So i completed 9 weeks (well, 8.5 if you want to be picky) and was very pleased with the progress.

This plan was to get fit and healthy for my surfing trip in week 10. So here are the numbers of the full 9 weeks. week 9 numbers are only for 3 days. so the first measure was done on 1st Sept 2014 and the last on 29th Oct 2014.

Total weight loss of 8.9kg in 8.5 weeks, so i kept the 1kg a week going. This is all with lowered body fat and increased muscle on a low carb, low Kcal diet.

So what do the numbers tell us? Its hard to know exactly how many Kcal you burn in a day. So if i lost a kg a week i should have a kcal deficit of around 7000kcal per week. if you google number of kcal in 1kg of fat the numbers vary, im taking 7000 as a nice round number which is around what is quoted on most websites.

if i am eating 1650kcal a day on ave with a loss of 1000kcal a day my burnt energy should be 2650kcal. Thats with me doing very little during the day as i am in the office or car (1000-3000 steps) and then a 1 hour gym session in the evening. again with the googling its about 500-600kcal burnt in a 1 hour gym session.

so if i want to maintain my weight i would need to eat 2000kcal on a non gym day and up to 2650kcal on a gym day. Because in the first week i lost a lot of weight due to eating less and my body getting rid of excess weight I prob only lost around 7kg in the 9 weeks. So i might modify these numbers to 1900kcal and 2500kcal.

But thats if i was gona maintain….as if!

Avoid food! dont keep crap food around the house!

Log your food. it may be annoying sometimes but its far, far easier to stick to a Kcal limit if you have a food diary.

Eat similar things every day – its makes the food diary a lot easier. Some people need a lot of variety, but consistency makes life, or dieting, a lot more simple.

Stick to the 3 shake timetable. One at 10am, one at 1pm and one at 4pm. Gym early evening and then main dinner straight after.

Sometimes I have had my first of 2nd shake later and its got to 5pm and i have though i didnt need the final shake. i could save a few calories etc. but it just made me tired at the gym and then more likely to eat too much at dinner.

Choice of restaurant; if eating out (cant hide away forever), pick a restaurant that suits. For me its been either a meat orientated restaurant like a Brazilian where its all meat and salad bar. easy to avoid chips, bread, pasta and potatoes. Or my top choice which is Japanese (not everyones cup of tea I know!). But it is all pretty healthy, you have to eat slowly and even if you eat a lot the Kcal dont add up to that much. The only thing outside of my normal diet there is a limited bit of rice.

Measure something every day. Whether its Kcal in vs Kcal out, body fat, weight, muscle circumference, how many push ups or chin ups you can do. You have to see those results somehow or at some stage you think “why the hell am i doing this?” and there is no solid answer in front of you. Seeing those body fat % drop and the muscle % increase on my results table is satisfying. before, during and after photos may help too. I have taken some but it takes months before you really see a difference so at the start it can backfire and look like not much has changed and de-motivate you.

You cant be perfect, somethings give occasionally, i am doing so well but i have slipped in one way and thats diet soda, I have been drinking diet caffeine free coke and tonic etc with the evil sweeteners in it. i hate that i have had to resort to it but it has really helped keep me on track as its a sweet taste. Hopefully i can give it up again once i have changed my diet for gaining rather than cutting.

im sure i will think of more but thats what i have so far……

So, 6 weeks completed of this latest health kick! Feeling good but still hungry!

I have seen a noticeable change in how i look, much more lean and the belly is getting less and less. my limbs are looking more toned as well.

I have kept the regime going, the diet has not wavered apart from one day that i had 3 pints of beer as i was at Wembley watching the NFL but i was still within my Kcal allowance.

My exercise has fluctuated a little bit from week to week. Week 3 had only 4 days of exercise but then that was followed by 8 days straight of gym over week 4.  Week 5 I managed 5 days of gym and then the worst week was the last with only 3 days of activity. I rested more that week as there was the 12k survival of the fittest challenge to get through. This was successful although my knees still dont like anything past 10k. Being away for work during the week has been difficult, i do much better at home when i can go to H3 gym. I see week 7 being average on the activity front but then picking up for week 8 and 9 before the surfing holiday.

The numbers……..now in table format………

Body numbers:

Weight: my first target milestone was 82kg, this gets me down to where i have ended up after each previous health plan, but i have never really gone past it.

Fat loss: 2.4% off my lower half and 2.7% off my heavy top half. the numbers are going down nicely.

Body muscle: this is important, i need the fat loss to decrease but not the muscle levels, its good to see a slight increase in muscle even though the Kcal have been low.

Body water: % has increased steadily. I am never dehydrated these days!

Bone density is increasing as my body gets used to the intense gym sessions.

Diet numbers:

Kcal: maintained a good deficit but the trend increases slightly each week.

Protein: keeping that high as the main body of my diet is meat and protein shakes….nom!

Fat: trying to keep this high as it is my main source of energy but its actually quite difficult to increase any more. im already eating fatty meat, oil on the salad and fat based flavour in the shakes.

Carbs: as low as i can go. main source is xylitol and almond milk in the shakes but at lease its mostly other carbs than sugar. I am eating no carbs, no bread, pasta, rice, potato etc.

Conclusions so far:

It took a good 4 weeks for my body to get used to low carbs and using fa as the main energy source.

The last 2 weeks i have not felt as weak and the mood swings have dropped off (mostly).

The hunger has been manageable up until now. I want to get week 8 finished before i up the Kcal but my body is really starting to push back now with the cravings. If i dont keep myself busy food is all i can think about.

My body has felt light and comfortable, the numbers are all going in the right direction so i would like to keep this up but i dont think i should continue such a low Kcal intake past 8 weeks.

Future plans:

Week 9 i will add in a food, probably during the day to increase the Kcal. I have not decided what yet, maybe a protein bar or another shake, duno, i will think on it.

week 10 is surfing so that is at least 4 hours of surfing per day which is heavy exercise. Food will be carb based and plent of it. add in a few beers here and there and my body is not gona know what hit it. I am not going to limit my diet as i will be using so much energy, it will be an active holiday but a holiday from my diet too. The home cooked meals at the surf lodge will be relatively healthy so its not like im pigging out on fast food all week!

Once i am back from holiday i plan to continue where i left off in week 9. back to diet with an average of 2000kcal and back to H3 gym as much as possible.

2 meat starters, a meat main, a salad side and cheese for afters. Stuffed my face and I’m losing weight. Marvellous.

And the different exercises every day is keeping it fresh….

But gota get the heavy weights in as much as possible….

And it cannot be done without the snoozle team cheering me on…

It’s all about the flame grilled…..

Nom. Win.

So the dreaded week 2 is over!

I always find week 2 the hardest, keeping the numbers going in the right direction after such a good start week.

Usually motivation drops slightly and hunger takes hold.

But I have experienced a good week in numbers but a difficult week for other reasons. I keep hearing that rejecting junk food is like a drug withdrawal and the side effects can be similar, with losing carbs almost completely this may be full on. Half way through the week i was quite moody during the day, work was difficult anyway but there was a lot of anger building. Then I’d get over that with the evening work out but then depression after my evening meal would take hold.

This lasted a couple of days from Wednesday till Friday. Then all seemed fine and i started feel much much better, i think my body is getting used to the lack of carbs and using fat for energy most of the time. I am still quite tired but that’s expected as my calories are still very low, but i feel positive in this last day of the week and ready for week number 3!

EXERCISE

Week 1 exercise schedule in brief:

• Monday: Rest Day
• Tuesday:  cardio 1 hour hurricane class at H3 gym
• Wednesday: Weights at home
• Thursday: 1 Hour Cardio weights at H3
• Friday:  2 hour weights class at H3 gym
• Saturday: Cardio 5k Parkrun at forest fields with a jog there
• Sunday:  1 hour Hurricane cardio class at H3 gym

FOOD and Nutrition

Week 1 food schedule in brief:

Continuing my low carb diet the same as week 1. Leafy salad and meat and/or eggs after 3 protein shakes during the day. Targeting around 1500Kcal. This should give me between 1000-1500Kcal deficit per day. This should target a fat weight loss of 1-1.5kg per week.

Kcal per day:

• Average of 1589 Kcal
• Ranging from 1406 Kcal to 1794 Kcal

The lower range was sticking to the plan and the higher range days added in a number of pieces of meat (bbq)

Average food makeup per day:

• Carbs 53.7g (10g Sugar)
• Fats 89.6g
• Protein 149.1g

Food timings:

• 10am shake
• 1pm shake
• 4pm shake
• Meal between 6 and 8pm

RESULTS

Over the 7 days here are my stats:

• Weight: Decreased by 1.5kg
• Upper body fat: Decreased by 1.4%
• Lower body fat: Decreased by  2.2%

Week two was on the upper range of my target fat loss with 1.5kg. This is what I would like to keep up every week. I am very happy with that result considering how difficult the mid week was mentally.

Week three is going to be slightly different. I am away with work for two nights so i am going to do two hotel gym sessions on the treadmill sandwiched in between two home weights sessions. I would hope to do the gauntlet training session at H3 on Friday again like this week. It was 2 hours of hard work. the twelve days of xmas style workout routine. although keeping count was the bit i failed on!