Choosing a new maintenance

Updated 11.17.2014; reformatted 8.31.2015
As noted in this piece, I have been considering establishing a new maintenance level. Over the weekend I ran the numbers and did some thinking, and what follows will be the outline of new routine. Or more accurately, what follows is what I will try to establish as my new routine. If I decide I dislike it, then I'll quit. Because the only diet/exercise routine that worth anything is the one to which you'll adhere. If I unhappy, I won't stick with it even if I lose the weight. Life is too short to things you don't enjoy.

The new goal

I have decided that I'd like to see if I can lose another ten pounds. There isn't any health reason to do so, I'd simply like to see if I can do it. Of course, to investigate the numbers I went to my favorite calorie calculator and model at the NIH website.

In round numbers, to maintain my current weight (as I've been doing for the past year or so) I need to eat about 2000 calories per day. This is walking at my treadmill desk while working and running** 3 times a week, also on the treadmill. I am not sedentary.

To get to lose 10 pounds in a year, I will need to eat roughly 200 calories less or 1800 calories. I'm not going to move any more than I do currently. I haven't the time and I haven't the desire. I started running this year because I wanted a way to increase my heart rate on a regular basis. I liked to run when I was younger and so tried it again. I've written about this before.

The way I'll try to lower my calorie intake is by eliminating snacking. In the process of considering this new maintenance, I realized I've gotten back into the habit of grabbing a bit of food through out the day, and that adds up. I've forgotten what it's like to be hungry because I don't let myself get truly hungry. However, I do not intend to start recording calories again.

We're still going to do the 5:2 eating plan, though I think I will try to be a little more conscientious when I do it (I don't pay attention as closely as I should, though I eat lighter on those days and skip the adult beverage.) I think I will use those days as a hedge against over eating on the other days (or over indulging in adult beverages).

I don't over eat at meals, and I usually don't over imbibe. As noted above, I do think it's the snacking that represents calories that could be decreased. I stopped letting myself feel hungry— EVER or practically never. And that's part of the problem. It's way too easy to add calories if you're snacking. Even if they are healthy snacks such as fruits and nuts, which are my snacks of choice.

**My left knee is bothering me today. I tweaked it while running on Friday, and clearly the weekend break was not adequate to heal it completely. I ran on it this morning and should not have. So I may change the running 3 times a week to rapid walking (rapid defined as fast enough to get my heart rate up. I'd walk the same distance I've been running; it will simply take a bit longer to go the distance.

Enabling Obesity Doctors

Dr. Arya Sharma is an obesity management professor based in Edmonton Canada. Dr. Sharma's blog posts tend to irritate me because I think he is an enabler. Dr Sharma allows that calories matter, but weight loss is more complicated than eating too much ore moving too little. The energy balance is too simple of construct to explain obesity. Except that it isn't. Every factor listed as a complication essentially affects the calories out portion of the energy balance.

Apparently even obesity researchers need to be told that the energy balance equation is NOT a linear equation. When you plot calories in vs calories out you DON'T get a straight line— because of factors such as stress, sleep etc.

Bravo Plain Jane!

I tend to skip comments mostly, believing that they most often shed more heat than light. But in this case, I read the three comments left on the post. I want to highlight the comment left by "Plain Jane". Jane rightly calls out Sharma as enabling the obese by pretending that weight is something that can't be controlled. Except in very rare cases of illness, YES. IT. CAN.

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