Plainsman

Jetta, I asked my bride to weigh in (pun intended ) and she suggested you check out this site as a good starting point. This is just a basic launching pad, find out how many calories you should be eating a day to maintain, or burn fat, as needed. The link is to a simple calorie calculator.

https://www.diet-blog.com/archives/20...orie_needs.php

This is now my better half speaking, er, I mean typing...

Hi Jetta - Go with the higher end of the fat loss to start with. If you aren't already doing this next one, it may be the most challenging. Record EVERYTHING you eat during the day, and figure out how many calories you are consuming.

Love the frequency with which you are eating! Great Job! That will keep the metabolism fire going. Stacking more calories in the beginning of your day would be help you even more. Drinking water is no joke. Proven to help with weight loss. You've heard it before 6 to 8 8oz Glasses are a good place to start. Low fat milk, another good addition, plus the calcium will aid your muscles for training. When you are cutting the calories it becomes even more important to eat as much nutritious food as possible. You will undercut your training otherwise.

Looking over your eating plan as listed, here are a few comments:

Breakfast: Needs to be bigger in calories, balanced between carbs and protein (not enough protein in Fiber One bar, but not enough carbs with just boiled eggs). You should probably eat both together. Another idea make some real oatmeal with milk and some berries.

Snack: Depending on your calorie needs, 16 oz is probably too much of a good thing. A serving size of nuts is typically 1- 1 1/2 ounces or 1/4 Cup. A basic serving usually has around 200 calories. While nuts are excellent source of healthy fats and protein, they have a big calorie punch and should be enjoyed in small quantities. Adding the whole fruit is a great idea. Good to balance carb and protein.

Lunch: Sounds basically good depending on your calorie goals. Don't forget to measure that peanut butter - 2 T has close to 200 calories. Add some vegetables if possible and or fruit and maybe a glass of milk.

Dinner: Variety is the spice of life. Just remember balance between lean proteins, Carbohydrates (whole grain as much as possible), and as many nutritious Vegetables as you can muster (try adding a salad to most dinners - just watch the dressing). Hamburger is fine, just use the very lean ground beef. Beef has good points like Iron and Zinc etc to help rebuild muscle while you are in training, leaner cuts can help balance out the saturated fat concern. Chicken great, lean pork like pork tenderloin great, make sure to include fish in the line up for health concerns.

Eating out - Try to pick your restaurant early enough that you can do a little research before going. Once you know your caloric intake goals you can go online and find nutrition information for most restaurants and make healthy choices before ever stepping in the door.

Try playing some mind games with your self - give your self one meal a week to eat what you want until you no longer need to. That might cut back on some of the binging. Write your goals down and remember - you will be faster the leaner you are!!

jetta-the-hut

Maintenance: 3514 Calories/day
Fat Loss Range: 2108 - 2811 Calories/day

wow thats alot of help thank you so much for taking the time to help, what you said makes alot of sense, I dont balance things very well with my diet thats probablly why I got to be 242 lbs and 6'2".

I do not drink near enough water,hardly any during the day only before and after a workout.. the calculator up top what it suggested I eat each day, so I go back to work tomorrow soI'll start keeping a log book of all my calories and such and make sure I come in under.

I wonder how many calories I burn with each work out? I thought about buying a heart monitor too.

thanks for all your help Mrs. Plainsman, your husbands been a great help and a confidence booster for me, 2 weeks till race day and I finally feel ready.

I'm Aren by the way!

Plainsman

You are most welcome! Can't wait to hear how it turns out. We'll be praying for you. Lisa (Mrs. Plainsman) told me to suggest 2800 cal on workout days and 2500 on non workout days. That would be a good place to start and then assess from there. Oh, and you might not want to cut your calories the week of your race, but instead plan on taking in extra carbs within your maintenance calorie budget.

A heart rate monitor is a fantastic tool for training. I gauge most of my workouts by my heart rate zones. Now, you might not want to jump into something like a full blown GPS right away, but we use the Garmin 305 and love them. I have mine paired with a cadence sensor on my bike. For instance, this afternoon I did a brick. I've been under the weather and taking Mucinex which can cause your heart to race, so I was able to monitor that. At the end of the workout, I could not only see the stats for my workout (time, average speed, max HR, average HR, etc) but also how many calories I burned - 1220 for this particular workout. I like the Garmin because it can tell me how fast I'm running at any particular moment, so it's easy to keep a set pace.

You can check out a basic chart for how many calories you burn doing specific activities here:

https://www.freedieting.com/tools/calories_burned.htm

Think of those as ballparks.

Keep up the good work!

Mr. Plainsman (but everyone else calls me Tom)

jetta-the-hut

boiling eggs as we speak, lol

thanks Lisa and Tom!

jetta-the-hut

well I sent setup events an inquiry about 2 weeks ago since my foot was hurt and ask what kinda refund they offered if I couldn't race.

They took it as I couldn't race and have now issued a refund- please someone kick me in the nuts!

Tourmalet

Oh FFS! Yeah that happens when an ambiguous request comes across a bureaucrat’s desk. They tend to interpret them in whatever manner would cause them the least amount of work. You need to be 100% clear on what you need from them, or they will screw things up.

That said, just register again. They don't even need to know you've registered once before and got a refund.

Tourmalet

Oh FFS! Yeah that happens when an ambiguous request comes across a bureaucrat’s desk. They tend to interpret them in whatever manner would cause them the least amount of work. You need to be 100% clear on what you need from them, or they will screw things up.

That said, just register again. They don't even need to know you've registered once before and got a refund.

jetta-the-hut

i wish I could they only give 50% back, but they did promise to send me a t-shirt.
there are few more in April so I'll look into those.

Tom, sending you a pm

jetta-the-hut

well she caught the check before it was mailed, i better get back to work- I took a couple of days off after getting food poisening

Azeala Tri here I come!!!

Plainsman

Wahoo!!!!!

jetta-the-hut

well its been awhile still haven't done a tri but have done a couple 5k's and some 1 milers with my daughter, she'll have her first Tri done in August,I'm still looking for one. I still cycle 6-12 miles on off days from running but I am running 4-6 miles every other night.

heres the loop I've been running and adding some stuff like a 1 mile warm up with my daughter who is now training with me.

God help me if I make her do another Brick her mom almost killed me she was so worn out when we got back,lol!

https://beta.mapmyrun.com/route/detail/19304440/