Thursday, November 16, 2006

Constant vigilance

That's the price I have to pay to be leaner - with my huge appetite, love of food, and efficient fat-gainer metabolism. The only way that I lose weight is to pay extremely close attention to food intake. The workouts don't seem to make the teensiest dent in the scale readings at all, for me, unfortunately.

After my taper and a few weeks of unmonitored eating I was back up 5 pounds. Gawd, can I gain or what!?

So now that I've recovered from the Ironman Attempt of 2006 I'm back in that Seventh Ring of Hell logging all my intake. OK, let's get a more positive attitude here, shall we? Seventh Ring of Heck.

I just bought the Fitday.com PC software for $20, which seems to offer a few advantages over the online version (mainly you can keep the window open and don't have to log in every time you go back to it). So I'm logging all my caloric input and expenditure into that again now - at least 5 days per week.

It works when I work it (all told, I'm down about 20 pounds from the spring). In 3 days back at it now the scale shows an encouraging 3 pounds off, even when eating over 1750 calories each day. That's much more than my expected rate of loss - a pound per week or so is what I can do without seriously restricting myself. But it's a nice little encouragement and pat on the back for getting back on track.

12 comments:

Fe-lady said...

Are you beginning this the week before Thanksgiving???
Man, that is torture! (Or it would be for me!)
I think I will be loose about my food intake up until after the holidays.
Chocolate and red wine come to mind.....
Best of luck!

Nancy Toby said...

Don't worry, I only do it 5 days per week. The other two days ANYTHING GOES!!

If I were able to be strict about my diet, I'd be a thin person already!!

TriGirl 40 said...

As someone who shares an "efficient fat-gainer metabolism" - was wonderiing if you think it helps get through a longer distance race. I can easily go 6-8 hours without eating - even with a 2 hour workout thrown in. Next year, one of my goals is to figure out a nutrition plan - but I was wondering if there may possibly be a silver lining to a slower metabolism.

Nancy Toby said...

Sounds good to me! Yeah, look for the silver lining! I wish I could go that long without eating - but no, my blood sugar gets too wacky if I do that.

jbmmommy said...

I hear you on the efficient weight gain. I track every bite as well now after some slacker months there that resulted in a small gain itself. There's another free site: www.sparkpeople.com, you might want to check that out, too. Good luck!

21st Century Mom said...

I lost about 4 pounds in Peru but of course it was just hiding in my suitcase, lying in wait. It found me - it's back.

I am giong to write about my theory of how my body works one of these days. I am a master of fat storage and a pleb when it comes to using it up.

Iron Pol said...

I've never been one for tracking what I eat. When I was doing marathons only, I had losta bout 20 pounds and no amount of training led to further loss.

The switch to triathlon training and a bit closer watch over my diet (okay, I cut out the Mountain Dew habit, um, addiction) led to dropping 30 pounds.

I have been considering a closer watch on calories and my training partner suggested his method. He just uses an abacus like ring in his pocket and moves beads for calories (sort of a deal a meal concept). That way, at the end of the day, he knows what calories he took in. And he can see where he's at any time during the day.

Nancy Toby said...

I hate men. ;-)

If it were that easy for me to just train some and watch "a bit closer" over my diet, I'd be skinny as hell.

That sounds like a good method too! But I'd get to the end of my beads by mid-morning....

I'm a firm believer in "whatever works"!

Papa Tweet said...

Yep, same thing happens with me. One thing I've realized is that I weighed 195 lbs during Ironman. However, I may never weight that little again. I've gained 5-7 pounds since Ironman, but I now realize that I can't keep my weight at IM levels. I just can't train that hard all the time. I have to be content with 200+ pounds, or I'll agonize over it to death. Not sure if this helps or not, but this is my reality. Best of luck Nancy
Benny

Ellie Hamilton said...

Seventh Week of Heck, you're a riot!!

I think it boils down to, some people lose weight during endurance training, some don't. Kind of like with breast-feeding. Sorry, guys.

Spokane Al said...

Being a glass is half full kind of guy, I have always tried to look at my ability to gain weight very easily as a bit of a blessing.

I caused me, many, many years ago to engage in endurance sports as a weight management tool. And as a result I have grown to consider endurance a key part of life.

If it was a skinny guy with no weight issues I might be skinny but a bit unhealthy as a result.

It is perhaps something for you to consider.

Nancy Toby said...

Heh, yeah, it's a GOOD thing that I'm nearly 50 and have years of abuse on this body and have to turn it around!!! :-)

But true, nothing else would be as effective a cudgel.