Probably the question I have been asked most since I have been on my Fast800 journey is ‘do you have any energy to do anything if you are only eating 800 calories a day’. Well the simple answer is, yes. The slightly longer answer is, I have more energy now than I have had for years. I have the ability to do more, and for longer than I have for years.
The two pictures above are taken 176 days apart, pretty much 6 months. The first picture was taken in January at the National Indoor Combined Events Championships. That day I was officiating on shot put and pretty much sat down for the entire day and at the end was exhausted. I had no energy to do anything, and even sitting down seemed to take effort, I was consuming on average 2500 calories per day. The second picture was taken yesterday at the National Outdoor Championships. I worked outside, on my feet for 7 hours in baking hot sunshine as a track official. I walked up and down the track, ran 40m repeats all day long and not once did I get out of breath. I had one plate of food during that time which I calculate as providing about 290 calories. I had a fairly big breakfast at 7am giving 380 calories. The below is a screen from the Garmin app showing some key stats from yesterday.
Three numbers from that screen – 19,265 steps. About 1000 of those steps were walking around the house pre- and post-event. Distance covered 16.17Km – over 10 miles. Calories expended- 4804. All this on a diet of 800 calories (on average) per day.
So to add to the answer for the question of having enough energy. Yes, I have enough energy because my body has been storing up energy reserves for way too many years now and they are finally being put to good use. Also imagine having 25 (yes TWENTY FIVE) of these babies strapped to your body and having to function:
Having 25 of those strapped to my body, mostly around my gut, was pretty much how I was living, but now they are gone. It is not a surprise I was struggling on 19th January.
Big post coming this week (hopefully), it will be an important one.
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