Heavy Weight

Week 41 update

2007-08-15T11:04:51-07:00

Well I seem to be getting a lot of comments of people wondering whats going on so I had better give and update. Everything is going well I am maintaining between 170 and 175. I have continued my daily logs and food intake. I have been doing the occasional binge/splurge day around every 7-10 days. I am learning how to splurge within reason, my tendency on my splurge days is to go hog-wild and consume food past the point of hunger to more of a psychosis-of-eating, sometimes eating nearly 8,000+ calories in one day. So now rather than starting off with one bad meal and continually bing eating until I pass out I am focusing on eating one bad meal then returning immediately to my normal eating habits the same day.

Workouts are the same I have been experimenting with doing night only cardio and morning only cardio. Since doing cardio 2 times per day 7 days a week for the rest of my life seems a little insane. My results are not what I expected. It appears that night cardio before bed yields more results than morning cardio. This goes against my understanding of weight loss but I have changed a lot of my perceptions about weight loss through this whole ordeal.

Another thing I'm noticing is the longer I stay at a certain weight the easier it is to return. It seems the body starts to get comfortable at a certain weight and tries to return there after any change in diet or routine. So the longer I stay lean it seems the easier it is to stay there. At first my body was jumping up in weight if I even looked at "off diet food" now it seems I can get away with straying off my diet occasionally without the 5 pound weight gain.

Week 33 progress report

2007-06-26T09:56:07-07:00

Hey everyone. I haven't been updating since I reached my goal back at week 28. Now the real challenge has begun. Balancing my life with the occasional meals I love and keeping on track with the diet that got me here.

Week 28 progress report

2007-05-20T17:08:38-07:00

I skipped a week of updates since I was very static and still and my body was still recovering from coming off the diet for a few days during vacation amazing what just a few bad meals can do to your weight and bloat you. Took nearly two weeks to bring my body back to normal.

I am 170 today 160-170 is where I am going to maintain from now on. 160's seems to be the optimal weight range for me with my current lean body mass.

I have added weight lifting into my schedule along with swimming and biking. These extra workouts will help round out my fitness and increase muscle mass. I want to gain around 10-20 pounds of muscle now that I have reached my goal fat levels.

The "Goal Box" is not looking very good for this month. Hopefully I can bring it back out of the red before months end.

Here are the normal stats for week 28. The yellow bars within the PDF indicate days that I deviate from my diet, "splurge" days we can call them ;)

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Week 26 update.

2007-05-08T00:07:41-07:00

No stats this week. I went on vacation in Portland for a fight. I deviated from my diet so the numbers are all screwy. I will update next week when my body normalizes again from the sodium bloating. It was really fun taking a weekend off from eating my strict regiment for a few days. However I did not find satisfaction in eating whatever I want. I prefer the feeling of healthy eating. I was bloated, sick and tired most of the time I was there. Not the normal energized feeling I have when keeping my organic healthy diet up.

Seventh photo shoot before and after pictures.

2007-05-01T11:13:24-07:00

Before and After day is here. The seventh photo shoot I am down around 8 pounds from last months photos. Abs are really starting show up nicely and I am really looking good :) This is likely my last month of weight loss since I'm pretty much out of fat to lose. I will be converting over to a muscle gaining regiment around June which I will log the same way I have done my weight loss.

This has been amazing road of weight loss and success. I have learned more about myself and my character and the ability of the human body then I thought I could. While I set out in October to just lose fat and get back into shape. I have ended up changing my entire life from my daily work, sleeping habits, thought process, outlook on life etc. etc. The list goes on. I wish I could share the lessons I have learned about my self. Unfortunately these lessons cannot be taught or explained it can only be learned through experiencing it for yourself.

While this was the toughest thing I have done in recent memory it was also the most rewarding. I am looking forward to challenging myself more in the future to achieve difficult goals.

"you can measure success by what you had to sacrifice to get there"

Click Here to see the high resolution before and after photos.

Week 25 progress report

2007-04-29T12:45:34-07:00

Good weight loss week. I dropped 3.6 pounds this week. Bringing my weight to 166.2 and a total weight loss of 70.6 pounds. Body fat is holding steady in the 7's %

I reset my goal as per my 5 pound increment system. New goal is now 160. Crazy that I have lost this much weight and I'm still trying to cut more. Picture day is coming up on the 1st of May. I am nearing the final goal weight it's probably gonna fall somewhere between 155-160. Once I reach my goal weight I will be reducing cardio to once per day and adding in weight lifting. But that's still at least a month out. I will get into the details of my muscle gaining regiment when we cross that bridge.

I will be in Portland next weekend for a fight and I am going to deviate from my diet for a few meals. Im looking forward to eating in a restaurant. It's been nearly 7 months since I have eaten off pre-planned diet meals.

The "Goal box" is back finally now that my numbers have normalized a bit. Average daily weight loss is at .26 pounds per day. Which breaks down to 1.79 pounds per week. According to the the goal box I am 15-24 days away from 160.

Here are the normal stats for week 25.

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Week 24 progress report

2007-04-22T08:37:34-07:00

Rough week. I got sick Monday night with an extreme intestinal virus. I basically laid in bed from Tuesday until Friday. So I missed my first cardio days in 190 days of training. The break was nice even though I was sick and in pain. No food or stats were logged between Tuesday and Friday, since I was only eating Banana's, Apple sauce and Oatmeal by doctors orders.

Even with the sick week I lost 1 pound brining my weight to 169.8 and my total weight loss to 67 pounds. The "Goal Box" is funky this week still so I am not going to post it until next week when my weight loss normalizes.

Stats for week 24:

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Week 23 progress report

2007-04-15T11:26:15-07:00

Slow weight loss week only lost .20 pounds this week. This usually means I am going to have a big weight loss this coming week. I'm just gonna post the stats this week since there is no interesting stats in the "goal box". Current weight is 170.8 bringing total weight loss to 66 pounds.

Here are the usual stats for week 23:

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Week 22 progress report

2007-04-08T08:50:39-07:00

Weigh-in this weekend brings my total weight loss to 65.8 pounds. This week I lost 1.8 pounds slightly better than last weeks. Seems now I'm averaging around 2 pounds per week. With how lean I am this is a pretty good loss rate to maintain.

I reached my goal of 170 this week and per my "incremental goal setting" I have updated my new goal to 165. I honestly never thought I would cut down this low. However I am not stopping until I am as lean as I can possibly get.

I changed my sleeping and workout schedule a little bit this week. I normally do cardio at 11am and 11pm I have changed it to 6am and 10pm. I like this schedule a lot more, it breaks my day up less. It was hard changing my wake up time but I have normalized.

Menu has lots of new editions over the last few weeks. I have found some great organic foods that fit nicely into my diet.

The "goal box" is showing I will reach my goal of 165 in 14-23 days.

Here are the usual stats for week 22:

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Sixth photo shoot before and after pictures.

2007-04-01T14:03:46-07:00

Sixth photo shoot time! Since the last photo shoot I have lost around 8 pounds. The differences are still obvious, my back is slimmer, my stomach lines are starting to show, I am significantly more vascular in my arms. Overall a very successful month of weight loss. If I can post another month like March in April then I will likely have reached my leanness goal this time next month :) Now onto the photos. Simply click here or on the thumbnail to the right to enlarge the picture ---->

Week 21 progress report

2007-04-01T09:26:03-07:00

This week I lost 1.4 pounds bringing my total weight loss to 64 pounds. My current weight is 172.8, two pounds from my current goal of 170 pounds which I should reach in 6-11 days based on the "goal box". I'm feeling pretty good overall. Cardio is harder to do these days because I am in such good shape now it takes 3 times the effort to get my heart rate in the aerobic zone as it did when I started. I play some pretty funny mental games to get myself to the gym every day 7 days a week 2x per day. At this point you have to trick yourself into believing what you are doing is actually not the same thing you have done for the last 350+ workouts haha.

I'm not sure where this weight loss is going to stop. I am hoping I will be happy with my leanness around 165 pounds my body fat is down to 7% which is very low. But I still want to be leaner. I need a break from dieting and exercise however I am not going break my daily routine until I reach my final goal.

Here are the usual stats for week 21:

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Week 20 progress report

2007-03-25T10:08:57-07:00

Welcome to week 20 ;) wow have I really been doing this for 20 weeks?

Saturdays weight was 174.2 I lost 2.4 pounds this week bringing the total fat loss to 62.6 pounds. Body fat got down to an amazing 6.5% this week. It fluctuates every day by a point or two but it was cool to see it that low.

I revised my graphs and goals to 170 this week. The "Goal Box" is showing I will hit my new goal of 170 in 8 to 14 days.

Before and After picture day is getting close again, I'm excited to compare my new pictures with last months before and after photos.

I injured my leg sparring this week and had to switch from the treadmill to the stationary bike for a few days to give it time to heal.

Lots of new menu items this week I am really getting creative mixing my diet up to create more variety. I am switching to more organic food sources and trying to eat more berries.

The stats for week 20:

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Week 19 progress report

2007-03-18T14:37:06-07:00

Big week! I lost 4.4 pounds this week bringing my total weight loss to 60.2 pounds. I'm now 176.6 pounds. After last weeks static weight loss it looks like my body normalized and made up for it.

I am bringing the "goal box" back this week since my stats have finally normalized after a slow start month. The "goal box is now showing positive averages that actually make sense. It's is reporting I will reach my next goal of 175 in a few days. I will likely be setting my next goal to 170 sometime this week when I reach 175. I am really lean right now I am amazed everyday I wake up and look in the mirror.

Joe's Goals updated there reports system with a cool new feature that shows you a summary report for all your goals. I reached 410 workouts Saturday :) Wow...

Here are the usual weekly stats for week 19. The graph is kind of funny this week with a small bump in the trend line.

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Week 18 progress report

2007-03-11T09:38:54-07:00

Well that was an interesting week. This week I lost only .2 pounds despite being more active than I have been in 18 weeks of training. I had the opportunity to train with a world class fighter this week so I took advantage of it by training 2x per day with him this week. Doing that on top of my normal exercise schedule resulted in up to 5 separate workouts per day. I burned over 2,000 calories a couple of the days. But my weight stayed virtually the same. I don't understand it must have something to do with lactic acid build up or water retention from the extreme exercise schedule.

However even though I did not lose any real weight this week, visually I look much leaner. My bodyfat percentage also dropped significantly hitting 8.2% one day and my lean body mass (LBM) went up quite a few pounds. So outside of the the lack of weight loss there were significant changes.

Here is week 18's stats and logs. (click on the thumbnails below to view the full version)

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Week 17 progress report

2007-03-04T08:26:19-08:00

2 pounds lost this week taking my total weight loss to 55.6 pounds. Saturday my body fat composition dropped to 9.1%, I have finally hit the single digit bodyfat levels! :) I also reached my goal of 180 this week. I have reset my goal to the next 5 pound increment of 175. Should take 13-16 days to reach 175.

Here is week 17's stats and logs. (click on the thumbnails below to view the full version)

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Fifth photo shoot before and after pictures.

2007-03-01T09:58:28-08:00

Fifth photo shoot went great today. I have lost 11 pounds since photo shoot four last month. Definition has increased, my "love handles" are nearly completely gone on the front and back. Chest is carving out nicely. Back has a nice "V" coming out. Overall I'm very happy and excited, only 5-8 pounds to lose to reach the leanness I want. Click here to see the full sized before and after picture.

Week 16 progress report

2007-02-25T00:44:09-08:00

I have lost 2 pounds this week. Bringing my total weight loss to 53.6 pounds and my current weight to 183.2. According to my goal box I will reach my next short term goal of 180 pounds in 8-11 days.

I am very close to my final goal, I believe my final weight is going to be some where around 175 pounds give or take a few pounds. Once I reach 180 I will re-evaluate and decide where to go from there.

Some interesting stats I added up this week. Amazing actually.

I have burned a total of 117,423 calories exercising in the last 16 weeks.
I have logged 350 workouts.
My total time logged exercising including cardio, core and fight training is

12,910 Minutes
215 Hours
8.9 Days

My average overall daily weight loss is .47 pounds per day or 3.32 pounds per week.
I have not missed one single cardio session. Thats right 139 workouts in a row without missing one single time.

I'm anticipating my next before and after photo shoot this Thursday, going to be another dramatic change.

Here is week 16's stats and logs. (click on the thumbnails below to view the full version)

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Week 15 progress report

2007-02-18T13:22:22-08:00

Week 15 has come and gone. I lost 4 pounds this week bringing my total weight loss to 51.6 pounds and my current weight is now 185.2. Appears after last weeks small 1.8 pound loss I have normalized back to losing nearly a half pound per day.

I have reached my revised goal of 185 and my new goal is now 180. As I said in week 13's progress report I am setting each goal in 5 pound increments until I reach my desired leanness.

Had my BMR retested this week at the Metabolic Institute. My overall BMR has not changed, however my fitness level based on my V02 max has more than doubled. I'm in the best shape of my life right now. My cardio is incredible. I was not aware the human body could push itself to this level of cardio fitness. It's a truly amazing feeling. Much better than simply being muscular. Functional
fitness is the key.

The Goal box has normalized. My average daily weight loss is nearly over .40 pounds again. It's now showing that I will reach my next goal of 180 in 13-16 days.

I updated my food menu with a few new items this week. Chicken, peanut sauce and long grain rice. Changed a couple of my normal meals up a bit, to add more variety to my eating schedule and reduce processed foods.

I added a new column to the excel weight log this week. LBM or Lean Body Mass while I don't think this field is that accurate using the Tanita scale I have. The scale uses Bioelectrical impedance analysis which is decent way of measuring LBM but has it's flaws. However I am still am interested in the change over time.

Here are week 15's stats and logs. (click on the thumbnails below to view the full version)

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Week 14 progress report

2007-02-11T13:26:25-08:00

This week was a little slower weight loss than normal. I lost 1.8 pounds this week. I unusually fluctuated up and down. I'm hoping this week was an anomaly but I have made an appointment to have my BMR re-tested along with some other blood tests to check my nutrient levels. My bodies needs may have changed with 50 pounds of weight loss. I want to make sure I am eating and exercising for optimal health and weight loss. Total weight loss is now at 47.6 pounds and I weighed in Saturday morning at 189.2.

I have made some additions to the "Goal Box" because my weight fluctuated so much early in the month when the averages were still being calculated it skewed my daily loss average. I have modified the date of goal to a range that shows the current months average and overall average as the range.

Here are week 14's stats and logs. (click on the thumbnails below to view the full version)

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Week 13 progress report and goals revision

2007-02-04T12:56:37-08:00

After 13+ weeks of sacrifice and hard work I am finally here. 191 pounds today, I lost 2.2 pounds this week bringing my total weight loss to 45.8 pounds.

This weeks photo shoot was great another dramatic before and after. Now that I have reached my first milestone goal of 190 pounds its time to re-evaluate and set new goals. After seeing how I look at 190 pounds I want to get leaner. I'm going to set the goals in 5 pound increments until I reach the desired leanness I want. So my new goal is now 185 pounds and my excel documents and graphs have been updated to reflect this new goal of 185 pounds.

Current projections in my weight loss log are showing it will take around 12 days to reach 185 pounds based on historical weight loss averages.

Here are week 13's stats and logs. (click on the thumbnails below to view the full version)

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Fourth photo shoot before and after pictures.

2007-02-01T14:56:17-08:00

Photo shoot four! And we are nearing the finish line! This months photo shows a 15 pound difference between last months. I'm really leaning out and starting to show good muscle definition. Stomach is showing the abs hidden below and is only sticking out a tiny bit in the side shots. Click here or the photo to view the larger 800x600 version --->

Week 12 progress report

2007-01-28T12:23:27-08:00

Week 12 I have lost another 3.8 pounds this week. Total weight loss is now at 43.6 pounds and I only have 3.2 pounds left to lose to reach my goal of 190 pounds. According to the my "goal box" at the top of the excel document I will reach my goal in 5 days Saturday, February 03 2007. Thats a change of one day from last weeks "goal box" stats. My next before and after photo shoot will be this next Thursday, I'm very excited to see the change. My next progress report post should be my goal attained blog!

Here are week 12's stats and logs. (click on the thumbnails below to view the full version)

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Week 11 progress report

2007-01-21T14:33:24-08:00

So close! I lost 2.8 pounds this week bringing my total weight loss to 39.8 pounds. Only 7 pounds left to reach my goal weight of 190.

I passed some pretty major milestones this week. I eclipsed the 100 days straight of doing cardio 7 days a week twice per day. Bringing my total workouts in the last 15 weeks to 269! Thats right I have worked out 269 (two hundred and sixty nine) times in the last 104 days. That total includes my core workout, fight training (MMA) and cardio twice per day. Along with 269 workouts that brings my total calories burned to over 80,000 calories in just the last 77 days (I only started recording calories 77 days ago)

According to my new stats feature "Days to Goal" I am now 13 days from reaching my target weight. That makes the "Date of Goal" February 04, 2007, thats a change of 4 days from last weeks "Date Of Goal" of February 1st. This happened because my daily average loss has change from .57 pounds lost per day to .51

Here are week 11's stats and logs. (click on the thumbnails below to view the full version)

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Weight loss essentials

2007-01-15T19:12:30-08:00

These are the items that have become essential to my daily regiment. These are the tools I use each day to move closer to my goals.

Tanita body fat monitoring scale
Food scale, measuring cups and spoons
Food steamer
Polar heart rate monitor
Video IPod
Treadmill at my gym with a flat screen mounted on it
My 1 gallon water jug
My Excel logs of course.
Daily vitamins (E, B complex, Fish Oil, Magnesium, Milk Thistle, Multi-Vitamin, BCAA's)
Protien Powder (ISO Pure the best whey available)

Week 10 progress report

2007-01-14T10:55:30-08:00

The countdown has begun. My goal is clearly within view. I'm only 9.8 pounds from my target weight of 190. This week I lost another 3.4 pounds brining my total weight loss to 37 pounds. I finally broke the 200 pound mark! I have not been under 200 pounds in 5 years.

I have added some exciting new features to the stats this week. I added the stat "Date of Goal" and "Days to Goal". These two new stats actually project the exact date I will reach my goal based on my loss averages from the goal box at the top. As of now the "Goal box" is projecting me to reach my goal of 190 pounds on Wednesday, January 31 2007! It also shows the number of days until I reach my goal. I love this new stat since it puts an actual date and time that I'm going to reach my goal. It seems much more real when you "know" the date.

Here are week 10's stats and logs. (click on the thumbnails below to view the full version)

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Week 9 progress report

2007-01-07T17:02:06-08:00

Week 9: same routine another week. 4 pounds lost this week bringing 9 week weight loss total to 33.6 pounds. Stats are predicting I will reach my goal weight within 3-4 weeks. With only 13 pounds left I'm seeing major differences in how I look each day.

I rang in New Year's on the treadmill; Much like I rang in Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. I have sacrificed a lot for this goal and now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The usual stats:

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Third photo shoot before and after pictures.

2007-01-01T13:17:25-08:00

2007 is here and I'm the leanest I have been in a few years. Before and after photos when compared to my first photo set is astonishing. Things are really coming together. Folds in my back are gone. Stomach is flattening out and starting to show the definition of the abs that are slowly coming to the surface. Shoulder and trap definition is appearing. I'm starting to get very vascular again, my veins are becoming very noticeable on my face and arms.

Week 8 progress report

2006-12-31T10:04:23-08:00

Week 8 has arrived. This week I lost 2.4 pounds not the 3+ pounds I have been experiencing but still well above my initial expectations for this weight loss regiment. I am now within 17 pounds of my goal, bringing my total weight loss to 30 pounds. All my "lean" clothes are finally fitting again and I'm swimming in all my XL "fat" clothes. The tight fitting "muscle" shirts I have been avoiding the last couple years are looking good and going on with ease.

I feel I may be near a weight loss plateau. If weight loss starts to level off over the next couple weeks I will re-schedule an appointment with the Metabolic Institute and I will have my BMR/RMR tested again to re-establish my calorie/exercise base.

Tomorrow is another photo shoot day. I'm excited to post this months pictures, the difference is going to be dramatic from last months pictures.

Here are the usual weekly stats:

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Week 7 progress report

2006-12-24T02:37:10-08:00

It just keeps falling off. Week 7 is here and I lost 3.2 pounds this week which brings my total loss to 27.2 pounds. Everything is still on track, averaging .51 pounds of fat loss per day. Tomorrow morning I will surpass the 50,000 calorie mark. That means I will have burned over 50,000 calories doing cardio over the last 7 weeks. I'm excited for the upcoming photo shoot, the results this last month are going to be really dramatic. Here are the weekly stats:

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Week 6 progress report

2006-12-17T09:48:27-08:00

Well, I retract my statement from last week that things are normalizing. I'm back to losing 4+ pounds per week. This week I lost 4.2 pounds. That puts my 6 week total loss to 24 pounds and I'm still losing an astounding half pound per day on average. I have finally passed the half way point, I have now lost more weight than I have to lose. Only 22.8 pounds left to drop.

Yet again I have added more detailed stats to the excel document. There is now "Average weekly loss" and "Weeks to goal". Average weekly loss is obviously the weekly loss average in pounds and the Weeks to goal is a calculator that tells me how many weeks are left until I meet my weight loss goals. Right now "Weeks to goal" is forecasting me to meet my desired weight of 190 in 6 weeks. Trend graph has moved out slightly which I have been expecting.

Same old routine, here are the weekly updated stats:

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Useful site: Joe's Goals

2006-12-14T00:50:34-08:00

Today I decided I would blog about something I find useful as an inspirational tool to keep me motivated and log my progress. Joes Goals is a easy to use goal tracking website. Quoting there about page:

"Joe's Goals is a simple yet powerful tool to make tracking your goals the easiest part of accomplishing them. Use our simple single page interface to setup daily and weekly goals and track your overall progress and score. Setup negative goals (or vices) to confront and overcome the bad habits that finally need to get the boot."

I really enjoying logging into Joe's goals every day and checking off yet another workout. As of today I'm 66 days in without missing any morning workouts. Thats 7 days a week of cardio twice per day. Feels really good each day clicking the check for the workout. Anyhow I just thought I would share another tool that keeps me on track to my goal. You can check out Joe's goals at www.joesgoals.com

Week 5 progress report

2006-12-10T12:37:00-08:00

Week 5 is here and everything is moving along smoothly. Im down 217! That brings my total loss to 19.8 pounds. Only 27 more pounds till I reach my goal of 190 :) I lost 2.6 pounds this week. It seems things are normalizing a bit, from the 4+ pounds per week I was losing. However, I am still happy i'm dropping more than 2 pounds per week. Fight training, diet and cardio are all going excellent. Energy levels are high and overall I feel great.

This week I have added even more stats to the excel document. You can see these additional stats at the top of the document. I have broken down the stats into monthly views so I can compare my average stats month to month.

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Week 4 progress report

2006-12-03T16:09:31-08:00

Here we are week 4. Thing are moving along great, I am 10 pounds ahead of my target weight for this week. This weeks 7 day loss was 4.4 pounds. As of week 4 I have lost 17.2 pounds this weekends photo shoot also went wonderfully. Take a look at the before and after photo and you can see there is major difference especially in my back photos.

Here are my usual weekly PDF's showing all of my stats and logs for week 4. I added some additional stats to my daily chart. Now I can see my daily weight loss average which is hovering around .59 pounds lost per day. The trend graph is still on target to hit my goal weight of 190 by the end of January. I was expecting some kind of normalization that would push my target date out to March or April on the trend graph but it hasn't moved.

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Second photo shoot before and after pictures.

2006-12-02T01:17:37-08:00

Here we are December 1st! New pictures have been taken and I have created a before and after style picture to go along with it. I have lost 16 pounds in 28 days! Its amazing the change that has occurred in just 28 days. I'm excited to see what the coming months will bring. Click on the picture below for the enlarged version.

Week 3 progress report

2006-11-26T00:22:46-08:00

Here we are week 3! I made it through Thanksgiving without gaining an ounce! I managed to maintain my workout schedule and diet while on vacation with 26 members of my family. My plan of attack for maintaining my diet with this 4 day vacation included:

Renting a house with fitness center access
Bringing my core exercise equipment
I built a food travel kit that included a travel scale, measuring cups, measuring spoons, lots of Tupperware a portable cooler that plugs into my car. So I could pre-package every meal.

Pre-planning was the key to diet/workout success for this vacation. I had all the tools I needed to keep my diet clean and workout schedule! I should be able to duplicate this formula for any future vacations with similar success.

The Thanksgiving feast was the only meal that deviated from my normal diet. I allowed my self a small portion of each item which by my calculations came out to about 1000 calories. I adjusted my diet for the rest of the day to allow for this meal. I missed my night cardio for the 3 nights I was there because the gym closed at 7.

I lost an amazing 6 pounds this week which bring my 21 day total loss to almost 13 pounds. I'm starting to believe I set my goal of 1.5 pounds a week to low. I'm still waiting for the weight loss to slow and normalize to 2-3 pounds per week but it's not showing any sign of slowing. The graph has moved my weight loss goal up to around January 20th. I'm still waiting for a normalization period where the graph will push out closer to March or April to reach my weight loss goal of 190. Not that I'm complaining it just defies what I know about weight loss.

Here are my usual weekly PDF's showing all of my stats for week 3.

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

Week 2 progress report

2006-11-20T00:33:13-08:00

Here we are week two and things are going great! I'm down nearly 7 pounds and I am well ahead of my goal of 233.8 I ended up hitting 230. I'm very settled into my new eating habits with no cravings. I believe the higher ratio of fat has really helped me feel satisfied and curb cravings. Exercise has been good. I logged around 20 workouts this week. Thats 14 times of cardio with 3 core workouts and fight training as well. Im watching carefully for any over-training symptoms since I'm working out a LOT.

Well lets get right into the numbers. You can see my progress in the PDF's below. As usual the first is the main log that contains all of my daily statistics summarized. The daily food log that shows every single calorie that goes into my body with the time. Along with this weeks revised menu that has some additional items I added over the week.

There is a new graph this week. This is a trend graph showing where and when I will reach my target weight. Right now the trend line is showing I will reach my target weight of 190 by around mid February. I believe this line will normalize out closer to April once we have another 30 days statistics.

Chart	Food Log
Menu	Graph

This week is Thanksgiving which form most Americans is a holiday of indulgence. I am going to do my best to maintain my diet while I'm on vacation with the family. I will be obviously deviate for the one turkey dinner, but I will resume the normal course after that one "splurge" meal. Wish me luck and see you soon ;)

Todays lunch

2006-11-16T15:32:16-08:00

We are approaching two weeks. I have settled into my eating habits and counting every calorie. Using my scale and measuring cups is becoming second nature. I feel really good, I don't feel one bit deprived. I got a late start eating yesterday and I almost had to stuff myself to get all my calories in by the end of the day. Today I got started a little earlier so I didn't run into the same problems. Overall I'm feeling great and I'm seeing daily progress. Below is a picture of today's 3pm meal.

1/2 cup of cottage cheese, 28 grams of almonds, rice cake with 2 tablespoons of fat free strawberry cream cheese and a 28 gram strip of beef jerky. Amazingly a very satisfying meal. It's not pizza but nothing great comes without sacrifice.

Week 1 progress report

2006-11-12T14:05:55-08:00

I have compiled my first weeks progress and everything is looking good. I dropped 1.6 pounds for the week which is right on target. The first few days I was not exactly sure where my BMR was so I stuck around 1600-2000 calories until I had accurate information then bumped my calories up to 2350 per day. My ratios also changed mid week, I was not eating near enough fat so you can see it jumps up as well with a slight carb reduction. I also revised my diet to reduce the frozen food lean cuisine type dinners. I'm now eating more fresh food and vegetables, nuts etc.

My basic workout week consists of cardio 14 times per week, twice a day, 30 minutes to an hour each workout. Along with MMA fight training up to 3 days per week. Then Core training 3 days a week.

So over all, I'm working out 21 times per week. It seems like a lot but now that I'm in the rhythm 30 days into the workout schedule, it is becoming second nature.

I have converted my excel spreadsheets to PDF format so everyone can view my weekly progress. Here is my first week weight log along with my food log and menu. My daily weight log is fairly straight forward. The food log uses abbreviations that reference the food menu at the bottom of the PDF. For example: if you see LCPZ on the food log you can then refrence that to the food menu to a Lean Cuisine Pizza and the table will contain it's individual nutritional values.

Click here for my weekly weight log.

Click here for my weekly food log.

BMR test results

2006-11-10T09:11:01-08:00

Well I had my BMR test on Thursday. They also did my VO2 Max. My RMR came out to 2144 calories per day. So basically it takes 2144 calories each day to keep me alive, this is the base amount of calories I need to survive. The V02 max test told me exactly where my optimal heart rate zone is to burn fat while exercising. My optimal fat burning zone is at 122 beats per minute. So I have pretty much been on target the last 30 days doing cardio at around 130 BPM.

After reviewing my stats and activity level we came up with the number 2350 as my optimal caloric intake each day for around 1.5 to 2 pounds of fat loss per week. And I will vary my cardio from optimal fat burning at 122 to interval training to raise my V02 max to increase my fat burning zone.

Tomorrow I will be posting my first weeks progress. And explain a little detail about my cardio/exercise routine.

BMR test!

2006-11-06T11:54:53-08:00

I have scheduled my appointment to have my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) test at the Metabolic Institute for Thursday the ninth which happens to be my 28th birthday as well. They are going to hook me up to a gas analysis machine. Once I have the results of this test I will know my BMR number. Basically how many calories I use per day just to survive. Im assuming my BMR will be somewhere around 2500-3000. This will help me with my calorie cutting so I will know exactly how many calories to cut from my daily diet to reach my goals

Before the tests I have to fast for 12 hours and not do any anaerobic exercise for 24 hours.

Results on Thursday!

The beginning, of the blog at least.

2006-11-03T23:28:43-08:00

Well here we are 7 days before my 28th birthday and I have been trying to achieve the same goal for the last 16 years. Feels like a long time now that I have done the calculation. Wait it is a long time. So while acheiving nearly every other goal I have set out to achieve both finaincially and personally I have still yet to achieve this one goal. I have come very close many times but seemed to have faultered with each attempt. What is this goal? Well the same goal that 300 million other people are struggling with. Fat loss.

This blog will illustrate my weight loss from beginning until end. I will document and post every aspect of my journey. Everything right down the calorie will be counted, logged, graphed and scrutinized. Lets jump right in we can get into the details of my psychosis and other neurosis as time passes.

Current weight: 238
Target weight: 190 (I need to lose 48 pounds)
Age: 28
Height 5'10.5"
I will be posting progess pictures 1st day of each month.
All progress will be logged in excel daily
Diet will consist of calorie restriction and aerobic exercise to induce fat loss.
Target loss rate will be 1.5 pounds per week minimum. (more is always welcome) ;)

1 Set of pictures - 238 Pounds - 11-04-2006