Calorie Connection?

Yes, that's a man, but I liked the idea behind the picture...

Okay...so maybe it's an excuse, but maybe not.

I went back and looked at my food logs (I use "My Plate" on Livestrong.com)...the day before all three really good runs I had last week I ate "considerably" more calories than usual for me.  Last Friday (the day before the race), and last Monday (the day before the last trail run with Daisy when I was so upset because I felt like I "had to" walk but couldn't figure out why)...I ate "considerably" less calories.

Basically I set up a profile that has my height, starting weight (back in January), and a goal of losing 1.5 pounds a week.  (I update my weight at least once a week.)  Because I don't work out every day, I entered that I was "lightly active"...then on days I work out, I enter my activities and the program calculates how many calories that burns.  It then adds that amount of calories to my usual daily total.  I have no idea how accurate the "calories burned" really is, so I have no idea if I'm eating too much or too little.  I know I'm not losing 1.5 pounds a week and I rarely ever go over the calories per day, and when I do, I try to make sure my weekly totals balance out.

Anyway...I'll just come out and tell you....my daily calorie "goal", if you will, is currently 1201 a day.  As an example of the fitness calculator...today I mowed the lawn with a "power mower", it took about an hour and fifteen minutes.  According to the program, I burned 470 calories.  I think that's probably too much really.  It says that my spin class Monday and the 2 mile "race walking" I did Monday night burned a total of 658 calories.  Again, that sounds a bit high.  It says that running at an 11:30 pace for 90 minutes burns 1132 calories.  I thought the rule of thumb was 100 calories per mile, so that would be off by 332 if that's correct.

But, even if I "only" burned 800 calories during Sunday's run, I still ate a net total of less than 1000 calories that day.  Even if I didn't burn any calories in Monday's spin class or on the 2 mile "run" that night...I ate less than 1100 that day as well.   The day before the fantastic eight mile run I ate about 1700 total (then burned some off in the five and a half miles I ran that day).

I've said all that to say....just maybe there's a correlation between how many calories I'm eating and my performance on my runs.  Yes, I know fueling is important.  Yes, I know what I eat is as important as how much.  I'm just trying to really get a handle on "exactly" how much to eat and still be able to lose a little bit of weight with all this running and working out I'm doing...but still eat enough to fuel my efforts.

Opinions are like brains...everyone has one, but some are just more useful than others.  I read Runner's World forums every day on the topic of diet.  I have done countless hours of research on the subject.  Everyone has a different opinion on what and how much you should eat.  I believe completely you (I) have to figure out what works best for you (me).

The problem is, I'm a terribly UN-observant person.  Most of the time, it takes being hit over the head with a ton of bricks for me to see a pattern.  But, I do think it's pretty amazing that the day before all three really good runs I've eaten more than usual, and the days I've had "bad" runs--they felt bad (especially Tuesday on the trail)--I've eaten less.

I'm going to have to experiment some with this and let you know what I figure out.  That is IF I can figure it out.

Thanks for stopping in, come again soon!
:D