Blog 5: Throw-away week

The numbers for this week:

Bodyweight: 171 lbs.
Bodyfat percent: 14.8% (25.5lbs of fat)
Total pounds lost this week: 0 lbs.
Total fat pounds lost this week: .5lb (about .4% bodyfat)

This week I broke the diet at least once every single day. Also, I only worked out one day this week and it was only for about 10 minutes. In addition to this, I also stopped taking my supplements maybe half way through the week. So all and all, I did really, really bad.

When I say I ‘broke my diet’, I don’t mean that I ate lots of fat or carbs; in fact, my ratios for the week (despite not following the diet) were about 30% protein, 40% carbs, and 30% fat (and ironically, these are the exact ratios for the zone diet). But I did have either rice, bread, sugar, or milk at least once every day this week; which are all not on my diet.

It’s not that I planned to fail; but somehow when I drove back down to LA I dropped the ball and ended up eating out a lot (which meant breaking the diet). Also, I was really over tired this week from sleeping on so many different couches and I ended up forgetting to bring my supplements in from the car a few nights; so I ended up not taking them for most of the week.

Despite totally failing on the diet though, I still lost 1/2lb of fat. I’m happy that I was also still able to maintain my bodyweight from last week.

Needless to say, the next 4 weeks I’ll have to really fight to make it to 8% bodyfat. If I continue at the same rate that I’ve been going, I’ll be around 10.5% bodyfat at the end of next month; which will be 2.5% shy of my goal. In order to make it I’ll definitely have to start taking some fat burning pills, although I hate them very much (maybe I’ll get some without caffeine).

Also when I go down to LA next, I’m going to just restart my membership at LA Fitness. Then, even if I end up not following the diet when I’m there, I’ll at least be able to work off the bad calories.

It has become increasingly difficult to fit this diet regiment into my crazy schedule. I only hope I can hold on long enough to finish the next 4 weeks.

Week 3: Decreasing at a Decreasing Rate

The numbers for this week:

Bodyweight: 171 lbs.
Bodyfat percent: 15.2% (26lbs of fat)
Total pounds lost this week: -.5 lbs.
Total fat pounds lost this week: 1lb (about .8% bodyfat)

I don’t understand this diet. When I lost weight before, I would still eat pizza 3 times a week, visit Taco Bell twice a week, and I’d sometimes even keep drinking Pepsi. I would always have more than 2200 calories average per day; and my fat, carb, and protein ratios were WAY higher on the carbs and fats. Yet the fat would melt off quick!

So why is it that I’m having so much difficulty losing fat? The biggest difference between my old ‘losing weight diets’ and now was that in the past, my ‘diet’ was more heavily an exercise regiment and less of a ‘diet’. I’d workout at a gym pretty hard 5 days a week for about 90 minutes. Now I’m working out maybe 4 times a week for about 30 minutes at a time just doing pushups, sit-ups, bodyweight squats, etc…I guess it’s not enough.

It’s not that big of a deal though, because I’m still just experimenting with the diet/exercise setup. I purposely increased my daily calories from last week so I could try to keep (or gain) muscle, and that part worked. Though I only lost 1lb of bodyfat this week, I went up 1/2lb of weight for a total of about 1.5lbs of muscle gain, which I was happy to have.

However, a consequence of my diet change may have also been a decrease in the amount of fat I could lose in a week. This is a problem because now I have to lose more fat in the next 5 weeks (about 1.5% fat per week vs 1.25% per week) in order to reach the 8% bodyfat goal. So to be able to still meet this goal in 5 weeks I think I’ll try the following:

1) Don’t get too crazy on the cheat days: On my last cheat day I ate over 4100 calories, and it was mostly junk: 

I purposely wanted to increase my daily calories last week, and if it weren’t for this cheat day, my average would have been about 1810 calories a day, or a 3% increase from last week. However, because of this huge cheat day, it brought my daily calories to an average of 2132 per day, or 20% more calories since last week. I think that if I’m going to have a cheat day from now on; I can eat more but it maybe shouldn’t be as crazy and it shouldn't be all junk. 

2) Better workouts: Or at least added cardio to the workouts. I was actually thinking they should be harder and more intense though. It’s ironic that the workouts I’m doing now are lighter than the workouts I was doing last summer BETWEEN visits to the gym, so I must have really got weak. For example, last summer I was at 100 situps a day, 150 pushups, and 150 bodyweight squats. Again, this was BETWEEN my 3 days a week at the gym. Now I’m lucky to reach 2/3rds of those numbers on my real ‘workout’ days. So this next week I’ll really try to amp up my workouts to the point where I’m in danger of puking. That would be some good intensity.

3) Drink more water: I’m off and on with this but they say increased hydration is important for fat loss. I know a lot of gym enthusiasts will drink a gallon of water a day, and from what I understand it’s perfectly healthy to do so. In fact, if someone can drink a gallon of ice-cold water everyday, they can burn around 860 extra calories a week: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/drinking-ice-water-burns-861-calories.html

This is because your body has to burn calories to raise the water temperature up to your body’s 98.6-degree temperature. So basically that’s drinking 8 (16oz) bottles of water a day. Very doable, it just will (most likely) mean more trips to the bathroom too.

4) Fat burning pills: I’m really reluctant to do this because I hate how they make me feel. In fact, I’ve tried them a few times but never could even finish half a bottle because I’d stop taking them. I hate having the shakes. However, after this next week if I’m not losing fat like I was hoping, I’ll go ahead and buy a bottle of these and start taking them for the last month of this diet. Hopefully it won’t have to come to that; but I’m willing to do it if it means reaching the goal in the allotted time. 

So that is the game plan going into this next week. I’m sure there might also have to be some additional changes before I get to the end; but judging how things have been going, I think these new changes will mostly be good changes. Let’s see how it goes.

Week 2: Sacramento, CA

Failure.

I missed the mark this week, and there are a number of reasons why (which I’m not happy about). But before getting into any of the details/excuses, here are my numbers for this morning:

Body weight: 170.5 lbs.

Bodyfat percent: 16% (27 lbs of fat)

Total pounds lost this week: 2 lbs

Total fat pounds lost: 2lbs (about 1.2% bodyfat)

As you can see, I’m still on track if you average my fat loss from both weeks; but I should have seen extra good results this week. I was actually hoping to see an INCREASE in overall weight and a larger decrease in bodyfat. The reason? Well last week I started taking some supplements to help keep my muscle mass on while I’m dieting, and they are: DHEA, ZMA, and Tribulus. 

All 3 of these supplements are designed to promote additional testosterone production and increase muscle growth. My ‘plan’ was to take these supplements, to slightly increase my calories (though adding only ‘good’ calorie foods), and to workout a bit harder. The results would have been increasing my muscle mass, which in turn would’ve burned more calories (and thus, more fat). My problem was that I did not actually execute ‘the plan’ as I should have. Here are a few things that caused my demise this week:

1) No workouts- Except for Thursday, I didn’t work out AT ALL this week. I didn’t mean to be so lazy; I just stayed at a friend’s place and got busy doing other stuff. Later in the week when I did have time to throw in a quick workout, my neck was stiff and killing me so I didn’t feel like forcing a workout. Also the time change really knocked my on my ass. I’ve felt jet lagged for the last few days since.

2) Bad diet- Not horribly bad this week, but instead of having one cheat day like I should have, I had a few cheat meals spread over several different days. This is partly because I was eating Lloyd’s gourmet veggie food this week, and spent a day at the ‘Natural Products Expo’ in Anaheim eating lots of veggie food samples. 

3) Not enough calories- This is sort of part of ‘bad diet’; but basically my goal last week was to increase the calories that I’m eating everyday and I didn’t do a good job with that. The first week I averaged about 1700 calories a day, and this week I averaged about 1760, which is only 60 calories more. The reason I need to increase my calories is so I don’t keep losing weight. I want to lose fat; but I don’t want to weigh much less than I do now. Also if I keep eating less than my Base Metabolic Rate (BMR, which for me is 1800 calories a day), then my metabolism will start to slow down and that will slow down my progress.

So for this next week I’ll need to increase my calories to (at least) 1900 a day and keep my cheat meals consolidated to just one day. I’ll also need to do better with my workouts; which will be easier just because I can stay with family here in Sacramento and they have more room for actually doing a workout.

Luckily, I’m still on track to reach my goal of 8% bodyfat in the next 6 weeks. It does get really difficult to keep a schedule because of all my traveling but I need to keep holding on. Already 1/4th of the way there! Need to make it that last 3/4ths now.

Week 1: El Segundo, CA

This week started out very difficult, as most diet and exercise programs do, but these last few days have been a bit easier.  One of the things that helped me the last few days is that I’ve been staying at a hotel with a mini kitchen, so it makes it easier for me to eat my meals and to form some sort of a schedule.

I had one cheat day, but it was tempting to have more since I spent the weekend with my gourmet vegetarian friend, Lloyd, in the OC.  I was trying to hold out longer; but I broke down when he offered to make gourmet Mac and Cheese.  I had to do it.  I also ended up having chips, soda, chocolate cake, and apple pie that day.  It was a good cheat day. Only 3350 calories too; which used to be my daily amount of calories a few weeks ago.

I didn’t end up doing ‘real’ workouts until this Monday; and I’ve been doing at least 20 minutes on the treadmill followed by bodyweight exercises and/or rubber band exercises.  I really wish I could use some real weights but I’m limited and have no gym access until I can get back to living full time in one location.

I checked my bodyfat and weight this morning and here are my numbers:

Body weight: 172.5 lbs.

Bodyfat percent: 17.0% (29.5 lbs. of fat)

Total pounds lost this week: 3.5lbs.

Total fat pounds lost: 2.7 lbs. (about 1.3% bodyfat)

So after the first week I’m right on target for my fat loss and reached the minimum of 2.5lbs. per week.  However, I’m unhappy about the fact that I’m losing muscle too.  Since I lost a total of 3.5lbs this week and only 2.7lbs of that was fat; that means there was about .8lbs of muscle lost.

This is a rough estimate as there were other factors that could have contributed besides muscle loss: different scale was used, I didn’t factor water weight, etc…  Bottom line, I know at least some of that was muscle loss and I also know that I can’t have that happen every week.  If it does, then by the time I reach 8% bodyfat I’ll be down around 150 lbs., and that’s just way too skinny for me.

I’ve been thinking about what I could do to try to maintain or even grow muscle as I’m losing the fat, and here’s what I came up with:

1)   This week I’ve had between 1000-1800 calories per day (except for my cheat day) and I think that’s too low.  For my activity level, I should eat around 2100 calories to maintain a 170 lb. bodyweight.  So going forward I’m going to try to increase my calories.

2)   I’m going to start taking some supplements to help build or maintain my muscle mass.  I just need to figure out which would be best.

3)   Be better with my workouts.  I did have 3 workouts this week; but all the workouts were the last few days.

We'll see how it goes next week. :)

Mikey got fat.

Well after all my traveling, illnesses, and poor eating habits for the last 4 months, my nomadic lifestyle finally caught up with me and Mikey got fat! 

I didn’t realize it until I was in Sacramento a couple weeks ago and I checked my body fat at my brother’s house with his electrical bodyfat measuring apparatus.   I was shocked to see that I was 18.3% bodyfat; which was the most I think I’ve ever been!

Because of my profession and my preferred beach lifestyle in the summer, 18.3% fat is unacceptable; so I’ve decided to go gangbusters and drop the fat as quick as I can, using this blog as a way to track the progress and hopefully keep me motivated.  I’m pretty lazy when it comes to eating healthy so I’m hoping that if I keep a record of my eating and exercise habits on here that it will ‘shame’ me into making the right choices.

Goal:

So my overall goal will be to get from 18.3% bodyfat to only 8% bodyfat in 2 months.  This will be a challenge for me because I’ve never actually been down to 8% bodyfat before.  The closest I’ve ever been was 9.5% or something in that range.  And 2 months isn’t a lot of time to get there.

Starting stats:

Without flexing muscles or sucking in my gut, here are my starting stats:

Weight: 176lbs (so 18.3% bodyfat is about 32.2lbs of fat)

Thigh circumference: 22”

Calf circumference: 14”

Top of neck: 15”

Upper arm: 13.75”

Forearm: 11.25”

Waist:  35.75”

Fattest part of waist (at belly button): 37”

Obstacles: 

Besides having only 2 months to drop over 10% bodyfat; some of the other obstacles I’ll have to overcome are as follows:

1)   I love to eat junk and LOTS of it!  Even when I would diet in the past I would still allow myself at least one soda a day and a few pizzas and ‘taco bell’ runs.  I could still lose weight but it would take longer than I have allotted myself; so no more.

2)   I have no access to a gym or exercise equipment.  I have been, and will continue to be living between Las Vegas, Sacramento, and Los Angeles for the next few weeks so I won’t be able to workout at any particular place and will have no schedule to base any sort of plans on.

3)   In addition, having to crash on couches and at hotels for the next couple weeks means that it will be very hard to get healthy groceries to cook at someone else’s place versus going to the local taqueria.

4)   I’m a vegetarian, which means my limited diet for the next 8 weeks will be ever more limited than the average dieter who can just have some lean chicken breast and veggies and call it a meal.

5)   Money.  Because I’ve been spending money like water recently and will continue to as I pay for my travel expenses for the next few weeks, I don’t have a lot of money to drop at expensive health food places.  If it comes down to a $9 Whole Foods salad or a $2 Taco Bell meal, it will be tempting to take the money saving option.

6)   My left knee has a torn medial meniscus that has kept me from being able to jump or run faster than a light jog for the past 8 months or so.  This is going to limit the types of workouts I can do.

These are the main obstacles I see for me as I’m starting out.  Obviously they aren’t impossible to overcome, but it will take a bit more will power and planning than I’m used to.

Game Plan:

To lose 10% bodyfat in 8 weeks means I’ll have to lose about 1.25% bodyfat a week.  That’s roughly 2.5lbs of fat a week, for a total of 20 total lbs of fat lost in 2 months.

Diet:

The diet I want to try is called the ‘slow carb diet’ and as it was described in the book ‘The 4 hour Body’, here are the rules:

1)   No ‘white’ carbs such as pasta, bread, sugar, etc; or anything that can be white (like potatoes).

2)   Eat the same few meals over and over.  So I’ll basically just have 5 different meals to choose from daily.

3)   Don’t drink calories.  Only water and maybe coffee or tea if I have a breakdown and need caffeine.

4)   Take one day off a week as a cheat day to eat whatever you want.  To be honest this is my favorite part of the diet and one of the reasons why I chose it.  But it’s necessary to have a big calorie day a week to keep your body’s metabolism from slowing down.  Yay for cheat days! 

Workout:

Although I don’t have access to a gym, I do have one of these rubber band things:

I plan on using this rubber band thing for curls, shoulder presses, and tri extensions; and then doing pushups, bodyweight squats, and one-legged calf raises for the rest of the workout.  I’ll workout 3 times a week.

On the non-workout days I’ll try to throw in some cardio; though because of my knee it will be limited to whatever level of intensity it can tolerate.

Anyway, that’s the basic plan!  I took some 'before' pics but they're so gross that I might not post them unless I need to for added motivation via embarrassment.  I'll be starting the diet and exercise plan tomorrow (March 3^rd) and will hopefully finish April 28^th.  I’ll be updating my progress on here at least once a week, when I will post my newest stats.  Let’s see how I do.