Jumbo Rider’s BodyBlog

Well, I made a mistake that I hopefully learned a good lesson.  Do not miss meals or eat fewer calories than planned when you are restricting calories in the first place.  The other day I just was not feeling very hungry, and frankly just forgot to eat.  Later I went on a 12 mile bike ride at a 12 mile per hour pace.  At my size that little ride burned through a lot of calories.  While I ate 700 calories out of a 2100-2500 calorie diet prior to the ride, the ride burned roughly 1000 calories.  I was at a huge deficit by the time I got back home late in the evening.

I am an old guy that gets up at 4 and goes to bed at 10.  The bike ride had me get home after 8, which is late for me.  It took me an hour to completely cool down and then I was starved.  I suddenly realized that I had under eaten, under fueled for the day.  I was low on protein, carbs, and fats.  But it was close to my bedtime and I wanted to eat smart, even if it left me light on calories for the day.  So I drank a protein shake.   My body demanded more…and more…and more.  I went to bed hungry even after adding 2 peaches and an apple to my fuel tank.

I didn’t sleep that well.  I never sleep well when I go to bed hungry.  The next day I woke up starved.  My normal breakfast of bran, nuts, and raisins did not come close to satisfying me.  I moved my second meal up by two hours and made it a main meal instead of a snack.  The hunger continued.  No longer in complete control I started sucking down carbs.  At first I kept the carbs to good, nutritious items, but soon went for quick, bad stuff.  Pizza.

So the one-day of not eating enough led to another day of eating to much and eating stuff that is not good for losing weight and missing a workout because I had no energy.  I still lost 2 pounds for the week, but it could have been bad, especially when you consider that pizza is one of my binge trigger foods.  It is probably a lesson worth learning; a lesson that did not cost me a weight loss setback.