I had a great holiday and I am pleased to say that I came back from holiday only 2 pounds heavier than when I left, which is a first! Also, I've been getting some runs in and I'm feeling pretty good.
In the build up to the marathon training, from a weight point of view I briefly went down to 12st10 but settled at around 13st in the training and that is the weight I ran the marathon in.
So, turning on to the next challenges with my running, I think I need to see if I can drop a bit more weight. I'm pleased with my weight for everyday things but think I could drop some more to help with my running. I've read that for every extra pound of fat you carrying you can shave 1min 35secs off a marathon time, which is quite significant. Plus there are other benefits in terms of less stress on joints etc.
I have therefore started using MyFitnessPal (MFP). I have had an account for a long time, but I never really got into it. However, I can see why lots of people use it, including a couple of people from the running club. Personally, I won't really use the "social" side of the app/site because it's more aimed at people who are overweight whereas I know I'm not overweight for normal activities.
In terms of a weight target, I'm looking at 12st7, but that is going to be difficult to get to. I think getting from 14st to 13st will prove to have been easier than getting from 13st to 12st7! Also, I am in the "healthy" BMI range, but I'm in the top third of that range. The thing with BMI is that is a very wide range. For me it is a range of 10.5stone to just over 14stone! I know that 10.5 stone is way too light for me but 12st7 is in the middle which is partly why I've chosen that figure. Being realistic though, I will be happy to get back to 12st10 and then reassess from there.
Today is the third day of using the app and site and it is good:
- it allows you to scan barcodes in and tell it the portion size for a meal. I haven't yet found a barcode that it hasn't found the item for.
- for popular/regular meals you can group items together and name them. This helps to easily/simply add a meal with one or two clicks rather than adding each ingredient/part of the meal individually. So, if you regularly have, say, shredded wheat, milk and sultanas for breakfast you can set this up as a meal and easily add it each day.
- it has a mechanism of storing calories burned through exercise, which in practice means that you can safely eat more to offset the exercise.
For me, I started this at 13st2. With a target weight of 12st 7 and a target weight loss of 1lb per week it says I should consume no more than 1810 calories per day. This isn't very many, but is manageable, certainly with regular exercise.
For example, here are the stats from yesterday:
- Breakfast. 319 calories.
- Lunch. 584 calories
- Dinner. 803 calories
- Snacks. 570 calories
This is a total of 2276 calories through food. However, I did a slow 5-miler yesterday and burnt 708 through exercise taking me to 1568 net calories consumed which is below my 1810 target.
I'll see how I get on with it over the next few days, but I think the good thing with it is that it makes you stop and think before consuming things absent-mindedly. For example, I usually have a pint of milk with my breakfast, which isn't really needed. "Only" having a half of pint of saves nearly 140 calories but makes no difference to me feeling hungry etc.
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