Monday 8 September 2014

Goals, Patience, Bad Habits

I have actually lost around a stone since i started my focus on 2 hour duration exercise sessions in january, ie almost 7kg. That is then above average loss compared to the big diet study i linked to in the last blog, almost double. My goal is then 18kg in one year, so I am about a third of the way in with almost two thirds of the time gone.

To make me feel guilty i have had three weekends of over-beer ration in a row and I have not been careful with extras and portion control the last week, with disrupted days. Some days are very good though with a low appetite compared to my previous gluttony for extras and high calorie travel meals.

Now i have to return to the slog as it seems sometimes, but already i can see the benefits on the scales and in the mirror. This time though i am not resting on my laurels and tightened stomach muscles. Muscle is heavier than fat, but also holds a good stone of fat around my middle in better in the mirror. So i mustnt kid myself on, it is all there as it was when I was ten years younger before i got really bloated. For a long time I looked like a sporty guy on either end with a couch potatoe in the middle, and I just held myself in. Then my weight stabalised miraculously at 118kg, 19 stone uk, given how many extras i considered were par for the course. 99 kg is my target btw. 112 was achieved, may have slipped back a little with the beers?

So dont kid yourself that this approach is quick nor that you can just stop the discipline when you can suck and pucker your stomach in : let it hang out, pinch those love handles, fondle those boobs.

In the long term the diet is a life diet, while the exercise is then reduced although i think i will keep up one long session a week.

By determination i got six and a little hours last week quality training before the surprise monsoon conditions sat it. Now I am looking at doing one three hour session, two two hour sessions and a one hour harder session before the autumn sets in with its dank mists and grey days come along.

I thought I had hit peak weight loss but that was a dip from doing sessions which stretched out more than 2 hours and from being very strict, surpassing my extras prohibition! However I do get that tank empty feeling at around 1 hr 45 on my bike so every minute after that is effectively fat burning, and if I avoid sugary replenishment then fat burning continues until the next meal.

Thursday 4 September 2014

Equivalence In Diets Which Lack Duration Exercise

All diets 'have similar results' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29031985

This is an interesting study, a meta study of long term results, more because it should point to two of my own conclusions about dieting. Firstly, the weight loss takes a much longer time than people imagine or rather hope for. Just under 8kg for a year's atkins or weight-watchers. Secondly you have to comply of course, strictly to the diet, and this research actually excludes those who do not comply, which is actually useful to compare the real efficacy of diets versus each other.

The conclusion is as the title> there is  no actual huge difference over the long term if you manage to stay on the diet. These calorie counting diets and low carbo, high protein diets which achieve the same for glycogen, blood sugar and fat burning then, by in large do not have a component of exercise and those that have, there is a lack of prescription on duration.

Weeks update now is the interesting effects on my own appetite. I have started to get less satisfied by meals unfortunetly, so will need to work on chewing and distractions and water after dinner. I am also more often a wee bit hungry, a bit of a pit in the stomach, but I am less actually tempted to snack or use up my fruit allowance.

I have spread my exercise sessions this week a bit more and will try to get another extra session in the weekend, which may take me up to 7 or 8 hours. Weeks run monday to sunday if you remember, such that weekend allowances of extras are not split !