Big fat fatty

I sincerely hope the theory that muscle weighs more than fat is true because in the spirit of my new beginnings I decided to step on the scales this morning. It wasn't pretty. I’m hoping it was more due to the weights session that I powered through yesterday afternoon (muscle gain) than the multiple snacks I consumed in the evening (fat gain). Unfortunately nutrition is where I fall down in the training process, especially after dark. While I find it easy to remain restrained during the day it is in the evenings when I become most peckish. Finding the balance between fuelling up for a training session and replacing the nutrients afterwards isn't exactly something I've mastered. However, as luck would have it, in order to address this I purchased a book several months ago. I'll let divulge some interesting facts to you, dear readers, once I get round to reading it.

According to one of my other large text books, Joe Friel's The Triathlete's Training Bible, (of which I have actually managed to read a page or two) you can reduce your 5km time by a minute by losing 10 pounds of excess flab. Hopefully by the end of this week I'll have a 5km time to reduce (I only managed about 3km in total during yesterday's visit to the gym and that was in three different visits to the treadmill.)

As I have mentioned, while my commitment to running is lacking, I do exercise between four and six times a week. This is a mixture of cycling, swimming, coached swimming sessions with EGTC and workouts at the gym. While I have certainly become more toned over the last year the weight just doesn't seem to come off. However I have been told that taking on less calories (rather than trying to burn off extra calories through exercise) is a more effective method of weight loss. A week long study referred to by Mr Friel (he doesn't divulge exactly where the study was conducted or give us names but assures us that it was "researchers" and "scientists" recording the data) supports this. One group of athletes were charged with burning off a 1,000 extra calories a day while another group laid off the booze and burgers for a week, consuming 1,000 less calories a day. Those tasked with the additional exercise lost an average of 1.67 pounds in weight in a week while those rationing the food intake lost an average of 4.75 pounds. Certainly food for thought. See what I did there?

So it looks like it's the calorie counting for me. When I mentioned my scales displeasure to Mrs Trihard she commented: "I'm not being funny, but you do drink a lot of beer."

I have to agree with her, she wasn't being funny at all. It was 15 stone 10 pounds by the weigh. See what I did there?