Gained another .7 lbs

  Today on Saturday I have gained another .7 lbs,  and deservedly so.

  I went running but wore my older running shoes with the Dr Shoals supports in them.  My plan was to run at intense speeds ( about 9 mph ) for 20 min.  This uses glycogen at the maximum rate.  At the 20 min mark, glycogen use starts to taper off as the body tries to keep you from using it all up and then having none left for emergencies.    I can notice the drastic increase in the amount of air I need at that point, because my body is starting to use less glycogen and more of the sources which need oxygen, ie   fatty acids, and glucose.

   Anyway, after 20 minutes, I slow down to moderate, with the idea that moderate still uses glycogen, but less.   WHat is remarkable is that when I slow down I need hardly any air.  I'm running around passing people at my reduced rate and breathing at a low rate which you'd think woudl be more typical of a walking person.

   My theory as to what is going on:  During the intense run, the body configured the muscles to draw from the glycogen stores.   Then I slow down, and it takes time to readjust.   My energy use is much lower,  but we are still using quite a bit of glycogen for energy, and therefore I don't need much oxygen.   So for maximum glycogen without going into muscle-eating mode, I think the ideal running work out is 20 min of intense followed by 20 min of moderate.

   Then you will get really hungry for the rest of the day, since the body will be using blood glucose to refill your leg muscles with glycogen.   But if you can resist the urge to pig out, you will lose weight nicely.   When your blood sugar is lower, the body produces much less insulin (the hormonal message to build fat from blood glucose), and instead starts producing more glucogen, the hormone which tells the body to start burning more fat.

  Unfortunately, the blister on the bottom of the arch of my right foot prevented me from finishing my 20 minutes of moderate.   I had to stop after about 5 min of moderate following the intense part.     The blister is about the size of a nickel, and is already raised like it is going to fill with fluid and burst.  Ouch.  I have a bandaid on it now.

  I'll want to get more exercise in today, but I'm worried about this blister.

On Thursday I lost another 1.1 lbs, bringing the total lost to 5.5 lbs, I think.

Because I was happy with my success,  I did lots of walking on thursday.

1 hour with Dennis     300 cal

1 Hour to Wegmans   300 cal

1.5 hour on Treadmill at maximum incline.  600 cal

So this should have totaled 1200 calories, about 1/2 lb of fat.

But on Friday, I gained the 1.1 back

At night I was doing ok until we got to the mexican restaurant, and I ate 1/2 basket of the nacho chips on the table.  Then I went home and ate goldfish, popcorn, and a 100 cal pack of cookies.

I probably consumed 1600 extra calories and tons of Atkins-destroying carbs. 

Oh well.  I always have done way better during the week than on the weekend.   Without the STickk.com threat hanging over my head, I lack the will power to avoid the really tasty things when I'm starving hungry.

   

ha ha ha 5 lbs

I weighed in this morning at 214.5,  which is 5.5 pounds less than Monday morning.  Ha ha this is so not real.    This morning's weight loss was because I went running, and sweated out a bunch of water.

   As usual, around the 15 minute mark at 9 mph, I needed a ton more breath.   Then I slowed down to about 6 mph and then felt like I was running for free, hardly needing a breath at all.  So I ran for about 17 minutes at an intense rate, and about 13 at a  moderate pace.

Oh and I ate a packet of oatmeal this morning.   Probably enough calories in that to power the run, but it is good to keep my leg muscles from shrinking since I'm not running every day any more.

Looking forward to the warmer weather.   Wore my sneakers today instead of the boots.

Ok, I didn't do treadmill last night, and I ate a box of chocolates after dinner.

Some great beginning for a new diet, huh?

But when I weighed myself this morning I was 217.8 pounds. Go figure.

So my weight will probably go back up again tomorrow. I'm under no illusions that I lost 2.2 pounds of body fat yesterday.

No more chocolate or carbs for me.

I was tempted to go running this morning, but I didn't. It is too cold, and I know that running my glycogen stores down would make me starving hungry all day.

Ok, I'm going to try again.   I just got back from vacation, where I gained 4 lbs.   

I was 220 lbs.   Not terrible, but 4 pounds of fat = 8000 calories.   2000 calories is enough energy to run a 26 mile marathon.    So I have to run about 100 miles to burn this back down.

Here is the new plan.

1.) Weigh myself every morning as part of my daily routine.   The Wii will graph it for me and remember it all.

2.)  Go totally Atkins.

3.) Do lots of low impact exercise every day.   That includes a  1/2 hour walk with Dennis every day, a 1 round-trip walk to wegmans and back,  and 1 to 1.5 hours on the treadmill playing COH every night.   That should be 2.5 - 3 hours a day at 3mph,  or about 9 miles per day.

   The body will not use any glycogen for walking, it burns primarily fat.  I will not get as hungry, since I think it is when replacing depleted glycogen that makes you so hungry you can't stand it.

  I should only do high intensity exercise once or twice a week.  Without carbs, the ability of the body to replace glycogen will be limited.   If you do high intensity exercise with no glycogen, you  are going to be catabolizing your own muscles for fuel and not burning much fat at all.   Bad plan.

So if I can walk 7 to 9 miles per day, that is about 600 to 750 calories per day, or a pound of fat every three days.    So 20 lbs * 3 days = 60 days, so I should be under 200 lbs by May if I can pull this off.

Then I go back to running and a more balanced diet.   Hopefully this will also help my left foot recover too.