When you break this down, the weight gain seems inevitable. But to look at it another way, the weight gain could have easily been avoided.
Cycling 30 miles once/week, or
Jogging 2 miles twice/week, or
Briskly walking 1 mile every day
Body Composition
I’m big boned.
There I said it. And I have the measurements to prove it — at the time I had 30% more bone mass than the average 29 year old, 5’9″ male. I also had 30% more muscle, too. Regardless, we won’t talk about how much more fat I had — let’s just round it to more than 30%. Clearly, I had a lot of potential energy to give back to Mother Nature!
Recommended Lifestyle Changes
The lifestyle changes that the nutritionalist recommended worked — I lost 12 pounds in 3 months, or 1/lb per week. However, I stopped adhering to the plan, and 3 years later had yo-yo’ed back up even further from when I started.
In 3 months ago I started the program back-up, this time with the support of my wife. I’ve since lost (and kept off) that extra weight. Weight-wise, I’ve just travelled back 3 years!
Here are my Golden Five Lifestyle Rules of how I’m doing it, in no particular order.
Consume a base of 1,600 calories every day, more only for extended exercise activities
Exercise every day for at least 30 minutes
Eat (read: plan & portion) five 320 calorie or six 270 calorie “meals” every day
Increase fluid intake
Get at least 8 hours sleep every night
Here’s to continuing the journey back 8 more years.
A couple weeks ago I posted about the End of a Decade of Decadence. In that post, I was 6 weeks into my lifestyle improvement, and with 16 lbs less of unnecessary — and dangerous — baggage. Today marks the 8 week mark, and I weighed-in a total of 19 lbs less.
In that earlier post I posed the question “how is this time different”? One of the key ways is to add “gamification” — the addition of game play mechanics to non-game applications — to my lifestyle improvement. The end result is that I’m making boring chores as fun as a game.
You may have seen a lot of this in social games on Facebook as they often include techniques like:
achievement “badges”
achievement levels
“leader boards”
a progress bar or other visual meter
awarding, redeeming, gifting, and otherwise exchanging points
challenges between users
embedding small casual games
Applying Gamification to Weight Loss
Track Everything
First, I track everything — every calorie I consume, every calorie I burn, my weight, my body fat, and my body measurements. It’s basic math — if I want to lose 2 lbs/week, I have to consume/burn 1,000 calories less every day. 500 is coming from eating less; the other 500 is coming from being more active. On days I *eat* more, I have to workout more; on days I *workout* more, I can eat more.
While very time-consuming, this has been critical to me understanding how actions relate to each other. For example, I now know that a 4 mile run in the Georgia summer will have me losing nearly 42 ounces (3 lbs) of water, which I need to replenish post run.
Tracking everything also promotes specific, positive behavior.
I record food before I eat it, so I know the impact, and often reduce the portions.
I avoid complex meals, which would require me to enter in 4 or more ingredients. This keeps my meals quicker to make and track.
I learn about portions. I now know what a cup of most anything looks like, or what a 350 calorie meal is (hint: it’s much smaller than you think, but also more satisfying than you’d imagine if you wait a bit after).
I learn about caloric density. I select foods that will keep me full with the least amount of calories. A piece of bread, with its 100 – 140 feather-light calories, is never going to satisfy me like an voluminous apple, or two peaches, or 3-4 plums. The choice becomes that much easier.
I plan my meals ahead. When it comes to fighting hunger, the best offense is a strong defense. I know I will be eating every 3 or so hours, and always thinking about my next meal can get tiring, albeit distracting. Therefore, I cook large meals in advance and divide them up into smaller portions. Also, I rarely walk out the door of the house or office without some fruit or nuts for later.
Visualize the Burn for Feedback
I then visualize my progress with the online weight-loss tool Livestrong (yes, they have an app for that, too). Looking at a number isn’t helpful; seeing that number visually in a given context is. This type of real-time feedback loop encourages and inspires me in a couple ways.
At a macro level, I can quickly see my progress across time with graphs like the daily weigh-in graph.
At a micro daily level, I receive the real-time feedback I need to stay on track and remain inspired to make healthier decisions.
For example, at my current weight, age, and height, and my target pace of weight loss, I am allotted about 1,600 calories/day for my sedentary lifestyle. If I want that 6 oz filet mignon (350 calories), I better plan on 3 miles of running first. Or, I can opt for that 6 oz of grilled chicken (180 calories) and keep my daily exercise shorter.
Weight Loss Rewards
One of my favorite elements of the gamification of weight loss is my reward system. Every level (6 lbs, or 3-5 weeks) I unlock access to a basic reward. And every milestone (18 lbs, or 2-4 months) I unlock a mega-reward. Originally, my rewards were time-consuming and calorie-increasing things like video games or special dinners. I found out, however, that I preferred rewards that kept me motivated to progress to the next level rather than delay it.
Stand on the scale and it will recognize who you are, tell you your metrics, and then automatically upload your metrics to a web server. I can then pull up these measurements on my web browser, iPhone, or iPad — no more manual recording and entry.
My family has a history of high blood pressure. I originally started Operation Bootcamp back in 2008 after learning about some high blood pressure measurements while donating blood. Also, I was getting married soon. I lost 12 lbs across 3 monthly sessions, but more importantly I got my blood pressure back under control and at or below 120/80. I can not recommend daily cardio enough to lower your blood pressure. Fact: my average resting heart-rate is now in the low 50s.
This monitor is great because I simply plug it into my iPhone or iPad, press start, and it automatically uploads the results onto the same web server that houses my weight metrics.
18 lbs: Maine Golden Coast Cycling Tour.
My first mega-reward! For it, my wife and I will be cycling 150 miles across 5 days around Acadia National Park near Portland, Maine. There’s even a day of sea kayaking so we can rest our legs. I snagged a deal online, and was able to use an expiring SkyMiles companion certificate to cut the plane tickets in half.
On this, our most popular trip, you will see Maine as it really is and discover the flavors and colors that make it unique. Our guides will lead you from the top of Acadia National Park’s Cadillac Mountain, through lush forests, and along charming farms surrounding Rockport. You will cycle through fishing villages, famous towns, and breathtaking coastal scenery. When you aren’t on the bike, there will be plenty of time to taste, touch, see, and do. You’ll dine on lobster and seafood fresh from the sea, sample artisan cheeses, and catch the sunset from the deck of a restored schooner.
My mouth is already watering, and it’s not from the cycling.
I have not been kind to myself during the past 10 years.
What you are looking at is a result of 10 years of exercising too little, consuming too much, and being sedentary too long. The result has been the net gain of 85 lbs from my leanest days from rowing in crew in high school.
85 lbs — that’s nearly 300,000 in caloric energy in excess fat. That’s enough energy to briskly walk 3,000 miles from Boston to Los Angeles. If someone were to make walking a full time job — 40 hours/week — it would take them nearly 5 months to walk that distance.
How The Great Gain Started
The Great Gain didn’t occur over night. Rather, it occurred very, very slowly — at about the rate of 100 excess calories/day.
The Great Gain didn’t go unchallenged. There were three heroic attempts:
In 1998, I lost 20 lbs over 3 seasons of rowing in crew. I then gained 30 lbs across 3 years.
In 2002, I lost 17 lbs over 6 months through mostly running. I then gained 60 lbs across 6 years.
In 2008, I lost 12 lbs over 3 months through Operation Bootcamp. I then gained 20 lbs across 2 years.
That brings us to today. I’m now in my fourth attempt fighting the Great Gain. Since this attempt started 6 weeks ago, I’ve lost 16 lbs. How will this time be different? Over the next few days, I will be blogging — fat-blogging? — how.
Have you ever experienced 20 lbs of weight loss? How did you do it? How did you maintain it?
In preparation for my third Peachtree 10k, today is one of my weekly long runs. It’s also the beginning of summer here in Georgia, which isn’t particularly a runner-friendly climate. This had me thinking about something wet and wild — hydration.
I often struggle with staying properly hydrated while exercising. I know this because I often inflict the following pains upon myself:
I get cramps on my sides, which means I need to take deep breaths.
I get stomach cramps, which means I ate to much or too recently.
On October 6, 2007, due to Jessica’s mimosa-induced suggestion we participated in our first triathlon — the Watauga Lake Triathlon. Prior to the event, we researched a training schedule and trained just about every day for 60 – 120 minutes. Several nights, LA Fitness turned the lights off on us while we were in the pool getting in our last laps at 11PM.
8 weeks later, we were both at the starting line at the Sugar Grove Baptist Church. We swam 1000 meters, biked 21 of the most beautiful miles that any Autumn has had to offer yet, and ran / jogged / crawled, and perhaps cried, for 5 more miles. At the finish line, and after some hydration, and with the help of my trusty sidekick Sasha the Bavarian Creampuff, I proposed to Jessica. She said yes, but I had to ask nicely twice.
For the tri, we stayed at The Mast Farm Inn, a B&B near Boone, NC that Jessica found online. While we both laid in the room relaxing to simultaneous professional massages, I suggested coming back one year from then to The Mast Farm for our wedding. Jessica said yes, again.
“Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won’t adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet.”
– Still Life With Woodpecker, Tom Robbins
Thanks to fellow red-head Kendra Waycuilis Wardlow for first turning me onto this book by Tom Robbins.
Ran 5.75 miles in 42 mins and felt good. legs felt surprisingly perky after long time on the bike
My response, found at the beginning of this post, attracted the attention of several of his other subscribers. Some were private messages to me thanking me for having the guts to tweet what I did. Others were public postings from groupies, insulting my character and questioning my motives. @Armano pointed me to Morrissey’s blog posting on the tweet. Apparently I got him thinking. And he got me thinking, too.
In his blog posting Morrissey stated he started his Twitter account “not as a professional tool but a way to keep in touch with a few friends and family members”. 8,331 subscribers later, “it became something different.” Rather than start a new Twitter account targeting and relating to different audiences, Morrissey states that he would prefer to not “completely change what I share, even if plenty of people, like former follower David Felfoldi, find it superfluous.”
But I think my main point was missed in my 142 character tweet. My issue is not that he posts things outside his profession. In fact, my own Twitter feed is loaded with personal stuff including my own triathlon trials and tribulations. And I agree with Morrissey when he says that that it is often those very tweets that get the most response from my subscribers.
Rather, my issue is rooted in my non-personal relationship with Morrissey on a very-much public medium — Twitter. I started following Morrissey because of his professional vantage point. His bio on Twitter reads “Digital Editor at Adweek, marathon runner, cheeseburger connoisseur”. I had no problem with the marathon running tweets — it was the second thing on his bio! And while I haven’t seen many cheeseburger tweets recently, I share the passion. Morrissey, if you are ever in Atlanta I’d be happy to point you to the best hamburger joint in the Dirty South.
But then I noticed more and more posts on running. And then then Morrissey started posting his daily workout times and distances. I’ll be frank — I didn’t sign up to get a daily record of some guy’s workout. This reminded me of Jason Calacanic, CEO of Mahalo, who once started “Fat Blogging”. It wasn’t the fact that he was sharing his feelings about his health goals — I’d actually be OK with that. Rather, it was that he was giving daily updates of his actual weight. And, frankly, this behavior annoys me on both Twitter and in-person.
After a running or cycling race, several people — usually the loudest it seems — feel that it is OK to ask your or tell you their times. I truly don’t understand this. Unless you are an elite athlete, you didn’t even get close to the fastest time. So maybe it is a pride thing — you want to share how you did with others? But then I have to ask — are you also willing to share how much money you made last year with others? Your weight? How many calories you consumed daily? So why is it “ok” to ask or share your daily workout metrics? In other words, your personal best record is just that — personal.
So Morrissey, post away about your personal stuff. I’m with you on the triathlon training — I’ll update you on my progress if you feel that will make us closer. But I’m going to assume that most of your 8,331 subscribers aren’t that close enough to you to care. And, frankly, getting your workout schedule wasn’t what I signed up for. So I opted-out.
Cycle to work. For the next year if you would commit to cycling for:
1 day/week you would lose 7 lbs
2 day/week you would lose 15 lbs
3 day/week you would lose 22 lbs
4 day/week you would lose 30 lbs
5 day/week you would lose 37 lbs
How losing nearly 40 lbs by cycling was calculated
Let’s say you live 5 miles from work, so you have a 10 mile daily commute. Now, let’s say you cycle at a moderate 12-14 mi/hr pace. You are a male that weighs 200lbs and are in your thirties. Thus, your daily caloric use for the commute will be about 500 calories/day, 2,500 calories/week, 11,00 calories/month, and 130,000 calories/year. Since a pound of fat has 3,500 calories, that is .14 lbs/day, .7 lbs/week, 3.14 lbs/month, and 37 lbs/year.
The faster you ride, the more calories you burn. For example, upping to 14-16 MPH would have you burning 600 calories/day, or .17 lbs/day. That’s nearly 45 pounds/year of weight loss.
It is numbers like this that keep me motivated to keep up my cycling commute.
Why Does Bike Month matter? Since 1956, $5 billion has been set aside from the federal transportation bill for bicycling (League of American Bicyclists).
With the never-ending increase in fuel prices, and a similar increase in my waistline, I’ve tried picking up commuting to work by bike. I’m into my second week, and I love it. Here are the top 10 reasons to commute by bike, in no particular order.
Be Productive. Do you find yourself saying you never have time to exercise, but then spend 30-60 minutes in your commute? Commuting by bike combines your commute with exercise — two birds with one stone.
Exercise. 20 minutes on a bike can get you 4-5 miles and burns 225 calories. A round-trip will burn 500!
Save money. You’ll save $300/year in fuel alone if you bike a 10 mile round-trip commute just 3x week.
Relieve stress. My 25 minute, 5 mile ride is a great time to transition from work to home. And I have a good excuse not to be answering my cell phone.
Meet people. When you bike, people wave at your. You meet other bikers. I can’t remember the last time I met someone while driving, and the only signal I ever got involved a middle finger.
Save time. My commute by car would normally take 15 minutes on a good day, 30 on a bad one. Biking takes 22-23 minutes, regardless of what type of day it is
Keep cars off the road. Because sometimes it isn’t about you.
Help the environment. Ditto.
Get Zen. This may sound fluffy, but I feel more “connected” to things biking. I notice the environment around me much more, if not for safety reason, but because sometimes I’m going up a hill at 8 MPH.
You can speed to your heart’s delight. 35mph in a car may not be fun. 35mph on a bike is every time.
Not ready to commute by bike? Then consider making any destination by bike — picking up groceries, running an errand, or even going to the gym.
I was having a conversation the other day with a friend and we began talking about calories burned during cycling or running/jogging. They brought up that, all things being equal (weight, temperature, elevation, incline) cycling burns fewer calories per minute than jogging.
I had associated heart rate with calorie burn. I aimed to work-out in the same zone for any exercise, but found I preferred cycling more as I had the ability to sustain myself for a longer time at my ideal workout heart rate (150-160).
I found this great calculator that allowed you to enter in your weight and time and get the results for a wide array of activities at various paces. Below is a chart with the findings for 1 minute — multiple times 10 for 10 minutes, 30 for 30 minutes, and so on as you’d like.
So, I ask you, would you rather spend 60 minutes running for a distance of 6 miles, or ride and go 14-15.9 miles? Even if you slowed both down, you could run only 5 miles or ride as many as 12-13.9 miles. Both would burn the same amount of calories. The difference is that cycling provides you with
a constant, changing view
a cool self-generated breeze
the occasional thrill of cruising down a hill at 35+ mph!!
not worrying about destroying joints like your knees
First, I track everything — every calorie I consume, every calorie I burn, my weight, my body fat, and my body measurements. It’s basic math — if I want to lose 2 lbs/week, I have to consume/burn 1,000 calories less every day. 500 is coming from eating less; the other 500 is coming from being more active. On days I *eat* more, I have to workout more; on days I *workout* more, I can eat more.
In preparation for my third Peachtree 10k, today is one of my weekly long runs. It’s also the beginning of summer here in Georgia, which isn’t particularly a runner-friendly climate. This had me thinking about something wet and wild — hydration.
Ruminations From a Redhead 