Diet planning.. What's too low?

Hello everybody, how is everyone doing? It was another great day in San Diego. The weather was great with plenty of sun. Definitely a wonderful day for swimming. I was able to increase the number of reps for the push up sets that I do between laps. Starting to feel the effects a little bit already. All in all it was a good workout day. I also stepped on the scale this morning and I liked the number that I saw. I'm hoping by the end of the month I'm out of the 200s.

I think we'll be rapping up the diet planning tip of the days pretty soon. There's other tips and aspects that I can explain but I'll wait til I start implementing them into my own program before I go into them. But today we'll be talking about counting calories and what is too low for calories.

TIP OF THE DAY:

For those who are very strict with themselves and try to keep a really low daily calorie intake, do not go below 1200 calories per day.

The reason I mention this is because as the body adapts to the caloric intake and the body changes it's body fat percentage, the body is going to require less calories. The human body is a very smart and adaptive machine. The human body naturally wants to store fat so when the body changes it wants to go the path of least resistance. So even if you are losing weight for a while at a certain your body will learn to adapt to it and slow the body's metabolism down. The reason I say not to go below 1200 is because anything below that the body enters starvation mode and severely slows down the metabolism which can actually cause you to gain weight. Most people when they diet and they stop losing weight, they adjust the their diet lower. And if you start your diet at 1200 calories, you have no where to go from there. If you body has adapted to an extremely low, there are ways to reset your metabolism. But we'll go into that another time.

If you have found a good amount of calories that works for you and your weight loss starts to slow, try changing up your workout routines. In that way, you can jumpstart your metabolism again and make the most of your calories. No matter what, when you lose weight your body is naturally going to not need as many calories. But by increasing your muscle mass from your workouts, hopefully the daily caloric burn is still maintained a higher level. One lb of lean muscle burns more calories than one lb of fat.

Well that's all for now. Until next time, get your sweat on and happy dieting.

- Joel via iPhone

Nutritional Stats:

Dieting and Macro Nutrients

So yesterday I didn't mention why we got a new hamster addition. We got Peanut because our old hamster Remy Rainbow-Sprinkle-Pants Hwe-Li was very sick and we had to put her down. We had her for about a year and a half. She was really funny when she was a baby hamster. She used to climb to the top of her cage and run across the top like a spider-hamster. Her tumor was just too much for. We will miss her muchos.

I took a day off from the pool today due to the cold weather. It was supposed to rain today and the sun never really came out in the morning time. Tomorrow will be back in the pool.

TIP OF THE DAY:
Adjusting the balance of your macro nutrients can help you feel more full and help you get through your day without feeling like you're starving while not consuming excess calories.

For those who don't know, macro nutrients consist of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. The average person's diet generally contains too high of a fat content as well as carbohydrates. When consuming fast food diets with a much higher fat concentration the calories greatly increase. However, by adjusting the balance of the macro nutrients you can actually eat what feels like a lot more food and it will be a lot less calories.

With everyone on the Atkins bandwagon, many people ate scared of carbs because they feel they cannot lose weight if they eat any form of carbs. I prefer to recommend eating clean and simple carbs while balancing them with the right type of clean proteins and lower levels of fats. The reason I say it's okay to eat clean carbs is because the brain needs carbs to function correctly. This is why many people get moody when they try to cut carbs out of their diets. I would say it's okay to eat rice and bread as long as they are not in excess amounts. I love bread so I always try to limit my bread intake to one serving size per sitting. I also recommend lots of egg whites to get your clean protein inserted into your diet. Eggs are very affordable compared to many of the protein powders that are available on the market today. I personally like to eat my eggs hard boiled and then I take out the yokes. It's the easiest way for me to separate out the yoke but you can prepare your egg whites to your liking. Just try not to add too many toppings or sauces for flavoring but a mild flavoring is always welcomed. By balancing your macro nutrients you have more energy and you don't get as hungry or as quickly between meals. I recommend aiming for 60% carbs, 20% proteins, and 20% fat for starters. You can substitute fat for more proteins if that makes your dieting more comfortable. You figure out what works for you. Just keep adjusting your food intake until you get a winning combination that works for you.

Well until next time, get your sweat on and happy dieting.

- Joel via iPhone

Nutrition Stats:

A new addition..

Hello my name is Peanut.


We just got peanut yesterday. She's a dwarf hamster so she is extra fast and tries to jump away from you. Anywho, if I could run like this hamster runs on her wheel I'd never be fat.

Swim workout hasn't changed. So I won't bore you. Its still effective so I just have to keep challenging myself while I swim. Let's just go straight to the tip of the day.

TIP OF THE DAY:
Today's tip has to do with meal replacements. A meal replacement generally consists of either some form of protein shake, smoothies or bars. You generally eat meal replacement products in place of a meal or snack during the day. Meal replacements are very easily available. The meal replacement I want to talk about specifically today are smoothies. Lots of people like to get smoothies while their dieting because they think they're making a healthier choice. And while drinking a smoothies is much better for you than eating a burger at your favorite fast food joint, some smoothies have almost as many as a cheeseburger. Ate you surprised? Many people forget that most smoothie establishments throw ice cream or sherbet. They also use juice bases to help thin out the smoothie to make it more drinkable. All this adds up to higher sugar levels which equals more calories. Granted these calories are from sugar and not from fat like the cheeseburger it still can get up there. So for example Jamba Juice's Strawberry Surf Rider is 430 calories for the original size drink. That is roughly equivalent to a McDouble at McDonalds. So if you do get smoothies, make sure you're going to get your workout in that day and don't combine a smoothies with lunch.

Hope these little tips and ideas make a difference for someone.
Signing off, get your sweat on and happy dieting

- Joel via iPhone

Today's Lunch:



Keep your eyes open for Homer. He's going to be joining us on our dieting adventures.











Nutrition Stats:

Diet Planning 102

So I recently discovered that I can link my Twitter account to my blog updates. Sure does make things convenient. I also got my new swimming trunks in the mail today. Doesn't everyone love getting things in the mail? Anyway, swimming was good as usual. No new variations on the workout plan. But will explain farther down the line. For now, we will go into the tip of the day.

TIP OF THE DAY:
Here are several ways to help count calories. When on the go and eating foods that you don't know the calories for, take a picture of the nutrition label for reference later. Just about everyone has a camera built into their cell phone now these days should it shouldn't be hard to find a camera that you have access to.  That way you don't have to save used food packaging. Also, when packing food to go, use Tupperware with known volume measurements. Use smaller Tupperware so you can fill it completely that way you know how much you're eating.

One of the most important things to dieting is portion control. Having a true grasp of how much food that you're putting in your mouth helps to understand how many calories you're eating. At some point you may feel that you're obsessive/compulsive in the beginning but the more you do it, the easier it will be to count your calories without measuring it exactly every time. I highly recommend in investing in a food scale in the beginning as well. I've been counting calories long enough that I can guess usually within 50-75 calories by how full I feel after the meal. But when I really need to keep myself accountable I go back to counting calories and logging everything that I eat. It also helps to have someone who can keep you accountable to the diet.

Well, time to sign off early. Got to wake up early tomorrow if I want to get my swim in. So I'll sign off with get your sweat on and happy dieting.

- Joel via iPhone

Tonights Dinner:





















Nutritional Stats:

Stay Motivated

3 lbs down in 9 days.. Not shabby if I do say so myself.  You have to celebrate the little things when dieting otherwise at some point you'll hit a breaking point.  When serious about losing weight its important to realize that weight loss is a long term process.  A realistic goal of weight loss per week is about 1 lb.  A 2 lbs weight loss in a week is not an unreasonable amount either.  Shows like Biggest Loser have given an unrealistic view of how weight loss happens.  People forget that the contestants on that show live and breathe workouts when they live on the Biggest Loser ranch.  If they don't lose enough weight while living on the ranch, its all comes down to how much food their eating.  They don't have to worry about working or going to school or taking care of their families.  They just workout 7 days a week for the most part.  I'll include my food stats right now so we get that out of the way.

TIP OF THE DAY:  Today we're going to go over how to determine how many calories should be your target for your diet.  First thing everyone must realize is that there is no magic diet that will work for everyone.  You can follow diets that other people have created or do.  But the diet still must be tailored to you specifically.  If the diet contains foods that you won't eat, how will you ever be able to stick to it over the long haul and make it to the finish line?  Fad diets can work up to a point but at some point the diet stops being affective for the person and they go back to their old ways.

So the million dollar question, what's the magic number?  The truth is there is no magic number.  But I can help you find a number that works for you. With all the resources on the internet, there are plenty of tools that can help you calculate the proper calorie number.  A good place to start I would recommend visiting a site that i regularly use which is www.fitday.com.  This site has a tool that helps you calculate approximately how many calories your body burns on a daily basis.  If you have a gym membership to a gym, they usually will help you out if you ask to get your body fat percentage measured.  By putting in your weight, body fat percentage, height, age, and activity level it will calculate how many calories you burn on an average day.  I recommend estimating your activity one level lower than what you actually think you are.  By using a more conservative number, it makes it easier to lose weight assuming that you hit your caloric daily allotment on a regular basis.  I would recommend a caloric allotment that is 500-750 calories less than what the caloric daily burn estimates. If you are very consistent on hitting your caloric goal, you shouldn't have a problem losing at least 1 lb per week.  I'll go over nutritional specifics later on but this is a good place to start.  Changing body fat percentage and the way your body looks has other major details that I will go into further in later posts.  I'll also go over more tips for counting calories later as well.  Hopefully this helps those who are sitting on the fence and wanting to start out on their own weight loss journeys. Until next time, get your sweat on and happy dieting.