How to lose or maintain weight?

Had an interesting conversation today with somebody I have only met a couple of times over the last couple of years and only in a purely business environment. The lady in question was asking me what "diet" I had been on to lose weight and was it really difficult to adhere to?

Before I had a chance to answer the first two questions she then went on to say that she had tried a number of diets and weight watcher type clubs but hadn't had any real success with any of them. The lady in question is by no means obese or significantly overweight and it was actually a surprise to me that she clearly felt the need to "be on a diet" as she isn't somebody who looks to be very overweight, just not particularly slim. Maybe being on a diet had become a bad habit for her? 

She was quite surprised when I explained that I hadn't been on a diet and I certainly hadn't been attending any kind of Weight Watchers or Slimming World clubs and questioned how then was it possible that I had lost nearly five stone in weight without being on a diet?  

The conversation then went down what is a now a fairly well trodden path for me, (I seem to be asked this same question a few times each week at the moment) where I explain that what I have done is change my outlook on food and exercise. I then explain that all I did was decide that I wanted to be able to participate in some kind of sport, that I was actually envious of the skinny people that seemed to be able to jog down the road without breaking into a sweat and that I wanted to be comfortable in an airline seat of the "bucket class" variety (yes I know this may not ever be possible)

In order for these things to be possible I explain that I came to the conclusion that I needed to be lighter than I was and I needed to get back to my previously excellent fitness levels. These two objectives can be achieved by doing two things at roughly the same time;

• Consume less calories, by eating less processed and fatty foods
• Burn some calories each day by resolving to take exercise each and every day

Now I don't know what it is with "serial dieters" but as was the case with the lady today, this simple explanation doesn't seem to be complicated enough because there always follows a number of other questions about how do you know what to eat? how do you know what exercises to do? how do you plan your meals? It can't be that simple whats the secret? All of these questions are valid but actually when you get down to it, losing weight is as simple as eating less and exercising more.

One of the things that I personally changed once I had made the decision to change how I viewed foods purpose in my life was to try and understand what "healthy eating" meant for me?

The conclusion I came to is by no means rocket science, healthy eating for me in order to meet my original goal of losing excess weight meant consuming plenty of fruit and non starchy vegetables, increasing consumption of low fat proteins, and cutting back on fats and sugars. It really was that simple.

Something Mrs Pixie and I noticed was that if you stop and try to picture what all of the fatty, starchy, high in sugar, junk or processed food looks like, it invariably is a variant of the colour beige, which is dull and not very attractive to the eye.

Check out the fat in these bad boys!

If you think about what colour the foods are that are generally accepted to be healthy and good for us they are usually bright colours that are attractive to the eye.

Easy on the eye, easy on the waist and heart! 



If it's beige in colour it's probably not very good for you, if it looks bright and breezy, the chances are that it will be good for you. 

Fundamentally excess weight is caused by a disparity between calorie intake and calorie usage. The answer to lasting weight loss is something most of us already know but find hard to accept in a world full of convenience and junk food. If we change our relationship with food and eat healthily, exercise regularly and walk whenever possible, weight will be lost or maintained and we become healthier.

So how did I do it? How do I continue to manage my weight? I simply try to understand what I am eating, I eat far less empty, beige or rubbish calories and I try to make sure that I burn off any excess calories by taking exercise.

Try it you might like it!

As always thanks for taking the time to read my blog and hopefully you will be able to visit again in the future.

VP 


  

June Training Update

Well it has been pretty busy recently so yet again updates to the blog are being held up by my tardiness. As we are not very far from the end of July I thought it would be a good idea to post a summary of Junes training and progress made in respect of weight loss.

June was a funny month which felt like not much progress was being made, this was I think largely due to the amount of rain we had which made me somewhat reluctant to go out and put some road miles in. The purchase of the Turbo trainer definitely turned out to be a good decision because this allowed me to still be on the bike, clocking up miles without getting wet, which was a real bonus and allowed "on the bike" training to continue.

Of course if I were offered to chance to ride in the rain with this chap, I wouldn't be such a softie and I'd get on with it!



Allez Wiggo!

Towards the end of the month I had my performance assessment at Total Cycling Performance (details of this session are in earlier posts on the blog) which gave me an accurate picture of my current fitness levels and identified the aspects of cycling fitness that I need to work on in the coming months. One of the most important things to come out of the day was the identification of a need to re-introduce a significant amount of carbs back into my diet in order to provide fuel for an increased training load. Carbs are the fundamental source of energy for the body so with hindsight it's pretty obvious why I was running out of energy after around 90 minutes, when my diet contained almost zero carbs on some days. Lesson learnt, and I am now taking on board more carbs and managing my nutrition even more carefully than before to avoid what cyclists know as the "bonk". The bonk is what happens when your body simply does not have enough energy to carry on working and is caused by the body having insufficient fuel to work at the level being demanded of it.

As far as weight loss is concerned I guess compared to previous months June would appear to be a bit of a disappointment as total weight loss for the month was 7 pounds, however during June I gradually increased my calorie intake as even I knew I wasn't eating enough to fuel my training load. This will have had an impact on the rate of weight loss as will the development of muscle tissue. All in all, June was still a good month for weight loss and as I get into a more intense and structured training plan I suspect any loss of weight over the coming months is likely to be minimal. For the record when I was weighed at Total Cycling Performance on the 29th June, I weighed in at 12 stone 4 pounds, which is a bit different from the just over 17 stone that I weighed in the second week in January. If you are reading this and want to know how I lost this amount of weight without using fad diets, gimmick dieting products or paying a monthly subscription to a diet club, contact me and I will happily talk it through with you.

So, what did June look like in numbers?

• 34 training sessions completed during the month
• Total training time was a little over 33 hours (so a little over an hour a day on average)
• Average heart rate during all training sessions was 125 beats per minute
• Average maximum heart during all sessions was 155 beats per minute
• 14,600 calories burnt as a direct result of training sessions (so about 4 pounds lost due to exercise completed)
• Total weight loss a little over 7 pounds
• 369.5 miles covered on the bike 

When I view the months numbers in this format, the months hard work starts to become clearer and I can see that I am making progress with my fitness levels and getting my weight close to my target of 12 stone. I certainly feel healthier, fitter and less "lardy" which is a feeling that I had been a stranger to for far to many years.

July's training summary should look a little different from the previous two months as I have been working to a new training programme from the 15th July. I have also changed my nutritional goals from 1st July to reflect the fact that I am now not concentrating on weight loss, and focusing on maintaining my current weight, reducing % body fat and building strength and stamina which requires a significantly higher intake of calories to fuel the required training sessions.



Understanding my own percentage body fat figure has been really enlightening for me and I would recommend that for anyone who partakes of sport and is considering taking steps to lose the "spare tyre" having a body fat measurement and focusing on reducing the actual fat content of the body is likely to be the most effective way of losing the "spare tyre" and maintaining (or increasing) sports performance. Focusing on weight alone is likely to result in a loss of muscle mass as well as fat, which is bad for performance. My own % body fat measurement is currently 14% or measured in weight around 26-27 pounds, the aim is to reduce this number by around 12-14 pounds which should take me to just over the 10% body fat figure that seems to be close to optimum for cyclists competing in endurance events in mountainous terrain. This will be a long process and I am anticipating that losing those 12 pounds of fat will take around 26-32 weeks - quite a change from the rate of weight loss experienced over the last six months.

The above chart is a generic one pinched from the internet and really should only be used as a guide, if you are reading this and want to know more about % body fat, I can only recommend that professional advice and guidance is sought. Talk to your GP (if they aren't on strike and you can get them to talk to you about something other than BMI or absolute weight) or better still talk to a sports nutritionist or coach. Personally I would recommend Simon at Total Cycling Performance - no nonsense advice and approach, contact him via his web site or on twitter @bodybullet            

As always, thanks for taking the time to read my blog and I hope you are able to find time to visit it again in the coming months as I progress towards l'etape 2013.

VP