It's been a while since I started Operation Rotund.
Using the calorie counting facilities of MyFitnessPal has certainly been eye opening! As someone who'd regularly eat an entire box of Turkish Delight in one sitting, not to mention whole (family size) packs of Harribo on nearly a daily basis, it's no real surprise (to others) my weight's been on a steady increase since January.
I also hadn't done any real exercise since last summer; as someone who prefers cycling over anything else, the cold weather and rain don't make good companions.
But that appears to be changing now.
I've set myself a target of losing 0.5kg/week (that's 1lb for my American friends) meaning a net calorie intake of 1710/day. If I want to treat myself (which I do), I have to earn it; that's where exercise comes in. I've also set myself an exercise target of 60 minutes a week – two 30 minute sessions.
Over the past 20 days I've clocked up 13hrs 30min exercise, covering 281km (175 miles); a mix of running and cycling, leaning toward more cycling. The moving average on my weight graph has started on its first downward trend since January! At a peak of 81.5kg, I've been fluctuating the past couple of days between 77 and 77.5kg with body fat somewhere between 16.8 and 18%, depending on the time of day and what I've been doing before I get on the scales.
With less than 3 weeks to go before the wedding, I'm still a way away from where I want to be, but I think I'm seeing some changes to the body. I'd like my gut to reshape more than it has been, so I may seek out some targeted exercises for that area, but overall things are going in the right direction.
With 20 days down, recording the food log is more habit than chore now, so it's something I see myself continuing to do. Rae's encouraging me away from weight measurements towards tape-measurements, due to the whole muscle/fat weight disparity. Maybe I'll do both. I think I'll be happy with the weight increasing as long as the body fat % continues heading south.
The graph so far, with the definite downward trend starting to show:
