Fat

Mary and I were walking through campus a couple of weeks ago and she noticed a flyer on one of the boards for a metabolic study.  I am in the right age range (38-44) and so I sent the guy an email.

He's doing some research about the body's ability to burn fat, somehow he's doing a comparison/measurement that's never been done before.

Long story short, I showed up twice.  The first time measured my anaerobic threshold (which I happen to cross when I run 9.5mph (increasing .5mph per minute over 10 minutes)), and then today I had my body composition measured and I ran at an easy pace for 35 minutes.  All the running was done while breathing into one of those tubes.

35 minutes on a treadmill?  Yah, it wasn't so bad because he put on a documentary about Yellowstone that was really pretty and fairly interesting.

I'll get an email with all the results later when he's had time to compile everything, so right now all I know is my anaerobic threshold as well as the fact that before eating anything today, I weighed 105 kg, stood at 191cm, and my body fat percentage was 21.1%.

I'm pretty happy with the body fat percentage.  Depending on which chart you look at, it's either just above the acceptable range, or in the acceptable range (who makes these charts up?) - and I'm planning on dropping down to 100kg or less, which should put me around 13% body fat, which would be pretty nice.

Note: while a 13% body fat would have me on the border of "Athlete" and "Fit", my BMI would still have me solidly in the middle of "overweight".

It Begins

Today was my first meeting at Weight Watchers.  I weighed in at 263.8 pounds (socks, shorts, t-shirt), and I've got my goals set.

The leader (Sandy) is energetic and pretty entertaining (though she reminds me a little bit of my mom...)

Here's to reaching some new goals and staying there.  The medium-term goal is 235 pounds, but first I've gotta lose 5 pounds (you get a gold star! - it's just like kindergarten)...

Fit Bowl Winner!

Fit bowl started five months ago, and thanks to the 10# bump Ron's scale gave me on the initial weigh in, I won!

I'm not necessarily proud of the 10# bump, but I'll take it. Either way, Sam, Ron, and I each lost over 15% of our body weight, and Ingrid lost almost 10% of hers (and gained a bunch of muscle at the same time). In total, we lost almost 150#. Pretty impressive.

My final weigh in was @ 225 pounds, thanks to a double work-out on the last day, and I'm pretty happy with the results. I think I'll continue to try to lose some weight, maybe get down to 215. We'll see. After the peanut butter popcorn, I imagine I've got a little ground to regain.

Interesting Summary Of Weight Loss Studies

Joe Friel wrote the book I'm using to help guide me in training for triathlons, he has an interesting round-up of weight loss studies: Weight Loss

His conclusion:

So what's the bottom line? It appears that when calories are reduced to lose weight, which is more effective than increasing workload, the protein content of the diet must be kept at near normal levels.

Only 2 weeks left in fit-bowl '08.

Diet, Month 3

Fit bowl has finished its third month - I don't yet know the standings, but I imagine I'm at the bottom of the top pack (i.e. in the middle). I'm down 25 pounds or so, and things feel pretty good.

This week was a bit tough. I was in Wilsonville 4 days for a class. Good class, but I was stuck in a room for 8 hours a day with brownies, cookies, muffins, etc. Two of the days I completely blew my calorie limit. It also didn't help that I didn't fit any exercise in.

But all is well, I'm back on the band wagon. I ran 4 miles today with Simone, and we had our now standard pizza night. And I even had enough calories left for a couple chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk.

The milk is from a local farm, raw cow milk. I've never had raw cow milk before - it's pretty yummy. I'm not sure if the milk is yummy because the cows are happy, because the milk is raw (not pasteurized), or if it's because it is whole milk. But I approve.

One of the benefits of my weight loss is that my snoring has (apparently) ceased. Mary says she doesn't hear me snoring any longer, and that's a good thing. Also, my heartburn is much less frequent - so perhaps my GI tract is happier. (Remember, I've got a stricture in my esophagus, and gall bladder inflammation (and stones).)

On a related note, some guy changed his life by hopping on a bike. Anyone can lose weight, you just have to change your life.

On another related note, this is Jared's 10th year of eating right (Subway fame). The quote I like the best from that link is:

"If you don't like the life you're living while you're losing, you're much more likely to gain it back"

Words to live by.

Triathlon in Two Days

I've got two days (not even 48 hours) until my Beaver Freezer triathlon. I've not trained quite as much as I'd hoped, but I'm pretty happy with the shape I'm in all things considered. Heck, just tonight I finally fixed my road bike seat I broke 3 months ago.

But running is feeling good - my distances are still pretty short (finally got new shoes a couple of weeks ago), and the swimming picked up well (I've swum maybe a dozen times this year).

My last two results were 1:18 and 1:15, and I'm hoping for 1:20. We'll see.

Probably the best training so far has just been losing the 20+ pounds I've lost during the fit bowl.

As long as I don't lose to the oldest guy (66).

What Did I Eat?

I use CalorieKing to track my calories. I was too lazy to check out the free options before I started, and I knew CalorieKing was decent because Mary had used their software for the Palm (which worked pretty well).

Turns out, one of the "benefits" is that my food diary can be made public, so for all my adoring fans, check out what I have eaten since January 18, 2008: CalorieKing Community - Public Diaries - Bigfaceworm

Fit Bowl at 9 Weeks

Fit Bowl '08 has been going for 9 weeks now, and how are things shaping up? Rather nicely.

As a group, we've lost 92 pounds, and Sam is leading the pack at -11.15%. And everyone except Tim has lost weight. Not bad. I'm about the middle of the pack (-7%), but that's not counting the odd initial weigh-in (it's my "secret" weapon, a 13 pound bump the "official" scale gave me).

To date I'm down 23 pounds, and it's easy to see the clothes fitting more loosely. Some days my wedding ring even feels a little loose (it's been snug for quite a while).

The plan of 2000 calories + exercise has been working well. My intake has been a little erratic the past two weeks - way high two weekends ago (up in Portland), and low a couple of nights this week, but on the whole it's been pretty consistent. I don't usually feel too hungry, nor too full, and the smaller portion sizes are becoming more habitual.

I've started running again (only two weeks until the triathlon) and it feels pretty good - I definitely notice not having the extra 20+ pounds on my frame. My joints feel good. Plus it's nice having that exercise as an option - it's a lot quicker than a bike ride and Simone still appeases me by hanging out in the Burley while I jog.

Here are the graphs of my food intake for the past 2+ months (ignore the bars on the right, the graph only allowed 1 or 3 months to be displayed). The first is my net calorie intake (that's the 2000+exercise allowance):
And here's the total calorie intake - which hasn't been too crazy even without exercise. I'm hoping I can sustain my weight while eating around 2500 calories a day (counting exercise), because it's been straight forward to eat less than 2500 calories:

Of course, as my weight drops, so does my basal metabolic rate, and by the time I weigh 220 (if I get there), I'll have to eat 300 fewer calories a day than I was eating at 265. So 2500 calories might be more than what I can consistently eat w/out gaining weight. In fact, I'm expecting my weight loss to taper off at some point because of the dropping BMR. The question is, will it drop off before I get to my goal weight (whatever that is)?

Yeah, so what is my ideal weight? No idea. The plan was to reach goal weights decreasing in 15 pound increments. I've passed 250 (woo-hoo), and am well on my way to 235. I definitely want to be at or below 235 - which was my weight when we got married. I pretty sure I'll try for 220 after that, and the experience of getting to that weight will help guide me in choosing my goal weight.

I love eating, and while I've been able to change how I eat so far, I'm a little scared of what I'd have to (not) eat to remain at 220. Maybe it'll be no big deal, it might just be what I'm doing right now (220#, 6'3" and 36 years old supposedly has a BMR of 2140 calories). If that's the case, I might hang out there. But maybe I'll have difficulty with the portions required to sustain that weight.

So far I've been able to simply monitor (and cut) my portions, and I haven't explicitly cut anything out of my diet. I have dessert semi-regularly, just small portions. I even had a bag of crunchy Cheetos a couple of weeks ago on the drive home (they totally weren't worth it). The goal is to find a lifestyle I can maintain.

Of course, once I reach 220, I might try for even lower. Heck, I might even try for some Hip Hop Abs!

Fit Bowl Facts

So I started to think about the numbers. I've been tracking my calorie intake, and barring the over-eating of the past couple days:

I've been staying pretty consistent at eating 2000 calories a day (allowing for exercise).

So what was my calorie intake before the fit-bowl? Well, if 2000 calories a day leads to 3 pounds of weight loss a week, then I'm eating 1500 calories less than I was before the contest. (3 pounds == 3*3500 == 10500 calories a week, divide by 7 and get 1500 calories extra a day)

It's been relatively easy to eat just 2000 calories (plus exercise), so this gives me a lot of hope. Not only do I think I'll be able to maintain this in the long-run, but I can very likely eat a fair amount more and still maintain a weight of only 230 (or 220). I find that encouraging because a part of the problem I had with starting a diet/lifestyle change was the mental block that I'd have to starve myself. This is proof I won't starve (as though I've ever really had to worry about that).

5 Weeks of Fit-Bowl

So I've been at it for over 5 weeks now. I'm down 15 pounds, woo-hoo!

What I'm happiest about is the fact that I lost 7 of those pounds while in Hawaii - where I ate ice cream and pudding and other things. Granted, I was walking 1 or 2 hours a day (or more), but it was nice to see.

Unfortunately at Mary's birthday party I pigged out, and the two days following I over-ate. So I need to reign things back in.

Diet, Week 1

So, it's been a week. Things have gone fairly well. I know that both Sam and Ron have lost a bunch (10ish and 6 respectively), and that Ingrid isn't having much luck with her plan (my uninformed opinion is that she's not eating enough, but it's too quick to judge). I've no idea about the others.

Anyway, I've not weighed in this week, so I have no idea how well I've done in those terms. I do know I've cut out a bunch of food, and while I'm not deprived, I definitely think about all the food cravings I'm ignoring (or satisfying with a carrot or orange). Exercise is the key for me.

See, I'm targeting 2000 calories a day, plus whatever I exercise. I figure my basal rate has got to be at least 2500, probably more. So I'm cutting out 500 calories * 7 == 3500 == 1 pound a week. 6 months == 26 weeks, 26 pounds. I'd like to lose more, but I also want to end up with an eating habit I can sustain.

So, 2000 calories isn't really enough to satisfy me mentally, but if/when I exercise I can pretty easily tack on another 300-600 calories, and 2500 calories is pretty doable. Today, for instance, I ate 2650 calories - and that included a bunch of home-made pizza and 2 (yup, count them, one... two) whole cookies. Sure, I'm not eating my standard dozen cookies, but I'll live.

Anyway, here's how I fared with respect to my target eating goal this past week:


The big negatives are because I exercised and didn't eat enough during the day. Come dinner time I didn't want to just stuff myself, so I ended up a bit shy. I'll get better at planning that.

One problem both Sam and I have had in figuring out how much to eat is that all of the online calculators give different caloric measurements for both basal rates and for activity. Sam got some basal rates that differed by 1000 calories! So it's confusing and difficult to know where to start. As with most things, experience is what really can guide you.

Mary has been great - she's planned and cooked some great meals. I've just limited portions. So far, so good, I think.

Update: Sunday, Jan 26, 4:30pm. Down 4.5 pounds.

3 Days Down, 180-ish to go

Fit bowl has begun. My plan is to eat 2000 calories a day (give or take 200), allowing more for exercise. The first day was a little challenging, the last two have been easier due to the fact I've been real active (Mary and I walked nearly 9 miles). Surprisingly, I've eaten about the same amount today as the first day, but today I feel stuffed - and I exercised today.

Today was very nice actually, we walked 4.5 miles with Simone in the Burley (napping). Then, after a nice lunch, Simone and I biked to the gym for a swim. I'm glad the fit bowl has helped motivate me, because this is the kind of active life I wanted anyway (Mary too). I do want to win the money, but the real goal is to get to a comfortable weight.

Who knows how long it'll take to adjust to eating smaller portions, but I've already noticed actual feelings of hunger and fullness. Who would have thunk?

Fit Bowl '08

So, my buddy Ron decided we were too fat and needed to lose weight, so it was time for a competition. And since he won our money last time, he upped the entry fee to $100.

The weigh in was last Friday (I did it Thursday because of scheduling).

I'll let the picture do the talking (though I think his scale is wonky - it said 10 pounds more on the wood floor).