1 Year Anniversary

It has been a year since I started this post.  There have been setbacks but there have also been accomplishments.

The biggest accomplishment wasn't losing weight.  It was becoming healthier and building the habit of exercise into my day.  Before I started this journey I pretty much sedentary.  I might have gone for a walk once or twice a week but there were a lot of weeks that I did absolutely nothing.

Fast forward to today and it is the complete opposite.  Now I exercise almost every day and have only 1 or 2 days per week that I don't do anything. 

Total changes in my body haven't been as much as I would have liked for a year of work.

Total weight loss:  15 pounds

Inches lost:

Chest:  2.5 inches

Ribs:  2 inches

Waist:  3 inches

Hips/Ass:  1.5 inches

This past year has been more about building a solid fitness foundation than it has been about losing weight.  I no longer have lower back pain and I have not put out my back or my neck all year.  The only time I have experienced pain has been when I have upped my exercise routine too quickly and have strained my muscles.

The main struggle this year has been my diet and knowing how many calories to eat per day.  I found over the last couple of months that I hadn't been losing weight but I was working out everyday and only eating a maximum of 1,500 calories.  I was walking 5 kms plus lifting heavy weights on gym days.  On off days I was either walking 6.5 kms  or I was doing interval training to build up my jog times.

Yet I wasn't losing any weight.  Started researching it and the problem MIGHT be that I am not eating enough.  One suggestion was called "reverse dieting".  For a month you eat anything that you want so that your body can get out of starvation mode.  You will gain weight.  Once your weight is steady then you start dropping the calories per day that you eat until you start losing weight.

Recommended daily calorie intake for me was 2,500 calories.  For the first couple of weeks I was eating 3,000+ and I gained 6 pounds.  Then I dropped my calories to 2,4000 and I lost 2 pounds.   Now it is a matter of observation to see how many calories I should eat on light workout weeks and how many calories I should eat on weeks that I work out a lot.

I am still using the LoseIt app to monitor my calories but I am no longer using it to monitor workouts.  I think putting in my exercise calories used was skewing my results because it is very hard to estimate how many calories I actually burned in my exercise.  I could think that I am burning a lot of calories because my workout feels hard but in reality I am just having an off day.

Another struggle has been getting enough protein in my diet.  I eat quite a lot of meat but still don't get enough protein.  I can have protein shakes but it is a fine line between getting enough protein and not going over my calorie budget.  Suggested protein intake is 1 gram per 1 pound of body weight.  For me, that should mean eating 210 grams of protein per day.  I am lucky if I can get up over 100 grams.  I am looking at finding high protein recipes that I can make to try get my protein up to at least 125 grams.

Finally, my goal to learn to run has not been going well.  I am only able to run for 2 minutes then walk for 1 minute x 7 sets.  Most days my legs have been hurting so bad that I have to stop.  Last week it was my calf muscles that were killing me.  Last month it was my shins.

I have put my gym membership on hold for the next month to see if my leg problems are do to overwork.  Maybe it was too much exercise to walk 5 kms, do weight training for my legs and then the next day expect to be able to run.

I plan to cut back my exercise to 3 days per week to start.  If I am able to increase my run times without pain then I will slowly start incorporating some walks in.  After the month is up, I will go back to the gym and start lifting weights again but I might not do deadlifts which work my legs.  I will just focus on my upper body.

Speaking of which, one of the reasons I decided to put my weight training on hold at this time is because I hurt myself again.  I was doing really well.  I was doing 30lb dumbbell chest presses and 20 lb flyes prone on the recline bench.  Then I upped my routine by doing incline flyes with the bench in a semi-reclined position, started doing push-ups instead of the chest presses  and started doing triceps dips.

The incline flyes were so much harder that I had to drop the weight from 20lbs to 15.  After doing the push-ups for 2 days I developed a burning pain behind my left scapula.  It didn't hurt while I was exercising but developed 2 days after my gym day.  It has been hurting now for 2 weeks.  Some days it is very painful and I have to ice it and take ibuprofen.  Other days it just slightly aches.

I will also be taking a yoga class for the next month.  My muscles are so tight and stiff even with stretching.  I think that now is the time to try yoga to try to get limber.

I have gotten so used to exercising everyday that I am feeling kinda antsy.  I just want to go out and do something which is a far cry from how my life was over the last 10 years.  I am happy that I have developed the habit to get up and move which in the long run is going to keep me strong and healthy.

Now moving forward, it is time to listen to my body.    I can get advice from trainers and websites but I really need to learn for myself what works and what doesn't.  I need to learn when to step up my workouts and when my body is saying I need to slow down.

How Many Daily Calories Do I Really Need?

I have been exercising almost every day.  Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday I go to the gym and lift weights.  On the other days I have been jogging.  I have been watching my diet and eating only 1,500 calories per day.  I should be losing weight. Yet my weight and measurements have not changed for a long time.

Part of the problem is that I really do not know how much I should be eating in a day.  There is so much conflicting information.  So I decided to search the internet for reasons why I might not be seeing results.  One common problem people experience when they start working out a lot is that they don't eat enough to fuel their body.  The body then hoards all calories and fat so that it will have energy for the next workout.

There is a concept called "reverse dieting" which helps to evaluate how many calories you need to eat in order to lose weight.  Basically you stop dieting and you eat normal for a couple of weeks until you start to gain weight.  At that point, you start dropping the number of calories that you consume each day until you reach a point where you are maintaining your weight.  Once you have reached that stage you can then start dropping the number of calories consumed by 100 per day until you start losing weight.

My LoseIt app was telling me that I should be eating 1,270 calories on days that I did not work out and up to 1,600 calories on days that I did work out.  It basically would add food calories to my day to make up for the exercise calories I was burning.

Most of the fitness articles were suggesting that I should be eating 2,400 calories per day.

I have found that I maintain my weight at 2,500 calories per day.

Now, it is time to start dropping the number of calories I eat per day until I find the zone where I start to lose weight.

I am adjusting the calories in my app to 2,400 per day for 1 week and I will see what that does for me.

I am also going to stop tracking my exercise in the app.  I feel that I make food choices based on how much I am exercising.  Maybe if I have it just showing total calories not net calories that it will alter my eating habits.