Sunday, January 8, 2012

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My goals to getting/staying in shape

In my previous post, I wrote that one of my resolutions is to keep in shape. It's quite vague so I'm going to set goals for myself. Ultimately I'd like to get  to <10% body fat. But for now, I'm going to set short term goals that are more easily attainable and it will be a gradual step-wise process that will eventually end (I hope) with my ultimate goal.






My mid-term goal for now is to reach a body fat of <15%. To reach this goal, I've set goals within that goal:
  1. Run 3 miles without stopping
  2. Run 3 miles under 30 minutes
  3. Resistance training 3x a week
  4. Caloric deficit of 500 calories a day

I've been doing a lot of reading and from what I've learned, your body can either gain muscle or lose fat, you can't physically do both. That blew my mind. To gain muscle (or fat), you need to consume more calories than you burn. Knowing this, I will focus on fat loss first. So how many calories do I need to eat and burn? First I calculated my basal metabolic rate (BMR) which is essentially how many calories your body needs to function. The Harris Benedict formula then calculates your daily calorie requirement based on your level of activity. Sounds confusing? I just plugged in the numbers to a BMR calculator. Based on that, here is what I'm aiming for:

Daily requirement = 2135 calories
1 pound of fat = 3500 calories

So with diet alone, all I have to do is eat 500 calories less a day and I will lose 1 pound a week.

Daily intake goal = 1635 calories

But that sounds crazy low and I'm not about to starve myself either so that's where exercise comes in. I'll probably end up eating 2000 calories a day and with exercise daily, that would burn an extra 200-400 calories (depending on how hard I go). And resistance training is a must or else that weight loss will be at the cost of losing muscle.

So did you read all of this crap? Nothing funny or interesting... just a lot of new stuff I learned and thought I'd share. But I can't go out like that so here's something that I thought was hilarious. Lynn's first (and last) time giving Jacob a haircut:

Before. Hair in his eyes but all smiles.

After. The dreaded bowl cut.

2 Reactions to this post

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  1. Mel said... January 10, 2012 at 8:51 AM

    He is NOT happy.
    Also, I'm back on my diet kick.
    When I was on my last weight loss run, what helped me a lot was my calorie tracker. Having to write down everything I ate was really good at keeping me accountable (also, it's a lot easier to turn down eating a bowl of ramen, when you realize that you just ran for 30 minutes in order to get rid of those calories!) The problem is, Chi La suggested we go on an all-Vietnamese diet (hey, that's what David's doing, and look how good he looks!) But it's kind of hard to punch in random Vietnamese foods into my calorie counter diary (despite how extensive it may really be!)

  2. JT said... January 10, 2012 at 11:41 AM

    I've used a calorie counter on and off but this time I'm going to try to stick with it. Yeah it sucks with the Vietnamese food... I actually had to add my own "custom" meals like thit kho and banh beo... and with those I'm only estimating.

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