Program Starting Weight: 210.8 lbs
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Original Personal Goal: I set a personal goal of 179 lbs. This would have been a 15% drop in my body weight. I chose 179 lbs because it is what I weighed after I came back from Australia where I did a lot of hiking and was pretty fit. I had a similar starting weight and it took about 5 months to drop to that weight. It was also the beginning of "Normal" on the BMI chart. Sounds like a realistic 6 month goal, right? I practically hit that mark 3 months ago when I made my last post.
REVISED Personal Goal: Since I met my personal goal after only 3 months, I needed a new goal. I believe that part of being successful is setting realistic goals. I figured that since my weight loss was slowing down that it would be harder to lose more after going below 180. So I asked Maura, my dietitian fiancee, what an ideal body weight is for my height would be. No surprise, there's a formula for that.
Formula for Men's Ideal Body Weight
106 lbs +/- (6 lbs*[inches above/below 5ft])
Formula for Women's Ideal Body Weight
100 lbs +/- (5 lbs*[inches above/below 5ft])
Example: I'm 5'11" so.... 106+(6*11) = 106+66 = 172
So my revised goal became 171.8 lbs. The additional .2 lbs meant that I'd be able to say I lost 40 lbs. I was still on a daily caloric intake of 1200 and up to 40 grams of fat with 300 minutes of moderate exercise (mostly fast walking). In reality, I was probably eating more like 1350-1650 calories and 40-50 grams of fat with 260-300 minutes of exercise. Yet, my weight loss was staying consistent. Ultimately, the REVISED Personal Goal ended up only taking a month. By May 27, I was 171 lbs and still on a steady decline. I had to rethink what was possible....
REVISED REVISED Personal Goal: If you asked me 6 months ago if I could get my weight below 170, I'd have laughed at you and told you that there was a better chance of hell freezing over. I haven't been that weight since middle school (MAYBE freshman year of high school). I liked the idea of being in my target BMI and wanted to get my weight a little more centered in the Normal range. My Revised Revised Personal Goal became 165. That would give me a BMI of 23. I was also beginning to notice things like ribs and ab muscles. Imagine that.... I've never seen my six pack, but I just got a hint of seeing a 2 pack. This got me motivated and I've been trying to add in more core exercises to help that 6 pack along.
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MAINTENANCE: Anyone can work at it and lose weight. Maintenance is the hard part. I am starting to ramp up my caloric intake. If I overshoot it, I'll start gaining weight. If I undershoot it, I'll start losing more weight. For now, I am going to try to maintain a daily caloric intake of 1800 calories a day and see what my weight does there.
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6 Month Assessment: Today was the 6 month assessment. I officially weighed in on the uber-accurate scale at 162.4 lbs. That means that I've lost 48.4 lbs. That represents a 33% loss in body weight since I began. Among other things, I had to perform a stress test. This test is where I am hooked up to an EKG and wear a head piece that measures my breathing while I walk on a treadmill at 3mph while the grade continually increases. The result was that it took longer to get my heart rate to the base line rate. Then, it took 5 minutes longer on the treadmill to get to the maximum heart rate than it did the first time I did the test. I'm excited to see what my before and after body scans look like too. Part of the assessment requires wearing the Body Media Fit armband again for a week. I'm wearing it right now. After this week is up, I will urn in this armband and get my very own Body Media Fit armband (the newer model, thankfully). From there, it's off to maintenance and maintenance and maintenance.
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Clothing: A note about clothing... when you lose 33% of your body weight, you find that you need a new wardrobe. I bought a new pair of shorts because I can swim in all of my clothes. The shorts are a size 34 and they are almost too big already. When I started, I was a size 38 waist and a large shirt. Now, I am a size 34 waist (possibly a 33) and a medium shirt. That part still surprises me.
