Early conclusions? What? This is poor science! Well it's all appropriate as I'm also ranting about Weight Set Point, which is not good science, but is probably at least partially true. Let's start with the Early Conclusions.
- Metabolism for the purpose of this discussion is about how your body uses a certain amount of energy just existing. This amount may increase and result in extra work done by the body in repairing/growing, or just make you feel more inclined to do stuff. Conversely reduced metabolism will result in the reverse; less growth/repair and feelings of lethargy.
- People are different. What works for someone may or may not work for you.
- If you eat more the general idea is you will gain weight, especially if the energy is in an easily storable form such as fat. But your metabolism may rise and you might see little or no change
- If you eat less the general idea is you will lose weight. But your metabolism may drop and you might see little or no change.
- Long duration low to medium activities are the best for promoting weight loss due to high energy usage over time and the tendency for the body to need to clean up a lot afterwards, consuming more energy. It also seems to encourage a higher metabolism overall.
- Gaining muscle mass won't work as well in terms of weight loss during the actual exercise, but actually having more muscle mass will require more energy for the same metabolism level. Also, weight loss tends to target muscle first, and the older you get the more your body tends to lose muscle mass, so promoting muscle mass is a good idea all round.
My weight, sad to say, has gone pretty much back to where I started last year. I've been too busy to exercise much, and generally coming home in the evening feeling hungry... and not resisting much. It’s crazy stuff. You put in months of effort, but the reverse will undo it all. Often faster than it took to lose it. But that’s the way it is. But...
It's not all bad. While it does make me feel a bit like last years efforts were a waste of time, it's all good science and looking at the graphs it's been a slow climb.... and... I've been eating loads recently. I had some recent major dental work and I didn't want to be at a negative calorie intake and delay healing, but all the while I pretty much stayed at around 91.5 kg regardless. Is this my current Set Point? This is above my desired goal, but it's not crazy over it, and I'll try instead to gain muscle bulk and hope I can do the old "convert fat to muscle" concept. Poor science that is, but still a worthy experiment to see if I gain/lose/maintain weight/fat/muscle. Going by the fact that I have regained most of my weight over around six months, then slowly gained the rest, it does seem my body "wants" to be around about this weight, despite what I do or eat. Which is the whole Set Point concept. What have I been doing, exercise wise? Not much. Weights twice a week and just walking for the most part, although my day to day life is decently physical.
How will this go? I'll get back to you...
