Sunday, January 11, 2015

Breaking Even


I have really been working on my nutrition the last several weeks, reading up on things like racing weight, carb loading, race nutrition, and caffeine fasting (yikes!)

When it comes down to it, weight and exercise turn into energy equations.

I have learned that my basal metabolic rate (BMR), the number of calories your body burns just by existing everyday, is 1295 calories. You can figure yours out HERE.
After figuring out your BMR, you can add calories depending on how active you are daily.

One pound equals 3500 calories so in order to lose a pound of weight you need a 3500 calorie deficit... so say you want to lose a pound in a week, you would need to burn 3500 more calories than you consume or have a 500 calories energy deficit per day.

That being said, I also learned that theoretically, I can improve my marathon time by 15 minutes with no change in fitness by losing 10 pounds. Why? Because losing that weight means your body can use the same amount of energy it used before to propel your mass that much faster.

Anyway, one of my goals have been to lose 10 pounds before race day. I'm halfway there.

Another thing I've learned is counting carbs. For my daily exercise activity level (average 60 minutes a day) I need 5 grams of carbs per kg weight. For me that's 295 grams. I have always said that I've never met a carb I didn't like. Still true. What is tricky is getting enough carbs without having the daily calories skyrocket.

When I first started watching my nutrition I just worked on being more conscious about what I put in my mouth - more veggies, fruit, and whole grains. Avoid anything fried. I have even, gasp, cut back on the Diet Coke and started drinking sparkling water instead - really, I think I'm addicted to the carbonation.

This week I've actually started writing down and tracking my calories and carbs, getting my numbers from either the food packaging or www.calorieking.com for the nutritional information... and I've come to a conclusion - fast food can really kill your numbers...

It was an eye opener. Yesterday we were replacing the garbage disposal in my kitchen. The water was turned off, the power was off for a time, and my husband had a whole collection of tools all over the kitchen floor. We took a break to make another home improvement store run and decided to pick up dinner at Panda Express.

I usually get the same thing every time I go to Panda Express - a Panda Bowl of Beijing Beef with chow mein noodles. I looked up the nutritional information before we went and had a heart attack...
Beijing Beef: 690 calories, Chow Mein: 490 calories
That's a whopping 1180 calories! Time for me to find a new favorite dish at Panda Express. Also turns out that the Beijing Beef is the highest calorie item they serve, go figure. I ended up with the Black Pepper Chicken at 200 calories with steamed white rice (380 calories) for 580 calories.

Today, I didn't fare as well. I took my daughter and her boyfriend to Steak'n Shake and ordered what I thought would be a nutritious meal: Chili 5 Way - It's chili over noodles with extra beef, chili sauce, cheese and onions. I've been short on carbs all week. I figured it would be a nutritious high carb meal. Unfortunately I didn't look up the nutritional information until after I ate it.

Chili 5-Way: 1170 calories!!!  99 grams of carbs
Well, at least I guessed right on the carbs.

I give myself 100 calories burned for every mile I run. That means I'd have to run 11.7 miles to burn off my lunch. 11.7 MILES TO BREAK EVEN ON LUNCH! Luckily, I had a 13 mile run today but think about it... how many other people had a Chili 5-Way today and then went home and sat on the couch? Think about all the people that consumed about half their daily caloric intake in one dish then didn't burn it off. And that's just the chili. I drank water. If you had a shake, like I sometimes do, a vanilla milkshake is 610 calories. It's no wonder obesity is an epidemic in this country!









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