"Donal Fagan" <Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:DaKitty' Dak said:Oh, another thing, I'm down to wearing size 8 pants. I was 12 at week 1.
Sounds better than the Atkins diet. Have you changed your food intake during that time, or is it
all burning calories?
I'm trying to watch what I eat, loosely based on the zone diet and calorie counting. It says at this
activity level I need about 135g of protein, so I try to take in minimum that much (I have a
tendency to carbo-load, and neglect protein). The rest of the calories are mainly carbs. I try to
stay away from a lot of fat, but I'm not adamant about non-fat. I kind of figure there are
incidental hidden fats I'll take in with protein and carbs, probably as much as 15 or 20%, I hope
not more than that.
I looked up the zone recommendation for caloric intake, and for my height and weight and activity
level (actively training-swimming at least medium intensity for an hour to hour and a half per day),
they recommend 1900 calories a day. For me, right now, that's actually pretty hard to take in.
My typical day is, I eat a Luna bar (or half of it) with a liter of water on my way to the swim
practice at 4:30 AM. Another liter of water during practice... 5-6, or 5-6:30 AM...
Around 9 or 10 AM I have a protein shake, about 40g of protein, 10g of fat (coconut) and the rest is
carbs, around 400 calories. Then I snack on lowfat cottage cheese couple of times during the
workday, totaling about 2 cups. Cottage cheese is roughly 44%protein 45%carbs and some fat. I allow
myself on 150 calorie piece of chocolate with hazelnuts every day (NO, I will not give up
chocolate).
Then an early dinner, usually a 10 oz piece of meat or fish, some veggies, some complex carbs.
Since swimming, I feel like my stomach has shrunk some, so it's hard to eat too much, and I'm kind
of making a half ways effort to pick healthier stuff, but I'm not being strict by any stretch of the
imagination. The workouts, I wouldn't be surprised if I burn close to a 1000 calories per workout.
I'm pushing it really hard. Also, one needs to keep in mind that for maybe 2 years prior, and
definitely a year prior to this I was completely sedentary, so someone who has already been swimming
a while may need to make different adjustments.
I'm not big on the Atkins diet. Long term, a lot of protein can damage your kidneys. Short term
dieting doesn't really work well. I'm a pro when it comes to dieting... about 12 years ago, when I
was 22-23 I was about 90lb overweight. Took about 10-11 months to lose that, and I've kept it off
ever since with maybe 10-30 lb fluctuations, which I consider normal and to be expected for me. To
me, for the most part it really boils down to calorie counting.
Oh, yea, with Adkins diet and the 'all the protein and fat you want"... that really doesn't work for
someone with an eating disorder (like me, if I get too relaxed, I'm prone to overeating and
emotional eating). give me cheesecake (protein and fat), and I'll inhale 6000 calories... well, that
will *not* make anyone (who is not muscle bound) lose weight, no matter what combination it is
ingested in.
I am (and people who know me) are noticing muscle mass increase, and body fat decrease. especially
last week or so, I really feel like I can hardly eat enough, and I seem to notice positive changes
almost every few days. I still have some to go. At my fittest, I fit in a size 2-4 pants, and for my
shoulders, 6-8. Like a clothes-hanger 😉 I get told I have swimmers build. Wider shoulders, narrower
bottom. We'll see if that helps my swimming any.
huh, sorry this got long... Good night 🙂 Way past my bedtime now. It's 10, and I have to be up at 4
AM for swim practice. Yikes.
