The last two or so weeks I've been very strictly monitoring my diet including keeping a food journal. I hate keeping a food journal. However, keeping that close of an eve on my intake has allowed me to drop back almost to where I was a few months ago (~25 lbs down) before I got lazy. During that time I have been very lax about exercising, having gotten in only one true ride, no runs, and a heap of yard work/activity of daily living stuff.
The next two weeks will be almost the polar opposite.
I have two weeks of travel coming up, most of it for work, and the nature of the trips will limit my ability to control my food choices. The first week I'll be in a fairly small town for a training and doubt that there will be much available, in addition I'm in a standard hotel (as opposed to an "extended stay" style one with a kitchen) which limits cooking options. The following week I'll be traveling to Honolulu for meetings, but won't have a car, which reduces me to joining my colleagues in their food choices or guiding them to mine. What I will be doing is bringing my running shoes (and for the first trip my bicycle) and planning to work out for ~60 min per day.
All in all, it will provide an interesting comparison - which is better for me when it comes to losing or at least maintaining weight: rigorous calorie counting/food choice limitation or exercising?
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
On hydration and being fat
Warning - I will be writing about proper hydration, and as any fitness person knows that means discussing what happens after proper hydration.
I've finally gotten back on track with watching my diet, and as such have seen my weight start heading back down. After a couple of days though I noticed something odd - my body fat % (measured by bio-electrical impedance) was climbing. Climbing at a rate of 1.0 to 1.5% a day. Keeping in mind that my scale reports in 0.5% increments this still seemed like a lot (not to mention odd) so I looked up the impact of hydration (lack of) on this sort of measurement. Short version, the worse your hydration is the higher your apparent body fat %, because it screws with the conductive properties of non-fat body mass.
Since I was already in "fun with Google" mode I decided to see what I could find about "proper" hydration. Sure, I've heard the old "8 x 8 oz glasses per day" thing, but it has always struck me as odd that my wee little friend Pest, who's maybe 5 feet tall in heels and weighs significantly less than I do, would need the same amount of liquid as me. The old stand-by is "clear and copious" urine and I knew I was failing that test, but the closest thing to a formula I found was to halve your body weight in pounds to get the number of oz of water you should drink. A little math gives us:
I've finally gotten back on track with watching my diet, and as such have seen my weight start heading back down. After a couple of days though I noticed something odd - my body fat % (measured by bio-electrical impedance) was climbing. Climbing at a rate of 1.0 to 1.5% a day. Keeping in mind that my scale reports in 0.5% increments this still seemed like a lot (not to mention odd) so I looked up the impact of hydration (lack of) on this sort of measurement. Short version, the worse your hydration is the higher your apparent body fat %, because it screws with the conductive properties of non-fat body mass.
Since I was already in "fun with Google" mode I decided to see what I could find about "proper" hydration. Sure, I've heard the old "8 x 8 oz glasses per day" thing, but it has always struck me as odd that my wee little friend Pest, who's maybe 5 feet tall in heels and weighs significantly less than I do, would need the same amount of liquid as me. The old stand-by is "clear and copious" urine and I knew I was failing that test, but the closest thing to a formula I found was to halve your body weight in pounds to get the number of oz of water you should drink. A little math gives us:
275/2 = 137.5
For comparison - 8 x 8 = 64
So, I need to be drinking not 8 8 oz glasses, but 17.
No wonder my body fat % has been climbing. I've made the effort for the last couple of days, managed to get close to 80 oz each day (and that was rough) and the body fat % has started reversing. Keeping up this level of drinking (water) is going to be tough.For comparison - 8 x 8 = 64
So, I need to be drinking not 8 8 oz glasses, but 17.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
The awesomeness....
On my ride home tonight I was passed by a, dare I say, dapper gentleman (slacks, cardigan, neatly-trimmed grey beard) riding
It was one of those days where my desire to have had a camera in my bike bag was unimaginable. He was moving down the sidewalk in the opposite direction, an older Bell (all white, obvious red logo) on his head looking like he'd stepped out of a college-based coming of age movie.
As I said, the awesomeness...
a unicycle.
It was one of those days where my desire to have had a camera in my bike bag was unimaginable. He was moving down the sidewalk in the opposite direction, an older Bell (all white, obvious red logo) on his head looking like he'd stepped out of a college-based coming of age movie.
As I said, the awesomeness...
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
(Possible) Upcoming solo mini-tour
I've got a class for work near the end of the month that will take me up into the Red Bluff (CA) area. After posting on Bike Forums for some good 2-3 day routes in the area I've come down on doing a loop around Lake Almanor. Sure, it's only a little over 30 miles, but this would be my first tour and it looks like I'll need to carry food with me (not fully loaded, but reserve).
The class is M-Th, so my plan would be to drive over from Red Bluff after the class ends, crash somewhere for the night and leave my truck at the hotel while I do the ride. I plan to finish in 2 days (one night on the road) and would probably stay at the same place after so I can rest before the drive home (3+ hours) which I wouldn't want to do right after the ride.
This would give me plenty of time for the riding and to check out the area. I'm not sure about the terrain, but it looks pretty level. If that's the case and I do the whole 30+ in one day then it will turn into a couple of day trips from the hotel. I would still ride fully loaded and can use it as a chance to check out the bags and get used to the balance of a loaded bike.
The class is M-Th, so my plan would be to drive over from Red Bluff after the class ends, crash somewhere for the night and leave my truck at the hotel while I do the ride. I plan to finish in 2 days (one night on the road) and would probably stay at the same place after so I can rest before the drive home (3+ hours) which I wouldn't want to do right after the ride.
This would give me plenty of time for the riding and to check out the area. I'm not sure about the terrain, but it looks pretty level. If that's the case and I do the whole 30+ in one day then it will turn into a couple of day trips from the hotel. I would still ride fully loaded and can use it as a chance to check out the bags and get used to the balance of a loaded bike.
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