Update for Week 8, ending 2013.03.01
OK, so now we're at the end of the competition and based on the last weigh-in there's a fierce battle going on for the win. Carlos L was really peeved at being edged out by me the previous Friday - seems he had gone into an extreme dieting mode (I had heard 400 or so calories per day - note that I don't recommend that anyone else do something like this). When I came in the Monday following last week's weigh-in I had heard that Carlos had lost 4 pounds over the weekend by going to the sauna. I knew that if I wanted to win I would need to ramp things up a bit. I'll talk a bit about my strategy after the team performance statistics.
| Name |
Weigh In |
Age |
Height |
BMI In |
Current BMI |
Weigh Out |
% |
Total Weight
Loss |
| John Eaton
(me) |
235.0 |
50 |
70 |
33.7 |
26.9 |
187.60 |
20.17% |
47.4 |
| Carlos L |
268.8 |
36 |
77 |
31.9 |
25.6 |
215.80 |
19.72% |
53.0 |
| Kevin Lu |
178.6 |
27 |
71 |
24.9 |
21.3 |
152.40 |
14.67% |
26.2 |
| Mike J |
263.2 |
37 |
76 |
32.0 |
27.9 |
229.00 |
12.99% |
34.2 |
| Jeff B |
282.2 |
45 |
70 |
40.5 |
35.3 |
246.20 |
12.76% |
36.0 |
| Kevin Li |
236.8 |
40 |
72 |
32.1 |
28.4 |
209.60 |
11.49% |
27.2 |
| Verlin H |
434.0 |
37 |
75 |
54.2 |
49.3 |
394.60 |
9.08% |
39.4 |
| Stephen M |
223.8 |
56 |
70 |
32.1 |
29.3 |
204.20 |
8.76% |
19.6 |
| Steven T |
272.6 |
|
76 |
33.2 |
30.5 |
250.20 |
8.22% |
22.4 |
| Alex V |
209.6 |
32 |
72 |
28.4 |
26.7 |
196.60 |
6.20% |
13.0 |
| Chris D |
224.6 |
40 |
70 |
32.2 |
30.5 |
212.60 |
5.34% |
12.0 |
| Shane M |
246.4 |
41 |
72 |
33.4 |
32.3 |
238.00 |
3.41% |
8.4 |
| Patrick M |
237.4 |
40 |
73 |
31.3 |
30.5 |
231.40 |
2.53% |
6.0 |
| Stan Y |
249.6 |
45 |
69 |
36.9 |
36.3 |
245.60 |
1.60% |
4.0 |
| Jeff M |
271.2 |
|
|
N/A |
N/A |
271.20 |
0.00% |
0.0 |
| Mark F |
269.6 |
|
72 |
36.6 |
36.6 |
269.60 |
0.00% |
0.0 |
| Cary A |
258.4 |
|
|
N/A |
N/A |
258.40 |
0.00% |
0.0 |
| Mark M |
243.0 |
|
73 |
32.1 |
32.1 |
243.00 |
0.00% |
0.0 |
| Average |
255.8 |
40.5 |
72.4 |
34.3 |
31.7 |
236.4 |
9.78% |
348.8 |
So if you've been following along, you may not be surprised that I won but in fact, I thought I had lost all the way up until I got on the scale. My official weigh-in at work was 187.6 (starting weight of 235.0 so a loss of 20.17%). No one is as surprised as me - after Carlos got on the scale and showed a weight of 215.8 I said to him "Well I guess that's it - you've won!" When I got on the scale and the calculation came up 20.17% I was honestly shocked.
At home that morning, my weight came in at 187.6. I knew based on what I had heard the day before (that Carlos had lost 10 lb) that to win I would need to be even lighter, so I left early for work and stopped at the gym. I'm not quite sure what my "at home" weight would have been, but when I dressed for work at the gym that morning I weight 185.0 on the scale there so I input 185.5 as an average and figured that I had successfully hit my latest 185 lb goal weight - yay! for a total loss of 42 lb (226.6 - 185.0).
My progress via graphs generated from MyFitnessPal:
So now a bit about strategy:
When I heard that Carlos had pulled all stops, I had to consider whether I should just throw in the towel or try to go to the extremes that he was going through. I had heard he reduced his intake to 400 calories a day and towards the end going to the sauna and using diuretics to eliminate as much water as possible, and frankly it showed. He looked emaciated and really transparent, like he was sick. I just wasn't willing to go to that length - if you look at the efforts I've made since the beginning, I've used exercise to increase my caloric burn and moderated my caloric intake, never going below about 1200 calories per day - it's my opinion that for someone my age and weight, 1200 is about as low as a person can safely reduce without having some impact on health - just my opinion but even MyFitnessPal produces a warning when it seems you going below that level.
I had already thought that I might need to do some water restriction via a technique I was familiar with from my body building friends. Basically, you increase your water intake about a week before a competition (doubling your normal) and consume salty foods. Then a couple of days before the show you start restricting your water intake (never going below 2 oz of water per hour). You end up "drying out" which highlights your vascularity for a show. I had also thought about doing the sauna but I was never a big fan of them - I don't think I've ever spent more than 10 minutes in one.
So when Carlos started escalating, I committed to the water trick. When I saw the results of his sauna, I started incorporating the sauna into my routine, I had also increased my routine to about 1200 calories of burn a day and stopped the weight training. Three days out I did 1200 calories of burn, ate about 1200 and did 30 minutes of sauna, only consuming a liter of water the entire workout. Two days out I did the same thing but reduced my calories to 800. One day out, again the same thing but did a protein shake for dinner along with a spinach salad, for a total of 943 calories. The morning of the competition I did 1 cup of coffee in the morning and worked out for an hour before going into the sauna for 30 minutes. I consumed about 4 oz of water, total, before the competition at 11:00 AM. I think that morning workout allowed me to win.
After the competition, we went to Fogo de Chao, a Brazillian steak house. I think I ate about 40 oz of meet (my nickname for the place is "death by meat" - it's a really fantastic experience). I also drank a liter of water before leaving for lunch and about 6 glasses during - when we got back to the office I had gained 8 lb! That evening I ate Italian at Ippolito's (eggplant parm with spaghetti, fried calamari with garlic rolls, ending with an Italian creme cake). I didn't bother tracking or weighing in but by Sunday morning I was coming in at 192.6 lb. So today, Sunday, I've reset MyFitnessPal for a goal weight of 190 lb and have started counting again. I think that's a good weight for me to "park" for a while. I'm next going into a muscle building phase again - although this time I'm going to try to keep the weight down and my belly to a size 34.
-- John
