BRIENMALONE's CalorieKing blog
Saturday, Jan 26 2008 - Say... Nice Charts! (& the Sugar Talk)
View BRIENMALONE's food & exercise for this day
[7:40am] I'm pretty proud of this chart - it shows 95% compliance to my diet plan
Net Calories were 100% on target - the only thing that could have been a little better are the days in red. Those should have been 650 calorie workout days, but time constraints turned them into restricted calorie days. The net calorie result is the same, but the effect physiologically is a bit different. So, I lost over a pound of body fat this week, but it could have been a bit more. (Not beating myself up at all here, mind you, just raising the bar)
Oh, Park the Finger Wagging, CK
Calorie King's automated advisor cracked me up. It had a 2 paragraph lecture about how 'repeatedly violating my calorie targets will defeat my weight loss progress'. Too funny. Since it doesn't have a provision for calorie cycling, it thinks I blow it on my high calorie days. Back when I first started, I thought about designing my own diet and exercise tracking website with an automated fitness advisor, but this is exactly why I didn't do it. There are so many good, valid approaches to weight loss that unless the advisor has artificial intelligence and can accept feedback, or analyze more than just your weekly total, it will be completely useless.
Stepping Up Intensity
I mentioned stepping up the intensity to burn more calories during the workout. I'm going to try that starting this week - 850 calories per workout instead of 650. We'll see how that goes.
As a side note, I was really concerned about my ability to be this 'surgically precise' with my workout calories when I start weight training on Saturday 2/9, but that is what cardio and food intake is all about. As long as I reach my minimum calorie target, it doesn't matter how much I burn at the gym.
I'm definitely going to take pictures the day before and the day after my first weight training session. My upper body mass has really shriveled in the past 3 months. I bet there will be a big difference on the day of my first 'pump'. Can't wait!
Golden Spoon is Out
I reached the end of my day with 300 calories to spare again... so I decided to treat myself to some Golden Spoon. Golden Spoon is (comparatively) low calorie, low sugar frozen yogurt. I had a small, which (on their website) should be 120 calories at 4.5oz... but the way they pile it into the cup, it is over DOUBLE that amount. I took it home and dutifully weighed the yogurt (I'm assuming yogurt oz are by weight, not volume) It was 9.5oz, so I doubled the serving size. Still 240 something calories for a pile of yogurt is fantastic compared to ice cream. (By the way, I mixed 3/4 scoop of whey protein in with the yogurt to add the calories I needed... It made the yogurt crunchy, but it still tasted the same.)
Sugar and the "Whew"
It tasted pretty good, but what surprised me was how ->blagh<- I felt afterward. I've noticed that when I eat a lot of sugar I get these urges to breathe deeply every now and again. (Its almost identical to the "whew" feeling after you do some sort of quick, light exercise). It's so subtle, I bet most people wouldn't even notice that they do it. After a really clean diet, dumping processed sugar into the tank really just... doesn't feel good. I woke up around midnight absolutely starving, too. I've been hungry as early as 4am eating clean, but never ravenous like this.
Golden Spoon is tasty, but it's just not worth the disruption.
-----
[4:46pm]
Whew. What a great day. My wife came home from work at 1pm and we all went down for a nice, rainy-day Saturday nap. We got up around 3pm - I went to the gym while the wife and kidlet went to run errands and play with the Thomas the Tank Engine train table at Barnes & Noble.
You know, I haven't really mentioned it, but I've got a great little boy. He's 2 1/2 and is in the process of potty training. Fortunately for all of us, he was ready for it. We had about 3 days of accidents before he got the hang of it... Then about another week of being afraid to poop in the potty. Now he's doing both like a "big boy". We're really proud of him. The last step is a dry pull-up in the morning and we're done with diapers! Woo hoo! (Well - until #2 comes along anyway!)
Good Job Kiddo
Brien Malone
Net Calories were 100% on target - the only thing that could have been a little better are the days in red. Those should have been 650 calorie workout days, but time constraints turned them into restricted calorie days. The net calorie result is the same, but the effect physiologically is a bit different. So, I lost over a pound of body fat this week, but it could have been a bit more. (Not beating myself up at all here, mind you, just raising the bar)
Oh, Park the Finger Wagging, CK
Calorie King's automated advisor cracked me up. It had a 2 paragraph lecture about how 'repeatedly violating my calorie targets will defeat my weight loss progress'. Too funny. Since it doesn't have a provision for calorie cycling, it thinks I blow it on my high calorie days. Back when I first started, I thought about designing my own diet and exercise tracking website with an automated fitness advisor, but this is exactly why I didn't do it. There are so many good, valid approaches to weight loss that unless the advisor has artificial intelligence and can accept feedback, or analyze more than just your weekly total, it will be completely useless.
Stepping Up Intensity
I mentioned stepping up the intensity to burn more calories during the workout. I'm going to try that starting this week - 850 calories per workout instead of 650. We'll see how that goes.
As a side note, I was really concerned about my ability to be this 'surgically precise' with my workout calories when I start weight training on Saturday 2/9, but that is what cardio and food intake is all about. As long as I reach my minimum calorie target, it doesn't matter how much I burn at the gym.
I'm definitely going to take pictures the day before and the day after my first weight training session. My upper body mass has really shriveled in the past 3 months. I bet there will be a big difference on the day of my first 'pump'. Can't wait!
Golden Spoon is Out
I reached the end of my day with 300 calories to spare again... so I decided to treat myself to some Golden Spoon. Golden Spoon is (comparatively) low calorie, low sugar frozen yogurt. I had a small, which (on their website) should be 120 calories at 4.5oz... but the way they pile it into the cup, it is over DOUBLE that amount. I took it home and dutifully weighed the yogurt (I'm assuming yogurt oz are by weight, not volume) It was 9.5oz, so I doubled the serving size. Still 240 something calories for a pile of yogurt is fantastic compared to ice cream. (By the way, I mixed 3/4 scoop of whey protein in with the yogurt to add the calories I needed... It made the yogurt crunchy, but it still tasted the same.)
Sugar and the "Whew"
It tasted pretty good, but what surprised me was how ->blagh<- I felt afterward. I've noticed that when I eat a lot of sugar I get these urges to breathe deeply every now and again. (Its almost identical to the "whew" feeling after you do some sort of quick, light exercise). It's so subtle, I bet most people wouldn't even notice that they do it. After a really clean diet, dumping processed sugar into the tank really just... doesn't feel good. I woke up around midnight absolutely starving, too. I've been hungry as early as 4am eating clean, but never ravenous like this.
Golden Spoon is tasty, but it's just not worth the disruption.
-----
[4:46pm]
Whew. What a great day. My wife came home from work at 1pm and we all went down for a nice, rainy-day Saturday nap. We got up around 3pm - I went to the gym while the wife and kidlet went to run errands and play with the Thomas the Tank Engine train table at Barnes & Noble.
You know, I haven't really mentioned it, but I've got a great little boy. He's 2 1/2 and is in the process of potty training. Fortunately for all of us, he was ready for it. We had about 3 days of accidents before he got the hang of it... Then about another week of being afraid to poop in the potty. Now he's doing both like a "big boy". We're really proud of him. The last step is a dry pull-up in the morning and we're done with diapers! Woo hoo! (Well - until #2 comes along anyway!)
Good Job Kiddo
Brien Malone
2 comments so far.
2.
a decade ago
20+ pounds gone already....great job! Love the pic of your son, that smile and curls...PRICELESS
by JAXS
1.
a decade ago
How do you measure your calories burned? Are you using a heart rate monitor? Try cycling your intensity as well. Just a thought. That's what I've been doing. The key is variety. Changing it up so your body doesn't know what's next. Do high intensity one day, medium the next, and nice low intensity once a week (you can actually enjoy that one!). Jumping rope for 3 minute intervals, then two minutes of jumping side to side (landing on heels) is a great high intensity workout...
by GIJANE