Sunday, June 20, 2010

There's nothing I can't overanalyze

Just wrote my "About me" section with statistics, and I realized that my whole full-grown life, I have traversed the entire 30 pounds that make up the "overweight" section of the BMI chart and have measured myself exactly one pound in each of the "normal" and "obese" directions. Interesting.

I've really got to keep these entries in reverse order in my document, it's getting to be a pain scrolling all the way to the bottom:

1 bowl cereal and black coffee (100+150=250)
Crackers and guacamole and coffee with cream and sugar (2*60+2*90+45=345)
Plum (50)
Leftover stir fry in a tortilla (300+180=480)
Tortilla (180)
Grapefruit juice and nibbles of a hummus plate (200+150=350)
Granola fruit bar (50)
Salad with vinaigrette and a spoonful of peanuts (75+40=115)

250+345+50+480+180+350+50+115=1820

1.4 miles jogging in the neighborhood. Loveliest roses lately, the best smelling ones are this beautiful peach color.

Surprisingly, no gain from yesterday, but it seemed like a lot went into the toilet, so I expect a drop tomorrow. Incidentally, I woke up feeling thirsty, which often happens when I eat a lot of food. But I don't get it - food contains water, and I know water is a byproduct of metabolism.

Anyway, new idea I had. My spreadsheet right now accommodates 99 days of data. That will take me about two weeks into school. It'll be great because I'll be forced to pay attention to my habits even as I'm transitioning into being busier. But after I get back to school I won't have the time to be as intensive about this; I'll only be able to keep the basics. So for these first 99 days, why don't I learn as much as possible about food, what it's made of, what this or that number of calories in this or that kind food looks like, feels like to eat, etc. ... so that I'll have an intuitive understanding and casual knowledge of it without scrutinizing labels.

What I'd like to do more intensely while I can is learn macronutrient ratios. "Fat should be 20 percent to 35 percent of total calories—saturated fats should be less than 10 percent. Carbohydrates should make up 45 percent to 65 percent of total calories, and protein should comprise 10 percent to 35 percent of total calories." Excluding outliers, my daily average has been exactly 1800 so far (how calculationally serendipitous!). I'll take my booster day as 2200 calories. Then the calories break down as follows:

Everyday-
Fat: 360-630, 180 sat
Carbs: 810-1170
Protein: 180-630
Roughly - 400/900/500

Booster-
Fat: 440-770, 220 sat
Carbs: 990-1430
Protein: 220-770
Roughly - 600/1100/500

I don't really have the time to go through today and do a macronutrient analysis, but tomorrow I will start. I'm not sure I will post it here though, at least not every day, because I fear it might be cumbersome and not necessarily that meaningful. Weekly averages, perhaps?

EDIT: Haha, just made some quick calculations and realized 500 cals protein is 125g which is way more than anyone recommends. I'm not gonna go through the details but here is a more reasonable plan in mass for the everyday diet that falls within the ranges above:

260g CH2O -- 55.5g CH2 -- 65g NH2

'Night guys.

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