Sunday 10 July 2011

Update #4 ... Eating Habits vs Swine Flu vs Mickey Dee

Let me start with saying that at least I don't have the dreaded H1N1 but it sure as hell feels like it. Started feeling a bit under the weather by Tuesday and by Wednesday it had developed into a full blown case of whatever flu is running rampant these days. Under the circumstances I think I did quite alright and didn't give into the temptation of feeling sorry for myself and go into a eating frenzy (which is usually the case whenever I feel sorry for myself) ... Not until today that is.

I feel like such an idiot but after 5 weeks of dieting and convincing myself that all the fruit and veggies in the world isn't good for surviving a bout of flu, today I fell into the temptation of a McDonald's double quarter pounder with cheese ... maybe it's a blessing in disguise because not only did it satisfy the craving I had slowly but surely been developing over the past week or two but once I finished the damn thing it made me realize how disgusting McDonald's actually is ... fuck, it actually makes me nauseous just thinking about it so believe me I definitely won't be having anything as drastic in the very near future!!! Maybe a choppie or two might sway my hard fought for convictions but I'll try my best.


Luckily my lapse in concentration also came in after my weigh in session yesterday which saw me pushing the scales just past 170kg ... 171.3kg to be exact. That would make my total weight loss 14.9 kg in 5 weeks (but having had the stupid McDees today probably wiped out everything I accomplished over the past week ... only time will tell) All of this does sound fantastic but I am slightly concerned that everything is going to fast. According to the guys over at Fat 2 Fit Radio, weight loss of up to 1% of body weight per week is acceptable for the massively obese (or up to 1kg per week for you normal skinny people) otherwise you stand a very good chance of not only losing fat or water mass, but muscle mass as well which is terrible for your metabolism in the long run. Looking at my starting weight this means I can safely loose 1.7 - 1.8 kg per week (or 9kg over 5 weeks which makes 15kg look a bit worrisome) Not only does muscle burn more calories than fat but loosing weight too quickly may also lead to your body switching to "starvation mode" which stops any weight loss that may be going on and also start the body to store anything consumed as "fat" just in case it doesn't get any food in the near future. All of this basically leads to the typical diet yo-yo effect. Anyway, enough of the scientific stuff, I'm not an expert ... if you need a more info head over to Fat 2 Fit Radio where they will explain everything in detail.

So, there you have it, this week's update. Just one last thing before signing off , I have calculated that my average daily intake is definitely below my BMR which isn't a good thing so over the coming weeks I'm going to try to tweak my diet a bit to contain a little more calories just so that I can keep my weight loss in the safe zone (obviously something else that one can to do to keep muscle mass stable is to start an exercise routine but honestly with the flu and winter and me being a lazy ass that won't happen very soon). Talking of exercise, I know walking around the block is a cheap and effective way to get started but let's say for arguments sake that I'm interested in buying aerobic equipment, be it a stationary bike, an elliptical trainer, a treadmill or even a rowing machine, they are all mostly designed for small people!!!! Bloody hell, all the locally manufactured (and affordable) Trojan equipment has a weight limit of 110-120kg which makes them pretty useless for really fat people. The imported, commercial exercise machines with maximum weight capacities in excess of 150kg all cost in the region of R20,000 - R30,000 ... please allow me to repeat, BLOODY HELL!!! Just another excuse for me not to start exercising!

This coming weekend I have plans to go away for the weekend (to a lovely bushveld retreat) so I won't really have a chance for a weigh in but I'll still try to do an update next week Sunday. (for what it's worth)

Cheers

4 comments:

  1. NOOOOO, I cant believe you had that Mc Donalds burger...Bad Boy!!! But ok, it's a new week, new focus. Oh and by the way I'll be watching you this weekend... :-) Well Done Burkie, keep up the good work...

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  2. You need at least R30 - R76k to buy a decent elliptical that will last long enough . . . cycles makes your bum hurt - not in a good way . . . walking seems the best option (tried that, did not last) . . .

    Keep up the good work!!

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  3. Tell me about it!!!

    Actually saw a nice one for 23k but for that price I'll rather buy a 55" LCD TV thank you very much.

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