Four years ago as the Olympics were approaching, there were endless media stories about Michael Phelps, the swimmer, and his 12,000 calorie diet. People were like “Of course he can eat like that, he’s working out so much.” But when you do the calorie math, it just doesn’t make sense.
So, an active, average man burns about 3,000 calories just being alive. And an hour of pretty intense swimming burns about 450 calories an hour. That would mean to burn off all those calories, Phelps would be spending 20 hours a day working out at high intensity levels. That just doesn’t make sense.
Then I read Tim Ferriss’ “4 Hour Body” where an engineer suggests that it’s not the physical activity that allows Michael to eat that much, it’s the fact that he spends so much time in the water.
That makes sense if you think about it. When you’re in the pool, your body is working to warm yourself up and the water around you, not to mention the physical exertion you go through.
Now, The 4 Hour Body is chock full full of crazy nonsense. Seriously. It was an amusing read but for me, I’m not willing “experiment” on myself to that extent.
I am however, willing to test out new theories and ideas and see if they make sense for me.
OMG? or freaking nuts?
Like the cold bath idea. I’m reading another book right now called “Six Weeks to OMG” and it recommends a regimen of cold baths every morning. Recently, I’ve been indulging in bubble baths that are on the cool side. NYC is great for many things, but summers can be brutal, especially when you live on an upper floor of a building. When it gets hot, it’s just hot and there is no way to escape the heat. I’ve been enjoying cool baths lately as a way to unwind and get my head on straight, and cool off.
So when I read about the Skinny Dip in OMG my brain started turning it over. Could 10 minutes in a cold bath really help you lose weight? Only one way to tell, and that is to test it out.
The author recommends a bath that’s 69degrees. That is CRAZYPANTS cold. Seriously. It’s cold. I started off at 80 degrees this morning and that was rough. There are some other really radical things this author suggests, that I’m going to write more about later.
There are tons of kind of wacky things out there that people do in the name of weight loss and fitness – Food combining, cranberry pills, carbo-loading, pole dancing, just to name a few. I once had a nutritionalist recommend orgasms as a way to end late night cravings. I won’t comment if that tip was successful or not.
So the question remains – What wacky things are you willing to give a try to get to the weight you want?
Wow, I love this blog, Amy! I read about you in Roni’s Fitblog information, thought you were my type of woman (and weight-loser), and, boy, I was not disappointed by your blog. Your energy and humor are awesome.
And what a first post to encounter: what wacky thing would I do for weight loss? I’m not going to have my first comment on your blog tell you exactly what I did for weight loss because I’m afraid it will sound like I’m only here to self-promote. But I will say that I, too, have a “crazy fat man” inside of me and I learned how to not only stop listening to him, but also to change his dialogue. And it worked!
It took me a minute to figure out how to leave a comment on your blog (I’m not always the sharpest techno tack) and I couldn’t see where to follow you. But I’ll be reading from now on. Thanks!