For the life of me, I can't figure out why I weigh 238 lbs. I've been stuck in the 235-245 range for nearly a year, and I just can't seem to get below it - despite near-daily gym trips and a general commitment to eat healthy.
By the way, this weight put me at a 33.4 BMI, well into the "obese" range. I don't think many people would call me obese, as I have muscles and athleticism, but it's still sort of sickening to think about.
It used to be that just feeling okay was fine with me, but I really would like to get my weight down to the 200 range.
I've traced what I've eaten pretty closely in the month, and just started using FitDay.com again to trace it more closely. I have to figure out where the extra calories are coming in. It's ridiculous that I work out from 6 a.m. until 7:30 a.m. just about every morning and still have these issues.
One thing that I've been doing a lot of reading about is processed soy products. I eat veggie burgers or veggie hot dogs nearly every day, but am going to try to eliminate this from my diet. While their label suggests they are (very) healthy, the processing of foods in general has made me concerned and makes me want to look elsewhere. I have also read lots of things lately about those fake meat products in general, about how they might really be pretty bad for you.
I'm not sure what I'd replace it with; I honestly love them and hate spending any time at all to cook (veggie hot dogs take 1 minute to heat up in the microwave, and I often choose them over the veggie burgers primarily because the burgers take 3 minutes). Still, I probably need to cut down.
Otherwise, I just don't know. Friday night Happy Hour? Eating late at night? These I partake in on occasion. But I count my calories and count how much I burn off and it seems like it should be even.
One of my former students is about to get an exercise science degree, and, after running into him the other day, he just emailed me and asked me to work out with him. This could be a jolt that I need.
I'm also thinking about tracking my food here, just because it's way easier to use than Fitday and there is something to public showcasing of eating habit.
Today:
Gym Trip:
35 minutes of eliptical work
Chest, Back, Deadlifts, Abs - 60 minutes
Breakfast
1 Banana Muscle Milk
Mid-morning snack
1 Promax Exercise Bar
Lunch
1 Smart Choice invidual frozen spinach pizza
Afternoon Snack
1 bag of carrots
1 cup Fiber One cereal
Dinner
2 veggie hot dogs
1 low-carb tortilla wrap
Evening Snack
1 handful almonds
1 100-calorie popcorn bag
That's about 2000 calories, which doesn't seem too bad. I'm not hungry now. I got about 80 grams of protein there. One thing I notice is that it's way heavy in the evening instead of the morning... but I find this hard to prevent if I'm exercising in the morning.
Diigo Links (weekly)
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6 comments:
Hon,
Muscular people who work out a lot often have higher BMI's because muscle weighs more than fat. The BMI scale is essentially for people who don't have any muscle mass at all. (and really, for people who never did) Don't let that some general scale be the only metric you use for overall health. As for the veggie dogs and burgers, they tend to come with a far amount of salt, which is not healthy, but the thing you might want to ponder is the studies that are showing a correlation between soy products and, um, not good side effects for men. Call me if you want details.
Danielle
It might also have to do with the amount of protein you're consuming. For your target body weight, even if you're an endurance athlete, you probably could do with half the amount of protein that you're consuming - or at least 10-15grams less. Try switching that out for more veggies or fruit, -- sweet potato/yams are an awesome nutrient-dense vegetable, or maybe some leafy greens, like kale or spinach (nice choice with the pizza)?
You could also look for switching out a soy veggie burger for a veggie-based one that doesn't contain soy, or supplement a veggie dog with a peanut butter sandwich or some cheese or yogurt.
Danielle: I know BMI is for people without muscle mass, but, still, 75 pounds over where I "should" be? Yup, that's still pretty overweight. I've read those studies about soy, yes. They're still up in the air, but, yeah, that's another reason I want to cut them...
Cara: I have heard that an active person should get one gram of protein for ever 2 pounds of body weight. That's over 100 grams for me. I was religious about it when I weighed 190. Now, I just have this loose "oh, I try to get plenty of protein" attitude.
Thanks for the food suggestions!
You said that you eat more in the evening then in the morning. That could have something to do with the extra weight, since the healthiest thing to do is eat the most in the morning and the lightest at night. This could help because if you eat a lot before going to bed, all that food is going to just be sitting there while you are asleep. So the food isn't going towards energy but is turning into fat.
I disagree with the anonymous comment about eating more in the morning. A great book by Natalia Rose is "The Raw Food Detox Diet." It's not about eating all raw and you don't even have to be vegetarian, but it's about combining foods properly. The daily log you have there you only had carrots. That's all the veg/fruit in one day? Granted, most Americans don't eat fruit/veggies like we should, but it should be the main food in our diets. In the book, protein from nuts and beans is recommended. Basically, vegetables work with all food groups, but meat, starch, and fruit should not be combined. It takes some rethinking and Natalia doesn't look at calories, just proper combinations to create "quick exit" meals. Eating nothing but fruit in the morning is excellent because you get the nutrients, but digest it readily. Eating at night is fine as long is it's combined well and you can digest over night. I just love the book so much and simply changing my food combinations and cutting out most processed foods I lost 16 lbs in 3 months only exercising once a week. I hope you will check it out. She has a website.
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