Starting this week off well I feel, I've managed to maintain around 1200 calories today, a protein bar for breakfast and ham in cheese in a pita for lunch and a turkey and brown rice dish for dinner tonight. Did a short walk after dinner and I'm feeling good, I was able to stave off the hunger today by eating grapes and drinking loads of water. Here's to keeping this week going, I plan on some weights and potentially a run later this week.
1200 is really low, but amazingly productive at first. You can only handle that low for 10-14 days before your body starts shutting down your metabolism. Somewhere around day 10 go up to 1300-1500 as a base. Remember, that is a base level of calories for the fastest fat loss, any lower and you risk your body panicking and stopping your fat loss while dumping muscle. That means if you do 300 calories worth of exercise you have to eat 300 calories above your base to prevent metabolic slowdown and your body shedding muscle. Please strength train. A simple routine of 9-12 exercises covering your whole body done one round through 2-3x a week to maximum effort will put on a few pounds of muscle even though you are severely calorie restricted. I've personally put hundreds of people through a similar diet plan with those calorie levels and that exercise plan. You should drop a minimum of 10lbs on the scale in the first month and gain at least two pounds of muscle. I would expect more like 15lbs on the scale and 4-5lbs of muscle if I could personally supervise the program. A calorie counting approach is the fastest method of weight loss. It's not for everyone, but when you adhere to it strictly it gives amazing results.
Very well said, MrJoshua. I presume you are a trainer? So many people think starvation is the way to weight loss. It's sad. Like you said, it'll produce incredible results initially, which leads the person to a false sense of reality. When the weight loss stops after a few weeks, they'll think "Gee, I've got to starve myself more" and then that doesn't work, they get frustrated and give up. The body is pretty smart and will adapt quickly to routine, and also to protect itself. I wouldn't recommend it for newbies, but you can get some great weight loss results by short time spiking your calories, then dropping back down. That happens to me nearly every vacation. When I'm on vacation, I relax my nutrition watching...I still eat a clean base, but will allow myself more snacks and treats. My weight actually stays the same because I'm very active on vacation...walking around Disney. When I come home, I go right back to my regular macro split. That first week, I am STARVING, and I wind up loosing a few pounds because my metabolism had spiked while on vacation. Like I said before, I ultimately don't care about the actual number on the scale, it's more about my body composition. But I do weigh myself out of curiosity and it's interesting to see the changes with different things I do.
FWIW: Just a few running sessions per week on grass/dirt trails will help reduce repetitive injuries and will strengthen your ankles and calves for longer runs on pavement.
The "running is bad for your joints" is a pretty broad brush. It could be as simple as having issues after only running on sidewalks that are cambered to one side---that's a quick way for your hips/ankles/knees to start hurting, it's like running with one leg shorter than the other!
MrJoshua wrote: Another worry about long bouts of repetitive movements is your bodies response to joint mobility. Our range of motion around a joint is set by our bodies response to needed range. When you do thousands of repetitions in a very narrow portion of a joints motion the body starts to set that range as normal. Your motion limits gradually narrow until your total usable range around the hips/knees/and ankles is barely more than used while running. Most runners stretch which helps prevent the issues in the legs but they rarely stretch the shoulders or train upper back strength so they get the slouched posture. None of those issues are nearly as bad as the damage obesity does to us as we age, and all of them have fairly simple solutions. I prefer solving them by adding a simple weight training routine a few days a week.
Per Schroeder wrote: FWIW: Just a few running sessions per week on grass/dirt trails will help reduce repetitive injuries and will strengthen your ankles and calves for longer runs on pavement. The "running is bad for your joints" is a pretty broad brush. It could be as simple as having issues after only running on sidewalks that are cambered to one side---that's a quick way for your hips/ankles/knees to start hurting, it's like running with one leg shorter than the other!
Varying the surface you run on is probably ok, but it's the impact of running that is hard on joints more than uneven surfaces, etc. People with enough muscle to fully support joints will be less likely to be injured from uneven terrain, but even they still see pretty damaging impact on joints over time.
The jury is very much still out on that subject, and as earlier stated, being overweight on those same joints is most likely worse.
The trick for me has been to find shoes that work for my foot/body type, find routes and areas that I can run on that mix up terrain and to listen when things start barking.
Per
MrJoshua wrote: 1200 is really low, but amazingly productive at first. You can only handle that low for 10-14 days before your body starts shutting down your metabolism. Somewhere around day 10 go up to 1300-1500 as a base. Remember, that is a base level of calories for the fastest fat loss, any lower and you risk your body panicking and stopping your fat loss while dumping muscle. That means if you do 300 calories worth of exercise you have to eat 300 calories above your base to prevent metabolic slowdown and your body shedding muscle. Please strength train. A simple routine of 9-12 exercises covering your whole body done one round through 2-3x a week to maximum effort will put on a few pounds of muscle even though you are severely calorie restricted. I've personally put hundreds of people through a similar diet plan with those calorie levels and that exercise plan. You should drop a minimum of 10lbs on the scale in the first month and gain at least two pounds of muscle. I would expect more like 15lbs on the scale and 4-5lbs of muscle if I could personally supervise the program. A calorie counting approach is the fastest method of weight loss. It's not for everyone, but when you adhere to it strictly it gives amazing results.
This is really interesting to me. Thanks for posting.
Agree with you Per.
My joints actually feel better now that I'm running more consistently. But I also do it smart. I don't just run on pavement. I do a lot of trail running as well. I've made an investment in really good shoes that fit me well. I also do a lot of core strengthening. Finally, I only run 3-4 days a week and the rest of the time is spent on the bike or yoga or strength training.
I'm a little bit further down that rabbithole: Run 3 days a week? Recipe for pain... Run 6 days? All good. I'm 200lbs (from 240) and run fairly quickly for my age/weight so when things start to get achey, I know I'm pounding the same area too hard.
In reply to MrJoshua:
That's great information, I'm basically just trying to slow down the "want" for food, I really wasn't starving by last night. I tried to supplement hunger with water/fruit, I plan on fixing up my bicycle so I can go for a ride this week. The apartment gym will be utilized starting tonight.
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