Counting Calories 2

On April 5th, 2011, I was given a goal. I was told to lose 20 pounds before my blue belt testing on June 17, 2011. At the time, it seemed like a daunting task. I've never actually dieted before, simply using more exercise to reach my weight loss goals.

This morning, April 29, 2011, I reached that goal. I can hardly believe how quickly and easily I've lost this weight. Everyone has been asking me what I'm doing differently and, to be honest, the best way to describe it is that I'm on the "eat less and better" diet. No one likes to hear that.

Simply put, I've almost entirely cut breads, pastas and potatoes from my diet. I've severely limited sugars, occasionally allowing myself ONE really sweet thing every few days. I've counted everything I've eaten or drunk, without limitation. I've weighed myself every day to see the trends in how my eating different types of foods encourages and discourages weight loss.

If I could stress one thing the most, protein. With the work outs I'm doing, my body craves proteins. Every calorie dedicated to protein is pretty much a calorie that will never survive, being used almost immediately for the recovery of my muscle after work outs.

Anyway, I'm done....with the goal, but I'm not done with this new diet. It's something that I can easily sustain for a while, so I'm going to keep it up until June 17, just to see what I can lose. Then I'll think about moving my calorie intake up to a maintenance level.

Counting Calories

So, I'm testing for blue belt in June of this year. It's been a long journey to this point, but in the grand scheme of things, it's really been such a short time.

Anyway, my coach called me over one Tuesday night after sparring and said "Step on this scale." The scale read 270. He said "I want it to read 250 for when you test in June. I think you can do it, if you try. I think that will give you the best chance of succeeding here."

He said some other very helpful things about watching what I eat, my future at the school and was generally helpful and complimentary.

So, I immediately came home and set up a spreadsheet to count my daily calorie intake, did research to figure out my target calories per day, my weight loss goals, etc. I've discovered a few things about myself and about calorie counting.

First, my meals are actually very reasonably made, with a fairly good selection of meats, vegetables and fiber. The only issue with my meals is that I eat too much and, when in a time crunch, I eat fast food....which really should just be called fat food. Second, I snack way too much, accounting for nearly half of my calorie intake a day. I'm watching my portions now and considering my choices a bit more I've also limited my snack consumption by forcing myself to drink more water and use those pathetic 90-100 calorie packets. It's actually odd, but they make me snack less, because I don't feel it's worth it sometimes to have to add 100 calories to my daily tracker, just to eat one of them.

I've also worked my way up to two kettle bell and body weight exercise/BJJ movement exercise sessions a week, so fill the void from Wednesday to the next Tuesday (my wait before getting to go back to a BJJ class).

While this is something I've never done before (consider what I eat), I can easily see that it is the most important part of weight loss. I've lost 6 pounds in a week from something as simple as paying attention to what I put in my mouth. I had always counted on exercise before, and when I hit a plateau, I would say "well, I can't exercise any more...I don't have the time." Eating right is something I can easily do. Especially considering that, as I reach my target weight, I can indulge on occasion, because I have my exercise regimen to keep me balanced.

I think this is the most significant step I've made towards competing next year in the Pan Ams. While I still plan on fighting in the absolute weight class, I'd like all my weight to be useful muscle mass and not fat. Now, I just have to get through Thanksgiving and Christmas....ugh.