The right and wrong ways to lose weight

The right way = make sure daily calorie intake is roughly 300-500 below expenditure and that the reduced calories does not mean cutting out fruit, veg, lean meats and good fats. The result should be a loss of 1-2lbs a week. Any more and you need more food, any less and you need to man up and eat less. This approach worked well for me and over the last two weeks I've dropped around 3lbs.

The wrong way = get a gastrointestinal bug and lose the same as you lost in the previous two weeks in 48 hours. I'm now out of bed and the light-headedness has stopped, maybe I'll make it outside for a walk too. Don't think they'll be any 100 milers this week.

FWIW, my 2c is that the former is all you ever really need to know about dropping weight. All those multi-page articles (let alone the books with hundreds of pages) aren't really aiding your understanding of weight loss. When input < output you lose weight. It's just a case of getting the balance write. This is something which is unique to every individual and formulas for resting metabolic rate can only ever give you a ball park figure. For example, I've seen various different methods for calculating my RMR and all are off by some margin (i.e. enough to mean my 500 calories less/day is actual not a reduction at all). I'm a tall and big (for a long distance triathlete) guy and the standard calculations give me an RMR of between 2200 up to about 2800. I do not lose weight unless I work on my RMR being as low as 2000. I only know this through trial and error.

Keep a rough food diary, log you calorie needs and sit down with a calculator at the end of the day. Weigh yourself every week at the same time and you'll soon be dropping weight and gaining speed. Just don't try option two, personal experience has also taught me that that is no fun at all.

108 hilly miles: a photo diary

Yesterday was my long ride, the last one of this block. Having nailed myself on Sunday I was a little worried about how I would hold up. Not too well is the answer. These are some of the things I saw.


Wouldn't have got much past half-way without a couple of these, and lots of chocolate!


Sheep!


My new (thank you Blue Seventy!) uber-fast wettie. 4k in an hour? Hell Yeah!


God knows I needed this to wake me up. Also, if you've never tried frozen grapes do, like a refreshing grape sorbet.


The most common view of the day. This was one of the less "pot-holey" segments


One of the photos above is of my brand spanking new Blue Seventy Axis, it rocks! Perfect for leaden legged muppets like myself. It's part of the first care package from the company who I'm delighted to say are supporting me through 2010. My first ever wetsuit was a Blue Seventy bought more than two and a half years ago. It saw me through my first sprint, standard, middle and long distance triathlons and served me well and now, as I try to compete with the big boys, I'm chuffed to be back in a Blue Seventy.

It's now less than 15 weeks to Roth. First proper block done, total mileage ~700 miles with the swimming and running maintained. Much more awaits me after a short rest period, of that I can be sure. Bring it.

Breaking the blogging silence

Wow, nearly a month since I last posted. Less out of laziness and more out of doing nothing of blog-worthy note.

Having finished off my last strength block I topped the scales at a wopping 85kg. The heaviest I have been in years, since 2007 to be precise. My squat was closing in on my best efforts whilst rowing and I've set ~20w PBs for everything up to 1hr in duration on the bike. My swimming still has MILES to go, but it's a significant improvement on where I was this time last year. The run is going surprisingly well considering I'm 5kgs over race weight. I can only assume as the weight drops in the coming weeks so to will the mile splits.

After a few days in London during my rest week it was back to the millstone, and what a millstone it is. When I saw the training load I made sure I had a proper rest week enjoying some of London's cultural delights. Shout outs (see, I'm "with it") to Sarah, Will and Charlie for giving me a bed, 16MS, Mike, Rick, Katy and Penny, for a great day, 3/5 of CGS for the first BBQ of the summer and my usual travel companion Laura for making the intolerable journey to London slightly more tolerable.

This block is a bike focus, this week I've logged just under 20 hours whilst maintaining swimming and running, next week I'll be aiming to break 20. Not only are the hours long but they're pretty damn hard as well. I've hit new PBs for 2hrs and 4hrs and logged my longest ever constant ride of 6:30. For me, this is conclusive proof that all the gym work is paying off. If I can maintain this power and lose 5kgs over the next 12 weeks or so I have high hopes for my Roth bike split.

There is the potential for some exciting news in the coming week but until everything is confirmed I'll keep schtum.

Next week I promise I'll having something to say, and I may even include a picture or two. If you've made it this far, congratulations. Have a choccie biccie, you've earnt it.