Week #2 of my summer diet will be my first “full drive,” by which I mean five day’s hard dieting Monday-Friday. The key thought from my first week was that holding firm at 2,000 calories a day isn’t feasible once I ramp up the workouts. A ride day often means 6,000 calories being burned. Without additional calories my body will scream out for energy input (aka food), making for a very uncomfortable day post workout. Often I find myself disinclined to engage in hard workouts when I’m controlling calories because I know my body will put me through serious hunger pains soon after. Avoiding pain is as normal as it is natural.
Anyway, the logical corollary is that I should increase calories where necessary so as to retain a consistent calorie gap. The ideal calorie deficit is 2,450 per day, which means that once I pass 4,450kcal per day (assuming 2,000kcal as base level consumption) I can start to increase calories on a 1-to-1 output/input basis and still lose weight at the same rate. So if I burn 5,000kcal in a given day I can then increase calorie consumption to 2,550 and retain the same probable rate of loss.
To add an incentive element though I’m going to commence a 50% principle when I confront a high calorie burn day. What I mean by this is that on days where I can comfortably clear 4,450kcal I get to consume half of whatever extra I burn above that. So as an example, if I’m likely to burn 6,000kcal by end-of-day I can increase consumption by 775kcal. That is 50% of the 1,550 I have burned over my 4,450 base output target as described. Put another way, for every 2 calories I burn over and above 4,450 I get to consume an extra one. Hence by burning more I get to eat more whilst also befitting from linear increases in my calorie deficit for that day.
Application may take a bit of working out but there’s no rush on that front, this is the test and learn stage of the programme.
Dr Martin James 