In the beginning, there was peanut butter and jelly - Day 1 of The Peanut Butter and Jelly Diet

Important note:

The information contained in this blog does not reflect the opinons or beliefs of any entity other than me, myself, and I (Myles Murphy). This "diet" is not intended for others to attempt. It is merely an exercise in learning designed to help people think critically about what they eat each day in their own diet. Furthermore, it is not really a special diet at all. The foods we all choose to consume each and every day of our lives comprise our diet. In fact, we are all on a diet today, tomorrow, and every day into the future. Making good choices about what we put in our body is something that we all must arrive at on our own terms. The PB and J "diet" is nothing more than a careful, interesting, and entertaining examination of the key factors that go into any sound nutrition and weight loss plan. I came up with this idea solely on my own am not representing the beliefs of any other person or company. This is not how I normally eat day after day although each individual element of this "diet" is certainly fair game in a basic and nutritious "diet." Please exercise good judgement and enjoy these readings if you have an open mind.

THIS "DIET" IS NOT INTENDED FOR ANYONE ELSE TO ATTEMPT DIRECTLY OR IN PART. IT IS MERELY A DEMONSTRATION OF HOW WEIGHT LOSS IS ACHIEVED THROUGH PROPER KNOWLEDGE OF PERSONAL METABOLIC INFORMATION GAINED IN PROFESSIONAL TESTING UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF A PROFESSIONAL.

April, 24th 2007

Day 1

My current weight: 158 pounds.

My goal: reach 153 pounds by June 3rd just six weeks from now.

Motivation: 1. prove that what matters most in weight loss is simply creating a sustained calorie defecit (eat less than your body "burns" each day) while eating wholesome and natural foods. 2. prove to that i can stay the course and exercise self-control seeing a simple goal through all the way to the finish. 3. lose 8 pounds so i'm super light for the Rock and Roll Marathon in San Diego on June 3rd...8 pounds less means a lot of "free" speed and a faster time for sure. 4. help others see this simple truth and transcend people's mindset to bring about meaningful and lasting change in their personal fitness.

GO!

Keep it real and keep it simple. I believe this to be true in most things. Nutrition and exercise are no exception most definitely. After working in the health and fitness industry for over 10 years now as a personal trainer and fitness coach, I have come to this earthshaking conclusion. It all starts where it began. The simplest answer tends to be the correct one.

I've seen thousands of health club members come and go day after day and very few of them have ever truly brought about meaningful change in their life until they start practicing this simple realization on a daily basis. While training/exercising right is important, I have to say that eating right is at least 51% of the equation. Until we can exercise some simple self-control over the amount of food we are eating, we simply cannot lose weight consistently and meaningfully.

Of course, eating the right kinds of foods is important when it comes to being optimally healthy, but I want to introduce you to my own personal experiment that I am hoping will prove the point that what matters most is simply eating fewer calories than your body needs each day. By doing this, you'll create a calorie defecit where food supply is less than the energy demands of your body. As a result, your body will use energy stores that you already have on standby...body fat...something most of us have a lot of.

I'll spare you most of the advanced science that goes into making this happen in the interest of keeping it real and simple and well, really simple. I know that my resting metabolic rate currently is about 2,100 calories from having a resting metabolic rate test done recently. This is how many calories my body wants each day to simply be alive without any significant movement or activity. Now, I don't simply sit on the couch all day and watch the paint dry so, I have to add an estimated number of calories on top of that number to account for my daily activity (work, errands, etc.). I'll use 30% or 630 calories in this instance based on currently accepted standards from the latest research. There's grey area here for sure because my activity is not the same each and every day, but let's keep it simply and move forward. This brings my total energy need up to 2,730 calories WITHOUT any actual exercise.

Since my goal is to lose 5 pounds in 6 weeks, I'll target a loss of .83 pounds per week (to be exact for illustration of how this works). Since 1 pound of body fat equals 3,500 calories in energy storage, I'll have to burn 2,916 more calories per week than I eat or 416 calories per day. I can do this either by eating 416 less than my need on a non-training/rest day of 2,730 (2,314 calories) or I can attain a -416 calorie energy balance by eating my daily need of 2,730 and doing a 416 calorie workout. I'm an endurance athlete so, I train a lot (running, cycling, strength training). As a result, I'll be burning at least 416 calories a day in my workouts. I know exactly how many calories each of my workouts uses because I've done metabolic testing to determine those numbers. Assuming that I'll burn at least 416 calories each day in a workout of some type, I can attain my weight loss goal by eating 2,730 calories. In this case, my energy supply (total calories I eat) would be less than my energy demand (calories my body needs) by at least 416 calories each day resulting in at least my target of a negative 2,916 calories a week or .83 pounds of body fat used to make up the difference. If I don't burn 416+ calories on any given day because I took the day off or opted to do a shorter workout, I'd simply have to eat a little less on that day to keep my energy defecit goal.

Ultimately, we should each modify how many calories we eat each day depending on our total activity for that unique day. I'm going to use a simpler approach with the same target calories for each rest/non-training day and for each training day. If my workout is going to burn more than 416 calories, which most of them certainly will, I'll just bump up my eating a little depending on how much I feel is needed to manage a defecit goal of 416+ calories. Current research suggests that most people can "stomach" a defecit of 500-750 calories each day. Any less than this might not be enough stimulus for some to lose weight while more than this might slow some people's metabolism down actually (too large a gap = too much stress = body adapts to create less stress/gap). The body is amazing. Don't take it for granted.

On rest/non-training days, I'll eat 2,300 calories (a 430 calorie defecit). On training days, I'll increase my intake by enough to keep a defecit of 430-750 calories. If my body responds well, this should get me to my goal on race day.

Eating to live vs. living to eat...there's certainly a major difference here and this exercise I'm going through right now should clearly demonstrate that food is meant to be consumed for energy and nutrients instead of pleasure or other emotional reasons. While I certainly enjoy some of the "finer" things in life, for the most part I consider eating a means to an end and not the end itself. Always keep that in mind and be honest with yourself when you do find that you're eating for some other reason. Enjoy what you eat most definitely, but remember that it all comes down to calories as far as your body is considered...the mind is a little different in this respect.

Basic rules of diet and foods/beverages allowed:

A peanut butter and jelly "sandwich" of some sort must comprise the main course of each meal. Different types of peanut butter and jelly may be used including the possibility of other nut butters like almond or cashew. Jellies, jams, and preserves are all fair game. A "sandwich" can be made of any type of bread or other carbohydrate food that can be used creatively to create a sandwich. Any type of beverage may be consumed just as in a "normal" diet. All fruits and vegetables are ok and highly recommended with each meal. I plan to eat a big dinner salad each night with lots of vegetables using olive oil and balsamic vinegar or other organic salad dressings. Grilled veggies are sure to hit my plate often as well. Other spreads like flax oil butter, cream cheese, honey, and even the occassional marshmallow fluff are fair play in moderation as long as peanut butter and jelly are present. Creativity is good. As for protein, I've decided to allow eggs, protein powder supplements, and cottage cheese into the action so far along with kidney beans for my salad if I'm in a pinch and perhaps even some tofu. While peanut butter does have some protein in it, I won't get enough of the right protein/amino acids from PB alone since it is a vegetable protein. Other animal protein sources are possible I suppose, but I plan to keep it simple and limited to these sources to start off at least. As an endurance athlete, my protein requirements are quite a bit higher than "normal." I certainly don't want to jeopardize my overall health or fitness while I'm training to run my best marathon ever this June. Stay tuned for more on this as things evolve. That's about it. I expect that a little dessert item will sneak under my radar here and there, but that's fine too as long as it's considered and included in my dietary "budget" with my daily energy balance goal in mind.

Health considerations and questions:

Why peanut butter and jelly?

Remember back when you were 10 and your mom sent you off to school with your favorite transformers lunchbox and goodies for lunchtime? I bet that included a peanut butter and jelly sandwich pretty often. Mine certainly did. Now, I'm an adult so I don't want that 5 hour old PB&J sammie that's been smashed, heated up, and tossed around the classroom by the bully who threatented to steal your lunch...where the jelly has started to show through the wonder bread! I want a freshly made, innovative, but classic PB&J of the future. You see, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is the lowest common denominator in the language of american food...something we all know and can understand and agree upon universally. It's also easily measurable, quick to make, and hard to mess up unless you buy that product that combined the "church" and "state" of the nutrition-playground together in one jar...which I still have not tried to this day yet. Because it's simple, fairly balanced nutritionally, and pretty damn good crust or not.

Isn't that going to be a lot of fat with all that peanut butter?

Yes, it could be if I use too much peanut butter, but I plan to keep that in check by usually having just 1 tablespoon of peanut butter with my meals (1/2 serving). This equals just 100 calories and 8 g of fat (1.5 g saturated). Of course, organic peanut butter has mostly unsaturated fat so, it's much less of an "evil" than some might think. All of the peanut butter I use will be organic and free of any hydrogenated oils or other strange additives...just peanuts. The bottom line if I want to lose weight is going to be calories in vs. calories out so, that's what my primary focus is on.

What about all of that sugar in jelly?

This is definitely something to consider. Sugar is not a great energy source for the body except during higher intensity exercise. The body prefers to use fat for energy while using protein to rebuild and maintain tissues. Limiting sugar intake overall keeps energy levels steady and moderate while eating a lot of sugar usually spikes energy levels way up and then way down not to mention the long term adverse side affects that come with a diet that is too high in sugar (diabetes for instance). As an athlete, my body can handle more sugar naturally than someone who is less active. This is just something the body learns to do better by being trained. However, I do want to keep this diet within reasonable standards when it comes to sugar so, low sugar jellies or jams could be used to do this. Again, everything in moderation is a rule to keep in mind. The breads and carbohydrate foods I plan to use will be mostly whole grain instead of white/refined. This is a smart move on any "diet." One serving of jelly has about 13 g of sugar in it. That's less than what's in a cup of milk or certainly most breakfast cereals today.

Am I going to get enough protein?

I'm allowing additional quality protein sources to make up for this. Without enough protein, my body will be forced to break down muscle to get the amino acids it needs to maintain functions properly. Endurance athletes need as much as 1.4 g of protein per kg of body weight so, I need to make sure I'm getting about 100 g of protein each day (158 pounds/2.2 = 72 kg x 1.4 = 100 g protein). This should help me eat a little better variety of foods since PB&J can only get so creative!

What other supplements are you going to take?

A high potency multi-vitamin and omega-3 supplement. Simple and smart for anyone.

That's not just a PB and J diet!

You're right, but PB and J most certainly are the defining elements in each meal's main course and they were the inspiration for this endeavor so, they have to be the headliners.

I'll track my weight daily so you can see where I'm headed and see how this all works out. If I'm maintaining my targets consistently, we should see my scale weight drop slowly, but surely towards my target. Of course, this doesn't take lean body mass gains or losses into consideration, but that's a topic for another time. My goal is to lose overall weight with most, if not all of it coming from body fat hopefully although being a mesomorphic/naturally "built" person, I wouldn't mind losing a little lean body mass to be honest. At ~7% body fat currently, I'm already quite lean so, I really just want to get my scale weight down because it will allow me to run faster for longer as if I was flying over the ground for 26.2 miles...

Day One
158 pounds

Meal #1 Breakfast:
Creamy peanut butter (organic) and strawberry preserves on whole wheat bread, a banana , and 8 oz of orange juice and a cup of coffee with coffee mate to make it taste extra nice.
= 795 calories total

Wow. That was easy and quick. It was also very close to my meal target. I took in a total of 690 calories and my meal target is 700. Real, simple, time efficient, and effective! How did it taste? Pretty damn good. I always liked pb and j especially the "p" part of that equation. Often, I put peanut butter on other things to liven it up. Bananas, apples, and celery for instance...and don't forget the occassional sweet thing like ice cream or a cookie. Hey, dessert can be managed in a good diet just like any other food can. I'll definitely share that with you along the way here.

Snack:
Granny smith apple = 70 calories

Something small, easy, and natural to keep the metabolism happy. Mom would be proud.

Meal #2 Lunch:
Crunchy peanut butter (organic) and raspberry jam on a toasted cinamon raisin bagel with 8 oz of 1% milk (organic) and whey protein = 690 calories

After teaching my spinning class, I trained a client and then toured a small health club in the area that I haven't been to yet. I was pretty hungry already...a sure sign that my meal calorie target (energy supply) is lower than my body's needs (energy demand). Normally, I would probably have lunch out and simply try to eat something good that is close to my meal target calories, but I was on a mission to stay the course and kick this pb and j thing off right. So, I stayed hungry for a little longer while I met with the club's owner and made my way home at speed for my next pb and j experiment. Lunch at 2:30 is too late, but I'm still right on target for the day. Let's see just how creative I can get with this simple diet!

Snack:
Orange = 80 calories

Meal #3 Dinner:
You'll love this one...crunchy PB and raspberry jam on toasted sourdough french bread with a large dinner salad filled with lots of veggies (I don't even really count these calories since it's minimal and so good for me) with a homemade salad dressing (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, course grain spicy mustard, lots of fresh garlic, salt and pepper, fresh lemon). To round things out, I had a Dos Equis Amber beer with plenty of water as usual with all of my meals (the water that is). I even managed to sneak a little dessert into my calorie budget today...a Cadbury carmel egg at 170 calories...just a small treat. Again, think moderation. Dessert is not evil. Too much dessert probably is.
= 830 calories + 170 dessert = 1,000 calories

This is a little higher than I wanted it to be, but it still achieves my daily defecit goal. I won't have a little dessert every night. It just sounded good. No biggie.

Daily summary:
2,635 calories IN vs. 3,510 caloris OUT = 875 negative energy defecit (a little on the high side for my target, but ok for now)

I ate 2,635 calories and burned 3,510 (2,730 is my regular daily need + 780 from my 1 hour spinning workout - 60 minute of riding x 13 calories per minute known from my VO2 testing done recently). Mission accomplished...and it was pretty good overall.