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Wednesday 4 March 2009

I love to eat

Weight : 14.3% ~ 8.58/51.42 = 60.0 kg
Training : Chest + 20 min run
Time : 1 hour 23 min ~ Calories : 525 ~ AHR : 116 bpm (66%)
Next target : 3 April : 11.8% ~ 6.80/50.8 = 57.6 kg

Last night I came dangerously close to a binge. I never know when to stop once I start eating carbs -- I could just keep eating and eating. I ended up having 200 calories more than I planned with some sugar free oatmeal cookies and an extra skinny cow. In hindsight I should have spent those calories on oats and protein powder instead ...

I am proud that I stopped at that extra meal and that I continued to log everything. Trust me, it could have been a hell of a lot worse.

I honestly feel sometimes that I am getting nowhere. I work so hard in the gym and limit myself to a measly 1400 calories a day [possibly lower than my BMR] 6 days out of 8. The fat should be melting off me but it is not.

I read an interesting article about eating clean vs. eating what you enjoy. It seems that for some people it is better (i.e. prevents bingeing) to eat what you love as long as you keep to your calorie targets and get enough protein.

I soon found that in theory, a calorie is just a calorie. If calories can be controlled, it doesn’t make an iota of difference as to what effects they will have on body composition. When I say calories I am more so referring to energy calories such as carbohydrates and fat. Of course protein is required to maintain lean body mass, but once a certain minimum of protein is met, the other calories are simply used for energy.

I began controlling my calories but allowing myself to eat the foods I was craving more often. For instance instead of a boring chicken breast and brown rice I had a few slices of pizza and then a protein shake to meet my protein requirements. For breakfast I would eat the same amount of carbs in the form of sugary cereal as opposed to plain oatmeal. I did this for a couple of months to gather my thoughts and collect data. What did I discover? Food choices do not make a difference at all as long as calories are controlled. A calorie is a calorie. I also lowered my meal frequency to about 2-3 meals a day instead of 6-8. This allowed for better satiety with each meal. I found that I no longer had the urge to binge anymore.

Read the whole article at JCD Fitness

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for this. It's a very interesting article. I tend to think along these lines as well. The six meals thing as never worked for me.

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  2. I have a close friend who manages to make this type of eating work for her as well Katie. She eats WHATEVER she wants as long as she sticks to her kj limit for the day. She never feels deprived and never binges.
    It is certainly something to consider if you are just a normal person (like me)but I am not sure how it would work for a comp girl?

    Thanks for another thought provoking blog :) and congratulations on controlling the binge urges!

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  3. Anonymous6:49 pm

    Katie, thanx for sharing my article.

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  4. Hey Katie,
    well done on keeping a lid on the carb monster. I'm exactly the same.
    Have you considered upping your cals for a couple of cycles. You're working really hard, it's possible that the whole g-flux thing has kicked in and you need more calories.

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