MikeIsLosingIt.com

270.8 lbs today. That’s 4.6 for the week and 50.8 total! I’ve been on my program exactly five months (tomorrow) and on the diet portion twelve weeks. I’m probably still 20 lbs away from the halfway point, but my lifestyle and habit changes have become so ingrained in me now that I think the remaining 90 lbs will probably be easier than the first 50. We’ll see, but in any case I’m glad to pass the 50 lb milestone.

I have an expensive scale that we got a few years ago: the Tanita InnerScan – Body Composition Monitor. It tells me things like my Body Fat Percentage, my percentage of Water Weight, my Visceral Fat, Lean Body Mass (muscle and bone), DCI (daily calorie intake to maintain current weight), and more. Well, at least that’s what it’s supposed to tell me. Most days all it really tells me is how much I weigh, followed by “ERROR ERROR ERROR.” Now if I was an overly sensitive person I’d probably view that as something like the scale telling me, “272 lbs!!! Man, you are much too fat for me to figure out all those stats for you…what’s the point? Go have a rest, because you MUST be tired from carrying all that around.” But in reality I’m just a little annoyed that it doesn’t work for me.

Now don’t misunderstand me here. The scale works great…just not for me. Just..not..for..me. Everyone else? No problem. Me? “Error Error Error.” When we got the thing it was really irritating. I kept wondering, “why doesn’t it work for me??? Why just me?” So, we called Tanita and I spent a long time on the phone with them weighing myself…over and over and over and over. Sigh. No luck. They were stumped. They actually had to discuss it with Japan and then call me back. Finally they had me send them the scale so they could look it over…then Japan wanted it sent to them to look it over. They were all very nice about it and sent me another scale right away, but the whole thing was a bit silly. Their conclusion? I must drink a LOT of water. I mean WAY more than a regular person, so I’m probably carrying around a lot of water weight and the scale gives me errors on the readings because I fall too far outside the norms for it to work. Weird! But the funny thing is that they were right. I do drink a lot of water, and soda. I’m almost always drinking something. I have done that for decades.

I’ve experimented with it some, and occasionally I can get it to work. It never works in the morning, but if I make a conscious effort to cut down on how much I drink for a day or two then I can usually get it to work sometime in the afternoon or evening. Strangely I feel like I’ve won some sort of victory when I step on the thing, expecting to see “error error error,” and instead some numbers pop up. I almost shout every time it happens. “Hey, come quick…the scale’s telling me how fat I am! Woo hoo!” 🙂

So what’s the point to all this craziness? Losing “weight” in and of itself shouldn’t be my main goal. Losing FAT is what I need to be doing. That and gaining (or at worst just maintaining) muscle. Most people simply diet to lose weight and never realize how much muscle they are losing along with it. I refuse to have any part of that. My goals are fitness goals, not just some number of pounds I’m trying to get to on a scale. If I ended up losing 150 lbs on the scale, but didn’t know that say 20 lbs of that was muscle, I’d still be overweight without really understanding it. My net fat loss would actually be 130 lbs. If I started out needing to lose 150 lbs of fat I’d be patting my self on the back without realizing that I was actually still 20 lbs overweight. It’s actually a growing problem for many people, called “hidden obesity.” On the other hand, if the scale shows I’ve lost 130 lbs, but concurrently I’ve gained 20 lbs of muscle, I would have truly lost 150 lbs of fat. That’s much better weight loss even though it looks like I lost 20 less, and it’s a safe bet I’d be in tremendously better shape.

A few weeks ago, the last time I made the effort to get my scale to show me something other than errors, here’s where my numbers were:

Weight: 280
Body Fat: 41.9%
Lean Body Mass (LBM): 162.6 lbs.

My tentative goal right now is to get down to around 10% body fat, but I’ll adjust that goal the closer I get to it. I’ll regularly be watching my numbers to make sure my LBM continues to rise , or at the very least doesn’t fall. Those numbers mean that at my current amount of muscle, getting down to around 180 would get me to my goal.

So, if you’re on a weight loss regimen like me, don’t just cling to some arbitrary weight goal that you got off some BMI chart and assume it is where you should be. Figure out your body fat percentage and LBM by caliper testing, weighing in water, or using a scale that doesn’t say “error error error” all the time. Go to the doctor to find out, get a trainer to test you, or fnd some other way, but don’t be afraid to find out. Mainly, get that arbitrary end-weight out of your mind. Body composition is what really matters in the end.

And finally, one little note about scales like mine…they are a relatively inexpensive way to measure these things, but consequently that means they aren’t terribly accurate, since various factors can affect the numbers (such as the water consumption in my case). The best thing about them is that they can be used as a tool to measure YOUR relative progress, not to measure your “According to Hoyle” actual numbers. As I get closer to my goals I will almost certainly have myself tested somewhere so that I can get a highly accurate reading of my body composition. If I went by the scale alone I might be struggling to get down to 10% body fat without realizing that I passed it long ago, or the reverse. I might be congratulating myself for reaching my goal easily when in fact I’m not even close to it. As a tool for measuring relative progress they are great…just don’t plan on using their numbers as your source for bragging rights.

275.4 today. That’s 2.2 lbs for the week and 46.2 total. My next short term goal is to be under 270 before our big trip to Disney World on the 25th. That gives me 2 ½ weeks to lose about 6 lbs. I think that should actually be pretty easy, since I’d only have to lose at about the same rate as I did this week to make it, and this week was actually a bit low. Typically I lose closer to 3 lbs or more each week. The goal is admittedly arbitrary, but hey, you’ve got to have goals.

 277.6 lbs today. 5.4 lost since last week and 44 total. The big loss this week makes up for the Buca di Beppo and Pappasito’s inspired no-loss week I had last time…Yum! but I’m glad to be back on track. I took a few more pictures last night since it has been a couple of months and 29 lbs since I took the last ones. Not a huge difference yet, but quite noticeable to me. Here’s the before and after…the first ones at 306.4 lbs (15.2 lost) and the second ones from yesterday at 277.6 (44 lost):

Someday I’ll post the ones without the shirt. But for now I doubt anyone ones to see before and after pictures of a shirtless fat guy and slightly less fat shirtless fat guy. 🙂

282.8 lbs this week, which is 1.8 lbs up since last Wednesday. But, since I had tasty Buca di Beppo for our 15th anniversary on Thurday and then Pappasito’s for Father’s Day on Sunday, I expected nothing less. I’m actually a little surprised that it wasn’t up even more. After having lost 6.8 lbs the week before and bumping my calorie intake back up from 1000 per day to a more reasonable 1800-2000, plus eating out twice, I fully expected some sort of dramatic shift this week.

I’m glad things are now back to normal. The physical is behind me, my weight was where I needed it to be, and all my tests came back perfect. Now I can return to my normal training regimen and eating my regular diet. What a relief!

Last week Louanne decided that she wanted to do a square foot garden in the backyard, so I volunteered to get it all set up for her, including running drip irrigation to it from our patio. The irrigation would involve digging a trench across the yard and running a hose to it from the faucet. I did a similar project almost exactly a year ago to run drip irrigation to some trees we planted the previous year, and boy do I remember that job well. It was hot, exhausting, and took me several hours to finish (around SIX if I remember correctly), plus a couple of hours the next day to fix some problems I encountered. I was completely wiped out and sore for days afterwards. By the end of it, digging that trench all the way across the yard felt like I had been digging my own grave.

I anticipated at least a few hours of misery again this time, but was amazed at how easy it all went. It took me two hours, including looking everything over at the beginning and taking a 30 minute break in the middle for some water and to cool off. It was really no big deal at all. When I finished I felt like I could have done it all over again and still wouldn’t be tired from it. No exhaustion, no soreness, nothing. I couldn’t believe how different the experience could be between the two similar projects. Clearly, working out with a trainer for four months has had a much more significant effect on my strength and endurance than I realized. That’s very encouraging and motivates me all the more.

If you want to see the result of the project, Louanne put a post up about it on our family blog.

Today is doctor day, the day of my physical. My weigh-in at home was 281 lbs, which is 6.8 lbs for the week and 40.8 lbs total. At the doctor I need to be 285 or less to meet my under 40 BMI requirement. We’ll see, but I think the “safety zone” I left for myself will be sufficient. I’ll update this post in a few hours when I know for sure.

—Update—

Success! 281 lbs at the doctor, the same as my scale at home. That officially puts me at 39.2 BMI, which is still WAY obese, but at least it meets the requirement I had to hit for the physical. Now I can bump my calorie intake back up to around 2000 per day. 1000 calories was getting very old, and lately was causing me problems with my energy level during workouts. After the last few weeks 2000 calories is going to feel like I’m gorging myself.

Buca di Beppo here we come.

I’ve lost over 6.2 lbs this week, with still one day to go before my official Wednesday Weigh-in! That’s incredible considering last week’s disappointing 1.6 lbs.  Surprisingly I lost 1.6 yesterday alone, which puts me at exactly 40 pounds lost since I started. I’m 3.4 lbs below where I need to be for my physical tomorrow, so no worries now. Even with a little fluctuation or scale difference I’d be amazed if the difference was THAT much. After my physical tomorrow I’ll be bumping my calories back up to the 2000 or so I was eating before…and we are going out for Italian on Thurday for our 15th Wedding Anniversary. Cause for a cheat if there ever was one.