On the North American diet

I returned back to England on Monday afternoon have been regretting it ever since. Canada, and the little I saw of upper state New York (Niagara Falls State Park) are utterly, breathtakingly, terrifyingly beautiful.

Now, as the cliché goes; everything's bigger in North America. I can confirm this is certainly true of their sea-like great lakes, massively ugly cars (one could easily get the - incorrect - impression that most people run haulage operations on the side; or the - correct - impression that they drive everywhere - even though everywhere in central Toronto is walkable), and most of all of their food.
You can buy a Double Big Mac for about $6. You can also buy some of the best raspberries you'll ever eat for $3 a punnet, or some of the best salmon for just over $10 a pound.
Living there would make eating healthily much easier and cheaper than here. However, eating unhealthily and excessively would be easier still.

I'm afraid I did a bit of both.

The weather in Toronto was also unexpectedly hot - it was 31 degrees when we arrived, with hardly a cloud in the sky. So, I took to drinking a local staple, Tim Hortons Ice Cappuccino.

Somewhat sneakily, Tim Hortons' own nutrition guide only gives you the calories for 10oz (medium) beverages. The only data I could find their exact beverage sizes was from a self-professed employee's blog comment. Cross referencing the two; if an ice cappuccino is 250 calories - made with cream, unless you specifically ask for it to be made with milk - and thus a large, 14oz ice cap is 350 calories.

That's more than my intended meal allowance in one shot.

In addition, I'd often order some solid food to go with my coffee, in the form of a cream cheese bagel - which their FAQ specifically recommends for a low fat diet. My first such order met with a bewildering paradox of choice - did I want plain; onion; flax, poppy or sesame seed; 12 grain; cinnamon raisin; blueberry; sun dried tomato; or the so-called everything bagel, presumably intended to allow indecisive virgins such as myself to opt out of a potentially line stalling decision. The cream cheese also came in four varieties; plain, light, herb and garlic and strawberry (!). Total calories for an everything with herb and garlic: 421 calories, for a total of 771 calories for what was intended to be a light snack.

In future, I'll think twice before criticising Americans for having an obesity problem.

I know Kung Fu

This Saturday finally saw me recommence martial arts training, at the Fitness First on Seven Sisters Road. The bank holiday studio schedule had dropped their usual Saturday Wu Shu Kwan class, so I decided to try Andy's evil biceps workout. Quite punishing, really gets you pumped, recommended. I should be able to myself harder, as I still had energy at the end - so threw some hammer dumbbell curls to finish off. Stats:

Exercise	Warmup	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3
EZ Barbell Curl	12×10kg	12×20kg	10×25kg	5×30kg
Barbell Bent-over Row	12×15kg	12×25kg	10×35kg	8×45kg
Dumbbell Bent-over row	12×15kg	12×25kg	10×27.5kg	8×30kg
Cable Underhand Pulldown	12×21kg	12×28kg	10×35kg	8×42kg
Dumbbell Hammer Curl	12×6kg	12×8kg	10×9kg	8×10kg

As I was walking back to the changing room, I noticed some Wu Shu Kwan guys in the studio and asked if the class was just starting. They said yes, so I fell in and spent the next two hours falling somewhat short of keeping up with a class composed about three quarters of black belts.
Somewhat gratifyingly, after the class the instructor asked me which martial arts I'd done before since it was clear that I'd done something. He reiterated what I knew already - that my body needs to be retrained to be able to do what I remember being able to, and until it catches up, I risk overexerting and injuring myself; so should only train at 70% for the first six weeks or so. Despite knowing this already, I somehow managed to hurt my left index finger (I assume while sparring), and spent Sunday worrying that I'd fractured it. I'll take it easier next week.

I'm also going to avoid doing weights beforehand. Not that I think training biceps interfered with the class - punching uses your triceps - but because it meant I spent three hours in the gym, which makes something of a mockery of the Tom Venuto diet. I was ravenous when I left!

Calculating optimal calorie intake

I was reading 'Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle' last night, and it's made me realise that, like I'd imagine a lot of people, I have no idea how many calories I consume, much less how many I should be consuming.
The average TDEE for men is 2800; but I'm short, and have a desk job, so probably burn a lot less. It's time for some calculations.

On Wednesday I took a new set of measurements; I've gone up to 72kg, but down to 18.8% body fat - which means I've lost 0.3kg fat and gained 0.6kg lean body mass since last Monday. Which is, if not a blip, a sign of excellent progress

Using the Harris-Benedict formula (for men) gives me a BMR of:

66.5 + (13.75 × [weight in kg]) + (5.003 × [height in cm]) - (6.775 × [age])
= 66.5 + 13.75 × 72.0 + 5.003 × 173 - 6.775 × 29
= 1725.544

Using the Katch-McArdle formula gives me a BMR of:

370 + (21.6 × [lean mass in kg])
= 370 + 21.6 × 58.5
= 1633.6

That's quite a difference already.
Converting that into a TDEE using EXRX's calculator (estimated 9 hours rest, 13 hours very light activity, 2 hours light activity - commuting and cleaning my flat) gives 2409 and 2279 calories. Using the flat 1.2 multiplier for a desk job from ''Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle' gives 2071 and 1960 calories.

This gives a total range of 1960 - 2409 calories, i.e. 469 calories. I'm thus going to calculate my ideal calorie intake for weight loss it cautiously, and aim for the lower recommended percentage drop (15%) against an average of the above figures (2180 calories), i.e. 1853 calories.
Should my actual TDEE turn out to be close to the lower end of that scale, it represents a 5.6% / 109 calorie drop; if the higher end of the scale, a 23.1% / 556 calorie drop. So even if the initial estimate is wrong, it shouldn't be damagingly so.

I'm going to start with five meals a day, and decide whether to move to six once I'm into a routine. This means each meal should be approximately 370.6 calories, 436 on 'cheat' days (every fourth day, to reset my metabolism). Ideally, breakfast should be 100 calories more, and dinner 100 less, but again, that can wait.