Friday, February 29, 2008

Time to change the diet

Tomorrow being March 1st and about a week out from my first race of the year, it's time to change my diet. So I'm going to start adding in more calories to give myself more energy to work with. I've read many places that it might be possible to continue to lose weight just as fast because I'll be able to exercise more/ more intensely. We will see.

Fortunately, the fit day program has some "reporting" to it. Here is what my average has been for the last month (Feb):
2451 Calories a day (actually a bit higher than I expected)
50% 323 grams from Carbs
24% 62 grams from Fat
23% 131 grams from Protein
4% 12 grams from Alcohol (lower than I expected, Ha Ha)
Max weight during that window of time was 188. I weighed in this AM at 180.

Looking at that same report from Jan 31 back. I only had tracked about 2 weeks. (jan)
2144 Calories average per day
42% from Carbs
28% from Fat
29% from Protein
1% from Alcohol
Max weight Jan 3rd 198. Min weight 187. Jan 31st weight of 188.

I know that I made adjustments in my diet to reduce my fat % along the way. The biggest change being my use of butter. 2nd biggest change being salad dressing choice. I now choose balsamic vinaigrette most of the time.
The 3rd change may have caused the protein drop as well. I don't eat steak or hamburgers as often.

So what do I do for this change. I decided this might be a good place to start.
0.8-1.0g of fat
5-7g of carbohydrates
1.2-1.8g of protein
per kg of body weight per day for highly active athletes.
1g of fat has 9 calories, and protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram.

Currently 81.81 Kg
Carb Range should be 410-572g. Currently 323.
Protein Range 98-147g. currently 131.
Fat Range 65-147g. Currently 62.
Calorie Range: 2617-4199. This is a big range. Maybe with this plan you have to eat according to your planned workout for the day?

So maybe my plan from Jan is a better place to start? 180x16 is 2880 calories, 180x17 is 3060.

Or a similar calculator
Which gives me: 3072 Total calories per day
Protein Grams: 135 Grams Per Day.
Protein Calories: 540 Protein Calories Per Day.
Fat Grams: 51 Grams Per Day.
Fat Calories: 461 Protein Calories Per Day.
Carbohydrate Grams: 518 Grams Per Day.
Carbohydrate Calories: 2071 Carb Calories Per Day.

Another Calculator with some good reading.
One more article.

So it looks like I should shoot for 2800ish then expect that I'll go over by a few hundred as I did with my previous plan. I'd like to continue to lose weight but I'd like to do it by increased workouts. I'd be ok with losing half a pound a week at this point. That would get me to 175 or under by June 1st. Which on most "fitness charts" would put me at the lowest point of "moderately overweight". Ha ha ha.... sigh.

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