Overview of Research Program

As promised (and late) here is a general outline of what I will be doing over the next 16 weeks, and beyond. You can find a link to the article here

If you don’t want to read the link then basically the researchers with the University of South Australia are looking at how continous dieting and intermittent (on/off) dieting compare.

The inclusion criteria for the research was:

Aged 18+
BMI over 27kg/m2
Healthy of have type 2 diabetes managed by diet alone or stable doe metformin
Not pregnant of breast feeding (I didn’t have to worry about this one)

Exclusion criteria was:

Previous surgery for weight reduction
Drinking more than 2 standard drinks per day and not able /willing to decrease (due to high calorie contend)
Participating in any ongoing dietary studies
Eating out more than once a week and not able/willing to decrease for the duration of the study

As I didn’t meet any of the exclusion criteria is was all go from there.

I am sticking to a 5500kj (1315 cals) diet per day and it is structured out so I am meeting a certain amount of fats/ oils, vegetables, protein etc.

A day for me will be broken down as follows:

Cereal: 50g High fibre cereal (3/4 cup)
Bread: 3 Slices per day
Dairy: 2 serves
1 serve is equal to 250ml skim milk
200g diet yoghurt
20g full fat cheese or 40g reduced fat cheese
Fruit: 2 serves
1 serve is equal to 150g fresh or tinned, unsweetened fruit
150ml unsweetened fruit juice
30g dried fruit
Protein foods:
Lunch 50g cooked meat, poultry or fish
Dinner 150g of lean meat, poultry or fish (raw weight)
Vegetables: 4 Cups (no potato or sweet potato)
2 cups of salad greens and 2 cups of mixed greens
Fats and Oils: 20g of poly or monounsaturated oil or spread

I am now in my third week and already 2.3kgs down from starting weight (I report back fortnightly) and apart from feeling quite hungry initially, I am on the right track now and starting to adapt.

Along with this I am required to 10,000 steps per day, but since my City to Bay Run on Sunday I have not been feeling the best and haven’t been able to train as much as what I would have liked to.

So with this, I have a couple of extra days of “recovery” and time to finish planning my program which will now start from Monday and I hope to add this to the blog at some point over the weekend.

Until next time, happy fitness!

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Research meeting and running

Just a quick on today as I had my meeting with the Researchers that I will be seeing over the next 16 weeks in relation to the difference between continuous dieting and intermittent dieting (one week on/ one week off). I had all of my measurements taken (weight/ height/ bmi etc) as well as a blood test and a Dual energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) scan.

I am pretty sure I will get a little snap shot of my first session with them in a couple of weeks, when I go back for my second visit. ONly concern that I was made a ware of was that my blood pressure was on the low side of being considered too high. Hopefully over the coming weeks this will lower as I get back in to the swing of things.

When I have a few spare minutes, I will do a full post about the ins and outs of the requirements etc and post my full thoughts on what I expect to gain from the process.

As mentioned in my first post back a couple of days ago, I have been running still and I am 3 runs in to an 8 run Corporate Cup challenge here in Adelaide. My 3 runs to date have been times of 47m29s, 46m47s and 45m.54s. I am happy because while I am not running as much as what I should be, I have been knocking out a better time each run for this 7.2km loop (map below). I am hoping to try and get to 40mins flat or at least (at worst) 41mins by the 8th run.

Fit Men……Fit Kids??

According to a report recently conducted in South Australia shows that male weight loss prior to conception positively affects the growth of the developing baby. This research was completed with mice and was seen that men play more of a part than just conception. You can read more on this research from Dr Michelle Lane here.

While it is reported that even a minor weight loss can assist with conceiving, I think that you set up good/ bad habits once your child starts to learn. There is no way I would want to bring my kids up surrounded by the lifestyle I used to live. Eating takeaway every other day, and loaded up plates with pasta and meat and pretty much as much as I could get on the plate. Yes, we do still have a treat meal when time is short and to show the kids that it is ok in moderation.

I can tell that we are already winning purely for the fact that my daughter because a fitness training freak when we are down at the park having a play, and that she loves the fact she can “train” with me when we are at home. She loves that when we are down the park we play leap frog burpee, chasey, squats, push ups and all of the fun stuff. Even with my wife and I doing the 30 Day Squat Challenge at the moment out daughter is front and centre either trying to do them, or watching us, and my son is in my arms making things harder for me haha.

It gives me the biggest satisfaction that I know I am creating happy and healthy memories for the kids and that it will go a long way to them leading a happy lifestyle in the future. The best thing overall is that I now tire them out rather than having to stop because daddy can’t play anymore because he thinks his heart is about to jump out his chest.

Below is a picture of me with 2 of the 3 main reasons (my wife being the 3rd) I am putting myself through all of this pain (haha).