I went shopping for new clothes recently and was not too surprised to find that I have actually gone up a size in some brands; which is very galling when I think of all the things I have “given up”, including alcohol, caffeine and most processed foods.
I spent about £200 on clothes and vowed that this will be my "larger size" wardrobe for the summer and I will gradually shrink out of them.
I cannot allow myself to go up another dress size. I used to kid myself that I was fat but fit but now I’m just fat. This morning, while I was making my cup of naturally caffeine free rooibus tea it hit me that I had also “given up” the very thing that that I need to lose weight – weight training. I haven’t picked up a weight for at least six months and I haven’t trained as seriously as I used to for a number of years. It became blidingly obvious that I have fallen into the trap of reduced physical activity, increased caloric intake of sweet things, and a slowdown in metabolism due to a loss of muscle. Muscle is metabolically active and burns calories just to maintain itself. A pound of muscle requires 5 to 15 calories per day to maintain itself. A loss of 15 pounds of muscle means 75 to 150 fewer calories per day. Over time, this leads to a slowly creeping weight gain. There is quite a bit of controversy over just how many calories muscle burns, ranging from just 2 to 50. I think 5 to 15 sounds reasonable. When I stopped weight training I stopped building muscle and gradually lost what I had built – and gained fat because it’s not as if I systematically slashed my calorie intake to compensate. Oh no indeedy, giving up alcohol gives you a sweet tooth that wasn’t noticable before, because the sugar in the alcohol was satisfying it. It’s very easy to give yourself licence to eat a bag of revels at the time you usually “relaxed” with a drink.
Next question to ask myself is why did I stop weight training? There are so many differing opinions out there as to the best form of exercise, the best way to lose fat, the best way to get fit I think I became paralysed by procrastinating over creating a plan and sticking to it. I know that in the past, four days a week weight training and a bit of cardio and yoga worked for me and I don’t need to carry on this ridiculous search for a magic bullet. I know what the magic bullet is, I just need the motivation to fire it.
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