It’s early May and my Summer plan has been in place for over a month now. It’s basically similar to last year’s plan. I’ve cut out sugar and bad carbs, lowered my fat intake, and lowered my overall caloric intake. At the same time I’m continuing to lift weights and do aerobics. I started off in March at 160 pounds and about 18% body fat. I’m now at 148 pounds and 14% body fat. My goal is to get under 10% body fat, regardless of my weight. I’m not sure my current plan is going to get me there though. It seems like I’m losing weight faster than I’m losing fat, which means I’m losing more muscle than fat. In looking at my diet over the past few weeks the only thing I can figure is that I’m eating too much fat and not enough protein. In addition, I’m not doing enough strength training I don’t think. So I’m tweaking my diet a little bit now to try to get my fat intake under 25% of my total caloric instake. Thankfully, Lianne is now teaming up with me and she’s changing her diet and workout routine as well. I think that will go a long way toward helping me reach my final goal. I’ll post an update on my 10% fat goal in early June.
I realized that I hadn’t posted (to any of my blog entries) the links to the websites that I get most of my information from. First is a set of links from HowStuffWorks.com that goes into pretty detailed scientific explanations for things like calories, fat cells, and dieting. The last link contains a lot of practical information about dieting and fitness. It’s one of the rare sites that isn’t pushing some product or magazine, and it’s just written by some guy with a passion for fitness. His recommendations are what I’ve used to lose weight and fat the past two Springs.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/fat-cell.htm – Explains fat cells.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/calorie.htm – Explains what a calorie is.
http://home.howstuffworks.com/diet.htm – How diets work.
http://health.howstuffworks.com/sports-physiology.htm – How exercise works.
http://www.intense-workout.com – General fitness site with tons of free information.