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Last Thursday I went, as a parent helper, with my eldest son’s class to watch England vs. Spain at Wheelchair Basketball at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.
I had worked 16 hours on Monday (and usually do 12+) so didn’t feel too guilty about taking a half day off.
I often feel the need to point this out as I know some of our less succesful competitors like to tell people we work less hours than we actually do.
Even though we get way more results for way more people then they do in their (arguably) longer hours.
Anyway………..
It was brilliant.
Really skilful and entertaining.
And really violent too!
I know it’s wheelchair rugby that’s nicknamed Murderball, but it could apply to these guys.
Lots of full on collisions and wipeouts.
Dudes with severe spinal injuries being sent flying, landing face down with a wheelchair strapped around their legs.
Beforehand, the head dude guy was explaining the rules to me.
Amongst other things, they have a points system.
Each player is given a point from 1 through to 4.5 based on the player’s functional ability.
A “1” has no use of the lower body and the majority of the upper body.
They can use their arms, but can’t lean, bend, rotate, etc.
A “4.5” has pretty much full use of their entire body and can walk, but has sufficient impairment to mean they couldn’t play non wheelchair basketball (maybe a bad knee injury).
And so on, inbetween.
#### Apologies if I’m not right on these descriptions – it’s from a combination of memory and googling ####
Each team can have no more than 14 points worth playing at any one point.
Which I thought was a clever way to work it.
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I was explaining this all later to my wife.
And it got me thinking about the slimming club points systems (even though it’s completely unrelated other than being a points system).
I’ll be honest, it doesn’t do much for me.
But, doesn’t mean it can’t work for some.
How slimming club points work
I like that they don’t ‘ban’ certain foods but helps you question food choices.
It encourages swapping more energy dense foods for lower energy, more filling options.
It has a support system that works for many.
I’m less keen on referring to some foods as ‘syns’ or ‘treats’.
And ‘unlimited’ amounts of anything.
There’s nothing magical about it though.
It’s, ultimately, based on creating a calorie deficit..
Even though it doesn’t use that term.
Points, syns, etc all being based of a certain number of calories.
Your points and syns will be calculated so that, if you don’t go too excessive on the ‘free’ foods, and your energy expenditure is as predicted, you should be in a calorie deficit.
Ultimately, these slimming club points systems work when a calorie deficit is created.
Don’t when it isn’t.
Energy balance isn’t the entirety of the conversation, sure.
Weight loss and gain is multi-factorial as we’ve mentioned many times.
But………
A calorie deficit has to be occuring.
It has to ‘underpin’ the approach.
Whatever that approach is.
The key, long term is to find a way that creates a maintainable average weekly deficit.
Something that we’re happy (or at least content) to do for the rest of our lives that, on balance, takes us in the right direction (what we aim for – enjoyable exercise with a flexible approach to eating. Hit RISE in Macclesfield’s briefing meeting page for more info).
Much love,
Jon ‘Most foul’ Hall and Matt ‘Orient Express’ Nicholson
RISE Macclesfield – myrise.co.uk
Serious transformations. Fun times!
Enter your details at myrise.co.uk for more information about what we do.
Or check out our monthly find-out-more meeting if you want to learn more about our free ’20lbs weight loss in 8 weeks’ and ‘Beach Body’ challenges –> myrise.co.uk/briefing-meeting
