BugDude is back, and has a plan

It sounds like you have a reasonable approach with your diet and exercise. Figuring out what is too much for you helps you to set your mileage and frequency appropriately. What is too much changes as your body adapts and your weight decreases so it is always a dance. I started off with short walks a few days a week and now I run every day. I try to build in active recovery with slow short runs and I keep the mileage low in general so I can keep it up long term.

I have the same thought with biking that you do with running. Maybe when I get the weight down bike riding won't hurt my back, but it is a ways down the road for me too.

I'm with dudeitstime on the not overdoing it. I stuck with my exercise because I learned how to hold back. Running every day doesn't sound like that's true, but everyday I have to run so I'll be ready again tomorrow. If I want to push hard one day I have to take it easy the next. It's taught me a lot about balance and moderation and how to listen to my body. To be clear I'm not advocating daily exercise. Just find that balance so you don't get hurt and enjoy the ride.

I look forward to seeing your successes BugDude!
 
OK, back on the bike this morning. Legs and back felt great but I paced myself and didn't really dig hard at it. I had bursts here and there where I increased intensity but for the most part it was fairly moderate.

2/25....8.55 miles....49 minutes....10.5 mph....814 calories

and I managed to work half a candy bar inside my 1500 calories yesterday. So, nothing is off limits as long as I can keep it within limits.
 
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2/26....10.07 miles....53 minutes....10.7 mph....1011 calories

I went after it pretty hard this morning. The first 4 miles were all 11.4 or 11.7 mph but the last six miles were low 10s. A lot of wind this morning and leg fatigue in the later miles. I stretched the time and distance a tad for a weekday, but will do a shorter and lighter day tomorrow.

I'm beginning to see more of a difference in how my clothes fit. I'll be interested in seeing the number at the end of March. I think weighing monthly only helps me focus on what I'm doing and not get hung up on a number.

I'm doing well sticking to my calories and I'm able to work things in I like and don't feel like I'm missing certain things.
 
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2/27....7.13 miles....43 minutes....9.9 mph....575 calories

So I biked this afternoon and just did a light spin. Kept it in low gears doing more rpms but never really pushing hard. I'm planning on longer and harder rides this weekend so wanted to conserve and rest my large leg muscles but didn't want to skip the day entirely. It was difficult to resist the urge to hit the higher gears and pump up the speed.

The nutrition plan is going really well. This evening I cooked and had broiled salmon, boiled shrimp, baked sweet potato, beets, and corn. I had shrimp and grits for breakfast, which was pretty cool. Baked fish and steamed veggies with a salad at lunch. All good stuff that I really like.
 
LaMaria said:
Your food sounds awesome, who wants cheap sugars when they can feast on stuff like that?
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Thanks. I've found that when I eat things like this I can actually eat a huge amount of food in a day and still stay within my 1500 calorie goal. Yesterday I actually found it difficult to hit my 1500. For snacks I eat fat free cottage cheese and fruit and lowfat yogurt. I also really like carrot sticks. I don't eat much bread at all (that's difficult) and very little pasta (also difficult). One of my weaknesses is peanut butter, but when I eat like this all day I can easily work a little PB&J on an English muffin into my plan several days per week.

Another key for me has been using fat free cheese, fat free mayo, low calories salad dressings. You can consume a meal's worth of calories real quick just in condiments.
 
2/28....13.63 miles....76 minutes....10.8 mph....1403 calories

So I went light yesterday to rest up for a longer harder ride today and got up this morning and it was raining. Rained steady all day and the radar didn't look like it was going to let up. Then a little after 4pm it stopped. I got my gear and headed out (packing a rack bag with a rain jacket, drinks, snacks, etc.). I got about 4 miles in and it started drizzling again. So I stopped and put on my rain coat and kept going. I stopped again at 8 miles and ate an energy bar right quick and switched out water bottles. It stopped and started drizzling several times but not bad. I intended to push for 15 miles but I bonked before I hit 14. I went after it pretty hard from the get go and didn't really pace myself or conserve energy for a long ride, so I'm not surprised I hit the wall. My split mile times were

Mile..mph
1 - 11.2
2 - 13.9
3 - 11.3
4 - 9.6
5 - 12.3
6 - 11.6
7 - 10.2
8 - 9.9
9 - 10.8
10 - 9.7
11 - 10.2
12 - 11.8
13 - 10.8
.65 - 8.9
 
3/1....10.19 miles....71 minutes....8.6 mph....946 calories

The whole family went for a casual ride this evening, then my wife and I went on a moderate ride, then I did about 20 minutes of hard riding by myself. It was a nice evening ride and a good way to follow yesterday's hard ride.

We went to crystal river and saw the manatees today and ate lunch at Applebee's. I had a steak and broccoli, entered it in my app and will still be able to stay in my 1500 calories for the day.
 
Nice rides man! 1,500 calories seems really low. I went from 333 to 261 eating 2,300 calories. When I consistently stuck to the calories and ran I was losing 2.3 pounds a week on average. No need to starve.
 
Quercus said:
Nice rides man! 1,500 calories seems really low. I went from 333 to 261 eating 2,300 calories. When I consistently stuck to the calories and ran I was losing 2.3 pounds a week on average. No need to starve.
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Yeah, it's low. Probably too low. Funny thing is I'm eating a lot of food. A lot of grilled or baked chicken, fish, lean ham, lean ground beef, fat free products (FF cottage cheese, yogurt, cheese, mayo, hot dogs, etc.), and lots of sugar free products (coffee creamer, jam, etc), fresh vegetables. I'm not eating fried foods, not much bread, not much pasta. I'm not going hungry at all.

After I get a jump on losing I may up it to 2000 for a while.
 
Please do up your cals. I eat more than you and I'm only 5'4 and weigh 164 pounds and I am losing easily! 19 pounds in 2 months. In fact I should probably up my cals with the exercise I'm doing by a 1-2 hundred.
I entered your numbers into a TDEE calculator (Scooby's Workshop) and it said your BMR is 2672, your TDEE (Total daily energy expenditure) is 4142, and to lose weight nicely it gives you 3313 cals to eat a day. Much more reasonable numbers. If you look at MrVee's calorie count he was always very reasonable with his. No drastically low cals and he's done amazingly. I was always impressed by him not cutting his cals too low. You should at least not eat below your BMR. Don't be afraid of full fat/non low cal foods. Those are easy ways to get your cals up.

Otherwise you look to be doing great on the exercise front and dedication! Keep up the good work!
 
Good eating and great exercise time, way to go. The family ride sounds like it was pretty nice. Probably doesn't even feel like exercise. Easy to get lost in the journey. Keep it up, BugDude.
 
MysticRealm said:
Please do up your cals. I eat more than you and I'm only 5'4 and weigh 164 pounds and I am losing easily! 19 pounds in 2 months. In fact I should probably up my cals with the exercise I'm doing by a 1-2 hundred.
I entered your numbers into a TDEE calculator (Scooby's Workshop) and it said your BMR is 2672, your TDEE (Total daily energy expenditure) is 4142, and to lose weight nicely it gives you 3313 cals to eat a day. Much more reasonable numbers. If you look at MrVee's calorie count he was always very reasonable with his. No drastically low cals and he's done amazingly. I was always impressed by him not cutting his cals too low. You should at least not eat below your BMR. Don't be afraid of full fat/non low cal foods. Those are easy ways to get your cals up.

Otherwise you look to be doing great on the exercise front and dedication! Keep up the good work!
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I agree it's too low. I've been keeping in touch with my Doc (I work at the hospital and see him daily at lunch and he asks me how its going) and when we initially spoke we agreed my BMR should be about 2500. The issue is it's not like I've eaten with reckless abandon for many years. I've always eaten similar to how I do now with the exception of breakfast and breads. I tracked my calories for a while before starting and I was eating roughly 3,000 calories per day and still gaining weight at a disproportionate rate. He tested for thyroid issues (which several of my immediate family members do have and are on medication for) and it was negative. He believes there's something genetic causing my actual metabolism to be significantly below what it should be, including BMR. We're monitoring it and I'm checking blood pressure and pulse regularly. After my March 31 weigh-in I may bump it up to 2,000 for a month and see what happens. Historically I have had periods where I was eating 2,000 per day and walking on the treadmill about 300 cals per day and just maintaining. Mathematically that doesn't make sense, but over a period of 6 weeks that was what it was. Of course, I'm exercising much more than that now and may be able to loose steady at 2,000 intake. I'm going to keep this in mind and adjust it accordingly. My plan is to stretch my bike riding out to longer time and distances and I'm not going to be able to do that if I don't have enough caloric energy to sustain it. With longer rides I will need more calories.

I appreciate the heads up on this. Thank you!!!
 
I suggest buying (and using) a food scale! A person can be drastically off in their calorie counts if they are not weighing all their solid foods and measuring all their liquids. There is a video online of a guy measuring and weighing a cup of oats. The difference between the weighed cup of oats and the measured cup of oats was something like 200 cals!!
 
MysticRealm said:
I suggest buying (and using) a food scale! A person can be drastically off in their calorie counts if they are not weighing all their solid foods and measuring all their liquids. There is a video online of a guy measuring and weighing a cup of oats. The difference between the weighed cup of oats and the measured cup of oats was something like 200 cals!!
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I agree. The conversation with my Doc revolved around my "planning" 1500 calories and based on portion estimations it gave me a 500 calorie buffer to 2,000 in the event I was significantly underestimating measurements. I've gotten pretty good and measuring cups, half cups, etc. but as far as weights I rely on packaged foods (i.e. a 12 oz lean ham steak cut into quarters I know each one is 3oz). Tablespoons of peanut butter I know I'm generous in my estimations, but I also know I've got built in room too. I do need to buy a scale to measure meats for when things aren't weighed in prepackaged manners. Thank you for that advice!!!! It's much appreciated and will help me learn better estimations.
 
On the calorie front, depending on how big you are, you have a little greater leeway on calorie deficits just because your body does have a lot of stored fuel it can go through. But there are real downsides to getting too aggressive, the biggest one being that it's simply harder to maintain. 1500 is almost certainly too low, but that's provided that's how much your actually eating. If you think you're eating 1500 but you're actually consuming 1900, that you can get away with.

I've had a food scale pretty much the whole time. I made sure the platform is big enough to hold everything I'd want to weigh. After a while you just get used to the fact that your plate sits on a scale rather than the kitchen counter. I also just bought a new scale yesterday as my one of 31 months has finally given out.

As always you do have to listen to your body and tell the difference between when it's just being crabby and when it really does need rest or food.
 
3/2....10.08 miles....52 minutes....11.6 mph....1145 calories

I just got back from biking this evening instead of doing it this morning. Great ride, I ended up talking to a good buddy of mine I don't see often on speaker phone while I rode for a while. Very tough to talk and hoof it, but it sure made the miles seem to go by fast.

I'm going to go through what I've had to eat today just as an example of a typical day:

Breakfast
1 large hard boiled egg
.5 cup of oatmeal
.5 cup of blueberries
Lunch
6 oz (or more) of baked tilapia
1.5 Cups diced roasted beets
1.5 Cups diced steamed squash
1 Cup Vegetable Beef Soup
5 White corn tortilla chips
2 Tablespoons guacamole
Dinner
2 Cups Chili (lean beef and beans)
2 Cornbread muffins
Snack (after Dinner and after my ride)
1 Light English Muffin
2 Tablespoons Creamy Peanut Butter
2 Tablespoons Polaner Preserves, Sugar Free

That's a total of 1,489 Calories and a fair amount of food.
 
It'll be very interesting once you get a scale to see how much that actually comes out to calorie wise!
I love when I can distract myself while exercising! It really does help!
 
I like the sound of your meals; tasty, healthy and filling. But I agree that weighing all of it would be interesting calorie-wise.
 
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