in public, I can see how paying for that can make a lot of motivational sense for a lot of people; I suppose it comes back to the public shame thing I mentioned before.
Maybe I wouldn't have lost over 12 pounds if I'd not been writing this and making my progress public. I feel I've made a public commitment to lose weight and, quite frankly, I probably would be a bit ashamed if I didn't. Perhaps not ashamed, that might be on over-reaction, but I'd certainly be disappointed with myself and perhaps a bit embarrassed.
From inductive reasoning, I knew that this diet would work. Since they were developed, no event has been shown to violate the laws of thermodynamics and my body is no different.
Sure, if I keep this up and get slimmer and slimmer and continue to drop my body fat percentage, my body might start to panic a bit. My metabolism will change, the levels of those mitochondrial uncoupling proteins may change, my proton leak may drop and I will lose less energy as heat. My leptin levels might fall and my ghrelin levels might rise making me much more hungry.
In short, if I keep going, it's going to get harder and harder to lose weight. But I have no intention of going that far. I don't want to be a rake. My BMI is currently 22.4. I have no intention of it falling below 21.5, and even that's probably too low.
In short, for two months in, I'm really happy with how things are going. I look a lot better in the mirror, and I can continue to have a 5-pack of doughnuts at work with my morning coffee, a bottle of wine on a Friday night, and enjoy pizza and ice-cream with the family.
Last week, my daily calorie intake average was 2514. I round up, so if we consider that that's a 5% overestimate (probably quite conservative), that falls to 2388 - quite a drop. Then consider the extra walking and the fact that I probably spend a lot more time awake than most people, and you can see how I lost nearly two pounds last week.
Away for three days for work next week though -eating out will likely be involved, so we'll see how we do next Saturday!
Day 60 - 2950 calories
Breakfast
Milk (200)
Protein bar (200)
Lunch
5x jam doughnuts (1150)
Dinner
Pint of beer (250)
Steak, chili and pepper stir fry with rocket salad (300)
Bottle of wine (700)
Chocolate crepe (150)
Exercise
60 sit ups
100 press ups
6x sets dips
30m walking
Day 61 - 3200 calories
Breakfast
Milk (200)
Bit of cookie (100)
Fried egg roll (350)
Lunch
Steak stir fry on rocket salad (300)
Small croissant (250)
2x slices toast and butter (300)
Dinner
Beer (200)
Bread and butter (500)
Plaice with leek and broccoli (300)
Crepe (150)
Burger (250)
Wine (300)
Exercise
30 sit ups
6x sets bicep curls
45m walking
Day 62 -3700 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
2x poached eggs on toast (300)
Lunch
Fry up (2x black pudding, 2x Lorne sausage, 4x link sausage, 2x scrambled eggs (1000)
Snack
Creme egg (200)
Beer (200)
Mini eggs (250)
Dinner
Wine (400)
Chicken and veg stir fry with wild rice (400)
4x chocolate crepes (500)
Snickers (250)
Whisky (100)
Exercise
30x sit ups
6x sets dips
2m plank
60m in pool with kids (can't really call it swimming)
30m walking
Day 63 - 1850 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
Scrambled egg on toast (350)
Protein bar (250)
Lunch
Ham sandwich (200)
Chicken sandwich (350)
Dinner
Bacon sandwich (300)
Weetabix, raisins and milk (300)
Exercise
60m walking
2 1/4m plank
Yes, the internet is full of lots of things saying that the laws of thermodynamics have nothing to do with dieting and a calorie isn't just a calorie, but it's all a matter of interpretation: don't forget about that second law and remember that your body doesn't do things with anything close to 100% efficiency and all is good.
The food diary of my diet
My food diary for the last couple of months certainly doesn't look like the food diary of a dieter. It's full of beer, pizza, doughnuts, cookies, wine, chocolate, and the occasional can of Dr. Pepper or glass of fruit juice just to prove a point.
It really doesn't matter what you eat: just don't eat more than you burn.
Again, that efficiency thing comes back into play. If you eat 2000 calories of simple carbohydrate and burn 2500 calories that day, you'll have a 500 calorie deficit on paper, the same as if you ate 2000 calories of protein.
However, the protein may take a bit more energy to process, so the actual calorie deficit from the high protein diet may end up being more than the carbohydrate deficit.
What I'm going to say though, is "who cares"? Do you really need to micromanage things like that? Do those extra few calories really matter enough to make you change how you eat?
Keeping things easy
For me, and I'm sure for a lot of people, the easier something is, the more likely you are to do it. I'm writing this at 6.30 am on a Saturday morning. It's cold and raining outside and really doesn't sound very appealing at all.
If I were a member of a gym, I don't think I could summon the effort to go to the gym on a morning like this (even if I were a member). However, if I had a rowing machine in the house, I'd probably get half an hour in before breakfast. I've got my dumbbells here, so I'll try and get some weights in: maybe a set each time I go upstairs. It's easy.
And I like easy.
The last thing I would want to do when wanting to lose weight is have an overly prescriptive eating plan that breaks down what I need to eat into various components and forces me to come up with a daily diet plan that needs its macronutrients assembling like a game of Tetris. I don't have time for that.
I'm also limited in what I can eat during the day. I don't really have access to a kitchen at work, there's a kettle and a microwave, so I can reheat my leftover curry in a Tupperware, but not much more than that.
I also don't particularly want to spend any more time than I currently do preparing food. Don't get me wring, I really enjoy cooking, I find it a very nice way to spend a Saturday evening: glass of wine in hand - Keith Floyd style - deftly plopping a poached egg on top of a nice piece of smoked haddock; but I don't want to have to spend precious time each evening or morning preparing a scientifically-constructed meal plan.
And I don't want to spend any more on food.
I like the food I eat: it's tasty and it makes me feel happy. While I don't get my 5-a-day (although I never have, it's not simply a diet thing), I think I actually eat nutritionally better than a lot of people and, while I've stopped adding it to the daily food diary, I'm taking my multivitamin every day as well.
Summing up the first 2 months of the diet
I was about to say I just don't get why so many people try to make losing weight so complicated, but then I remembered they need to make it complicated so that you need to buy their book or sign up to their program.
Lots of people want to lose weight, and lots of them are prepared to pay for it. It's big business. I'll admit, that for a lot of people, cost is associated with value: if you pay for something, you value it more. Taking that into the diet world, if you pay for the plan, maybe you're more likely to stick to it, maybe you'll make more of an effort.
For the diet plans where you go and do your weekly weigh-in in public, I can see how paying for that can make a lot of motivational sense for a lot of people; I suppose it comes back to the public shame thing I mentioned before.
Maybe I wouldn't have lost over 12 pounds if I'd not been writing this and making my progress public. I feel I've made a public commitment to lose weight and, quite frankly, I probably would be a bit ashamed if I didn't. Perhaps not ashamed, that might be on over-reaction, but I'd certainly be disappointed with myself and perhaps a bit embarrassed.
From inductive reasoning, I knew that this diet would work. Since they were developed, no event has been shown to violate the laws of thermodynamics and my body is no different.
Sure, if I keep this up and get slimmer and slimmer and continue to drop my body fat percentage, my body might start to panic a bit. My metabolism will change, the levels of those mitochondrial uncoupling proteins may change, my proton leak may drop and I will lose less energy as heat. My leptin levels might fall and my ghrelin levels might rise making me much more hungry.
In short, if I keep going, it's going to get harder and harder to lose weight. But I have no intention of going that far. I don't want to be a rake. My BMI is currently 22.4. I have no intention of it falling below 21.5, and even that's probably too low.
In short, for two months in, I'm really happy with how things are going. I look a lot better in the mirror, and I can continue to have a 5-pack of doughnuts at work with my morning coffee, a bottle of wine on a Friday night, and enjoy pizza and ice-cream with the family.
Last week, my daily calorie intake average was 2514. I round up, so if we consider that that's a 5% overestimate (probably quite conservative), that falls to 2388 - quite a drop. Then consider the extra walking and the fact that I probably spend a lot more time awake than most people, and you can see how I lost nearly two pounds last week.
Away for three days for work next week though -eating out will likely be involved, so we'll see how we do next Saturday!
Day 60 - 2950 calories
Breakfast
Milk (200)
Protein bar (200)
Lunch
5x jam doughnuts (1150)
Dinner
Pint of beer (250)
Steak, chili and pepper stir fry with rocket salad (300)
Bottle of wine (700)
Chocolate crepe (150)
Exercise
60 sit ups
100 press ups
6x sets dips
30m walking
Day 61 - 3200 calories
Breakfast
Milk (200)
Bit of cookie (100)
Fried egg roll (350)
Lunch
Steak stir fry on rocket salad (300)
Small croissant (250)
2x slices toast and butter (300)
Dinner
Beer (200)
Bread and butter (500)
Plaice with leek and broccoli (300)
Crepe (150)
Burger (250)
Wine (300)
Exercise
30 sit ups
6x sets bicep curls
45m walking
Day 62 -3700 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
2x poached eggs on toast (300)
Lunch
Fry up (2x black pudding, 2x Lorne sausage, 4x link sausage, 2x scrambled eggs (1000)
Snack
Creme egg (200)
Beer (200)
Mini eggs (250)
Dinner
Wine (400)
Chicken and veg stir fry with wild rice (400)
4x chocolate crepes (500)
Snickers (250)
Whisky (100)
Exercise
30x sit ups
6x sets dips
2m plank
60m in pool with kids (can't really call it swimming)
30m walking
Day 63 - 1850 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
Scrambled egg on toast (350)
Protein bar (250)
Lunch
Ham sandwich (200)
Chicken sandwich (350)
Dinner
Bacon sandwich (300)
Weetabix, raisins and milk (300)
Exercise
60m walking
2 1/4m plank
Sunday, 26 February 2017
Getting the diet back on track after the holiday
The other weekend, I gave the diet a break for a few days. I was on holiday, and I didn't want to have to worry about counting calories, and also ruining everyone else's time while I sat there drinking water and not having dessert.
For that reason, there are no food diary entries for that whole long weekend, and I didn't bother checking my weight so there's a bit of a gap in the graph.
Although I was taking a diet holiday, I still had a bit of a target: by the time of the next weigh-in, I wanted to be pretty much back at the weight I was at the previous weigh-in, two weeks' earlier. I managed to make that happen, with a couple of ounces in hand, and my handy weekly-daily-calorie budget spreadsheet was quite useful in making that happen.
I had written off four days - Thursday to Sunday - for the diet break. During those four days, much pizza, lasagne, Thai takeaway, ice-cream sundaes and associated other tasty things were consumed and very much enjoyed. All of which washed down with a fairly reasonable amount of beer and wine.
As I wasn't counting any calories, I really didn't know how much over my budget I'd been, which obviously makes calculating what your new budget needs to be to balance that out pretty tricky. Realising that, I just decided to apply a bit of common sense for Monday to Friday, picking a respectable number of 2200 calories a day.
I reasoned that by the time I'd rounded up the calories on each item, and walked a bit, that 2200 a day would get me there or thereabouts by the time Saturday morning came around. Having indulged for four days, Monday came in at a nice round 1000 calories: I had plenty of energy stores ripe for the picking, so I just wasn't that hungry. Easy.
Not only was that a good start to the week, when I plugged that into the spreadsheet, coming through Monday 1200 calories under budget meant I had those 1200 to add to the following days' allowance. Seeing the daily allowance cell change to an even richer green was a nice psychological boost actually: it just made me feel like things were going to be easy.
The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. I didn't feel the need to have any particularly super-low calorie days, I just ate a sensible amount and ended up keeping the daily calorie intake under that 2200 each day, with the exception of Friday, where I pushed the envelope to 2300 calories by drinking a bottle of wine.
By the time I went to bed on Friday, my average daily calorie intake for the working week was 1860, comfortably under the initial 2200 target I'd set. When I got on the scales on Saturday, I was 160 lbs and 2 oz, 2 oz. down on 2 weeks' earlier.
Holiday weight lost.
And that was it. No silly fad things, no having to spend all evening in the gym every day, no 'expert' plan to follow, just picking a number that felt about right, and eating a number of calories each day that was smaller than that.
Day 55 - 2850 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
2x slices toast (300)
Weetabix (150)
Mini hot cross bun (150)
Lunch
Bread (200)
Lentil Soup (300)
Protein bar (200)
Dinner
Chicken, rice and vegetables (400)
Beer (200)
Cheese and pickle sandwich (250)
Chocolate (600)
Exercise
60 press ups
25 crunches
30m walking
Day 56 - 1750 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
Toast (100)
Lunch
5x double chocolate cookies (1100)
Ham sandwich (250)
Dinner
Venison burger (200)
Exercise
2x 25 crunches
3x sets dips
100 press ups
45m walking
Day 57 - 1600 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
Muffin (300)
Toast and scrambled egg leftovers (150)
Lunch
Chicken breast with tomatoes, peppers, chilis and rice (450)
Snack
2x Ham sandwich (300)
Dinner
Venison burger with vegetables (300)
Exercise
70m walking
Day 58 - 2350 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
Muffin (300)
Ham sandwich (150)
Lunch
Chicken breast with tomatoes, peppers, chilis and rice (450)
Dinner
Chorizo slices (250)
Ham sandwich (150)
A few beers (950)
Exercise
100 press ups
5x sets dips
30 crunches
80m walking
Day 59 - 2050 calories
Breakfast
Milk (200)
5x double chocolate cookies (1100)
Lunch
Chicken breast with tomatoes, peppers, chilis and rice (450)
Dinner
2x scrambled eggs on toast (300)
Exercise
85 sit ups
3x sets bicep curls
45m walking
For that reason, there are no food diary entries for that whole long weekend, and I didn't bother checking my weight so there's a bit of a gap in the graph.
Although I was taking a diet holiday, I still had a bit of a target: by the time of the next weigh-in, I wanted to be pretty much back at the weight I was at the previous weigh-in, two weeks' earlier. I managed to make that happen, with a couple of ounces in hand, and my handy weekly-daily-calorie budget spreadsheet was quite useful in making that happen.
Losing the holiday weight with a Google sheet
I had written off four days - Thursday to Sunday - for the diet break. During those four days, much pizza, lasagne, Thai takeaway, ice-cream sundaes and associated other tasty things were consumed and very much enjoyed. All of which washed down with a fairly reasonable amount of beer and wine.
As I wasn't counting any calories, I really didn't know how much over my budget I'd been, which obviously makes calculating what your new budget needs to be to balance that out pretty tricky. Realising that, I just decided to apply a bit of common sense for Monday to Friday, picking a respectable number of 2200 calories a day.
I reasoned that by the time I'd rounded up the calories on each item, and walked a bit, that 2200 a day would get me there or thereabouts by the time Saturday morning came around. Having indulged for four days, Monday came in at a nice round 1000 calories: I had plenty of energy stores ripe for the picking, so I just wasn't that hungry. Easy.
Not only was that a good start to the week, when I plugged that into the spreadsheet, coming through Monday 1200 calories under budget meant I had those 1200 to add to the following days' allowance. Seeing the daily allowance cell change to an even richer green was a nice psychological boost actually: it just made me feel like things were going to be easy.
The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. I didn't feel the need to have any particularly super-low calorie days, I just ate a sensible amount and ended up keeping the daily calorie intake under that 2200 each day, with the exception of Friday, where I pushed the envelope to 2300 calories by drinking a bottle of wine.
By the time I went to bed on Friday, my average daily calorie intake for the working week was 1860, comfortably under the initial 2200 target I'd set. When I got on the scales on Saturday, I was 160 lbs and 2 oz, 2 oz. down on 2 weeks' earlier.
Holiday weight lost.
And that was it. No silly fad things, no having to spend all evening in the gym every day, no 'expert' plan to follow, just picking a number that felt about right, and eating a number of calories each day that was smaller than that.
Day 55 - 2850 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
2x slices toast (300)
Weetabix (150)
Mini hot cross bun (150)
Lunch
Bread (200)
Lentil Soup (300)
Protein bar (200)
Dinner
Chicken, rice and vegetables (400)
Beer (200)
Cheese and pickle sandwich (250)
Chocolate (600)
Exercise
60 press ups
25 crunches
30m walking
Day 56 - 1750 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
Toast (100)
Lunch
5x double chocolate cookies (1100)
Ham sandwich (250)
Dinner
Venison burger (200)
Exercise
2x 25 crunches
3x sets dips
100 press ups
45m walking
Day 57 - 1600 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
Muffin (300)
Toast and scrambled egg leftovers (150)
Lunch
Chicken breast with tomatoes, peppers, chilis and rice (450)
Snack
2x Ham sandwich (300)
Dinner
Venison burger with vegetables (300)
Exercise
70m walking
Day 58 - 2350 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
Muffin (300)
Ham sandwich (150)
Lunch
Chicken breast with tomatoes, peppers, chilis and rice (450)
Dinner
Chorizo slices (250)
Ham sandwich (150)
A few beers (950)
Exercise
100 press ups
5x sets dips
30 crunches
80m walking
Day 59 - 2050 calories
Breakfast
Milk (200)
5x double chocolate cookies (1100)
Lunch
Chicken breast with tomatoes, peppers, chilis and rice (450)
Dinner
2x scrambled eggs on toast (300)
Exercise
85 sit ups
3x sets bicep curls
45m walking
Thursday, 23 February 2017
Daily weight variation on the diet - part I
The diet weigh-in
While I'm mostly judging the success of this diet by what I look like in the mirror, checking my weight is obviously an important key performance indicator. Particularly at this early stage in the diet.
While I would like to add a bit of muscle mass in the future - likely meaning I'll put some weight on - the first stage was always going to be about shedding the ballast, and that meant making sure the reading on the scales came down.
As I wanted a bit of a confidence boost at the beginning, I made the first weigh-in day a Saturday, knowing that I did, let's say, enjoy my food and drink over the weekend, so I wanted a nice Saturday morning number prior to eating enough calories to last 3 1/2 days in 2.
Dieting away the glycogen
With that precedent established, Saturday became the regular, weekly, weigh-in day. What that has meant though, is that, with a calorie target established for the next week, I'd burned through plenty of those before even making it to Monday. By the time I got to Thursday and Friday, things were often getting a little desperate in terms of how many calories I had left.
All of this led to Friday becoming something of a super-low calorie day. Certainly a lot, lot fewer than I was burning. Where did a lot of the energy I needed come from? Probably those glycogen stores, that were full to bursting from a week of eating doughnuts and cookies.
Let's say that there's perhaps about a pound of glycogen in there, with a concomitant water weight; let's call it three pounds. So, let's say I start the day with all of that in there, and use it all up at the end of the day, that could be as much as 4 pounds gone purely from using up those glycogen stores - which doesn't actually take a whole lot of doing if you're up and about all day.
Add that to the glass or two of wine I have on a Friday night to dehydrate a bit more, and the difference in my weight from a Friday morning to a Saturday morning could be really quite significant.
Losing weight while putting it on
Of course, with that precedent established, if I was actually careful with my calorie budget over the course of the week, I might not have to starve myself on Friday and I might wake up on Saturday with some glycogen and some water left. If I get on the scales, my weight could have gone up since the previous week.
For some folks who've worked hard to stick to their plan, that could be quite demoralising.
Let's look at my situation. I could have weighed in last Saturday - glycogen depleted - and been 162 pounds. The next week - a better planned week - I could have had lots of calories to play with on Friday, gone out for dinner, had a few pints and stopped for a hospitality-sized bar of chocolate on the way home.
I might have finished the week under target - let's call it 3500 calories under what I burned that week. I get on the scales the next morning, and I'm 165 pounds.
Aaagh! I've put 3 pounds on! How's that happened?! Well, I'm just not comparing like with like. When you think about it though, you might well have lost a pound of fat, it's just you've put 4 pounds on in glycogen and water weight. Burn through that glycogen and you could be 161 pounds tomorrow morning.
It's nothing to worry about, you're doing well, it's just a bit of variation.
Long term vs. short term
For me, the long term goal is losing the fat. It's worked out so far that, as every Friday has mostly been the same, I've been comparing like with like. However, over time that's not really what I'd like to be doing.
For the first few weeks, it's been great to see the points on the graph fall every week. It's given me empirical confidence that my diet plan works and that many of the top search engine-ranked 'experts' are talking complete guff and I wouldn't send them with a short list to do my shopping.
Now though, I don't think there's any harm in letting that number pop up from the previous week occasionally. Who cares? As long as the trend is heading in the right direction, that's okay. As I mentioned in the holiday post, I want to be able to go out and have fun without a diet cramping my style. As Friday night is a good night for that, always having to fast because that's the day before the weigh in is not what I want to have to do.
So, from now on, it's all about that trend so, if you see a point on the graph that looks a bit out of place, you'll know why...
Day 52 - 2050 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
Protein bar (200)
Ham sandwich (150)
Shortbread (100)
Lunch
Chicken, bacon and cheese sandwich with chips (900)
Dinner
Lentil soup (300)
Weetabix and milk (150)
Wine (150)
Exercise
100 press ups
4x sets dips
30m walking
Day 53 - 2300 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
Protein bar (200)
Lunch
5x double chocolate cookies (1100)
Dinner
Ham (200)
Wine (700)
Exercise
Walking (60m)
Day 54 - 4100 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
Toast (150)
Weetabix (150)
Shortbread (150)
Lunch
Lentil soup (300)
Bread 250
Dinner
Poached egg on toast (200)
Shortbread (150)
2x flapjack bar (250)
A good evening of beers (1500)
Dinner II
Cheese on toast (450)
Weetabix (200)
Toast with chocolate spread (250)
Exercise
40m walking
Monday, 20 February 2017
The holiday diet
You want my secret to enjoying your holiday when you’re on a diet? Take a break from the diet.
You may have noticed that there was no weigh-in this Saturday. No update to the graph, not even any food diary updates. There’s a reason for that: I was on holiday. I did not want to be ‘that guy’, sitting having dinner with my family, always going for the lowest calories thing on the menu, and making everyone miserable as I agonise over dessert.
So the diet took a holiday and, really, that’s what it’s for.
What’s actually the point of losing weight? I’ve got myself to a healthy BMI, my waist/height ratio is even better - my waist measurement is significantly less than half my height - and, on Thursday morning at least, I had a fairly presentable set of abdominal muscles.
Now, if you saw my post about my target, all was looking good for going swimming, but as it turned out, we ended up going on Saturday rather than Thursday, but I was still presentable.
Yes, I would still like to lose another three or four pounds, but I’m actually looking okay. I like to think of a lot of the point of this diet is to give me the freedom to be able to eat and drink as much as I want on holiday or on a night out, and not have to worry about it; to have enough diet behind me to be able to put on a pound or three and still be in a window of target weight, then I can just lose it again.
I’d actually had quite a good calories day on the Thursday. Admittedly, I’d been sat in a car for four hours, but things were going well. Then it was time for dinner. I ended up going for the under 600 calorie pizza and salad option. I wasn’t particularly aiming to stick to any sort of target for the day, but it actually sounded pretty good, and I thought, well, if I can have a good day, I might as well.
Then the children didn’t finish theirs.
A moment of “oh, should I, shall I be good?” struck me, and I told it to sod off. I was on holiday, the food was good, and I don’t like to see waste. I even had a pudding.
The next day was the same story. I had made peace with the diet holiday concept by this point, so the buffet breakfast was put to good use, followed by another pizza (and large ice cream sundae for pudding) at lunch, with a couple of beers before dinner, a large lasagne, and, having felt that the previous night’s sundae was a bit on the small side, I paid the extra £1 and upgraded my dessert option to the ‘sharing’ size.
Saturday started well, but became something of a binge-fest (I shan’t go into details, I’ll just say that multiple steamed puddings and a doner kebab were involved), and Sunday involved a takeaway and a bottle of wine.
It’s now Monday morning and, looking in the mirror, I don’t look too bad. I don’t look as good as I did on Thursday morning, but I’m pretty confident I will do by the weekend again.
And that’s what it’s about. I have lost enough weight to get into a position where I don’t have to worry about enjoying myself every so often, and that’s where I want to be. I’ll be back to the counting and rounding up today, and I’ll weigh-in again this weekend. If I’m back to where I was last weekend, hell, even a pound up on it, I’m happy with that.
I know it will be gone again by the next week.
Day 49 - 1000 calories
Breakfast
Milk (200)
Lunch
Protein bar (200)
Dinner
Protein bar (200)
Glass of wine (200)
Snack
Weetabix, raisins and milk (200)
Exercise
100 press ups
70m walking
Day 50 - 1750 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
Protein bar (200)
Lunch
5x Double chocolate cookies (1100)
Snack
Ham sandwich (200)
Dinner
Weetabix and milk (150)
Exercise
100 press ups
6x sets dips
60m walking
Day 51 - 2200 calories
Breakfast
Milk (150)
Protein bar (200)
Lunch
5x jam doughnuts (1150)
Ham sandwich (250)
Dinner
Lentil soup (300)
Weetabix and milk (150)
Exercise
70m walking
You may have noticed that there was no weigh-in this Saturday. No update to the graph, not even any food diary updates. There’s a reason for that: I was on holiday. I did not want to be ‘that guy’, sitting having dinner with my family, always going for the lowest calories thing on the menu, and making everyone miserable as I agonise over dessert.
So the diet took a holiday and, really, that’s what it’s for.
Diet takes a holiday
What’s actually the point of losing weight? I’ve got myself to a healthy BMI, my waist/height ratio is even better - my waist measurement is significantly less than half my height - and, on Thursday morning at least, I had a fairly presentable set of abdominal muscles.
Now, if you saw my post about my target, all was looking good for going swimming, but as it turned out, we ended up going on Saturday rather than Thursday, but I was still presentable.
Yes, I would still like to lose another three or four pounds, but I’m actually looking okay. I like to think of a lot of the point of this diet is to give me the freedom to be able to eat and drink as much as I want on holiday or on a night out, and not have to worry about it; to have enough diet behind me to be able to put on a pound or three and still be in a window of target weight, then I can just lose it again.
The children’s leftovers
I’d actually had quite a good calories day on the Thursday. Admittedly, I’d been sat in a car for four hours, but things were going well. Then it was time for dinner. I ended up going for the under 600 calorie pizza and salad option. I wasn’t particularly aiming to stick to any sort of target for the day, but it actually sounded pretty good, and I thought, well, if I can have a good day, I might as well.
Then the children didn’t finish theirs.
A moment of “oh, should I, shall I be good?” struck me, and I told it to sod off. I was on holiday, the food was good, and I don’t like to see waste. I even had a pudding.
The next day was the same story. I had made peace with the diet holiday concept by this point, so the buffet breakfast was put to good use, followed by another pizza (and large ice cream sundae for pudding) at lunch, with a couple of beers before dinner, a large lasagne, and, having felt that the previous night’s sundae was a bit on the small side, I paid the extra £1 and upgraded my dessert option to the ‘sharing’ size.
Saturday started well, but became something of a binge-fest (I shan’t go into details, I’ll just say that multiple steamed puddings and a doner kebab were involved), and Sunday involved a takeaway and a bottle of wine.
It’s now Monday morning and, looking in the mirror, I don’t look too bad. I don’t look as good as I did on Thursday morning, but I’m pretty confident I will do by the weekend again.
And that’s what it’s about. I have lost enough weight to get into a position where I don’t have to worry about enjoying myself every so often, and that’s where I want to be. I’ll be back to the counting and rounding up today, and I’ll weigh-in again this weekend. If I’m back to where I was last weekend, hell, even a pound up on it, I’m happy with that.
I know it will be gone again by the next week.
Day 49 - 1000 calories
Breakfast
Milk (200)
Lunch
Protein bar (200)
Dinner
Protein bar (200)
Glass of wine (200)
Snack
Weetabix, raisins and milk (200)
Exercise
100 press ups
70m walking
Day 50 - 1750 calories
Breakfast
Milk (100)
Protein bar (200)
Lunch
5x Double chocolate cookies (1100)
Snack
Ham sandwich (200)
Dinner
Weetabix and milk (150)
Exercise
100 press ups
6x sets dips
60m walking
Day 51 - 2200 calories
Breakfast
Milk (150)
Protein bar (200)
Lunch
5x jam doughnuts (1150)
Ham sandwich (250)
Dinner
Lentil soup (300)
Weetabix and milk (150)
Exercise
70m walking
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)