The TFP Health Club

Squat day. Bike for 30 min moderate, then squat sets of 5 up to 420, and a backdown set of 325 for 12. Was going to go for 15 as usual but the bar started slipping down my back, and since I like to keep my shoulders in socket, I reracked. I'll take it. Knees still like me so far. Lower back has been healthy for quite a while now. Switching to low-bar and making sure I warm up first, and stretch after, has made a world of difference.

 

Oh, blech.
Saw the heart failure specialist today for my regular check-up. First the positive. My BP is perfect, as is my pulse, all my cholesterol levels are where they should be or better. My blood panel--everything totally groovy. The heart sounds good (considering it is broken).
Get on the scale, I wanna die. Ugh. Winter, I hate you. Menopause, I hate you more.
I am so tired of this uphill battle with my weight and the double whammy of living with heart failure and depression/anxiety. Just sick of it.
Which means I suppose, that I double down and move more and eat less. I've been dieting since I was 9 years old--which let me just make clear, is a very bad idea. Once you become a human yo-yo, it follows you. So poor body image is my constant companion no matter how "great" I look. No matter what weight I am, I think I look really fat. Unfortunately now, I actually am.
/end pity party

 

This is where I say something cliched.

You should never be on a diet. Its a lifestyle. Instead of what you do you have to make it what you are. Diets have end points, a diet is a temporary activity. Diets always "fail" because the changes are temporary. As a life style when you have a "bad day" you simply don't have one the next day, if you gain a little you simply adjust down slightly and recover. Once you have it set up (where you eat, what you eat, what you buy) its very simple to continue, and not a burden.

As I said I know this sounds cliched and trite, but its also very true. You can't yo-yo if you know what you are eating calorie wise day to day. You can't get surprised by the scale if you weigh yourself daily.

Diet "plans" where they say weigh yourself once a week, or don't weigh yourself at all, are BS, and can be huge demotivators. I was 184 last week, I was 190 yesterday. I did NOT gain 6 pounds of fat. I had a few high carb days that increases my water retention, which increases my weight, sometimes up to 10 lbs. Now if I only weighed myself once a week, did a diet, and then was HIGHER after the week, thats a huge let down. I will even weigh myself twice a day (morning and night) to really get a handle on my water weight if I'm actively trying to go down so I know whats "real" and whats water.

Data is NEVER a bad thing.

What to eat isn't hard either, diet isn't rocket science, there is no "secret", stuff like "no carbs after 6" or "eat 6 meals a day" etc have all been scientifically proven to be bullshit. I usually eat twice a day, lunch and dinner. I do this because skipping breakfast is easy for me, and two bigger meals keeps me fuller than 6 little ones of the same over all amount (that has been scientifically proven too). But it doesn't matter if I do 2 or 6, if I get my protein *MUCH higher than USDA recommended* and my fats, the rest can be whatever up to where I've set my calories. For me thats 1600 when I want to loose, 2000 when I want to maintain. I've got a surprisingly slow metabolism for a guy my size so I gotta stay low. You can eat cookies, or chips, or whatever as long as it fits your total. Now when I'm trying to lose I WON'T eat them because its a total waste of calories that could go to "real food", but the option is there.

This is not something to be depressed about, its a project, its doable, and its long term. It takes years to screw up your body diet wise, and it takes months, sometimes years to get it back. I still remember the day I looked down and my gut was gone completely. It took about 8 months of solid effort, and in that time I switched from "diet mode" to "I could do this indefinitely".

One last thing, don't OVER stress exercise. I didn't start to exercise until after I lost 20 lbs. The reason I started to exercise is I realized that under my fat which made me feel like a "bigger" guy was really a scrawny guy. Exercise to be healthy, exercise to look better naked, but almost all of weightloss is controlled by diet, not the gym. If I were to go out and run a 5k right now, I'd burn about the equivalent of an egg McMuffin (300 calories). I'd rather just skip the muffin.

 

Yes yes yes! I can't "like" this enough!

--- merged: Apr 5, 2014 1:56 PM ---
Here's an update on how daily weighing has worked for me. I expect to continue this for the rest of my life.

Note: The red line is the 7-day average. I am 6'3" tall.

 

With some needed help from these,



I'm working towards at least one unassisted pull-up by July 13th. For real this time.

 

Then tattoo time!

 

YES!... after I pay a year long delayed visit to the Red Cross!

 

There are more wins than losses there. Whatever you do, don't hate yourself for what you are not. Try to appreciate what you have done.
--- merged: Apr 5, 2014 at 3:50 PM ---
I had a big assed salad for lunch. Sure it had some cottage cheese and boiled eggs on it, and some tuna salad, but it was mostly greens. Drinking water. Yuck, but it's better than the sweet tea I love so much, calorie wise

 

(1) For reasons unrelated to weight control, I now stay away from dairy, which means, no butter, cheese, milk, yogurt, ice cream, cream cheese, etc. Once I made that decision, the rest was easy.

(2) I refuse to count calories. That would make me crazy. Or, well, crazier than I am already.

 

Yes! Every time we eat, we make choices. For me, it is easy to turn off the voice of reason. It was worse when I was a compulsive overeater--just being numb. Now it is portion control and never going back for seconds.
I've long ago cut out tons of things I know do me no good--no ice cream in the house. No margarine or butter. No chips or crackers. No soda pop of any kind (no great loss as I really never was fond of it). Water, water, water or tea without added anything.

But, even when I was losing weight, which the last time I was successful was while my Mom took a year to slowly die (2011), I allowed myself very small treats like a small square of dark chocolate or one Matt's cookie. Then I took time to savour them.

This is all over the place. Sorry, guys.
Kudos to all who have made it through the long winter and are still at it. Best of luck to those like me that may be starting again (or have recently done so).
We all have to work at it. Good health to all.

 

The closer to get to ideal, the more important its going to get. Your body will require less and less daily to maintain, which means after a point what you do currently will stop working. Its actually pretty darn easy these days with smart phone apps, you can even scan barcodes.

 

I understand that, but the "ideal" is a very long way off. I would have to lose about sixty more pounds to approach the upper bound of "normal weight" for my size.

 

First shop ride of the season in the bag. Legs are toast, but I feel good.

Time for a good night's sleep.

 

squat day again topped off by a set of 5 with 425. The legs and back were solid, but the bar placement seems to be slipping. I will probably have to build up my rear delts and traps again. I'm happy with the strength though.

 

Just doing some general workouts this week, and next week I start a cycle of Bill Starr's 5x5. Will start light and after 12 weeks my lifts are supposed to be better than what they are now. 12th week I'm supposed to squat 485 for 3.... (fear). Feeling good right now, and have lost a little weight. Maybe I'll finally look good by summer for once.

 

Gentlemen and Ladies

You count your calories and macros for a reason. That reason is you don't want to do this for longer than you need to and you don't want to loose what muscle you gain. No one LIKES counting calories, and when I'm just maintaining I tend to slack hard on it with only a rough mental idea (an idea thats pretty good since I have tracked in the past).

If you want to lose weight, you need to starve yourself, by definition. All diets are starvation diets. Its just how it works. Your body doesn't like this, and the thinner you get the less it likes it. Studies have shown that you want to get at least .8 to 1 gram of protein per lean body mass AND resistance train to keep most of the muscle you have while losing weight. If you are fat, you can even gain some muscle (I did until I hit about 15% body fat). If you are just guessing and "eating well" you might be breaking down your muscle tissue which is not what you want, even if you are not a body builder.

The other issue is efficiency. I don't enjoy starving myself. Its not fun. My body says "hey feed me, I'm starving here". The better a job you do cutting the fat, the less time you need to enjoy that staving feeling. If I'm not losing I know to cut down a few 100 calories a day and try again. I know where I can cut them with the least amount of pain and least amount of muscle loss. I know I'm getting enough fats too (.3-.45 gram per lb) so my hormone system works properly among other things.

Not counting calories is like making a table without measuring. You might get lucky, but odds are you will have to do a few things over until you can figure it out and it still might wobble.

 

Per "pound of" lean body mass?