Today was the first leg day back after the holidays, and the first leg day after an absence from the gym always involves pain and suffering (or is that fear and loathing? I doubt Kierkegaard hung out in the gym a lot, but you never know.)
Yes, there was pain. Matt (my lifting partner, who will be a regular co-star in my blog) abdicated first and smartly stopped. I wasn't so wise, and pushed on. After the first round of leg press, Matt mentioned that he was not feeling well (that familiar feeing of "If I hold still, maybe the nausea will pass."). He stopped after one light round of squats. I pressed on, but stopped after the third exercise. I held it together until I got to the locker room, but just had to succumb. I haven't lifted until I vomited for a LONG time. Typically, this can be a source of pride ("I lifted so hard I threw up!") among hard-core lifters. I didn't feel that swell of pride today.
I have a strong suspicion that sudden sickness was the result of poor nutritional planning today. I loathe keeping close track of what I eat, and I hate counting calories, but I think that for a while, I need to buck up and write everything down.
So, how many calories? I decided to do a Google search on "calculating caloric need" and chose several of the top results, each of which was a calculator specifically for adult needs. I used the same information for each calculator: Male, 35 years old, 5'10", 218 pounds, heavy activity (defined as approximately 1 hour of vigorous activity 5-7 days per week). Here are the results for my daily intake to maintain my current weight.
- About.com: 3527
- ahealthyme.com: 4045
- Baylor College of Medicine: 3494
- International Sports Science Association (ISSA): 3720
- American Cancer Society: 4955
Hmmmm....wide variation there. Some of the sites give actual formulae, but not all. There seems to be (surprise!) a lack of standardization here. I need to do some more exploring about the history and derivation of these systems of measurement.
For now, though, I think I'm going to go with the ISSA measurement, which is laid out clearly on the bodybuilding.com web site. The helpful part here is that it gives caloric breakdowns based on goals. Using my stats, I get:
- Maintaning weight
- Protein: 163g/652Kcal
- Carbohydrates: 628g/2510Kcal
- Fat: 62g/558Kcal
- Building mass
- Protein: 196g/784Kcal
- Carbohydrates: 595g/2378Kcal
- Fat: 62g/558Kcal
- Losing weight
- Protein: 218g/872Kcal
- Carbohydrates: 573g/2290Kcal
- Fat: 62g/558Kcal
I'll go for losing some weight first, and then adding muscle mass when I get to a happy point.
Enough of that. Here's what I did for leg day today. Remember, this was cut short by the vomiting. Grrrr.....
Wednesday, January 2, 2008 - Legs
| Elliptical | 8:03 / 1.0 miles |
| Linear leg press (F) | 530 x 10 : 620 x 10 : 710 x 10 |
| Squat (M) | 160 x 10 : 220 x 10 : 260 x 10 |
| Calf extension (M) | 350 x 15 : 365 x 15 : 365 x 15 |
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