Yesterday I kicked the ‘revised health plan’ off. Because the battery had died on the scales (honest, guv!) I had to guess my weight, but last I weighed myself it was around 84Kg and it’s fairly stable so I’ve assumed 85Kg. I used to measure and record each meal quite accurately into MyFitnessPal, but at some point stopped doing that and started guessing - a mistake.
I’ve a fairly sedentary lifestyle *except* for my running, which - at upwards of 40 miles per week - will have a big impact on calorific needs. However, my ecosystem of health devices - Fitbit, Garmin - and their respective apps all seem to play along fairly nicely and those additional calories get added to my daily allowance. My ‘baseline’ (maintenance) intake, it seems, is 2220 KCal/day, which seems reasonable but doesn’t go a long way when you enjoy your rice and pasta as I do. The danger faced is that eating beyond that number makes assumptions about the actual energy expenditure of my running, which is not an exact science. But, a 7 mile easy run (in just over an hour) seems to burn about 700 KCal, so over the course of the day I ate around 3000 KCal.
I’ve decided not to focus on losing weight at present, as with two marathons to run within the next two months losing weight could dramatically impact my performance (though that’s nothing spectacular). So, maintenance, erring on just a little under (net) seems to be the way to go. A change of job has also robbed me of around 10k additional steps-per-day of walking (due to driving now) so I’m resolved to also go for more walks. And I’m doing 10 push-ups per day, plus two light weight-lifting sessions per week.
All that said, I do need now to look at what I am eating, not just how much energy it provides - I need nutritional balance as well as elevated electrolyte intake - but this is a big positive first step into joining the dots on my holistic health goals...
