After One Week - Loss of Almost 10 lb

So I thought I would do weekly updates...

First, last Friday was the officially weigh-in at work - unfortunately I left for Florida on the official day, so I weighed-in on Thursday on the official scale: 225.4 (starting weight at work 235.0 so a loss of 4.1%). I intend to make it in on Friday to do the official weigh-in, just to keep participating - I'm currently off from work until Tuesday (using up some PTO that I would otherwise lose at the end of the month). I ended up coming in second place. Here's the tally from work (I'm guessing those individuals showing no progress did not participate in the voluntary weekly weigh-in):

Name	Weigh In	One Pound	10%	11-Jan	%
Verlin H	434.0	0.23%	43.40	414.8	4.4%
John Eaton (me)	235.0	0.43%	23.50	225.4	4.1%
Stephen M	223.8	0.45%	22.38	215.2	3.8%
Kevin Li	236.8	0.42%	23.68	228.4	3.5%
Mike J	263.2	0.38%	26.32	254.4	3.3%
Jeff B	282.2	0.35%	28.22	272.8	3.3%
Carlos L	268.8	0.37%	26.88	260.6	3.1%
Steven T	272.6	0.37%	27.26	268.2	1.6%
Shane M	246.4	0.41%	24.64	243.2	1.3%
Chris D	224.6	0.45%	22.46	222.6	0.9%
Alex V	209.6	0.48%	20.96	208.6	0.5%
Jeff M	271.2	0.37%	27.12	271.2	0.0%
Mark F	269.6	0.37%	26.96	269.6	0.0%
Carey A	258.4	0.39%	25.84	258.4	0.0%
Stan Y	249.6	0.40%	24.96	249.6	0.0%
Mark M	243.0	0.41%	24.30	243.0	0.0%
Patrick M	237.4	0.42%	23.74	237.4	0.0%
Kevin L	178.6	0.56%	17.86	178.6	0.0%

Note that the numbers reflected at work are different from the numbers generated from my home scale. When we started this I weighed-in at home in the morning just prior to getting into the shower. I had 2 cups of coffee and a half-ounce of almonds - my intent is to always weigh myself at the same time every morning to track progress. My weigh-in at home on the morning of 2013.01.07 was 226.6 while at work it was 235.0. I believe the difference was in the weight of the clothes I wore to work and the fact that the weigh in was after lunch.

Now for my own tracked progress - these are graphs generated from MyFitnessPal:

Here's an example of how things get calculated. The Cardiovascular exercise you do during the day adds to your ability to consume calories (basically, the number of calories burned is added to the caloric total - as long as you're under your total for the day you will lose weight based on your goal - for MyFitnessPal the max is 2 pounds per week).

Tuesday 2013.01.08 (first day of dieting)

Nutrition

Breakfast	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein
Raw almonds - Raw almonds, 0.5 oz	82	3	7	3
Coffee - Coffee with cream, 40 oz	78	3	7	2
Lunch
Willy's - South West Vinaigrette, 2 oz	300	2	24	0
Willy's - Adobe Chicken Salad, 1 bowl	618	0	31	45
Dinner
Cytosport - Muscle Milk Light Chocolate Protein Drink No Milk 244ml (8.25 oz), 244 ml	150	9	4	20
Fresh produce - Snap green beans, 1 oz	11	3	0	1
Fresh produce - Sweet potato 2" dis, 5" long, 57 g	52	12	0	1
Costco - Chicken breast, 6 oz	150	0	2	36
Snacks
Coffee - Coffee with cream, 20 oz	39	1	4	1
Valrhona Abinao Dark Chocolate (85% Cacao - Valrhona Abinao Dark Chocolate (85% Cacao), 1.5 pc (40 g)	29	1	2	1
Totals	1,509	34	81	110
Your Daily Goal	1,564	215	51	58
Remaining	55	181	-30	-52
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein
	*You've earned 204 extra calories from exercise today

Exercise

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Treadmill	30	204
Daily Total / Goal	30 / 120	204 / 792
Weekly Total / Goal	325 / 600	2327 / 3960
Strength Training	Sets	Reps/Sets	Weight/Set
Abdominal Crunches	1	15	1
Abdominal Leg Raise	1	15	1
Bench (Chest) Press, Machine	1	12	140
Bent-Arm Lateral	1	10	60
Biceps Curl	1	10	60
Decline Bench Press	1	10	160
Front Raises, Straight Arm	1	10	40
Incline Bench Press	1	10	130
Lat Pulldown	1	10	70
Leg Curls	1	10	70
Leg Extension	1	10	80
Pec Dec Butterfly (Pectoral Fly)	1	10	70
Seated Biceps Curl	1	10	60
Shoulder Press	1	10	130
Toe Press	1	15	280
Triceps Extension	1	10	100
Shoulder Shrug	1	10	225
Bar Dip, Palms In, Neutral Grip	1	10	140

My Food and Nutrition Changes

A bit about my most recent efforts.

Food and Nutrition

I had not yet changed my caloric intake so no real weight loss during this time - I think at my heaviest last year I got up to 233 (it was also an all-time high for me) so the last several months have allowed me to stabilize around the 227 lb mark. I never measured but think I was consuming 2000-3000 calories a day, most "good" quality calories but still way more than I needed. I also added a protein drink, ingested immediately after weight-training workouts.

Drinks

I consume 3-4 cups of coffee a day, with plenty of half-and-half - I won't be changing that habit other than to work in more green tea in the afternoons and evenings. I also committed to 3-4 liters of filtered water at work daily, with about 2-3 liters more at workouts or home and with meals. I had mostly given up soda (even though it was Diet Soda), limiting my intake to 1 per day during lunch - this was mostly to reduce my sodium intake and I just don't think carbonation is that good for you. Since I've started on this new weight loss cycle I've given it up completely.

I would normally have 4-6 alcoholic beverages, mostly beer with some wine and occasional mixed drink cocktail. I had about halved this since the holidays and have pretty much given up alcohol during this dieting cycle.

Supplements

One thing I've been relatively good about is maintaining a steady amount of vitamin and mineral supplements - I have been and currently am taking:

• 1 Kirkland Premium Performance Multi
• 1 Kirkland 1000 mg Vitamin C
• 1 Nature Made Super B-Complex
• 1 Kirkland 2000 i.u. Vitamin D3

I'll be adding some Glucosamin/MSM mix at some point in the future but so far my joints have been in fairly good shape.

In this current dieting cycle I'm taking careful measurements regarding my caloric consumption - mostly via the use of MyFitnessPal. This is a very good online application that allows you to set weight burning goals (the maximum is 2 lb per week), then calculating the number of calories you can eat on a daily basis to maximize your body's ability to burn off those pounds. When you do cardiovascular exercise, the caloric burn adds to the number of calories you can consume in a day to increase your allotment. The idea is you can have that piece of cake, but you'll need to spend an hour or so on the stationary bike to make sure it doesn't impact your weight loss. MyFitnessPal also has mobile apps (iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android, etc) so you can input what you eat immediately (or the amount of exercise you've accomplished). It has a bar-code reader integrated so you can quickly get the nutritional information of any packaged food product - makes it very convenient to track your calories.

Workouts

I've been consistently working out 4-5 days per week for the past 6 months or so. I decided that I would work on toning and building some muscle mass first, then change up my workout to burn more fat by increasing the cardio. For the past several months I've been doing a typical body builder's push/pull routine. This places similar muscle groups together so the focus is on those areas and it allows the other areas to have time to recover. This was my routine prior to the current weight-loss cycle:

• Day 1: Legs and Calves
• Day 2: Rest
• Day 3: Back and Biceps with light Cardio
• Day 4: Rest
• Day 5: Chest with Cardio
• Day 6: Rest
• Day 7: Shoulders and Triceps

Each day would feature 4-6 excercises of 4 sets for each body part, starting with moderate weight then building up the weight. I'd try for 10-12 reps on the first set and then 10 on each subsequent but would typically only do 7-8 on the last, heaviest set. I'd always start with the largest muscles first, which pre-exhausts the smaller muscles (not as much weight, but the burn is really intense). I would do a 45 count between each set. The cardiovascular exercise would typically be treadmill at 3.5 mpg for 15-30 minutes, doing an hour on the Chest day (not as many weight lifting exorcises so I'd have more time to do cardio). I'd typically be at the gym from 1.5-2 hours.

In the current weight-loss cycle I've changed the routine, doing cardio 6 days a week:

• Day 1: Circuit Training and 30 minutes of cardio
• Day 2: 60 minutes of cardio
• Day 3: Circuit Training and 30 minutes of cardio
• Day 4: 60 minutes of cardio
• Day 5: Circuit Training and 30 minutes of cardio
• Day 6: 60 minutes of cardio
• Day 7: Rest

I'm now doing circuit training - about 20-25 sets of exercises, working every body part for 1 set at relatively heavy weight with high reps - 12-20 per exercises. I'm taking a 15 count between each set so my heart rate maintains a high level - I'm literally panting when I finish. The whole routine has been taking 30-45 minutes to complete and I vary the machine, sometimes working in free weights when they are available.

Enough for now - thanks for taking a gander. John

60 Day Weight Loss Diet - Day 1

So to kick things off  my group at work (which started with 8 but has somehow grown to 18) put together some rules and did a weigh-in on Monday 2013.01.07 as the first day of about 60 (it's really 8 weeks so technically just shy). Each participant was weighed using the same scale and except for the two add-ons, at the same time - 2:00 PM EST.

Clothing should be comparable to what each normally wears to work (for most that's jeans, t-shirts, etc) but no shoes. Since most of the products we have at work have the word "REAL" as the prefix to the product name, we decided to call the friendly contest "REALLoser" - this is an mash-up of the products we produce and the show "Worlds Biggest Loser" a dieting competition.

Here's the list of Participants

(I've removed the last names for a bit of web privacy):

Name	Weigh In	One Pound	10%
Verlin H	434.0	0.23%	43.40
Jeff B	282.2	0.35%	28.22
Steven T	272.6	0.37%	27.26
Jeff M	271.2	0.37%	27.12
Mark F	269.6	0.37%	26.96
Carlos L	268.8	0.37%	26.88
Mike J	263.2	0.38%	26.32
Carey A	258.4	0.39%	25.84
Stan Y	249.6	0.40%	24.96
Shane M	246.4	0.41%	24.64
Mark M	243.0	0.41%	24.30
Patrick M	237.4	0.42%	23.74
Kevin Li	236.8	0.42%	23.68
John Eaton (me)	235.0	0.43%	23.50
Chris D	224.6	0.45%	22.46
Stephen M	223.8	0.45%	22.38
Alex V	209.6	0.48%	20.96
Kevin Lu	178.6	0.56%	17.86

A few notes:

• I weighed myself on this Monday morning before getting in the shower so there's a difference between the REALLoser weigh-in amount and what I'm tracking in MyFitnessPal (which has my weight from my morning weigh-ins).
• One dimension that's missing from the chart is height - it's difficult to tell from the photos of each participant how tall each is - for instance, the heaviest, Verlin, comes in at 6'5" or so.
• Every Friday there will be a voluntary weigh in.
• Each participant is encouraged to talk smack to the others to spur them into action. With so many Type A personalities this will be an interesting competition.
• The winner will have the largest percentage of weight loss to two decimal places.

Verlin H. - Beginning Weight 434 lb

Coming into the competition as the high-extreme, Verlin has been dieting for several weeks and has already lost a bit of weight - I believe he indicated he started his Weight Watcher's Diet at about 450 lbs. Verlin as I've mentioned previously, is one of the tallest in the competition at 6'4"-6'5." There are positives and negatives at being the heaviest - on the plus side, he can lose quite a bit of weight over a period of days because he has the most excess. On the negative side, since the competition is factored on percentage lost, he HAS to lose quite a bit of weight to win.

Jeff B. - Beginning Weight 282.2 lb

Steven T. - Beginning Weight 272.6 lb

Jeff M. - Beginning Weight 271.2 lb

(no photo available)

Mark F. - Beginning Weight 269.6 lb

Carlos L. - Beginning Weight 268.8 lb

Mike J. - Beginning Weight 263.2 lb

Carey A. - Beginning Weight 258.4 lb

(no photo available)

Stan Y. - Beginning Weight 249.6 lb

 

Shane M. - Beginning Weight 246.4 lb

 

Mark M. - Beginning Weight 243.0 lb

 (no photo available)

Patrick M. - Beginning Weight 237.4 lb

(no photo available)

Kevin Li. - Beginning Weight 236.8 lb

 

John Eaton (me) - Beginning Weight 235.0 lb

 

Chris D. - Beginning Weight 224.6 lb

Stephen M. - Beginning Weight 223.8 lb

 

Alex V. - Beginning Weight 209.6

Kevin Lu. - Beginning Weight 178.6

As the lowest extreme among the competitors it's surprising that Kevin is participating - however due to a recent ACL injury he's using this opportunity to kick-start his path back to a more nominal weight.

 I'll try to get photos of the other participants and update this post at a later date. First weigh-in is on Friday 2013.01.11 (I'll be weighing in on the 10th as I won't be available on Friday).

-- John