I Think I Know Why Crash Diets Don’t Work
Let me see if I can explain this. I’m going to tell you about my morning weigh-ins for the last few days and my eating and exercising routine so you can understand my thinking.
This past Thursday, I weighed in at 167.6 pounds. During the day, I drank at least 100 ounces of water. That evening I went on an “epic” mountain bike ride. When I say epic I mean it was a challenging ride. I was the slowest in the group - and I am no slouch when it comes to mountain bike riding. We did a ride in the Boise foothills that included ~4000 feet of climbing. The total ride time was close to three hours for 21 miles of biking. I was exhausted when I returned home.
You should also know that for dinner prior to riding I had a bowl of Cherrios. Yes, that’s right, a bowl of Cheerios and nothing else. I wasn’t working with much fuel on the ride.
So what did I do when I returned home from the ride-to-end-all-rides? The better question to ask is what didn’t I do. I didn’t eat anything. One of my weight loss secrets has been to NOT eat after dinner. Technically, I ate dinner and it was after dinner. That was mistake number one.
Just out of curiosity, I decided to weigh myself before going to bed. That’s not something I typically do as I assume that I am not at my lighest in the evening. I weighed in at 166.4 pounds - that’s 1.2 lbs lighter than when I woke up in the morning.
I went to bed and … just laid there. I couldn’t fall asleep, much too restless. My body was not settled down. Finally, after midnight, I went downstairs to the kitchen and ate some apple sauce. I think that helped. I was able to fall asleep after that. Lesson = I should have eaten something after the exercise effort to help my body recover.
Woke up the next morning, stood on the scale and … drumroll, please … 164.4 pounds. Yes!!!! I lost three plus pounds in one day. Hello 155 pounds, here I come. The night before, I figured that if I didn’t eat after exercising, I was sure to weigh less the next morning. And here was the proof. I was feeling pretty good about NOT eating the night before - with the exception of the midnight snack.
Friday was uneventful. That is until I got home later that day. Not that I was hungry, but for whatever reason, I basically gorged myself on whatever I could get my hands on. Cashews, cottage cheese, apple sauce, chips and salsa - I just had to eat. And this was just before dinner. I ate so much before dinner that I couldn’t even finish the one burrito that was for dinner. Oh well, my body needed it. Let’s just call this mistake number two.
Saturday morning’s weigh in … hold on to your hat for this, 168.8 pounds. Yes, you read that right (I checked twice). I weighed 4.4 pounds more than I did on Friday morning because of the Friday afternoon gorge fest.
The lesson I took from this is to keep the effort steady. Extreme efforts to lose weight - even though my mountain bike ride was not intended as a weight loss session - can be quickly followed by actions that undo weight loss and even add weight.
In the future, you will find that if I do an extreme mountain bike ride like that one I did last week, that I will follow it with a sensible meal to replace some of the fuel that I burned through.
See, I’m learning.
Technorati Tags: mountain biking, exercise, Boise foothills, crash diet
Other posts related to "I Think I Know Why Crash Diets Don't Work"
Let me see if I can explain this. I’m going to tell you about my morning weigh-ins for the last few days and my eating and exercising routine so you can understand my thinking.
This past Thursday, I weighed in at 167.6 pounds. During the day, I drank at least 100 ounces of water. That evening I went on an “epic” mountain bike ride. When I say epic I mean it was a challenging ride. I was the slowest in the group - and I am no slouch when it comes to mountain bike riding. We did a ride in the Boise foothills that included ~4000 feet of climbing. The total ride time was close to three hours for 21 miles of biking. I was exhausted when I returned home.
You should also know that for dinner prior to riding I had a bowl of Cherrios. Yes, that’s right, a bowl of Cheerios and nothing else. I wasn’t working with much fuel on the ride.
So what did I do when I returned home from the ride-to-end-all-rides? The better question to ask is what didn’t I do. I didn’t eat anything. One of my weight loss secrets has been to NOT eat after dinner. Technically, I ate dinner and it was after dinner. That was mistake number one.
Just out of curiosity, I decided to weigh myself before going to bed. That’s not something I typically do as I assume that I am not at my lighest in the evening. I weighed in at 166.4 pounds - that’s 1.2 lbs lighter than when I woke up in the morning.
I went to bed and … just laid there. I couldn’t fall asleep, much too restless. My body was not settled down. Finally, after midnight, I went downstairs to the kitchen and ate some apple sauce. I think that helped. I was able to fall asleep after that. Lesson = I should have eaten something after the exercise effort to help my body recover.
Woke up the next morning, stood on the scale and … drumroll, please … 164.4 pounds. Yes!!!! I lost three plus pounds in one day. Hello 155 pounds, here I come. The night before, I figured that if I didn’t eat after exercising, I was sure to weigh less the next morning. And here was the proof. I was feeling pretty good about NOT eating the night before - with the exception of the midnight snack.
Friday was uneventful. That is until I got home later that day. Not that I was hungry, but for whatever reason, I basically gorged myself on whatever I could get my hands on. Cashews, cottage cheese, apple sauce, chips and salsa - I just had to eat. And this was just before dinner. I ate so much before dinner that I couldn’t even finish the one burrito that was for dinner. Oh well, my body needed it. Let’s just call this mistake number two.
Saturday morning’s weigh in … hold on to your hat for this, 168.8 pounds. Yes, you read that right (I checked twice). I weighed 4.4 pounds more than I did on Friday morning because of the Friday afternoon gorge fest.
The lesson I took from this is to keep the effort steady. Extreme efforts to lose weight - even though my mountain bike ride was not intended as a weight loss session - can be quickly followed by actions that undo weight loss and even add weight.
In the future, you will find that if I do an extreme mountain bike ride like that one I did last week, that I will follow it with a sensible meal to replace some of the fuel that I burned through.
See, I’m learning.
Technorati Tags: mountain biking, exercise, Boise foothills, crash diet
Other posts related to "I Think I Know Why Crash Diets Don't Work"
I have always dis liked crash diets with my parents going on so many with no results I guess my bias has become strong.
Comment by top weight loss site — 29 June 2007 @ 5:45 am