It's a question on Calories.

baccaman21

Nothing to do with new years resolutions (at all) but I'm on a personal drive to try to tone up a bit more agressively this year. In doing so I've actually been looking at things a bit scientifically in a bid to see why I've not been shifting my weight that I've put on over the last year or so.

I'm 37, 5' 8" and at present weigh in at 13stone 3kilo's (185lbs) - my personal ideal weight is 12.5 stone - I have a fairly large frame, and I believe I'm not massively overweight - but I have let myself go a little recently.

I used to excercise quite regularly (run, circuits, swim and bike) until a knee injury scuppered things... My knees fixed now and I'm back into running/jogging (just) and I do the odd bit of free weights at home.

Currently, my resting Heart rate is 50bpm and I can run 1.5 miles in just under 10 minutes - My max heart rate was 163bpm reducing to 115bpm after 1 minutes rest which I consider to be a decent recovery rate and run time (for an out of practise runner)

So, it's a question of calories?

The in's and out's in fact.

I've recently found out that for a fairly active person of my weight, age, and build I should be trying to have an intake of around 2,200(ish) a day.

Thing is, I'm very good with my diet and I regularly take on about 1,700 a day... Good balance, lot's of fresh veg, home cooked meals, no processed food and certainly no junk. I can't remember the last time I bought a bag of chips, a burger or even some crisps... Since I've been really watching what goes in my mouth I've noticed a slight decline in my weight, so I generally think my portion sizes were too much.

What I'm a bit confused about is to do with calorie burning and when it occurs?

If someone can give me a quick low down on that then that would be great. Also, am I fooling myself with regards to my level of fitness?

chris_mbuk

i guess anything that gets u out of breath is a good start but i cant resist a good old take away time to time lol

Will Snow

hmmm... are you confusing burning fat with calories??? coz one weighs nothing really, and the other does... try some very long endurance work to try and burn off any fat. though frankly from what youve said you seem in good shape (not gay!!!)

baccaman21

no will, I'm not confusing fat burning. What I mean is this:

If I count up all the calories consumed in a day and the total comes to say, 2130...

then I figure out what excercise I've managed that day, say (for arguments sake) a 6k XC run in 35minutes (which I've just done), then (according to some calculations [runners world.com]) I'd have burned 509 calories.

Is the assumption that in order to figure out my total daily calorie consumption subtracting the 509 from the 2130?

To add to my initial post, I've actually shift 7lbs now from my intial 185lbs, AND I've discovered my actual weight range is between 156 & 171lbs... which (to me) came as quite a shock, as my target weight (12.5st) was actually still above this range by 4 or 5 lbs...
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endurojcb

If you burn more calories in a day than you eat you'll loose weight in a nutshell. If you sit at a desk all day instead of being in a more active job then maybe you should be eating more like 1800 calories a day instead on 2200.

If you want to burn fat, don't eat any carbs for at least 3 hours before you exercise. I have my lunch at 12.30 and then don't eat anything more before I go to the gym at 17.00 (free weights for 45 mins and then either spinning for an hour or a mederate 30 minute cycle). I just drink plenty of water. Once I'm home from the gym I don't tend to be hungry right away, so I usually sort myself out and check my emails etc before cooking and eating about and hour later, so my body has had a good hour plus to burn a little extra lard.

Check you're not eating any hidden fats in your food. Especially VEGETABLE FATS as they're called. The DEVILS FAT, as it's the rubbish saturated version of fat.

Booze is another high calorie pasttime that people often overlook (you may be a T-totaller for all I know though). The average pint of medium strenght lager has roughly 250-300 calories in it and a shot of Vodka has about 50 calories in. There's no nutirtional value to a single one of those calories. I'm not saying don't drink cos that's just boring, but think twice before having that one for the road next time.

I wouldn't worry about your weight figure. Everyone is different. The only figure you should be interested in is your body fat percentage. According to government guidlines, if you're 5ft8" you should be about 10.5-11.5 stone. If you're over that then you're fat. The thing with those figures is that it doesn't take into account your lean mass or whether you're male or female. If you do weights you'll weight more because you're carrying lean muscle not fat.

baccaman21

cheers for the advice

Johnpwr

Here are a couple of links that may be of interest :
http://www.cptips.com/weight.htm and
http://www.brianmac.co.uk/fatburn.htm

The 'Research' section of the second link is the important one as it points out the route to long steady riding

Best of luck

baccaman21

Thanks John...

I discovered the Brian Mac site a few weeks ago...

Matteeboy

Your bodyfat %age might not actually be that high.
I'm 5'8" and was 12.5 stone yet had 9-10%bf.

I then upped the cardio big time and lost a stone and trimmed the bf% age to about 8%.

baccaman21

Ok fairdoos... cheers Mattee

I've just hit 12st 7lbs - I'm aiming to lose another 7lbs and see how that 'feels' - I'm feeling a lot trimmer but I can still lose some fattage... i've waivered a little from my training schedule, mainly due to a recurring knee injury that meant I needed to rest for a week, but still... I'm following the merida training planner for their marathon series... and it's going ok so far... well more than OK actually - I'm really pleased with myself. the wifes happy with the new looking me too...

how does one measure bodyfat?

endurojcb

Nice one mate.

I'm currently out with a knee injury so am having to watch what I eat a bit. Have gained a couple of pounds this week. Doh! I'm 5-8 too (only 28 tho) and am currently 13-2. I was 11-6 when i gave up smoking 2 years ago. I packed on a lot of muscle in 2006 though (a good 1/2-3/4 of a stone) by doing weights, so the rest is all lard! Beer is my downfall!

Something like this will help measure your body fat percentage: http://www.doctor-buylines.co.uk/Omron_ ... 8&GID=9575

z000m

copied from another site:

UK Department of Health Estimated Average Requirements (EAR) are a daily calorie intake of 1940 calories per day for women and 2550 for men.

Matteeboy

baccaman21 wrote:

Ok fairdoos... cheers Mattee

I've just hit 12st 7lbs - I'm aiming to lose another 7lbs and see how that 'feels' - I'm feeling a lot trimmer but I can still lose some fattage... i've waivered a little from my training schedule, mainly due to a recurring knee injury that meant I needed to rest for a week, but still... I'm following the merida training planner for their marathon series... and it's going ok so far... well more than OK actually - I'm really pleased with myself. the wifes happy with the new looking me too...

how does one measure bodyfat?

The US Marine Corps have a very basic measurement of neck to waist ratio that sort of works. I've used a bodyfat monitor though - again not always totally accurate but I usually just average out everything. Will try and find a chart for the first method if I can.

shifter58

I had the same problem,dilema as you last year and lost a stone in weight and toned up as well.how ? easy.1.. dont drop calorie intake below 2000 cals a day.2.. eat a high protein breakfast eg omellete .. i add in onions peppers a lttle cheese nd a slice of bread with it.This will keep you going and stop hunger pangs .. proteins good at that .3.. do a little weight training every other day .. i use dumbells at home.I now eat a decent mount of quality protein at each meal nd moderate carbs, and i lost the stone in weight but my riding as improved.why ? simply because,i think i am pretty muscular by nature and have more fast twitch nerves so eating the diet i have explained compliments my body type.People who are naturally thin require more carbs,and have slow muscle twich fibres,ie more suited to endurance as fast twich are more suited to power,eg 100 mtr runners,weightlifters i assume you are getting my drift now ?.But.. the happy ending here is you can still control how your body shapes and happily cycle.ie .. feed your body to its needs and maybe add in some weights in your training.To end this,i was previously eating a lot of carbs nt enough protein,my body shape,strengh,cycle training had all declined.Now,im fine and my energy levels are high.Hope this as helped you.