I haven’t posted for a while but I have been keeping on track with my training and trying not to eat everything in sight.

Since the start of April I’ve been trying to focus on creating a calorie deficit by not eating everything in sight, and training well. (And tracking it all to see what the results are).

Here’s the training I did two weeks ago:

Wk16 – 13 April
Mon: Spin & Deadlift Strength / 47 min walk
Tue: 10k easy
Wed: Rest / 22 min walk
Thu: Spin & Squat Strength / no walk
Fri: 7 x 3:2 mins = 6M / 50 min intervals
Sat: Rest / 37 min walk
Sun: 11M run (3 laps of Bella)

2 weeks ago I did 3 runs of about 22.2 miles, 3 walks of about 1:50, 2 strength & spin sessions and 2 rest days. My runs were good and I was happy with my training balanced with rest and walking.

Food wise (as logged on my fitness pal vs burned cals on garmin) I was -2,465 under calories for the week:

Calorie consumption: 11,220
Calorie burn: 14,031 incl 2,811 of exercise

My sleep was not good, some stuff happened which affected that, but by the weekend I was able to sort it out. It led to my first day where I wasn’t in a calorie deficit since starting – a bit of stress meant I reached for a bit of chocolate or two as I probably thought I needed it.

Work was fine, getting used to working from home now after about 6 or 7 weeks, using zoom and keeping in touch. The sunny weather is helping too.

The outcome of all of that was:

19 April: 137.1lbs – down 3.4lbs
15.7% / 21.5lbs body fat – down 2.7% / 2.9lbs
79.7% / 109.3lbs lbm – down 1.8lbs

Then the following week (last week) I was able to up my training a bit:

4 runs of about 26.7 miles, including 2 easy short ones, a long one and an hour of a hill session at Nithsdale Road. It’s good doing a tough session once a week, I’m really feeling and improvement in my fitness. I should be on track to run 100 miles for April which I’m pleased with.

I did 3 strength sessions, and 2 spin, including an extended one up to 20 mins on Wednesday before strength. Less walking last week – 6.7 miles, but we did a nice long walk on Tuesday morning as my only rest day of the week.

Wk17 – 20 April
Mon: 3.8M run / Spin & AMRAP x6 Strength
Tue: Rest / 68 min walk
Wed: Power Spin (16×20:40) & Clean n Press
Thu: 6.5M incl x16 hill sprints
Fri: 3.3M easy run
Sat: 30 mins KB Strength & Finisher
Sun: 13.1M City Centre Lockdown run

Similar to the week before re calories, must be getting into the swing of things:

Calorie consumption: 11,821
Calorie burn: 14,278 incl 3,139 of exercise

Calorie deficit: -2,457

Sleep was better and I even got some food long sleeps in.

The outcome of all that was – for 4 weeks:

27 April: 134.7lbs – down 5.8lbs
16.2% / 21.8lbs body fat – down 0.8% / 2.6lbs
80.8% / 108lbs lbm – down 3.1lbs (up 1%)

Over 4 weeks it was a calorie deficit of 10,600
= -2,650 calories per week
= down -1.5lbs per week

In terms of food consumption, I had a calorie base of 1,600 intake, and aimed to get way under that with exercise.

I usually ate between 1,350 (rest or less active day) to 2,000 (big training / long run days) calories, but usually got my protein intake to about 30%.

That all led to the weight loss above, and a drop of 3cm off my waist (hips were the same). That’ll do nicely. Although boo, my favourite capris feel a bit loose now. Booo.

It might seem like a lot of data to track and look at, but it shows me that if I focus enough to ave a calorie deficit regularly, it should lead to weight loss. The calorie deficit was done by either exercising, or on rest days, simply by not eating as much. 🙂

The main thing was that it stopped me eating everything in sight whilst on lock down and gave me a focus with my training too. Operation 28 days was a success and I think I’ll keep it going during lockdown to save me eating everything in sight.

Here’s a lunch from the other day – about 300 cals, high in protein and I had some beetroot crisps (150 cals) afterwards.

Although I have been eating half of a pizza for the odd lunch, and sticking to eating between 1,400 – 2,000 cals a day, and still being in a deficit with the training and exercise I’ve been doing (where my base requirement is about 1,600, and my average calorie deficit is about 400 cals per day).

A high protein breakfast keeps me full til lunch and I maybe have an apple for a snack, lunch, then maybe another snack and dinner. With the odd treat if I have calories to spare (or not). And I’m only drinking water and black coffee.

Now here’s the plan training wise for next week:

Wk18 – 27 April
Mon: Rest day after long run / 37 min walk
Tue: 3.3M easy + 35 min walk
Wed: 20 min Spin & KB AMRAP
Thu: Intervals – 5M to get to 100 miles for the month
Fri: Spin & Runners Strength + Walk
Sat: Long run
Sun: Rest

I wonder if I’ll be able to keep it up for another 4 weeks, and what the results will be?