Week 2 Summary Report - Nutrition - Exercise - Weight

Week 2 and I am now well into my training for the Great Scottish Run 10k for the Ceridian Payback Foundation. It has been a great week in terms of fitness and learning and I am delighted to start with advising that I have registered for the 10k so I am now committed and next week I will be recruiting the troops from my workplace to join in and get the fundraising going.

Last week, I had a couple of actions and targets to set for this week. These were:

1.      Research Nutrition in terms of calorie balance

2.      Increase Running Training to 5k

3.      Increase Swimming to 500m

4.      Get below the obesity line on the Wii Fit

Let's start with the nutritionals. I want to be clear that I am doing this for fitness and weight loss BUT I absolutely want to promote healthy living. Last week, my daily average calorie count after exercise deductions was 1274 and despite being happy to lose 3.5 pounds, I wanted to research this as it felt like I was going too far and frankly, I am glad I did.

The first article to catch my attention was here at LiveStrong.com where they claim that the "Average" man needs a minimum of 1300 calories a day and recommends between 2000 and 2400. If you read this article, pay particular attention to the "Significance" section, which has a first sentence of "Eating too few calories can cause numerous problems before you die of starvation". Sounds scary and I believe from this that I definately needed to increase my calories for the level of exercise that I am doing.

The issue with most of these articles is that they always seem to talk about average men. I think at 6'1" and 227 pounds, I would not fall into this category so did some googling and found an excellent calculator at freedieting.com that takes in your height and weight, asks how much exercise you do in a week then calculates what your calorie intake should be to (a) maintain weight, (b) achieve weight loss and (c) achieve extreme weight loss.

The really interesting detail is in the supporting article where there are tips on how to keep your body guessing so that your metabolism does not slow down.

So for me, I am going work to a guideline of consuming between 1800 and 2250 calories per day over the week. Last week I did 1500 which I am now convinced was far too low for the amount of training I am doing!

With this lesson now learned, the day by day consumed calories for last week were as follows:

 

Saturday - I normally do a run on a Saturday morning so skip breakfast. Was out at night for a meal where I had a pasta. I am showing this as a bad day as I should have eaten more in the afternoon.

Sunday - Had some breakfast then had a BBQ in the late afternoon. Showing this as a bad day too as I went the opposite way and induldged myself too much. Alcohol intake was reasonable but I think the 2nd Burger is my moment of weakness on this day - the sensible choice would have been to have just 1. This would have put me on a green day!

Monday - Giving myself a green day on this one. Not quite the calories I should be on but this is a rest day for me so should make a concession. Note that I am simply eating the leftovers from the previous day's BBQ!

Tuesday - Perfect - I am right in zone I want to be in. This is a run day so it is good to eat a bit more.

Wednesday - Hmmm - Probably a bit on the low site but, again, this is a rest day so can make a concession - rated amber, as I could do a bit better.
 

Thursday - Another bad Day, I am just not getting the calories in that I really need. This was a runday so I need ot make sure that I stock up better. Probably a better lunch is what is needed here.

Friday - Perfect - Bang on with the Calorie count and exactly where I want to be. I did a swim on this day.

So overall, I have only managed to achieve healthy status on 3 days of the week. The weekend was a disaster in terms of nutrition and I need to do more mid week, particularly on run days.

Total Calorie intake for the week was 13162, a staggering 3000 more than the week before and the daily average was 1880, 300 up on the week before. Looking at these figures, I have definately made a positive impact on a healthy diet but there is still work to do.

Physical Activity

This a has been another active week with some excellent progress. Ramping up the running training to 5k has taken me to my limits but I am finding that with every run out, I am getting further before I need to stop for a walking break. I do seem to have problems with my breathing so next week's research will be into breathing techniques.

Also, my swim this week was the at new TollCross swimming pool, which is an olympic size. Last week I was in a 25 meter pool, so doing a length, stopping, doing another length was quite good. This time, a length was 50m so I really had to dig deep to complete the 500m that I wanted to. But I did achieve this (although anyone who watched me might claim this to have been debateable!).

Saturday:

Tuesday:

Thursday:

As my blogs through the week show, I am running further and finding that a steady pace in favour of a quick time works better and will server me better when I ramp up to the 6km. I still have not made it up to the top of the hill in Alexandra Park yet, but on my last run, was very close - Target set for next week!

My Calorie burn has for the week has gone right up as a result of the increased activity. 2672 for the week is over 800 on the week before, re-iterating the point that I absolutely need to eat more.

So the Daily Average Calorie Balance for this week was 1499, an increase of just over 200 on the week before but still not near enough to 1800 that I think I should be doing.

Finally, weight loss. Getting the Wii Fit out to check the progress, I am absolutely delighted to annouch that at 102.3 Kgs (a loss of 1kg / 2 pounds) and a BMI of 29.89 (-0.3), I am now officially Overweight! (yeeeeesssssss!!! - Fish Supper on the cards tonight for sure!). And as an incidental, my Wii Fit age is now 37 (-1) so in terms of weight loss, I am still well ahead of target.

Ultimately, this week has been a learning curve on getting the nutrition right and pacing myself during training. I still have some work to do on upping my calories but If I can do this but achieve the same weight loss (by filling up on less fatty things), then I will be a happy chappy indeed!

Focus and targets for next week

1.      Get the calorie counts up for the overall week.

2.      Get the good days and bad days in a zig-zig pattern.

3.      Only have bad days for being over (none under).

4.      Investigate breathing when running and swimming.

5.      Keep Running at 5k distance but in Alexandra park, make it to 3km before slowing.

6.      If I do a swim, keep it at 500m but try to do 5 x 100 meter runs.

Favourite Pic for the week: