My approach to exercise and nutrition

Everytime I have looked on my facebook page this week there are new posts about the study on season 8 US biggest loser contestents showed after their extreme exercise and limited calorie intake that their metabolic rate had dropped a average 500 calories for someone of the same age, weight and build. So i thought I would post my opinion on food and exercise (I am not telling anyone to do what I do...but thought I would share)

Firstly, unless you are under doctors supervision or have had weight loss surgery or are very tiny (ie under 5 foot) its my belief that your calories shouldnt need to drop to 1200 calories. I have talked about this for years, 1200 calories is a ridiculous lil amount of food for someone losing weight and exercising. The most ideal situation as i have said previously is to eat as much food as you can whilst losing weight. Why? Cos it is more satisfying so you are more likely to adhere to your plan, it keeps your metabolism working optimally, and it supports your workouts (are you really likely to go do a RPM class if you have barely had any carbs ie energy food that day?)

Personally I follow what is called IIFYM (If it fits your macros) Foods are made up of 3 macros (okay there is a fourth alcohol but thats another topic) Protein, carbs and fat. For every gram of carb or protein its worth 4 calories and for every gram of fat its worth 9 calories. so if you are going to ear 100 grams of carbs (for arguements sake and thats the lowest amount id recommend unless you are doing "keto") so you are eating 100 grams of carbs which are 4 calories each...so 100 x 4 = 400.....so you are eating 400 calories of carbs. The same with the other 2 macros (protein and fat), The most simplest way I believe to do this....is take the weight you want to eventually be and convert it to pounds...so take me....in pounds i would like to weigh 167 pounds. For weight loss you then multiply your "pounds weight" by 12...which equals 2004 calories. So thats the STARTING calories you will eat. So how much protein, carbs and fat?

So for how much protein....i base everything on the "goal" weight....a lot of others base it on your current weight. Now for protein....take your goal weight in pounds and times by 0.8 so for me it would be :

167 pounds ( my goal weight) x 0.8 = 133.6 grams of protein
Which as their is 4 calories per gram of protein....
133.6 grams of protein x 4 = 534 calories

So out of the 2004 calories (lets round this down to 2000), so out of the 2000 calories 534 calories will be used on protein.

Next is fat. So the same thing....take your goal weight but this time multiply it by 0.45
So....167 pounds x 0.45 =  75 grams of fat
Fat is 9 calories per gram....so 75 x 9 = 675
So 675 calories will be used with fat

So we started with 2000 calories....and 675 calories will come from fat and 534 calories will come from protein.
So 2000 calories - 675 calories (calories from  fat) - 534 calories (calories from protein) leaves you with....791 calories.
So 791 calories left and we still have the carbs to work out.
So 791 calories divided by 4 (as there is 4 calories in carbs per gram) = 197 grams of carbs..which personally I would round down to 190 grams

So if you look at that now:
190 grams of carbs
75 grams of fat
135 grams of protein (I rounded this one up)

When I then put those macros into myfitnesspal it gives me a total calories of 1975 calories.

If after a week of doing this i am not losing whatever amount i want to hit (aim for 1% of your body weight) so for me ideally about 1.1 kilos you can then lower your macros.

Here the thing...dont lower your protein. If it was me....75 grams of fat is quite a lot...so i would drop the fat 5 grams firstly, then if no movement you could do a 10 gram drop of carbs. Dont do anything too drastic....remember you want to adhere to this and its not a race.

Eat as much as you can within those macros. Eat healthy fats (avocados, coconut oil, olive oil, nut butters), lean protein and dont just eat grains for your carbs! Get some fruit in, make sure you are eating vegies.Eating this way also allows for treats. Doesnt mean you go eat a pizza everyday but if you are going out for dinner....well you can fit it into your macros.

Do we need to exercise like a demon to lose weight? Short answer is no.

Here is what I recommend for myself. Firstly I like to do 2-3 weight sessions a week. How you tackle this is up to you. It could be body pump classes, could be a program the gym writes you, or a structured program. I dont recommend just "winging" it and jumping on some machines as you want to hit also muscle groups over the week...and you want it to be progressive so you are seeing improvements. I am starting a new workout routine next week. My weight training will be....body pump on tuesday nights, a moderate to heavy weight session in a group PT session on wednesday night and a PT session on saturdays. I really recommend weight training and its especially beneficial if you have PCOS.

Whats the go on cardio? Heres my opinion....while losing weight....try to do 30-45 minutes most days. It doesnt need to be anything major just make sure you are getting your heart rate up. As i am getting my routine back currently i am planning just walking on the treadmill 30-45 minutes. After a few weeks ill prolly add a incline to it and eventually i will build up to running/jogging 60 seconds and walking one minute (i think i am too heavy for that just yet but in time). With my new routine I am going to be doing i am also doing a couple of cardio group training sessions (one is martial arts focused and one is using battleropes, tyres etc) but on top of that i will try and do the occassional group fitness class. (such as cycle/RPM, boxing but other classes you could do for cardio would be things like body combat and body attack)

The only other exercise I would recommend doing is some kind of stretching. You could do a yoga or body balance class once or twice a week (highly recommend this option!) I am hoping to do body balance on monday nights.

Now .... onto other things! I went back to the gym today. Simply did a PT session to start to get back into the swing of things. Tomorrow morning I am planning to go in and simply do 45 minutes on the treadmill. Then after the gym planning to go to target ... I DID buy a new quilt cover today from harris scarfe...so want to go to target to buy some sheets to go with it, a couple of new pillows and some nick nacks for the bedroom. I am lookin for things in mint green and white (i am obsessed with mint green lately)

Tomorrow night I am off to the pub to have some farewell drinks :( Its to say farewell to my old team. My running bare clothes i ordered arrived at work and so one of the guys is going to bring me them tomorrow night :)

I did jump on the scales this morning...they were back up to 127.8 kilos...but i got my cycle this morning so that would be why. Mentally im just not obsessing about food today and i think thats cos i went back to the gym and i think even the new bedroom layout may have helped. Everytime I walk in there now .... it looks like a real bedroom....i love it!