Weight loss lessons learned
Three weeks ago I weighed 176 pounds. I'm 6' tall and fairly muscular by triathlete standards. My game day fighting weight is mid to low 160's. I have been sub-170 for pretty much four years straight since I always had an IM race looming.
I haven't been working out much at all since last summer, mostly due to a series of medical issues that plagued me until January. So the fact I only weighed 10-12 pounds above my fighting weight is a testament to some combination of willpower/diet and genetics/metabolism.
I noticed my runs were a bit slow and laboring. Sure, I wasn't in great shape having taken the second half of 2014 off but it was more than that. I decided to do an experiment. No working out for three weeks, really clean up the diet, and see how much weight I can lose. I weighed in at 176 pounds on March 30th and would not look at the scale again until April 20th.
I didn't go on some crazy and super strict diet. I just made sure to mostly cutout processed foods and restrict sugar intake. For breakfast I would have a couple of cups of Kashi Go Lean cereal and two bananas with organic skim milk, plus a cup of coffee with soy milk. For lunch I would have a wrap or sandwich, usually turkey or chicken with veggies. Occasionally, I would have a sweet tea with lunch. For dinner I would eat a kale and spinach salad with either 1/2 pound of grilled chicken or Quorn (vegetarian meat substitute for those that don't know). Not that I drank beer everyday but I purposely did not drink on the weekdays. There were days I had some pizza with my son or chowed down on some fries or went out for ice cream but that was once a week or so.
Weighed 165 pounds on Monday. That's 11 pounds in three weeks just on diet alone (I think I rode my bike once and ran once during that time). I went running the last two days and it was just easier to run without the extra weight. I have read all this stuff before about a pound of weight loss can mean a drop of 2-3 seconds per mile. That was spot on. I was running 30-40 seconds per mile faster with similar RPE for what amounted to a Z1/Z2 run. I'd also add that it's much warmer now than it was three weeks ago.
So I'm basically down to my fighting weight before training commences. That means I will have to up my caloric intake because I start to encounter issues if my weight drops too low (like when I got into the 150's before IMC last year... which myself and my doctors are convinced contributed to my vasovagal issues). So I need to pay attention to keeping my weight around 165.
I'd be remiss in not saying this upfront that my following comments might come off as insensitive and dick-ish but it's not my intent. I have been thin and lean my whole life. I weighed 190-ish for much of my 20's and 30's but that's because I lifted a lot of weights. So I was still in good shape, just more muscular and bulky. I'm not someone that needed to really lose any weight and it wasn't that hard to drop 7% in 21 days even without exercise. I guess I have a hard time understanding problems people face with weight loss. I guess it's more a mental game than anything??? The physical part is just simple math: Calories in less than calories out.
I guess what I'm trying to say is this stuff we do is just easier at a lighter (and healthy) weight.
Comments
Congrats on your weight loss!
In my opinion, you did it the hard way by only focusing on calories in vs calories in AND calories out. Contrary to your expressed opinion, every time I get back on the wagon and log my stuff (as I am now) I am reminded of how difficult it must be lose weight healthfully when
After 3mo of logging I've found that my brain is just hardwired to eat 2.5-3k calories per day. This is healthy food but I know myself well to know to know that if I tried it your way, I'd constantly be thinking about how much I want that extra ~1500cal that you weren't eating. But I can't pretty easily burn 1k cal/day, and on some days much more, allowing me to create a steady calorie deficit while staying within that hardwired 2.5-3k per day.
And your point about speed and weight is spot on. I've gotten significantly faster in the last 6-8wk, through a combination of very consistent and focused training, but also about 8lb weight loss. When running I do the 1-2" per pound per mile math in the my head, project that toward my IMWI race weight goals, as well as w/kg calcs on my local climbs with this goal weight and historic FTP numbers.
In addition to "work is speed" thing, which is stenciled into the paint job of my new road bike, I've also got "nothing tastes as good as skinny climbs" in my head...though I did fall off the wagon a bit yesterday
Thanks Bob. That is EXACTLY what I needed to hear. I continue to have a lack of self-control with what crap I put in my mouth (or the quantity of "good food" I put in my mouth.
It still remains "if calories in > calories burned" you will gain weight....unfortunately.
Physics....
My vdot has gone from 32 to 38.
Doing all of this for my first IM at IMAZ. Now Im just not sure where I should be weight wise while traing for the next 7 mos, and where I want to be on race day. I did Vineman at about 185.
Any thoughts?
I would just continue to what you're doing and see where you level out. The thing you will learn training for your IM is how hungry you will be all the time. You will be eating more than you are now just because you will need to in order to keep your body fueled and recovered.
Highly recommend you use LoseIt! or some other app to track your diet and exercise. You'll learn a LOT about what works for you.
and chocolate likes me.
So far its a straight line down!