One of the reasons I’ve decided to stop actively trying to lose weight is that it is more important to me to be able to run faster than it is to look a certain way. While I know losing more body fat might make me faster too, there is a serious law of diminishing returns. Once again, it is one of the ironies of weight loss and exercise – the fitter you are, the harder it becomes to drop body fat without losing any of the muscle you’ve worked so hard for. This is because the more muscle you have the more calories you burn at rest, so the more calories you need just to maintain your body. Cutting calories below this amount will have your body using both your fat stores and your muscles mass to maintain itself, so while you may lose weight, your performance will suffer.
I’d like to keep all my muscle and I’d like to get faster too, so I need to make sure I am eating enough to fuel my new muscles and all my training. It’s tough to figure out how many calories I should be eating per day to maintain my weight - as I’ve said before I’ve tried several online calculators and have been given figures ranging from 1600 to over 2300 calories per day. So we’ll try eating an average of 2000 calories per day for now and see not just how it affects my weight, but also how I feel during training and how fast I recover.
Of course that’s assuming I have better luck sticking to 2000 calories a day than I did 1800!
The Score:
Calories: | Protein: | Carbs: | Fat: | Alcohol: | Fibre: |
2059.54 | 115.93g | 271.07g | 58.05g | 0 | 33.65g |
23% | 53% | 25% | |||
Calories burned through exercise: | 363 |
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 | |
Sainsbury's Freefrom oats | 50g | |
with Sultanas | 20g | |
Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice | 200mL | |
08:30 | Black Tea | 500mL |
09:30 | Raspberry and Echinacea tea | 250mL |
10:30 | Brazil nuts | 6g |
Cashews | 17g | |
Plums | 150g | |
11:00 | Lemon and ginger tea | 250mL |
12:30 | Homemade chicken and butternut squash risotto | 300g |
Raw Tomato | 113g | |
Alpro soya original | 200mL | |
Sainsbury's Be Good to Yourself chocolate mousse | 62.5g | |
13:30 | Green Tea | 250mL |
14:00 | Hill run | |
14:45 | Citrus Nuun electrolyte tablet in water | 750mL |
15:15 | Sponser Chocolate Recovery Shake | 30g |
in Skim milk | 225mL | |
18:15 | Sponser Protein Snack bar | 1 bar |
20:15 | Moorish Vegetable Tagine | 300g |
Merchant Gourmet Red and White Quinoa | 100g | |
22:00 | Ellactiva Chocolate Calcium Chew | 1 chew |
500mg Glucosamine sulphate | 1 pill |
Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.