The long awaited and much anticipated Part 2 of this two part series is finally here! I know you all have been waiting for this moment, constantly checking for updates. Well here it is!
I can proudly say that I have been sticking with the diet and as far as I know it is working out great. I have not tested my resting metabolic rate (aka RMR) yet, but I will probably do that tomorrow morning. We will know then for sure. Before that, though, I have not had as much of a problem with my "fake hunger" as I was before. Right after my last post I went on the diet (which is actually called the Paleo Diet, forgot to mention that earlier), and was very strict about it. I decided that I would be very strict for about 2 weeks, test myself again and see where I stood. The holidays are coming up, and even though I said I would stick with the diet through Thanksgiving, I have a mind to not be so strict anymore. There is just too much good food out there, and too many people who know how to prepare it! Besides, food is meant to be enjoyed, right?!? Anyway, I was very good about the diet, went two weeks and was about 90-95% strict with it. In that short amount of time, I have more or less noticed my body fat % going down. And this is to the naked eye, so that's when I felt like this change in diet was working the way it is supposed to. Using my crude, yet technologically advanced, body fat analyzer I confirmed that I appeared to be losing some fat. Along with some weight, but that was the goal anyway.
I also tried calorie counting. This lasted one day. I am such a lazy person that I could not get myself to sit down and count all the stupid calories from the food log I was keeping. However, that one day told me so much. It basically told me I was NOT EATING ENOUGH! No wonder I was hungry. I calculated out my calorie needs for one day, and on average I need roughly 3500 kcals per day to cover for all that training and what not. Well, I was significantly below that amount. I looked back at what I was eating, and realized that I should probably eat more than 3 times a day...go figure. So, since then I actually eat something in the mornings (gasp), and I will also eat a couple of servings of fruit and/or trail mix (nuts and berries only) in between breakfast lunch and dinner. Dinner is my major meal of the day, and my primary source of meat, mmm hmmm! But adding those small meals every couple of hours really gets me through the day. I have more energy during the entire day, they help me stay awake and alert, and I feel good eating them!
The real test will be tomorrow, I will have to do a supplemental post tomorrow after my test.
Since I told you I would try and teach you some Exercise Physiology, I wanted to inform you on what really is metabolic efficiency. In a nut shell, metabolic efficiency is a how well our bodies utilize energy. It can also be seen as how well our bodies use oxygen, but energy is the main thing we're after. When we exercise our body is getting it's energy from 2 primary sources, and sometimes 3. Those two are fats and carbohydrates. The third is protein (yes, your body will eat itself if you do not give it what it needs...). Carbohydrates are the easiest thing for our bodies to break down, and they give us 4 kcals of energy per gram. Fats, on the other hand, give us 9 kcals per gram! It doesn't take an exercise physiologist to realize that we would rather get our energy from one gram of fat than carb, since we are getting twice the energy for the same amount. This is what I am doing. I am trying to tell my body to burn that fat, rather than those carbs. And, not only during exercise, but also during resting or everyday life! As an athlete it is very important to always have some source of energy. Since carbs are the easiest to break down into energy, the body will use them up quickly. BUT, if my body knows that it can burn fat than it will save my carb stores for later.
As exercise intensity increases, the rate at which we use carbs as energy increases (wow, that sounded like it came straight from a textbook...stupid PhD...). So, not only do I want to get my body to burn fat first, I want it to burn fat while exercising at a certain intensity. The faster I can run and still burn fat, the more energy I will have, and more importantly, the more energy I am saving for the end of the race when I sprint to finish!
That is the basics on why I am changing my diet. The hard reality about it, is that I can't just do the Paleo Diet for two weeks and go back to eating whatever I want. Its a complete lifestyle change, which is never easy. I decided, however, that when I became more efficient while being strict, I would allow myself to reintroduce complex carbs (i.e. pasta, bread, etc.) back into my diet, but at a much less amount. That is what I have started to do already, and let me tell you, the nachos I had last night were awesome! Truthfully, I love the new diet. Fruit and meat are awesome together. I just want to eat my mom's bread when I go visit! The best bread in the world according to me. The compromise is that I will stick with the Paleo Diet for the majority of the week, and allow myself to eat some non-Paleo once a week. I look forward to when the training plan allows for more than once a week, but I will save that for a future post...
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