Initial Testing As a bit of background up till this year I haven’t ever followed any sort of diet and don’t really believe in the idea of following some of the strict diets that are advertised as I’m not sure how sustainable they are for a person.

However in my quest to be at the peak of my game for the start of this ocean row I knew my understanding and ideas needed to be developed. Back in February this year I realised that at 82kg I was too light and lean for an ocean row. Now I wouldn’t say I was particularly ripped or anything along those lines but given the fact that they can lose as much as 20 kg (3 stone) this can represent a huge loss in power output. Over 3000 miles that can make all the difference between a record and no record.

So I hit the gym to no avail.

I then saw a friend of mine Rin, who’s a nutritionist (a massive thank you for your help!) who got me taking a food diary before analysing it and then having me up to do a skin calliper assessment to check my body fat percentage. Both of these were experiences in themselves monitoring everything I ate and drank was a change from not paying too much attention. It was great as it really made me think about what I was taking in and trying to understand what affect it would have.

The Skin calliper test was a totally different kettle of fish, armed with this strange looking device she measured chunks of flesh as I watched the dial spinning round in various directions trying to work out what the numbers meant.

Going through all the data afterwards was hugely helpful having it all broken down in food categories and estimating the number of calories i was taking in, it was a brief insight into what was to be the focus for the coming months. The results were that I was consuming around 3000 calories on a weekday and 3.5K to 4K at the weekend. This I was told was not enough. Awesome! Not so good was the balance which was slightly protein and fat heavy.

I was quickly learning that it wasn’t just to be quantity but quality too in order to get the best results.

The aim of the game was at least 4000 calories a day during the week and as much as 5000 to 6000 at the weekends depending on how active they were. This was going to be a challenge in itself especially given the normal recommended daily amount is about 2000.

Would be great to hear other peoples experience with diets and what they were. From a diet for a particular sport to a summer holiday.