PhysicsDiet.com

I had a great upper body workout last night. I finally got the weights right for most of the exercises. I was still about 5 pounds too heavy on the bicep curls. And I still need some lighter dumbbells for the hammer curls.

I've struggled with my upper body workout since I started Body-for-Life (BFL). I think part of the problem was that I've never had much upper body strength and it took a while gain the strength and endurance to handle a full workout. But I also had to stumble along trying to find the right weights for each exercise. That is part of the process. But I'm glad I'm through that stage.

Weight Loss

I skipped a week of progress reports so I'll cover two weeks this time.

Two weeks ago I lost 1.59 pounds total. I gained 0.34 pounds of lean body mass and lost 1.93 pounds of fat.

Last week I lost 1.13 pounds total. I gained 0.07 pounds of lean body mass and lost 1.2 pounds of fat.

More Diet Changes

It's been 3 weeks since I started Body-for-Life. I feel better than I have in years. I think it is a combination of eating more protein, strength training, and eating 6 times a day.

But I want to pick up the pace of my weight loss again. I'm going to continue eating balanced meals, but I'm going to reduce the number of calories I'm eating. I'm shooting for 6 200 calorie meals a day.

My goal is to lose another 20-30 pounds of fat in the next 2 months while minimizing the amount of lean body mass I lose.

If I continue doing what I've done for the last 3 weeks I'd lose about 12 pounds of fat in 8 weeks. I want to double my fat loss to 3 pounds per week. That is about the rate I lost body fat the first 3 months of my diet. But I was also losing about 2 pounds of lean body mass per week. This time I want to maintain as much lean body mass as possible. I think the combination of eating adequate protein and strength training will let me do that. We shall see.

Here is my current 30 day weight chart and body fat chart:

Last Week

Last week I changed my diet to the Eating for Life (EFL) diet. I also quit doing 1 hour of aerobics every day. Instead I am doing 20 minutes of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) every other day as described in Body for Life (BFL). I following the BFL weight training program instead of doing calisthenics.

I lost a total of 2.78 pounds last week. 1.61 pounds of that was fat. The rest was a loss of fat free mass. The fat loss of 1.61 pounds is similar to the amount of fat I lost the previous week. I'm not sure why I lost so much more fat free mass last week compared to the previous week. I did do only 2 days of strength training last week. The week before I did calisthenics every day. This week, so far, my fat free mass loss is much lower than it was last week, so I'm not going to spend too much time thinking about it.

Last Month

In February I lost a total of 8.48 pounds. 7.49 pounds of that was fat. I also lost 0.99 pounds of fat free mass. I lost a lot less total weight in February than I lost in January. But I reduced the amount of fat free mass loss from 8.6 pounds lost in January to 0.99 pounds lost in February. That's why I started doing calisthenics in the first place so I'm very please with my February results.

So far I've lost a total of 68.44 pounds since I started my diet last November.

Here are my February charts:

Since my eating choices have been rather ‘nonproductive’ the past three days, I decided that it would be helpful to stop obsessing about that, and start thinking about the good things I’m doing for myself and create a positive framework for my journey. [Skinny Daily Post]

It's true, no matter what behavior you are trying to change. Focus on the negative and you will always be able to justify returning to your old behavior.

If you are trying to stop smoking you have two choice. You can obsess about how much you miss smoking, or you can focus on how happy you are that you finally quit.

Want to stop overeating? Don't focus on how much you wish you could eat more. Or how much you miss your favorite foods. Focus on how good it feels not to be stuffed all the time. And how good it feels to have more control of your life. Or whatever it is about not overeating that turns you on.

For me it was easy to quit smoking. It was fairly easy to quit overeating. But starting an exercise routine was a different story.

Last spring I wanted to start weight lifting. I decided I would workout from 6am to 7am every morning. At first it was almost impossible to get out of bed and go down to the basement to workout. I'd had this experience every other time I ever tried to start an exercise routine, so I wasn't surprised.

I started to pay attention to what I was thinking about in the morning right after I woke up. I noticed that I woke up dreading my workout. I'd think about how sore I was going to be the next day. Or how tired I was going to be right after the workout. I would lay in bed forever just full of dread. And for the first two weeks about half the time I would talk myself out of my workout.

A few months before that I'd listened to a bunch of self-help audio books from Audible. I decided to apply some the tips that I'd heard. Every night before I went to bed I'd think about how much was looking forward to my workout. I thought about all the reasons I wanted to workout in the first place. I focused on the things I liked about working out, like the endorphin rush, the feeling of blood rushing through my veins, the extra energy I'd have all through the morning even if I was tired. I didn't make anything up. I truly enjoyed these aspects of exercise. I decided I would focus on the positive and see if it made a difference.

Sure enough. I started waking up excited about my workout. I'd pop out of bed and throw my clothes on. I'd bounce down to the basement and do my workout. I even got to the point where I missed my workout on the weekend. Sometimes I'd even throw in a workout on Saturday or Sunday because I just could wait until Monday to feel the rush.

Here are two self-help books that I highly recommend:

In fact, I think it is time for me to re-listen to both those books. There are still a lot of areas in my life that I tend to focus on the negative first. I know because my wife reminds me at least once a week

I meant to post this earlier this week but my hard drive crashed in my Tablet PC and I got distracted trying to salvage some data from it.

Last week I lost 0.61 pounds last week. My average weight went from 260.28 to 259.67. My average body fat % went from 28.93 to 28.49. I gained 0.71 pounds of fat free mass and lost 1.32 pounds of fat.

I had one day last week where my daily wait went above my average weight. That's only the second time that has happened since I started my diet. I didn't worry too much though because on that day I also had to tighten my belt another notch. That confirmed what I already knew from my body fat monitor, I was still losing fat.

Here are my weight chart and body fat chart since the beginning of February. As you can see, this week things are changing a bit.

This week is a transition week. I'm getting ready to start following the exercise plan in Body for Life. I also plan to incorporate some of the nutrition recommendations from Body for Life. I'm adding more protein to my diet and I'm going to try to eat 6 meals a day again. I'm also going to add a free day to my week.

Holly Allen first read The Hacker's Diet in January of 2001. She's been tracking her weight off and on since then and all of her weight logs are available online.

I highly recommend her blog, Operation Active. It is a great source of information and inspiration.

Before I get to that, however, I want to highlight what I feel is the really important aspect of this journey. Namely, that my interest in, and enjoyment of, vegetables came about from a sort of palate-shift that I went through once I started eating fewer calories and began focusing on healthier habits. Its not so much that I discovered secret new ways to prepare vegetables that somehow made them more enticing. Its more that I began realizing that candy and snacks were not providing me with satisfaction or energy I need.

[Skinny Daily Post]

I know exactly what Jonathan is talking about. I now crave vegetables and fresh fruit the way I used to crave bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes.

I like some frozen vegetables. But I don't like frozen broccoli. I hate the way they chop up the entire bunch of broccoli, stalk and all. So I buy fresh broccoli. It is really easy to clean and cut.

I usually cut up two bunches all at once and put it in a Tupperware container. It keeps in the fridge all week. Then I can eat it raw with some dip or dressing. Or I can steam it and have fresh steamed broccoli with dinner.

Changes

On January 31st I added calisthenics and some light weight training to my daily exercise routine. Last week I started seeing the effects of my weight training.

I also decided to change my diet last week. I was getting bored. I was satisfied with the foods I was eating, but I wasn't getting enough variety each day. Instead of eating just a sandwich or a salad for lunch, I wanted to add a piece of fruit. And I was tired of eating just a salad or stir fry, etc. for dinner. I wanted to eat a larger dinner with a salad, side dish, main dish, and fruit for desert.

I'm also emotionally ready slow my weight loss down. I feel much better than I did last October, and I look a lot better too. My goal hasn't changed, but I can wait a few extra months to reach it. Right now I want to get more fit so I can be more active this spring and summer. I want to start playing tennis, riding bikes, and swimming with my family. That is stuff that I've waited eight years to do again.

Diet

My daily calorie target is now 2000 calories. This is double what it was. My total energy expenditure is about 3300 calories per day. I should lose about 2 to 2 1/2 pounds per week for the next couple of months on a 2000 calorie diet.

Weight Loss

Last week I lost 1.23 pounds overall. But when I look at my body fat percentage I see that I lost 1.69 pounds of fat and I gained 0.46 pounds of lean body mass. As far as I know that is the first time I've gained lean body mass since I started my diet. But I now suspect my December plateau might have been caused by some weight training that I did in the first couple weeks of December. I didn't have a body fat analyzer at the time so I wasn't able to see whether my body composition was changing. That is the reason I finally bought an Omron body fat analyzer.

I'm still gaining muscle mass because I can still feel and see the changes in my upper body. I'm not sure how long these major changes will continue, but I'm prepared to wait a few more weeks for my weight loss to settle in at about 2 pounds per week. If that doesn't happen by the first of March I may consider cutting my calories a bit then. But I probably won't go below 1500 calories per day. And depending on how I feel then, I may not make any changes.

Here's my weight hart from January 1, 2006 to February 12, 2006.

The slope of my average weight (the blue line) changed dramatically last week. Also, you can see how misleading the black best fit line is now. Since the "Weekly loss" and "Daily deficit" are based on the slope of the black best fit line, I have to ignore them right now. When my weight loss stabilizes again, the black best fit line will eventually tell a useful store again. But until then I just have to watch my average weight to see how I'm doing.

Body Fat Changes

Here is my body fat chart from January 1, 2006 to February 12, 2006.

The change in my average body fat (the blue line) is not quite as dramatic as the change to my average weight. But it is definitely noticeable.

Last Week

Weight

My average weight went from 266.07 pounds on 1/29/2006 to 261.51 pounds on 2/5/2006. For a loss of 4.56 pounds. Here's my weight chart as of 2/5/2006:

Body Fat

My average body fat % went from 30.01 % on 1/29/2006 to 29.44 % on 2/5/2006. Here's my body fat chart as of 2/5/2006:

Last Month

Weight

I lost a total of 20.93 pounds in January of 2006. On January 1, 2006 my average weight was 284.97 pounds. On February 1, 2006 my average weight was 264.04 pounds. Here's my weight chart for January 2006:

Body Fat

My average body fat % went from 31.93% on 1/1/2006 to 29.79% on 2/1/2006. Here's my body fat chart for January:

Body Mass Index

My BMI went from 35.82 on 1/1/2006 to 33.12 on 2/1/2006.