calorie counter

My Saddle Broke Today: Is It Trying to Tell me Something?

Looking back in my training logs, I've been steadily losing weight since I hit maximum porkitude in 2005. One of my goals for this season is to drop about 20 pounds. I hope to hack off a good chunk of that during the winter months so I'll be more competitive in spring races than I've been since "grunge" was a big deal, and I'll be able to get my male modeling career back on track.

I've been pretty lax about it so far this winter. I figured skiing would do the trick, so I didn't fuss with my diet, and just piled on the hours. Since I ate when I was hungry, it's not a surprise that my weight remained constant.

So here I go again with the calorie counting. I keep track of the food that goes down my pie hole during the day to stay under a target, probably around 2000-2400 calories, that will peel off the fat while I continue to prepare for the season, but won't give me bad side effects.

It's pretty simple. I make a rough estimate of the calorie content of a meal and keep track of the total during the day. I don't make any other modifications to my diet. What actually happens is that the counting just forces me to make decisions about eating snacks based on my weight loss goal instead of hunger.

I know from past experience that the chronic negative calories eventually will catch up with me just as if I were crash dieting. Also, it's mentally taxing and annoying. So this time around, I think I'll try to drop the pounds in steps with a break between them, instead of trying to lose a little every week over a long period.