Week 3 - Loss of Another 3.8 lb

Update for Week 3, ending 2013.01.25

The third official weigh-in at work, done before lunch and on the official scale: 216.2 lb (starting weight at work 235.0 so a loss of 8.0%, so far I'm still in the lead). Here's the tally from the work spreadsheet (from those who weighed in - the weekly are voluntary so some numbers show no change):

Name	Weigh In	One Pound	Age	Height	BMI In	25-Jan	%
John Eaton (me)	235.0	0.43%	50	70	33.7	216.2	8.0%
Kevin Li	236.8	0.42%	40	72	32.1	219.0	7.5%
Jeff B	282.2	0.35%	45	70	40.5	263.8	6.5%
Verlin H	434.0	0.23%	37	75	54.2	408.0	6.0%
Stephen M	223.8	0.45%	56	70	32.1	210.4	6.0%
Mike J	263.2	0.38%	37	76	32.0	248.8	5.5%
Carlos L	268.8	0.37%	36	77	31.9	256.0	4.8%
Chris D	224.6	0.45%	40	70	32.2	217.8	3.0%
Patrick M	237.4	0.42%	40	73	31.3	231.4	2.5%
Steven T	272.6	0.37%		76	33.2	265.8	2.5%
Stan Y	249.6	0.40%	45	69	36.9	245.6	1.6%
Shane M	246.4	0.41%	41	72	33.4	243.2	1.3%
Jeff M	271.2	0.37%			N/A	271.2	0.0%
Mark F	269.6	0.37%		72	36.6	269.6	0.0%
Carey A	258.4	0.39%			N/A	258.4	0.0%
Mark M	243.0	0.41%			N/A	243.0	0.0%
Alex V	209.6	0.48%	32	72	28.4	209.6	0.0%
Kevin Lu	178.6	0.56%	27	71	24.9	178.6	0.0%
Average	255.8	0.40%	40.5	72.3	34.4	247.6	4.6%
Total	100%					96.8%

At home, of course the numbers are very different. My weigh-in at home on Friday was 210.4 lb so a difference of 2.8 lb from the previous Friday (weight of 213.2) towards my target weight of 204 lb.

Some interesting notes:

1. I ate at a Japanese-style Hibachi (teppanyaki) restaurant mid-week and the next day noticed I'd "swelled up" and my weight, which up until that time had been dropping steadily, basically stalled. I'm thinking it's the salt - since I usually don't have salt at all except for prepared foods and this style cooking is loaded with it. 
2. I've adjusted my nutritional balance more towards the carbohydrate ends since I seemed to be in deficit, mostly by ingesting more fresh fruit - however this has slowed my weight loss a bit - I thought I was in a state of ketosis and this pretty much proves that I was. I'll see how things go this week and perhaps swing back to heavy proteins.
3. I did a "power walk" in my neighborhood on Saturday - normally I would have taken that day off but it was so nice outside that I bundled up against the cold and used the "Pedometer" free app on iPhone to gauge my workout. This was interesting to me as formerly I thought my regular walk was about 2 miles - instead it ended up being 3.5 miles. Also, it seems my regular walking speed is closer to 5 mph rather than the 3.5 mpg I had guessed. Interesting as the walk took right under an hour (the average speed shown was 3.5, but I had stopped a couple of times along the way to take photographs - I guess I should have paused the app but didn't think about it). So the math ended up being right.

My progress via graphs generated from MyFitnessPal:

 

 

-- John

Week 2 - Loss of Another 4 Pounds

Here's my update for Week 2, ending today 2013.01.21...

Last Friday 2013.01.18 was the second official weigh-in at work. I went in and did the weigh-in during the morning before lunch and on the official scale: 220.0 lb (starting weight at work 235.0 so a loss of 6.4% putting me in the lead). Here's the tally from work:

Name	Weigh In	One Pound	Age	Height	BMI In	10%	11-Jan	%	18-Jan	%
John Eaton (me)	235.0	0.43%	50	70	33.7	23.50	225.4	4.1%	220.0	6.4%
Kevin Li	236.8	0.42%	40	72	32.1	23.68	228.4	3.5%	223.4	5.7%
Stephen M	223.8	0.45%	56	70	32.1	22.38	215.2	3.8%	212.4	5.1%
Mike J	263.2	0.38%	37	76	32.0	26.32	254.4	3.3%	251.2	4.6%
Verlin H	434.0	0.23%	37	75	54.2	43.40	414.8	4.4%	414.4	4.5%
Jeff B	282.2	0.35%	45	70	40.5	28.22	272.8	3.3%	270.4	4.2%
Carlos L	268.8	0.37%	36	77	31.9	26.88	260.6	3.1%	258.4	3.9%
Chris D	224.6	0.45%	40	70	32.2	22.46	222.6	0.9%	218.8	2.6%
Steven T	272.6	0.37%			N/A	27.26	268.2	1.6%	267.2	2.0%
Shane M	246.4	0.41%	41	72	33.4	24.64	243.2	1.3%	243.2	1.3%
Alex V	209.6	0.48%	32	72	28.4	20.96	208.6	0.5%	208.6	0.5%
Jeff M	271.2	0.37%			N/A	27.12	271.2	0.0%	271.2	0.0%
Mark F	269.6	0.37%			N/A	26.96	269.6	0.0%	269.6	0.0%
Carey A	258.4	0.39%			N/A	25.84	258.4	0.0%	258.4	0.0%
Stan Y	249.6	0.40%			N/A	24.96	249.6	0.0%	249.6	0.0%
Mark M	243.0	0.41%			N/A	24.30	243.0	0.0%	243.0	0.0%
Patrick M	237.4	0.42%	40	73	31.3	23.74	237.4	0.0%	237.4	0.0%
Kevin Lu	178.6	0.56%	27	71	24.9	17.86	178.6	0.0%	178.6	0.0%
Average	255.8	0.4%				25.6	251.2	2.7%	249.8	3.7%
Total	100%						98.2%		97.6%

At home I've been weighing myself using a digital scale and as mentioned previously, do so after 2 cups of coffee, a small handful of raw almonds and right before showering. My weigh-in at home on the Friday morning was 215.0 lb, so about 5 pounds difference between work and home (clothes weight I'm guessing). As of today, Monday 2013.01.21, my weight is 213.2 lb so another 1.8 lbs loss over the weekend. My target right now is 204 lb which would still put me on the heavy side, but I didn't want to do more than 10% of my body weight as I believe I'll lose too much muscle mass. To counter the effect of muscle burn, I've been doing weight training 3x per week - my routine consists of about 20-25 weight-assisted exercises in a circuit, with a 15 count between each exercise, moving every body part from core to limbs. I've also been ingesting about 150 calories worth of liquid supplement after those sessions (Cytosport - Muscle Milk Light Chocolate Protein Drink No Milk 244ml (8.25 oz), with 17 grams of protein). Ideally I'd like to keep my muscle loss to around 3% or less - I'll probably need to adjust things as I go.

I went from doing 4-5 sets of each exercise, with 4-5 exercises for each body part 3 times per week (so every body part is worked once per week) to my current workout of 20-25 sets, 1 set of each exercise, 2-4 exercises per body part doing fairly heavy weight with reps in the 10-12 range. As I approach my goal weight, I'll increase the reps to 15-20 and drop the weight. This is to maximize burn and increase the intensity pulling me out of an anabolic state. Since it's only been 2 weeks and I'm already half-way to my goal weight, I'm going to see how much I can drop by doing my current routine, probably into week 4 and then adjust the workouts.

On nutrition, according to FitnessPal my target caloric intake is 1360 to lose 2 pounds per week. Cardiovascular exercise increases the amount of calories you can eat - I found that I wasn't calculating the treadmill workout correctly - turns out age and starting weight is a factor - I was going from the machine baseline of 204 calories per half-hour - turns out the more accurate number for my weight and age is 282 calories per half-hour. So this adjustment should slow-down my weight loss a bit as I'll be consuming more calories per day. I also plan to increase my cardiovascular workout times - right now I'm doing 30 minutes on days when I weight train and 45 minutes on days when I don't. As I progress I'll increase those times to 45 minutes on weight training days and 60 minutes on non-weight training days.

My progress via graphs generated from MyFitnessPal:

-- John