Saturday, September 12, 2009

Day 12

I had been working on the math in my head. I think I've discovered a bit of a plan that will work for swift fat loss. Exercise enough to burn up 2000 calories, consumed 2000 calories in food a day. Which, as far as "diets" go is a pretty hefty amount of food. This isn't a lifelong plan. This month is about jump-starting my metabolism, burning through the inertia with lots of hard work and strict control. After the end of the month, I'm going to ease up on the work and restrictions. By that time, I should be at a level of fitness and activity that I'll be a lot healthier overall and no longer under anyone's definition of obese. I carry a lot of fat around and probably qualify at my current weight. Burn off a lot of fat, get back to "overweight," keep up the activity.

The math is pretty simple. My long-term target weight is 225. But I might not ever get there, depending on how much muscle I put on. But. According to all the research I've done, a body needs 12 Calories per pound to maintain weight. To maintain 270lbs, I need to consume 3200 Calories a day. To maintain 225, I need 2700. That's really a lot of food. If I eat at a level of my target weight, the Calorie deficit will result in fat-weight loss all on it's own. Initially, a pound of week of fat. Not bad, really. With the recumbent bike (my favorite machine for cardio!) I burn the same number of Calories as I weigh every 15 minutes as long as I maintain at least 12mph. More if I go faster, but I like conservative estimates. That's about 1000 Calories of fat an hour. My usual routine is an hour and a half of bike time, then making up the rest in walking and other exercise. It's improving my cardiovascular fitness and trimming fat. If I maintain a diet of around 2000 Calories and exercise about 2000 Calories a day, I'll trim off a few ounces more than 5 lbs. a week.

Again, this is not a plan I'm going to use for longer than the end of the month. 30 days of mad work to get things started. October will be a lot more reasonable. But healthier. I'd love to be able to do a five mile run without stopping someday. Maybe I'll be able to run The Bear at Grandfather Mountain next summer. Ha! Right.

Breakfast: Michaelina's Lean Gourmet pocket pizza things. V8 Splash.
Lunch: Salad of spinach and field greens with chopped carrots and broccoli with feta and 1000 island dressing. Michaelina's Sweet and Sour Chicken. V8 Splash, Milk.
Dinner: Steak sub with peppers, onions, lettuce, tomato, mushrooms and a handful of baked fries. Water.

work it harder, make it better, do it faster, makes us stronger

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