First, nobody freak out or get too excited! To my vegetarian and vegan readers I can assure you that I have no political or ethical interests associated with this kind of practice. To my carnivorous readers, relax, I live in the south and there is no denying that "soul food" still smells and tastes delicious. Now onto the "meat and potatoes" of this post...
Lets start with a little background. A little over a year ago I became a regular at my school's rock climbing gym. One of the more obvious matter of facts was that heavier people required stronger fingers to climb rocks and thus there was a significant advantage to be had for the lighter climber. However, most of the world's top climbers aren't exactly built like they'll be competing in strongman competitions. Clearly more fat-weight was a bad thing, but I soon began contemplating the same of excess muscle weight. Modern pop-culture has imbued this kind of bodybuilding mindset where there is an emphasis on gaining "lean mass." I won't rant on this too much, but the bottom line is that excess muscle mass is still more weight you have to haul up a vertical (or steeper) face. Anyway, about a year ago I read Eric Horst's training for climbing and wanted to start a carbohydrate centered diet to try my hand at shedding the predominantly protein-based "athlete" diets. In one of my old dieting posts I considered this effort to be an utter failure for a variety of reasons. Some of those reasons had a bit of "scientific" principle behind them, but ultimately I think I was trying to comfort a bruised ego. Looking back and reanalyzing things, I think that I had some good procedures in place, but also some very bad ones. I went against my own grain and took the recommended dieting procedures straight out of Horst's book rather than apply his principles to the years of data I've collected about what my body requires for energy. Long story short, I had a great diet plan then, but the problem was that (while the daily caloric intake was adequate) I was still allowing an all out binge-eating day once per week. After doing some more recent calculations and analysis I think I had a great plan and measurement except for the fact that I didn't need that ridiculous binge day weighing in at a whopping 5000 calories or so.
That wasn't an explicitly "vegetarian" diet, just a carbohydrate centered diet rather than protein. I actually started this vegetarian kick in mid August for the strength-to-weight-ratio reasons above. As abhorring as it may be to pop-fitness, I wanted to lose some mass. Keep in mind, however, that a reduction in BMI (Body Mass Index) would require me to not "get fat" while losing muscle; else I would only have a lower volume of muscle and a higher volume of fat while retaining the same "mass." In August I started a "flexetarian" diet though I didn't know it was called that then. I was still eating meat once per week and allowing myself eggs and dairy. After a couple weeks I ex'd the eggs, then, a few weeks later, dropped the schedule meet-eat. I am by no means "anti-meat", I still eat it once in a while, but without a scheduled frequency. I keep the dairy in my diet because I get a lot of protein from whey protein and cheese (I don't drink milk.)
The next thing that I found was that my school, work, and training schedules became a lot more dense about a month into the process. What I found was that I had estimated my daily caloric intake accurately, but only for a more sedentary lifestyle. As a result I was "cheating" way more than once per week. Granted, these weren't all out binges, but they were certainly stifling to any progress. I mentioned "re-analysis" in the first paragraph, and this is where that comes in. My best physique (weight wise) was when I was boxing. Fortunately I have blogs on blogs and spreadsheets of spreadsheets logging my diet and training procedures. I looked back on my records to see what I was eating (calories) then. I then imagined a what I might eat on a typical "cheat day" on that diet. I added it all up (cheats included) and re-calibrated my estimated average daily caloric need. As far as "cheating" goes on diets, I'm a believer that sustainability is paramount. What I've found in my personal experiences is that that weekly cheat (whether its all day or a few hours or a single buffet) still leaves you craving that re-load period. Consequently, if you find yourself not being able to stick to your diet prescription for a single week, something is wrong. I won't lie, garbage food still tastes good though. What I'm predicting here is that a more stable, once daily, minimal allotment of "junk food" (say < 300 calories) budgeted into my diet will be a more sustainable procedure than earlier practices.
That's the theory behind this, Part II will house the number crunching portion.
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