Slow and Steady Wins the Race

I think the biggest harm the television shows like "The Biggest Loser" bring about is to create false expectations with regard to weight loss.  Certainly, I tip my hat to anyone who can lose one hundred or more pounds of body fat.  More so, if they are able to keep it off.  However, the reality of the matter is that if we use the criteria of success as a 10% loss of body weight, kept off for at least one year, 95% of those who try will fail.

Personally, I am all too aware of the challenges of trying to become lean after fifty.  Hormonal changes mean that our bodies are less apt to react quickly to changes in diet and exercise regimes.  Nevertheless, we can achieve encouraging results, but we need to be realistic when setting our goals.

Presently, I am about 16 months into the journey of trying to become lean and fit.  Like many, I experienced rapid weight loss as result of reducing calories and exercising more.  In 2014, I lost 30 lbs.  Unfortunately, I lost 20 lbs of muscle and only 10 lbs of fat.  I now regret having chosen this method because I will never be able to regain all of the muscle lost, which is important since the amount of muscle mass one carries is one of, if not, the best indicator of increased longevity and reduced morbidity. 

Moreover, as could be predicted, I hit the plateau of weight loss.  Additional exercise, in my case cycling to work each day, did not bring any additional benefits.  Most probably, my metabolic rate slowed down and the only thing that increased was my level of frustration.

This year, however, I have changed my method.  Walking remains my primary activity and I have set my sights on walking the equivalent of the distance across Canada, but now I am focused on calorie shifting instead of calorie reduction.  I have abandoned the calorie in, calorie out approach.  Instead, I am now eating more fat, more protein, and less carbs.  As well, my carb intake is mostly complex carbs, high in fiber.

So far, so good.

After four months of this new approach, I have lost seven pounds of fat and gained one pound of muscle.  For some, this might seem to be a meager result, but as far as I am concerned this is a great result because, unlike last year, I am now becoming leaner without losing muscle mass.

Now that the good weather is upon us, I am interested to see how I will do.  I always have the expectation that becoming more active will bring about better results, and I am always disappointed to learn that my expectations have not been met.

Will this summer be any different?  I don't know.  What I am hoping for is that this trend of losing body fat without muscle loss will continue.  At least this summer, I will be able to enjoy a big fat cheeseburger without any qualms, as long as I skip the beer and the potato salad.

Have a great summer.  Move more and eat better. 

Taking Up the Cross Canada Challenge

I'm now ten weeks into my fitness challenge for 2015.  It's time to take stock and adjust.

On the positive side, with the frigid part of winter now behind us, I can say that this first part of the year has been a grand success with regard to rolling out the kilometers.  As of today, I've walked a little over 1000 km, averaging 95 km a week.  I now know that I set the bar too low when I decided to aim for 4000 km for the calendar year, which requires moving ahead at a pace of only 77 km per week.  So, I have decided to raise the bar.

As it turns out, the straight line distance across Canada, from Halifax to Victoria, is 4,473.3 km, which works out to about 86 km per week, slightly less than what I have been doing since the beginning of the year.

Say, no more.  I'm up to the challenge.  In 2015, I will walk a distance equivalent, if you were to draw a straight line, from Halifax to Victoria.

I think I'm going by myself a new pair of walking shoes. 

This Year's First Report Is Looking Good

Well, let's get with it.  The SMART goals are in place and you're wondering how I'm doing.  I must say pretty damn good!

This year I'm tracking kilometres walked, number of resistance workouts, units of alcohol consumed, and body weight broken down into lean mass and body fat, made possible by my new Aria scale from Fitbit.

Here goes.

Kilometers Walked

Week 1    95.97
Week 2    93.30
Week 3    98.17
Week 4   104.99

Total       392.43    Weekly average:  98.10 k

Required weekly distance to meet goal of 4000k in 2015: 77 k
Surplus kilometers to date: 84.43 k

Resistance Workouts

Week 1   2
Week 2   2
Week 3   2
Week 4   1

Total       7

Required number of workouts per period: 8
Deficit to date: -1

Units of Alcohol Consumed

Week 1   0
Week 2   1
Week 3   1
Week 4   1

Total       3

Maximum number of units to be consumed per period: 4
Surplus units waiting to be consumed: 1

Body Weight

Sat. Dec 27, 2014: 259.7 lbs   37% fat
Sat. Jan. 24, 2015: 256.0 lbs   36% fat

Weight loss: 3.7 lbs


Lean vs Fat

Dec. 27    162.6  lbs lean    97.1 lbs fat
Jan. 24     164.4 lbs. lean    91.6 lbs fat

Lean mass gained: 1.8 lbs
Fat loss: 5.5 lbs

Summary

This is the kind of start that I wanted.  I don't expect that I will be able to maintain the same level of fat loss and lean mass gained through the upcoming 4 week periods.
However, compared to last year these results are far more encouraging. For instance,  instead of aiming for only 10,000 steps per day, now I aim for 17,000 steps.  Last year I dropped 30 pounds.  Unfortunately, it broke down into 20 pounds of lost muscle and only 10 pounds of fat.  My goal for this year is to maintain my lean body mass and lose the fat.  Since this is the first time that I am tracking body composition, I really don't know what is possible over the course of the year.  As a result, I am not setting a meaasurable objective other than keeping the muscle and losing the fat.

My SMART Goals for 2015

A New Year has begun and with it a new opportunity to put into place a set of goals to guide me for the upcoming year.  To get better results I make my goals SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely.

So, as a result, I have decided that by the end of 2015, I will have walked 4000 kilometers; I will have completed 100 resistance workouts; I will not have consumed more than 50 units of alcohol; and I will be able to fit into a pair of 36-inch-waist-jeans.

Using my Fitbit tracking application to divide the year up into weeks, I started my year on December 29, 2014, and my first week was a smashing success.  I walked 94.27 kilometers, did two workouts at the gym, and didn't consume any alcohol over the week..  To reach my goals, I will need to walk approximately 77 kilometers each week, hit the gym twice, and limit myself to one unit of alcohol.

As you can see, I have already built up a small surplus of kilometers walked and units of alcohol that were not consumed, and I am on pace for the 100 workouts.

No, I didn't try on the jeans.  It's far too early to even think about it, but as soon as those 38-inch-jeans start to feel loose, I'll be heading to the store to try a smaller size on.

Wishing you all the best with your plans and projects in 2015!

The Measure of My Success in 2014: I Dropped Three Pant Sizes

When it comes to fitness and getting into shape, there are many measures of success.  For example, it could be the number on the scale, a change in the percentage of body fat, or the waist to hip ratio.

For me, this year, the best indicator of my success is that I now wear the same make and style of jeans that I wore at the beginning of 2014, but three sizes smaller.

I guess you can say that I walked my butt off.  Having hit the pavement for 3800 kilometers and having biked for another 1400 kilometers, plus severely restricting my simple carb consumption along with alcohol, I think I may have finally figured out what works for me.

Move more.  Eat better.

Not all that difficult to do, but I had to get out of denial.  I had to drop my belief that since I went to the gym regularly, I could eat whatever I wanted, when I wanted.  As well, I had to admit that my moderate alcohol consumption was sabotaging my efforts to get into good shape.

Sometimes the most difficult part of making transformative change is coming clean with our dysfunctional behavior, especially when the behavior in question brings considerable pleasure as eating bread, pasta, and pastries and drinking alcohol most certainly do.

It's not that I can no longer eat my favorite foods and drink my favorite wine; it's just that I can only partake once in a while, one cheat meal and one glass of wine per week.

I can live with that.  In fact, I will live longer with a better quality of life if I just keep on keeping on with what I am doing.

Cheers!!!

Well Folks, I Made It! 5000 Km in 2014

Last year, I received a Fitbit for Christmas.  Since then I have been faithfully logging my distance covered each day on foot.  When summer rolled around, I decided to do the same for my bike, using the GPS in my cellphone.

When I began the year, I had no idea about how much ground I could cover over the next twelve months.  In this instance, what can be measured definitely counts.  Once I started tracking my daily movement, given my personality, I started to push myself.

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Get Yourself a Fitbit and Don't Leave Home Without It

Welcome to Winnipeg Homeboy

The first goal was to get up to 10,000 steps a day, which is for me about 7.8 km.  After a while, reaching that goal was relatively easy.  Just moving about around the house and at work brings me to 4000 steps, so to get to 10,000, it only takes about an hour of walking.  Add in two, 15-minute coffee breaks and a half an hour at lunch and voila, the Fitbit reads 10,000 or more steps by the end of the day.

I then decided to increase my goal by 30%, in other words to move up to 13,000 steps per day, which works out to be 10k.  That I can do, but it requires more discipline, in particular, at least 30 additional minutes of walking in the evening.

Sometime in the late fall, I realized that I had already walked the equivalent of the distance from Ottawa to Calgary.  I then added the number of kilometers I had cycled and knew that I had covered approximately 4600 km, the distance from Ottawa to Vancouver.  Then I thought, "if I pick up the pace, I'll make it to 5000 km before the end of the calender year."

As a result, over the last six weeks, I have been walking on average 12km per day.  That means parking the car as far as possible in the parking lot at work and when I go shopping, taking the stairs, and a minimum of 30 minutes on the treadmill in the evening.

Well, I made it to 5000 Km with two weeks to spare, and I must say I feeling pretty good about myself.  In short, I have walked on average 10km a day for the entire year.

Pretty good for someone who was 56 years old until today, my birthday.

Without question, the best gift I have given myself has been the heath gains I have experienced over the last year.

I am definitely looking forward to 2015, the year in which I can hopefully say with confidence that "I am lean and fit!"

Welcome to Calgary and While We're at It, Vancouver

Lately, I have been adding up the numbers to get an idea on how far I have travelled over the course of 2014.  By the end of October, I had walked 3100 km, which is about the distance from Ottawa to Calgary.  If I add in the distance I covered on my bike this summer, about 1400km, I have travelled the equivalent of the distance from Ottawa to Vancouver. 

Not too shabby.

Add in approximately 100 workouts with the weights, you might think that I would be ripped by now.

No, not me, for I am cursed what my doctor refers to as a thrifty metabolism.  I am incredibly efficient and turning glucose into fat and storing it.  Restricting my intake of simple carbs has helped a bit, but no where near what I thought I could bring about by combining a lot of exercise with a low fast-carb diet.

So, what's left to do?

Well, since I have come this far, I might as well go all the way -- cutting back on alcohol.  I read lately that besides the extra calories and the stimulation of the appetite, one of the negative effects of alcohol consumption, especially for people who are trying to shed fat, is that our bodies will burn off the alcohol first before returning to burning glucose and fatty acids.  In other words, a couple of glasses of wine with a good meal is a great way to undo the positive effects of all the exercise during the week.

Consequently, I have decided that in addition to limiting myself to one cheat meal per week, I also will limit myself to just one unit of alcohol.  So far, so good.  I haven't had any alcohol for the last three weeks.  We'll see where this brings me.

According to my son, who also works out and watches what he eats, if this one last piece of the puzzle doesn't bring about the fat loss that I'm looking for, I should accept the fact that I will die fat.

"Fit-Fat", I replied.  Even if 25% of my body mass is fat, you have to be in pretty good shape to cover 5000 km during a single year.  At the moment, I am right on track to do so.

It would be a great way to end the year!