A Reason to Run

I think I've said it before, but just to be clear, I hate running. Even when I was an athlete in high school, I still dreaded running. I loved playing football, basketball, and the like, but I hated conditioning and hated running. I've come to grips with my dislike for this activity and I do it anyway. It is a fantastic way to get in shape and stay in shape. The late fitness guru, Covert Bailey once said, "show me how fast you can cover a mile, and I will tell you what kind of shape you are in".
So, this morning, I'm on the treadmill at the gym, doing my heart rate thing (keeping it between 135 and 145), thinking "I know I can go faster than this, I know I can cover a mile faster than this." But the end game here is to burn fat, not to cover ground asap. I then got thinking about the 5k's I want to do this summer. I can think of 3-4 I want to run. The first one that I was really planning on was a 5K on the 4th of July in Centerville. BUT, I had another one brought to my attention that I think I will do first.

Let me introduce Deak.

Deak has an extremely rare Chromosomal abnormality, simply titled Ring 18. Deak's parents are friends of my little sister. I've only had the pleasure of meeting Deak once, but I feel like I know a lot about him due to reading his mom's blog. He is one cool little kid, and he inspires me quite a bit. And despite all of the odds stacked against him, he is a fighter and so are his parents.

Deak's mom has put together a charity benefit 5K on May 14th in Kaysville.

I am so there.

Here is a link to the race: Deak's Run for Hope

Go there, read about Deak, read about his life, and you too will be inspired.

So, I've got some getting ready to do. I'll still be doing my heart rate based training each week, but I'm going to throw in some training to improve my stamina and cardio efficiency to get ready to run. Thanks Deak! See you on May 14th!

More Number Weirdness

This morning's workout was on the elliptical. Talk about a wide variety of numbers for calories burned, during a 50 minute session, keeping my heart rate between 135 and 145.

Precor Elliptical (with my heart rate signal, weight entered, and age entered): 850 calories

Polar FT-7 HRM: 540 calories

SparkPeople: 1058 calories

Seriously!?!?!

Now, before anybody thinks I'm getting hung up on numbers, I'm not. I'm just a geek, and wonder why the numbers vary so much. I tend to think the real number lies somewhere above what the Polar is telling me, but not much more, maybe 10% more. Each system has it's own limitations. I think the Polar would be the most accurate IF it were also taking into account my BF%. But, now that I think about it, it may be worse. I'm a 350 lb guy right now. If I were this weight but 20% body fat, my lean body mass would be somewhere around 280, vs the 37% body fat that I actually am and my lean body mass is around 220. Which engine burns more fuel? The 220 or the 280? Obviously the 280. None of these systems asks me my body fat %, and are probably making assumptions to arrive at a number. I'm going to keep digging into this.

Not that any of this matters anyway if I'm not tracking my calories - which I have done a really bad job at lately. Must resolve to do better at that. Usually if I'm not tracking my calories, it means I'm not eating right.

In the end, all that matters is moving more and eating right. These number tools are fun to play with, but none of it matters unless you are doing those two things.

Going by the numbers

I finally got my HRM monitor!! I happened to be looking in the classifieds over the weekend, and found a guy who had just posted the exact Polar FT-7 HRM I was looking for. Brand new, only opened the package, for $40 less than I could get it online. Called him immediately and went to his house Sat night and got it. Wahoo!

I fiddled with the thing on Sunday. Got all my stats put in. Layed there in bed for 10 minutes doing nothing trying to determine my resting heart rate. It was right around 70. True resting heart rate should be taken first thing in the am though. But in that 10 minutes I layed there, it said that I burned 30 calories - doing absolutely nothing. If I extrapolate that out over an hour, it's 180 calories in an hour. If I take it further to 24 hours, it would mean that I burned 4320 calories in a 24 hour period. Huh? By all other accounts my BMR is 2500-3000 calories per day(not including exercise). So, I don't where the discrepancy is, but I found that interesting.

I was a dope again over the weekend, and stayed up way too late watching Season 3 of 24 (curse you Netflix!). Hence, no gym on Monday. Today, however, I made it. I hit the treadmill with my new HRM on and ready to go. The treadmill immediately picked up the signal from my transmitter (yes!). Today's goal was to keep my heart rate between 135 and 145 bpm. For me this means alternating between walking and light jogging. My workout time was 50 minutes, and I covered about 3.25 miles. I can cover that distance faster, but my heart rate goes a lot higher if I do, and I'm trying to keep it in the 'Fat Burning Zone'.

Here's where it get's interesting. I had put my weight and age into the treadmill like I always do. At the end of my workout, the treadmill told me that I had burned 669 calories. My FT-7 however, told me that I had burned 554 calories. When I put the activity into Sparkpeople, it told me that I had burned 470 calories. So, going by the numbers, how many calories did I actually burn in my workout? Being the engineer that I am, I'm going with the average, the number in the middle, the 554.

I will keep going with the FT-7. I need a bigger chest strap. The one that it comes with does not fit my 52 in chest. Luckily I can order one. This will be an interesting experiment as I keep going.

Reaping and Sowing

The Law of the Harvest. The adage is about as old as time itself. As you sow, so shall ye reap. Whatever you put into something dictates what you get out of it. The more planning, preparation, attention, focus and devotion you give to a project, a garden, a child, a spouse, anything in your life, it generally turns out well. We all know that if we neglect something, it will rarely turn out well.

As I was trying to think about how to theme my blog today, sowing and reaping came to mind. Why you ask. In a weight loss effort, such as I am now engaged in, and have been many times in the past, the law of the harvest is so very applicable. No, it's not an exact science. Not always do the efforts you put in for one week, dictate the results you see at the end of the week. I sometimes think that we fail to take a step back and gather in the whole picture.

My week was mediocre. I did not track my food as well as I should have. I did not eat as cleanly as I should have. But, I didn't overeat. I tried to keep my calories in check even though the foods weren't the best. Exercise was hit and miss. I skipped a couple of days at the gym in favor of sleep, but I've also had good workouts the last three days. It was kind of an up and down week. Frankly, I thought I would see little to no change on the scale this week. 2 pounds was a nice surprise. I wanted a little more than that, I wanted to be under 350, but I hadn't put the work in - eating, workouts etc.

Often times, I have to ask myself "How bad do you want it?" What am I willing to give up or change to get this weight off and live healthy? Change takes time. 2 of the biggest things I have to change are 1) to quit eating at fast food restaurants - meaning that I need to pack my lunch more often, and resist the urge to pull into the drive thru when I feel a little hunger pang, and 2) I need to go to bed earlier. The reason I missed the gym is that I stayed up to late over the weekend, and that threw my sleep cycle way off.

If I want better results, I've got to give it the effort it deserves.

Weekly Weigh In:
Current Weight 350.5 lb <> 2lb lost this week. <> Down 39.5 overall in 12 weeks.
Current Body Fat% 37.6% <> 0.1 down this week. <> Down 4.1% in 12 weeks.

Keep on going!

Variables

In continuing with my science and math theme from a few days ago, I'm talking variables today. Variables are those things in an equation that are not numbers. They are usually represented by letters such as x, y, a or b. When the variables in an equation change, the outcome of the equation changes.
One good practice in scientific processes is that you never change more than one variable in an experiment at a time. If you do change more than one variable at a time, then you don't know which variable had the greater impact on the outcome, or if they both equally shared in changing the outcome. This is a no-no if you want to truly understand how each variable affects the outcome.

Had enough science yet?

The same applies to the 'this or that' that I was talking about last week. There were a lot of variables I wanted to tweak to see if I could increase my weight loss (outcome). The problem was that I did a little of all of them, and my results were pretty good this week.
1. I tried to eat more protein and less carbs. Was I perfect, eating a 3g protein to 1g carb ratio? No. It was more like 2:1. But still, more than I had done before.
2. Exercise at a lower heart rate. Instead of pushing it up to 148 - 158 bpm, I kept it 130-140 bpm. Did it help? IDK. I still felt like I got a good workout. I know I didn't burn as many calories overall, but maybe there is something to this 'fat burning zone'. BTW - I still have yet to buy my HRM.
3. Drugs. Yes, I take medication to help me lose weight. I take Phentramine. I truly think, that in 2008 when I lost so much weight, it was the phentramine doing most of the heavy lifting. I think my body is used to it now, and so it is not as effective. So what did I do. I upped my dosage to what it was in 2008 before I quit taking it. 1.5 pills per day instead of 1. This is likely the largest factor for my success this week, but who knows for sure. Eventually I'd like to get away from this stuff.

So, changing which variable made them most difference? Again, I don't know. This is why you should only change one thing at a time. And even then, the human body is so complex that it still may throw you for a loop.

Well, another week, another little bit of me gone.

Numbers for this week:
Weight: 352.5 Down 4.5lbs this week. Down 37.5lbs overall in 11 weeks.
Body Fat%: 37.7% Down 0.6 this week. Down 4% overall in 11 weeks.

Listen to my heart

As an engineer by trade, I love numbers. My kids think I'm a bit weird, that is, until I can totally explain their math homework. But anyway, I love numbers, and metrics, and trends, etc. There is science behind losing weight. At the very center, make calories out be greater than calories in, and you have the basic equation for losing weight.

I am able figure out the calories in part, and track it using Sparkpeople or any calorie counting program. BUT how do you know how many calories you are burning? If you work out on a treadmill or an elliptical, it will tell you a few things. If you hold the hand grips, it will tell you your heart rate. If you enter your age and weight, it will give you a calories expended output. There is a limitation to those numbers.
1) They are not 100% accurate. The treadmill does not ask for my body fat % or how fit I am, so the calories it says that I'm expending are probably an average.
2) I believe the heart rate to be fairly correct, but you have to hold on to the sensors to get a reading each time. I'd rather not have to do that all the time.
3) The machines are only a snapshot of what you are doing while on them. What about when I lift weights? What about when I jog somewhere other than a treadmill?

Calories expended during the day is a studied science, but something that is still unique to each individual. I have a formula that I found that takes into account your lean body mass ( meaning that its the muscle part of things that is doing the work, not the fat).

It is stated: BMR = 370+(21.6 x Lean Body Mass(kg))

That produces a number that says I need X number of calories just to function each day. You then get to put a multiplier on it if you workout. In my case, the multiplier is 1.5. This is called TDEE. It stands for Total Daily Energy Expended.

Right now, mine is around 3800 calories. If I stay under that, by say 1000-1500 calories per day, then I lose weight.

So, back to the ways to measure my calories out. I need a device. I need a tool.

Right now I am considering the following:
Polar FT7 Heart Rate Monitor
Garmin FR60 Heart Rate Monitor
BodyBugg Calorie Tracker

I've had a polar HRM before, and I liked it. There are pros and cons to each. I'm leaning right now toward getting one of the HRM's (Garmin or Polar), and then, maybe later picking up the Bodybugg.

I'll let you know what happens.

This or That

Should I do this, or should I do that? To me weight loss still remains a huge mystery. There are tons of experts, plenty of people that will tell you to do 'this' or 'that'. It's a journey to be sure, and I truly believe that everybody has to figure it out for themselves. What works for one person might not work for you, and vise versa.

Today, I am frustrated. I only lost 2 lbs this week. And yes, while it's still 2 lbs in the right direction, I just feel like I'm capable of more. I feel this way because I did it 3 years ago. 3 years ago I was losing an average of 3-4 pounds per week, sometimes more, and very few times less. In the same 10 weeks in 2008, I had lost 56 pounds. This year, 33 pounds.

I wish I had tracked my food intake better at that time. I wish I had tracked my exercise better at that time.
Here is where I 'think' I'm different right now.
-My workouts are not as long right now. I'm pretty sure I was getting in 1-1.5 hours of exercise 4-5 days a week in 2008. Right now, I get about 45 min, 4-5 days a week.
-I 'think' I was eating more protein and fewer carbs. I don't know this for sure, because I'm only going off of memory here.
-In 2008, phentramine was new to my body. I think I have built up a resistance to it now.

Anyway, all that being said, I'm trying to figure out what to tweak. One 'do this' I'm looking into is to lower my intensity on my workouts. Keep my heart at 60-70% of max. This might be hard. It will definitely take a leap of faith.
My diet clinic is telling me to increase my intake of protein. Right now, I've been taking in approx 250g of protein per day, and they say I should up it to 350-375g per day. That is a ton of protein. I don't know if I can do that. We'll see.
Yet other voices say, "that's too much protein", eat more good carbs, have a good balance. Other studies say, calories in vs calories out is all that matters. Eat good foods, and stay within your calorie budget. Ugh - I just want to throw my hands up! Not give up, but holy crap, there's a lot of differing opinions out there.

So, for this week, I will be lowering my workout intensity a little, and increasing my protein intake -while lowering my carb intake. We'll see what happens.

Numbers for this week:
Current Weight: 357 (2 lbs lost. 33 overall in 10 weeks)
Current Body Fat %: 38.3% (Down .2% this week, and 3.4 in 10 weeks)

Progess in picutures - 30

I said I'd do it, so here it is. It's my 30 lbs lost picture(s). In the one you can see that I'm holding a 30 lb dumbell. This represents the weight which I'm no longer carrying around with me. 30lbs doesn't weigh that much to a guy my size, it isn't even 10% of my total body weight, but it's good progress. As I've said before, I don't like pictures of me, but I think I need to do this. I plan to do one of these every 10 lbs I lose from now on.

Focus

A couple of years ago I was taking a CAD class, and the instructor asked the class why a certain operation wouldn't work that he was trying to do in the CAD program. He knew the answer, but he was testing us. I was the only one who raised my hand, I knew. If the operation, process or function didn't have the FOCUS, it would not execute any commands. On a PC, you give something focus by clicking on it with your mouse.

Same goes for us, at anything we do, but especially weight loss. If an effort doesn't have the FOCUS, then nothing happens.

In this process of weight loss, what do you focus on?

Food/Fuel/Calories In
I have been a lean, mean, tracking machine this week. One week in with the Sparkpeople website and mobile app, and I'm hooked. I can say that since last Sunday, I've recorded everything that went into my mouth. The real time feedback is awesome. I can see where I'm at on my calorie intake, and that is broken down into carbs, fats, and proteins. When considering eating something, it makes me stop and consider a few things, like: do I know the nutrition count for this item?, and how will this affect my food budget for the day? I've been able to stay right around 2200-2400/day calories for the week. Considering that my BMR without working out is right around 3000, and more like 3800 when I do work out, I am aiming for a 1500 calorie deficit each day. Hopefully that equates to a 2-3 lb loss per week.

Working Out/Calories Out
Tried going more cardio this week. Utilized the Precor AMT 100i trainer at the gym. It is a free motion elliptical. It's a great workout. Also got back into running this week. I suck at running. Heck, I shouldn't even call it running. It's more like walk/jog/walk/jog/walk etc. for 45 minutes. But hey, I've got to build up to doing a 5k or two this summer. Overall, a good week working out. I missed Weds due to a brain lapse on my part, but overall good.

Clothes/Strength/Energy
So, if you don't focus on the scale, this is what you focus on. My clothes are getting looser all the time. I'm out of one waist size of pants, and down to the next. My closet should have a revolving door on it. I'm finding it easier to get up earlier. Currently getting up at 5:40am. I'm trying to buy about 5 minutes earlier each week, and it's working. My energy is good, and I'm feeling stronger.

Numbers/Scale
While the intangibles are nice, I still need to see the numbers. When you are 160 pounds overweight, the numbers have to be there. Hence we visit the scale once a week. I must admit, it was in my head this week. I did a couple of midweek checks, and I was not progressing as much as I would have liked considering how I was doing with diet and exercise. Alas, the numbers were decent, but not as much as I'd hoped for:

Weight: 3 lbs lost. 31 lbs total in 9 weeks.
Body Fat %: up 0.4%. Down 3.2% in 9 weeks.

As I said, I was hoping for a 5, but I'll take a 3 after a couple of weeks of 1's.

There's a lot to FOCUS on. It almost has to be selfish. It does take time away from other things. Yet, I am worth it, and I can't afford to lose my focus again.

Testing out my mobile device.