Okay so this past week many of you know I started my “Summer Shred” in which I plan on taking the next 20 weeks to get myself nice and lean for my wedding. What I did last week was basically what I call a clean up week in which I cleaned up my foods that I was eating. This wasn’t too different from what I was doing however the main things was to start cooking my own foods and limit what I ate at the deli up front and from other places around the gym. The deli actually can make us egg whites and I usually get chicken breast on rye bread so it really isn’t bad. I just know that when I make my own food at home it is real clean and I also save a boatload of money.
So what I get out of the clean up week is a average daily intake of calories that I am eating. I started using fitday again which I haven’t done in years. So after logging my food into fitday last week I came up with my daily caloric intake. My average caloric intake was 2600 calories on average for 5 days of logging. With that number my first step is to maintain that amount of food for 1-2 weeks. I do not want to drop my calories from the start because I want to give my metabolism a chance to get adjusted to maintaining a set number of calories for a small period of time before I create a deficit. This caloric average can actually be maintain for 6-10 weeks before creating deficits from it.
At this point my goal for the next 2 weeks is to log 2600 calories EVERYDAY and keep my workouts exactly as is which I will get to later or in another blog. I will follow this for 2 weeks in which point I will make a small adjustment to either my caloric intake or my exercise volume. Notice I said I will make a change to one OR the other and not both. This is key to determining what method actually works best at that time for you. If I decrease my calories and add more exercise all at the same time I will never truly know what is causing the change in my physique. So in two weeks I will make an adjustment to my plan. For now the goal at hand is to get my workouts in 4 times per week with intensity, and break my daily caloric intake down into how much is needed in each meal in regards to protein, carbs and fats and stay on a steady path for 2 weeks.
Tip of the Day: Remember to make yourself small attainable goals in order to not overwhelm yourself with the bigger picture. I will prepare each days meals and have my workouts written out for the week in order to stay focused.
Tags: 6 pack, abs, beach ready, bridal fitness, build muscle, marlboro personal trainer, marlboro strength coach, personal trainer, shredded, the training studio, wedding
sounds too complicated?
Really not too complicated. Keep a food log for 3-5 days, see how many calories each day brings in, add all days calories up and divide it by the amount of days you logged for. This will give you a daily average intake. Eat that for a couple weeks to stabilize the metabolism before trimming out calories.
Hope this helps a bit.
Starting using FitDay to log my nutrition. Great tool….actually showed me I was under eating on some days. One question…are you subtracting all the trace amounts that automatically get added to your daily totals? Ex. – For 1/2 cup of oats it will include the 3g of fat and 5 g of protein.
Rita,
Fitday is a great tool and I am glad to see you are using it. You can design plans to include or not include it so check with what your plan and your coach calls for and ask before making any chnages on your own. It is always good to consult your coach with any questions prior to making changes. Too many changes too often will result in sup-optimal results. Being consistent with a thought out plan will be the best way to go.