Embarrassed By Your Weight Loss Failures?
No, I do not look like the guy above. And it is unlikely any of us will, as he has the genes to get that big and the discipline to get that lean (low body fat). BUT, we can get in excellent shape by following rules and learning what it takes to keep at it!
Several times this year, I, like many of you, have begun a weight loss program only to be derailed. I do this to myself! It is just too easy to have a cheat day and then NOT get right back on.
When you miss a workout, make the next one better! Strength Training is essential when losing weight. You want to keep your muscle. Intense training at your level is The Perfect Workout!
The best thing that I have found is to make the decision and start. If you “fall off,” get right back on it.
People tend to eat the worst foods when you “cheat” on any diet. Then they often experience what seems like significant weight gain. But often, it is just the body reacting to the food. And most of that gain is water or bloating in the gut.
DO NOT MAKE A “MISTAKE” AND THEN COMPOUND IT!
So one can get discouraged and “fall off and stay off” the diet. So some advice is to make the decision, start and stay on it as long as possible. The longer, the better. If you get off, get back on.
The same can go for an exercise routine. Decide to start, start and stay with it. Don’t stop for a week because you missed a day.
Often diet and exercise are started together. However, getting off one doesn’t mean you have to get off both.
This will be a “several times a week” posting of my success and losses. Hopefully, more of the former.
Following are three graphs I am keeping on my weight loss program combined with High-Intensity Resistance Training. I will write more on this later. I started strict Keto, under 50 grams of carbohydrates daily, on Saturday, April 30. So the graphs begin on May 1.
KETO
Keto is explained here from WebMD, but I will get into more straightforward explanations in other posts. Plus, a few things in this article are disagreed upon by others in the medical field.
As you can see, my weight has dropped 8.9 pounds in 7 days. This much fat loss, what we are after, is not scientifically possible in 7 days. FAT I am looking to lose. But water weight CAN come off very quickly at the beginning of a Keto Diet. And I’ll explain why my weight went up tomorrow. But you will see in graphs 2 and 3 that there was also a reversal. So that’s two Good reversals in trends.
Why Am I Doing This?
I am not doing this for “ego,” but because I hope I will learn some new things about myself and maybe I can help others.
Weight loss is one of the primary reasons why we acquire new customers for Leo Fitness Lab. Gaining muscle/strength is a close second. There is a lot to learn and know in these two fields.
For today I am going to go over one of the oddities of weight loss: the “miraculous” amounts of “weight” that can be measured on your home scale. I use the quotations because when one goes on an extreme diet, it is possible to see dramatic weight changes, physical weight. But not necessarily a fat loss, which is what we are really after.
Weight Lose Graph
Looks good right? But it is impossible to lose 8 pounds of fat as fat has 3500 calories per pound and I only burn about 2800 calories a day so even if I ate nothing I could not lose this much fat. It is my body “rebalancing” according to this “new” diet.
That said, my body has been used to Low Carb Eating for some years now. I do get off this method of eating but for at least five years I have returned and my weight has come down from the 240-250 pound range to the 215-225 range.
If you look at the other, sometimes more important graphs, my percentage of lean tissue (muscle, tendons, and bone) seems to be going down. This should be alarming but it isn’t to me because I have seen it before. And I am eating adequate protein and doing 10-15 minutes of very HIGH-Intensity Resistance Training to stimulate the muscles. I am also doing an hour of fairly strenuous PT on my lower body as I am recovering from some nerve damage in my right leg. That is a story in itself!
Lean Tissue Graph
Body Fat Percentage
As you can see, my lean tissue has gone “down” 1.45% and my body fat “up” by roughly 1.95%. Again, neither of these is possible as I am eating over 200 grams of protein and adequate calories to maintain muscle. The change is just the rebalancing of fluids (water and blood) in muscle cells and the water outside of muscle cells.
I am not worried in the short term, though I may take a serious look at my calories as I have struggled to get in 2200 daily. That should be my target as I believe my expenditure is around 2800 daily. I usually skip breakfast, so it is difficult to eat 2200 calories in two meals. But I am working on it.
PNOE WILL TELL YOU ABOUT YOUR METABOLISM
I will do another PNOE test on Saturday, the 5th of May. Which I did, and I will write about it tomorrow. To determine my BMR (Basal Metabolism Rate or the minimum calories one needs to maintain body functions daily, other than movement.) Basal means “bottom layer or base,” Metabolism is turning food into body tissue, energy, and waste products, and Rate is the amount of “burn.”
After I do this next PNOE test, I will be able to compare it to previous tests. This will show me if my Metabolism is staying at the same rate, which is what I want. Diets can cause a reduction in the rate you burn calories. This is a survival mechanism from the early days our ancestors were hunter-gatherers. So when food was scarce, the body learned to lower its caloric needs.
This leads to another entire subject which is why we plateau on diets. Because our caloric needs go down. And why do we gain fat back so quickly after a diet when we resume normal eating? Your body just doesn’t need as many calories as it did “pre-diet.”
I will expand on all of these subjects as the weeks go by.
