The mysteries of losing fat

So one thing that this challenge has thought me is that a lot of what I thought about fat loss is complete nonsense. Physically, it's really not as complicated as I had previously expected. It is simply eating the amount of healthy food that you need to meet your energy needs. Healthy food for me is meat, vegetables and a bit of nuts (and the odd few mandarins when I'm training) but humans being a diverse lot, I'd imagine that would vary from person to person quite a bit.
I don't buy into the "good calories bad calories" as much as I used to. Sure, good quality food is better for your health- duh! But at the end of the day, calories are calories. (I'm not talking about calories as they appear on the nutritional information on food labels; I reckon that figure is arbitrary. It was derived by burning the food in a bomb calorimeter and maybe I'm missing something vitally important here, but unless you are a bomb calorimeter, they don't really apply to you.) If you've got a bit of extra fat you're looking to lose, it's generally not enough to just eat good quality food (although that's a very good start); I find that will only get me so far. Portion control is the key. Only you can figure out how this applies to you. Monkey around with different quantities and find out what works best. It's not about your metabolism and it's not about hormones the gubbermint are putting in your beef, it's all the extra things you eat that you don't need to. Metabolism is a lie the nutritionists made up to keep you fat and keep them in the business of selling you weight loss rubbish.

Now, with the physical mysteries dispelled, I can tell you I find the mental aspect a complete mess! After a crazy paddy's day on the sauce and giving in to stupid hangover cravings, I'm now about 62kg. I'm finding maintaining to be quite a difficult task in general actually. Moderation is waay harder than abstinence! And so I find myself back on the sugar train. I'm embarrassed to say that I'm lazy and weak. Just because I know exactly what kind and how much food I need does not mean that I'm going to always do the right thing.

Now, I'm going to attempt to get off the sugar train again without delay. I reckon two weeks off the booze then the odd glass of red wine at the weekend should do it. I've a feeling the answer to this problem will be good planning.

Last day of max week tomorrow, I'll keep you all posted.

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