10k A Day- Week 3

Week 3 - 10 K a day.

Well this is certainly habit forming and while I can maintain the weight on this regime I find to harder to lose weight well. I find that because I have room left in the day after eating well I tend to snack more at night and skimp on meals to create "breathing room" which I then fill.

The lessons learned prior to this about sugar, carbs and timing all have a part to play as well if I want to make it to my BMI weight which is still about 10 ks away. So I need to break the habits that this diary effect has on filling the gaps left by watching and maintaining a calorie balance.

Less than two weeks to go and then I'll be on Raw Food only. So while this can be a good way to control your dietary intake and output (exercise) and the logging is a good habit to have, it's really only effective if you do it conjunction with the other rules of effective dieting around type of food and time of day.

10k A Day - Week 2

10k A Day - Week 2.

This whole app/calorie counter thing is quite cool as it is analyzing my intake and results and then making suggestions beyond my stated weight goals. So Fat, Trans Fats, Sodium, Carbs etc all get logged if I fill in my food correctly and then I get advice accordingly, like add more fibre to breakfast (or even eat some breakfast) etc...

Steadily losing weight on a daily basis but gradually over the week. As Max is still on the intermittent fasting regime then two days a week I am joining her and so that helps with the weight loss too. The good thing is that when coupled with calorie watching the tendency to overeat after a fast is gone as you monitor and measure your intake effectively by paying attention to it.

Current weight and lowest recorded so far 89.6 kilos.

Breakfast still does not get much of a look in and lunch can often be heavy and then I am free to eat whatever I want for dinner but most of the time I eat lightly and go nowhere near my limit as I am in the zone of not needing as much.

I would like to see how much of a stretch it is to reach the upper end of my BMI at 79 kilos, and thats a mere 10 kilos away.

10k A Day - Week One

10K A Day - Week One

Even though I thought when I started this I was going to avoid this diet it seems like a natural progression to try it this late in the year (diet 10 I think?) since this is the real secret to losing weight, controlling your caloric or kilojoule intake on a regular basis.

With help from some apps in the I Store I have determined that my "maintain" kilojoule intake is around 13,000 a day with moderate exercise (minimum 30 minutes a day - I do 43 minutes) and if I want to reach my goal BMI weight it should be around 10,900 per day.

So calorie counting at each meal and snack does a double duty in that you have a goal but you think twice about everything you put in when you count each meal and snack with a ceiling in mind. The first day of calorie counting was also my last fasting day so I was well under the 10,900 limit clocking in around 650 kilojoules. The second day (yesterday) I came in at 6800 kilojoules and that was without exercise. I was not hungry or feeling like I was denying myself but I was very conscious of everything that goes in my body for the day, even tea and coffee.

The 5:2 Diet - Week Four

The 5:2 Diet Week Four

The intermittent fasting works well to keep my weight at the 91 mark after the second day each week despite eating pretty much whatever I want during the other days. It means I have been eating more crap food but not gaining weight.

However the side effect of this is feeling like I am cheating rather than eating well. The effect of high fat, high sugar foods is distasteful and I'm beginning to actively dislike them despite being in the habit of going for them when looking for a snack - knowing full well I can get away with it.

However as my attitude and predilection for them is changing I need to work on not failing prey to that habit knowing that 2 days of 600 calories or less will fix that.

Calorie/Kilojoule controlled diet will be next - thinking it will be likely 10,000 kilojoules limit. According to some sources it should be 13,000 kilojoules if you have an active lifestyle (30 minutes a day or more exercise - which I do) or 10,000 if you have a sedentary one (for people my age and gender). I like the idea of the challenge and gain part so I'll aim for 10,000 a day limit - I have an app for my Phone already to help track it for the coming month.

Interestingly Max has taken to the 5:2 diet this month and will continue it next month on her own. She has lost 2-3 kgs this month.

The 5:2 Diet - Week Three

The 5:2 Diet Week Three (AKA Intermittent Fasting).

Success for this is and oddity as it's Xmas and I'm not at work where it's easier to not eat constantly and to eat better as meals and snacks are planned and not a matter of convenience or accessibility.

However I have beent through a fat and sugar Xmas dinner, lunch and leftovers for a eek or so and managed to keep the fasting days under 600 calories and maintained at 91/92 Kilos in weight with exercise.

Feels more like maintaining than losing weight, again it may be more effective over time and when there is less temptation for rich food (My fridge was filled with containers of Russian Fudge, Chocolate Brownie & Rocky Road) which I have been eating but also not gaining weight again on top of that.

Another week or so and then on to the final quarter of my year long dietary experiments.

Must organise a GP check up and copare general health and fitness to before I started all this.

The 5:2 Diet - Week Two

The 5:2 Diet (aka Intermittent Fasting) Week Two.

This week has been a more successful in that I tired to eat closer to the limit to avoid overeating/overcompensating afterwards and succeeded. Last week I went from 90/91 to 94 because I ate quite a lot in the weekend and constantly snacked, which is something I have not done in a long time - over 9 months now.

This week I managed to move the fasting days and keep non-fasting days on a more sensible level - despite the claim you can eat whatever you want, that is obviously not true but you can eat sensibly and at normal levels on your off days.

I moved the fasting days to allow for a family meal with the in laws, Xmas BBQ lunch at work and will do so again this week to allow for Xmas day feeds as well.

This week finished the second day at 91.3 - regaining the ground slipped away from last weekend.

Over time I suspect this is very effective provided you also are sensible on your off days. I have had takeaways twice this week (first time in a while so close together) and still managed to keep losing, but also noticed that a couple of times I stopped eating because I was full. The trap not to "push past it"  to finish whats on your plate.

Max also losing weight, this diet seems to work well for her and does not mind it as much as the daily restrictive one.

The 5:2 Diet - Week One

The 5:2 Diet (aka Intermittent Fasting): Week One

I have started the 5:2 diet, the basic concept is that you fast for 2 days out of every seven. On those days consume less than 600 calories. The only other caveat is that you don't have the two fast days consecutively.

So I chose tuesdays and thursdays as it's a lot easier to achieve it when I am at work.

Day one was surprisingly easy and I had less than 100 calories for the approximately 36 hours (from 9 pm to 9 a.m the day after the fast day) and felt little hunger at all. The second day which  was only 24 hours later was lot more noticeable assumably because I had just done one and therefore had less  in the tank. Again I could easily get through the day but I consumed around 500 calories the second day because I needed to, which was fascinating. I can see the people who do alternate day fasting working a lot harder on those off days.

Interesting for me these days are the weekends, as I relax my diet I notice that the less busy I am the more I tend to consume without thought. I Can easily put on 1-2 kilos every weekend if I am eating with zero inhibitions, which I have been doing to see what happens, and so I can see that this diet is most effective if you don't over-react at the end of you fasting period.

The first fast day took me back from 92 to 91 (as the previous weekend I had gained 2 kilos) and the second fast day took me down to a new low of 90.3 kgs.

However in the last couple of days (Friday and Saturday) I put on another 2 kilos - aided by the lack of exercise - I have been to a Xmas party and too busy or suffering from bad timing - to get on the bike for a few days.

With attention to the snacking, the uncontrolled elements and a resumption of daily exercise I can see this being very effective.