So, if you read my normal ‘blog’, you’ll probably be wondering why I called this one Stormvixenmk2…?
Well, basically, it’s twofold. Firstly, it’s to keep all the posts I plan to make on here separate from the main blog, and secondly, Stormvixen MkII is kinda what I’m hoping to become through this.
See, now that I’m in Sheffield, and (mostly) moved in, it’s time to make those changes that I’ve been talking about for a while, and also getting on with some of the stuff in the 101 things…. One of which being to lose some weight. So, yesterday, I signed up for the gym. The gym in question is a new one, opening in March, at the Tesco just outside of town, so within walking distance of work, leaving me not so much on the excuses side of things for not going. ( http://www.puregym.com ) in case anyone is interested as to which one it is. It’s not contracted, so I can cancel when I want, although the only reason I see that happening aside from financially, is if swimming takes over as the sole paid for fitness things I do.
So, what’s my plan?
Well, it’s two-fold, and very simple. Diet, and Exercise. 😛 Specifically, eat less, and do more. Not rocket science by any means, but how I’m going to do this is something a bit different to previous things I’ve done. Been doing a bit of research over the last month as to the best way to look at stuff, and was also inspired by The Hairy Bikers’ – ‘The Hairy Dieter’s’ series.
The first thing I needed to do was work out my Basal Metabolic Rate – i.e. the amount of calories I burn a day innately – i.e at rest. That works out to be 2305, so, as long my daily intake is less than this, then I should lose fat, as the body will burn it’s fat stores to get to this figure.
However, now for the science part! 1lb of fat, is 3500 calories, so to lose 1lb of fat a week, my deficit over the week, needs to be this, and upwardly multiplied. On a weekly basis, I want to be losing at least 2lb a week, but lb2 is my goal, which means a deficit of 7000 calories a week in order to burn those extra calories. My weekly BMR equates to 16135kcal, which if I was looking at diet alone, would mean that my weekly intake would have to be 9135kcal/weekly, or 1305kcal a day. Which isn’t actually impossible, however I want to also get my general fitness back up, so, instead, by setting a daily limit, and adding in some exercise to this, I still reach my deficit, because exercise burns the calories IN ADDITION to the BMR.
By allowing myself 1500kcal per day, this gives me weekly calories taken in of 10500, which means, if you detract 9135 from that, that I need to be doing enough exercise to burn at least 1365kcal per week (195kcal a day), which is an easy target to start with, bearing in mind, that as I lose weight, my BMR will decrease, so the exercise will need to increase to achieve the same rate of weight loss.
To keep a track of what I’ve done, I plan to use http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc to calculate to make sure I’m doing enough, but for example today, I walked to Morrison’s and back, with my dad, on his scooter, at somewhere between 2-3mph, and was walking for around 45mins in total. That walk, will have burned 318 calories (probably plus a few more as was carrying weights coming back) so that’s my daily amount done. 50 mins of moderate swimming, will burn 772 calories – half the weekly allowance!
So, my basic plan is this: Have an allowance of 1500kcal/day, with at least 200kcal worth of exercise being done as well. http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/lop will help me to work out some examples of things I could do to equate that – this chart gives the number of minutes needed to burn 3500kcal – obviously, I take that number, and divide it by 17.5 to give the amounts needed for 200kcal, for example: walking at 3mph will need 315mins to burn 3500kcal, but only 18mins to burn 200kcal.
The thing I like about these links is also the fact that as my weight goes down, I can just reinput according to the new weights to recalculate, for example, if I lost 30lbs, then I’d need to walk for an extra 2mins, to achieve the same amount of calories burned.
So, that’s the science and exercise done with. On to the diet:
I bought myself the Hairy Bikers cookbook, which is interesting, as they actually add a calorific value to the portions that they cook, which the only other book I’ve seen to do that is an Ainsley Harriott one (which I also have) so am going to use some of the recipes out of there to make sure I’m still eating good food – because I am, unfortunately, one of these annoying types who likes to use all her senses when it comes to food, so if it doesn’t look good, or smell good, then I won’t enjoy it. So basically, mixing and matching things from there, along with other things, to make up my daily allowance MINUS 150 calories. And those calories go towards a half pint of semi skimmed milk- for coffee/tea/cereal. That way, nothing sneaks up on there. The main rule I’ll be looking to adopt as well, is low carb, as this will encourage fat burn to be more effective.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be keeping a log as to how I’m doing regarding my immediate, short, medium and longer term goals, as well as the meals I’ve made, and what I’ve been doing. Hopefully a little bit more interesting than a straight log!
So as for the goals, my immediate one, is to achieve 2lbs a week weight loss. Short term is to lose 20lb, medium is to lose 50lb and longer term will stay private to me!! 😛
We can rebuild her... make her faster, stronger... 