Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Day 86: I’m Supposed to Eat How Many Calories?

As of today I haven’t lost a large amount of weight and I believe that it is primarily because I have not been eating enough food.  By my count I was eating somewhere between 1800 and 2200 calories a day.  The problem is that I am spending a large amount of energy every day without replacing the nutrients that my body needs in order to burn fat and build lean muscle. 

While I was almost completely convinced that this was the problem my wife had a discussion with her trainer about my dietary habits and she informed me I should be eating somewhere around 3000 plus calories a day.  With my poor eating habits the only way I was going to make sure I ate enough food daily would be to do the one thing that I hate the most in this world: Count Calories.

Not getting enough calories can do all kinds of nasty things to your body.  When your body has been pushed into starvation survival mode it turns to your muscles to get energy.  Why? Well your muscles are expensive, calorically, to maintain and your body is cheap so it cannibalizes them first. 

Next since your body is now feasting on your own muscles and is reducing their mass your testosterone levels will begin to decrease, after all you don’t need it. 

Lastly you sabotage yourself when you leptin levels decrease signaling your brain that you are literally starving to death.  Your body gears down into a low energy panic mode and without thinking your brain forces you to binge on anything available. 

Let’s go full circle back to my diet.  My thought was that I should be consuming around 2000 calories a day but the problem was I was always starving.  After completing a few calorie questionnaires on several different sites it seems I should be around 3300 calories a day. 

To help me make sure I hit my goals I started an account on Livestrong.com and I am using the My Plate section to track what I am eating.  We shall see how it goes. 

Daily Recap:
Matt 30 minutes on the treadmill

Kelly 1 hour with personal trainer 30 minutes on treadmill  

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