Counting calories is definitely not my forte. Almost a month ago, I had my monthly meeting with my trainer. I was due for a new metabolic test...which means said trainer made me run on the treadmill ruthlessly with a crazy mask on. This allows me to figure out what my zones are. I have mentioned before that my runs are dictated by my zones. These would be the zones I'm talking about.
Anywho, with all of the training I have done my zones should have improved. Improvement would mean that my zones would have gotten smaller and/or went up. That was not the case. My trainer stared at the computer screen with a "what the heck" look on her face.
Ok, back track to prior to the test. While setting up my trainer asked my how my nutrition had been. I stated that it had been a bad month. MONTH!, she exclaimed. Yup. I went on explaining to her that I ate great at breakfast and lunch and that by the end of the day I was ravenous and would eat pretty much anything in sight. Of course, she asked how many calories I was eating....and of course, I didn't have a clue. So, she grabbed my Heart Rate Monitor from me and looked through my last two weeks of workouts to see how many calories I had been burning each day. Averaged them out and WA-LA! That is how I started counting calories.
On average I am burning 500-600 calories extra a day. Which means I have to eat 2200 calories a day if I want to lose weight. Say WHAT? Yeah, that's how I felt too. And then the metabolic testing reiterated it by showing that my metabolism had slowed down. She attributed this to my nutrition. She explained that if you are not getting enough calories your body will go into starvation mode, hence no weight loss for muah! She was happy that we do this test every couple of months cause then we caught the 'overtraining' before it was too late. Over training, ha! I love it.
I'm sorry that I can not explain this concept as well as she did but I promise it made perfect sense. Anyway, back to calories. So the first week after that test I wrote down everything I ate and how many calories I was consuming. Wow, I never thought I would say this but I was having a hard time consuming 2200 (healthy) calories a day and that was with adding protein powder to random food. Once I got the general idea of what constituted a 2200 calorie day...I quit counting. Let's be honest that is hard work!
Good news! It is working. I have lost about three pounds since then. I am not feeling deprived. In fact it is quite the opposite. I feel like all I do is EAT! I find that if I don't get snacks in between meals I am scurrying at the end of the night to reach my calorie goal! I have noticed that I don't crave sweets as often. I think it is because I'm always eating so I'm always feeling full. No mindless eating, really.
I'm sorry this became very winded. I have been meaning to blog about it for awhile, hence the copious paragraphs and random tangents. I have about 6 other things I'd like to blog about but unfortunately I have already reached my procrastination quota for the evening.
XOXO,
NMO
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