Lifstyle & Weight Management – Frank Kinlan's Blog

Deja-Vu. Pressing lifes reset button for a second time!

Well where do I start? Nearly back to square one but not quite. The weight, high blood pressure and a fondness for alcohol returned with a vengeance.

Not all at once but a gradual regression to the bad old self. This time it was a prescription review and blood test that caught up with me. Raised Liver Function test after a short time of abstinence had me on a repeat blood test which I had today.

Weight wise it started off good with Dry January kicking in straight away with a few kilo’s of weight loss and then it plateaued. Something had to be done so it was back to the gym after a long absence. It seems to have done the trick and I think I’m back on track.

It’s meant a complete new gym kit and it’s going to be a while before I tackle a spinning class again. I’ve also fallen out of love with the Bike having spent nearly a year off it at least. I’ve stopped using a Garmin, forgone using a helmet (if a car’s got my name on it, a few ounces of polystyrene is going to help me) prefer shoes that I can walk in.

This time I’m on my own and the first target is to loose 10Kg with the second target 20Kg. Today’s stationary cycle was 30 minutes @ 100watts which was 130kCal, it’s a start. Diet wise it’s probably not ideal but I’m not a rabbit.

I’ll post some figures when I get around to it.

Regards

Frank.

What it takes to lose a Pound.

I don’t want to take credit for someone elses information but here is a useful link explaining the difference between body fat and food fat.

http://www.caloriesperhour.com/tutorial_pound.php

The crux of the article is a Kilogramme of body fat is 7,700 calories but a kilo of pure food fat is 9,000 calories. Any oil fits the latter category even if is a good one.

This is how the discrepancy as I see it occurs, burn 7,700 calories and loose a pound of unpure body fat. Eat 1 kg of pure fat and gain 1.25 kg. No one has ever explained it to me like that and I stand to be corrected.

I know about the 9,000 calories a litre of oil contain and that is why I avoid crisps like the plague. ( crisps 30% fat) Don’t get back to me saying Walkers crisps are healthy mono fats and good for you fats, they are still high in calories per gramme which ever way you look at it.

Ever see a vending machine with an apple or orange in it?

So from a weight loss point of view I see it as more effective to limit your intake of fats, eat healthily, do some exercise and loose weight naturally.

Linking this to my recent posts on what it takes to burn off a Mars Bar it makes sense to cut out those fats.

Help Wanted Calories burnt exercising calculation.

Can anybody point me to the calculation that works out how many calories you burn while exercising. The Garmin products do a time /distance calculation but that is no use in the gym where you are essentially static.
I know my weight and average heartrate for a session. The Aldi HRM counts the calories so the formula must be out there.

Oat Cluster Comparison (Quaker Oats, Tesco, Lidl, Jordans Superfoods)

Thought I would post a comparison on Oat Clusters. I have these most days topped off with at least three types of fruit or berries. The only time I won’t have this breakfast is when I ride out to the Eureka Cafe for Franks Breakfast. The Tesco and Lidl (Goody) brands are called Strawberry Crisp as they contain freeze dried strawberries, the Quaker Oat Granola contains Raisins instead. There is nothing taste wise between the Tesco and Goody strawberry crisp, I would swear they were the same thing until I saw the nutrition information.

I’ll list the nutrition information first as thats what I now first look at when I pick the packet up. All figures are for 100g and off the packets.

        Quaker Oat Granola      Tesco Strawberry Crisp    Goody (Lidl)Strawberry Crisp    Jordans Superfood

Energy       411 kcal                   405 kcal                              436 kcal                415 kcal
Protein       8.6g                     10.2g                                    6.7g                    9.0g
Carb           73g                     66.2g                                   68.8g                  64.7g
Fat            8.8g                     10.5g                                   14.9g                 13.4g
Fibre          5.2g                     10.2g                                    4.9g                    8.6g
Salt           trace                        0.2g                                   0.01g                    trace

Cost £1.99 £1.58 £1.29 £3.68 !!!

On the Tesco box it also breaks the information down into a 50g serving with the three different types of milk. The Quaker Oats Granola 50g serving doesn’t contain any calorie or fat information regarding it being served with milk. The Quaker Oat Granola box does say it has typically 50% less fat than other similar products and from the figures I would tend to agree with them.

I’ve only weighed the portion I pour into the bowl once and it came out at 60g. As the plan I am following is portion based thats what I did, I weighed what looked like a portion.

From the above figures it looks like you get what you pay for on the more is less scale. I wouldn’t rule the Goody Strawberry Crisp out in future just because it has a relativly high fat content, it had a better texture than the other two as the cluster size was bigger. For some the 80p saving may swing it, and even with 10g of fat in a normal portion it probably a hell of a lot better than what most people eat.

I’ll leave it at that unless somebody wants a list of ingredients. There is not that much to choose between any of the products, the costs mount up when you are trying to use out of season fruit and berries.

I’ve recently tried Jordans Superfoods Granola. It is Oat based but also contains dried Blueberries, Cranberries, Almonds and Pumpkin seeds. 415 cals per 100g and 13.4 grams of fat put it around the Goody (Lidl) Granola. The problem is although it’s a good product it’s very expensive.

I’ve bought some from Tesco,s but it was £1.84 on a half price offer. With a full price of £3.68 this just isn’t going to sell.

Whatever Oat Granola I have these days I put at least three berries or fruits on top of it. Fresh berries are expensive and their fridge life is about three days. I can’t see myself buying this product at full price, at half price it is lined up with the Quaker Oat Granola. I still prefer the Quaker Oat Granola with the fresh berries rather than freeze dried versions. Superfoods might be the latest buzzword healthy eating wise but I can’t see the need for a 100% premium for it. A bag of pumpkin seeds doesn’t cost a lot and would go a long way if you added it to one of the other granola,s.

I’ll post this link about the cholesterol lowering effects of oats as mine is now down to 3.4 without any medication.
http://cholesterol.about.com/od/cholesterolloweringfoods/a/oatmeal.htm

Weekending 03 June 07

Monday: Restday
Tuesday: Work followed by the time trial starting at Brimstage. 24 minutes 22 seconds gives me something to aim for next week.
Wednesday: Lifestyle and Weight management Course followup class followed by at trip to the gym. Ran the proverbial mile in 9 minutes @ 11.1 km/hr, weights.
Thursday: Louises spinning class at Europa pools. Now I’m ramping up things for next Tuesdays TimeTrial. It was hot tonight as it has been for the last three weeks but this was something else sweat was pouring out of me. Two of the girls had already done Louise,s 5:30 class so this was their second and they have only been doing them a couple of weeks, respect is due. Anyway I tried not to let up for a second on this class, kept resistance or cadence up when I could have slacked off.
Anyway 825 Calories burnt and that was when I turned the HRM off. Max was 179 BPM and I’m looking to see 150 BPM as a working average for a session. Hovering just seems to kill my knees and I no like it. Ok it stresses the class out, me included but I can’t see the benefit of it. Now I don’t do any leg presses anymore it’s just a case of getting out the saddle on a hill. I use my body weight to my advantage. There used to be a time when I would push an incredibly high load but not so much now. I’d rather increase my cadence than have the machine stall and have to back off the resistance a few turns.
You’d swear I’d been under a shower wearing my kit.
Friday: Steve Cummings Training ride by the looks of it.
Steve Cummings Training ride it was, I’m having a ball New personal best of 18.2 mph Average. 3:52 for 70.47 miles Average heartrate 139 BPM Max 173 and 5014 calories burnt. Bumped into 3 chaps at Delamere Station Cafe, we were all on carbon fibre bikes. Spent a good 1 1/2 hours chatting about various things including how many calories you burn up on a ride. There is a diversion by Cotebrook that I choose to ignor but ended up retracing my path. The road is totally impassable. I rode this ride by Doing a Course and not Navigating a Route. It is a track of my last ride and the virtual partner comes into play. Somewhere around Waverton I can see I am behind schedule so I up my pace a bit, slowly clawing it back and then I am in front and I know I’m going to set a good time. A great day, on my own to my own devices, traffic free. Took a couple of pictures with the new camera, hopefully the quality of the pictures will improve.

Sheila,s spinning class. No heartrate monitor on as I don’t want to frighten myself. This is another hot class and bearing in mind that I’d just ridden 70 miles I’m trying to take things easy. I still go through 750ml of water. Class is full. I was glad of a shower at the end of it, The Discovery Channel kit was soaking you’d think I was wearing it in the shower. Another great day, just me living the dream.

Saturday: Change of plan, maybe early morning ride. Cash machines spat out my card so I was ridding to the Eureka with just enough money for a breakfast and some tea. Before that I bumped into Danny in Willaston. We hadn’t seen each other since I left Octel 8 years ago and a lot has changed. We served our apprenticeships together in 1975 spent over an hour catching up on things. Eureka Cafe for a late breakfast, Pinarello Kev was there, Kev that I rode out to the Ice cream farm was there too. Weightloss was one of the subjects covered. My weights been fairly static for the last few months @ 82 kilos. Rode back with Carroline and her brother through Puddington, Ness and Neston to the Chester High Road then it was up through Heswall to see my mum and dad (yes I do have parents). It was then back home to see the Giro on Eurosport. Then out to buy some clothes now my size has stabilised. Primark and Tesco getting hit this time. I used to have big problems with clothes, just getting anything that fitted was hard work when your past a 44 inch waist size.

I’ve got a beef with Tesco, they have dropped my favorite pizza (these days) It was a Tesco Finest Buffalo Mozzarella Cheese and pesto with sun dried tomatoes on a Tuscan base. It was perfect for me, less than 750 cals, the right food group composition. The right size, as I ate the whole thing even though the food label quoted the portion sizes for 1/2 the pizza.
It has been replaced by something similar but smaller in size, that means less calories and it still a good product but it’s not the one I favoured.
The healthy living option that I used to eat would taste like cardboard if it was overcooked for a minute as the base was that thin. They seem to cut down on the cheese to lower the calorie count and the fat content. Not a bad thing, but when put alongside pepparami and cheese monster pizza,s for less money it’s no wonder most of us have a weight problem. Stuff like this should be for treats only and not part of your diet. On that point, I’ll expand the diet section and do a few more posts. I’m no expert but I’ll post what has worked for me. I won’t reccomend anything but there are certain things I won’t entertain like CRISPS . More later when I can think of how to structure the thing so as not to cause too much offence to those that need help.
Sunday: No ride up till now. Start back on my old shift pattern Monday so the routine is going to change. The commitment doesn’t.
Ride out to the Eureka for breakfast, my second of the week.Rode home via the missing link, plenty riding out in that direction, plenty of women runners on route 56 for some reason. This is Race for Life Sunday and is one of the highlights of some peoples year. The rain held off for them and me.

What I Eat

I’ve decided to start a new sub-category under Lifestyle and Weight management about what I am eating as I’ve had a question about it from a chap at work. I’ve loaned people the British Heart Foundation book “So you want to loose weight… for good” and you can see their eyes glaze over when I ask them about it. I always ask for it back as it is the plan I work to.
I suspect people are looking for a quick fix but there aren’t any. Thats not my problem, if you don’t think this plan works take a look at the weight loss diary coupled with This weeks rides and exercise posts.
Anyway I was starting to drift off the subject. This is what I eat.(In work)

Hi ######,

most days start with about 60 grams of Quaker Oat Granola, with blue berries raspberries and strawberries with enough milk to cover the oats. I substitute banana or apple for any that I don’t have enough of. 9 o’clock is two pieces of fruit in the tea point. Lunch is usually a salad from site 2 canteen that I have to order before 11 if not earlier. I now have a chicken breast with the salad, before that it was tuna with no mayonnaise.
Another two pieces of fruit around 3 o’clock. Probably 2 expressochocs (no sugar) out the drinks machine during the day and cups of water.

For tea it could be a chicken dinner with jacket spuds, and three veg. Or Chillie con-carne made with turkey mince. Once a week it would be a pizza from Tesco,s at first it was a healthy living one but now it is one of the Tesco,s Finest range. Sun dried tomatoes with Buffalo cheese mozzarella comes in at less than 800 cals from memory.
I don’t have any of the pepperoni and cheese things they knock out for a couple of quid, I’d rather pay a bit more for something I like and know isn’t loaded up with high fat ingredients.
If I do feel like a snack of some sort it might be a piece of Soreen Malt Loaf, a small pack of dried apricots or something similar.
When I am not working things are much the same but with a bit more choice around lunchtime. Everything I now eat has to met the portion criteria in the BHF diet. I don’t calorie count as such but do count the portions but in a general sense.
I’ve been doing this for 8 months now so it is a fairly well established routine.
A ride from the Eureka Café would ALWAYS start with the breakfast which has dry toast instead of buttered.
That’s about it, if there is anything else you need to know drop me a mail or call me.

I’m taking the liberty of posting this mail to the site without your name as there are others out there that may be interested in what I am eating.

Regards,

Frank.

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