The Clothing Meter

I’ve found my appetite has been quite high over the last few days. It could be that after a month of working out five days a week my resting metabolic rate has gone up, so that 1800 calories a day is no longer quite enough. Great for speeding up weight loss, not so great if I find myself eating all the time! Whatever the reason, yesterday I managed to overeat at almost every snack and meal. None of my ‘extras’ were particularly high in calories, but it all adds up – 183 calories of fruit cake after lunch, 127 calories worth of Doritos with my afternoon snack, 123 calories of cheese and 129 calories of red wine after dinner - all adds up to an extra 562 calories. Which just goes to show how easy it is to get an extra 500 calories per day without really trying! Not only that but, aside from the cheese, those extra calories were all carbohydrates and alcohol, not extra protein of fat, which throws off my nutrient balance for the day.

However, I do have good news – I am making progress at fitting back into my clothes! I tried on one of my winter work dresses for an appointment yesterday afternoon, a beautifully tailored black and gold tweed which I could barely get into when I took out my winter clothes on 9 October. Not only did it fit, but there was enough room around the thighs and bum to sit and move comfortably. Since one of my main motivations for losing weight is to fit into all my old clothes again, this makes me very happy. In fact, several weight loss experts recommend the ‘clothing meter’ as a better measure of fitness and weight loss, as the scales doesn’t usually take into account percentages of muscles and body fat. Though on that note, I also appear to have lost another pound, as my morning weight yesterday was bang on 61kg before breakfast and 62 kg just before my run.

Great motivation for avoiding yesterday’s calorie pitfalls!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2233.89	114.44g	277.45g	62.10g	15.5g	31.25g
	20%	50%	25%	5%
Calories burned through exercise:		550

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:45	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Mattesson's Turkey rashers	3 rashers
	Mesa Sunrise cereal	60g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	175mL
08:30	Black Tea	500mL
10:45	Easy run, 33 minutes
11:30	Lemon-Lime Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
12:15	Total Greek yoghurt	125g
	Sainsbury's frozen mixed blueberries and strawberries	100g
	Sponser vanilla Recovery Shake	20g (1 scoop)
	mixed with skim milk	150mL
13:45	Glorious New England Butternut Squash soup	300g
	Genius brown bread toast	2 slices
	Princes Tuna chunks (in brine, drained)	59g
	with Hellmann's light mayonnaise	13g
	and Branston gherkin relish	13g
	Sainsbury’s Freefrom iced rich fruit cake slice	1 slice
14:30	Green Tea	250mL
17:00	Brazil nuts	6g
	Cashews	17g
	Seedless Red Grapes	100g
	Doritos Cool original nacho chips	25g
	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
20:15	Sainsbury's extra lean beef escalopes	80g
	Mashed potatoes	200g
	Steamed carrots	130g
	Frozen peas	80g
	Bisto Best beef gravy	about 5g
	Red Wine	150mL
	Sainsbury's creamy blue stilton	30g

Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.