A Success Story
I've mentioned a few times in other threads about using Lose It! to radically improve body comp, but I was browsing my old pictures the other day, and came across these three photos, which I've re-constructed into a montage. They show my weight progression from July 2009 (at the Boulder Peak) to July 2010 (IMLP) to July 2011 (The Boulder Peak).
I don't recall what I weighed at the 2009 Peak, but it had to be somewhere north of 200 lbs (I'm 6'4", so 200 doesn't LOOK that big on me). At LP, I had trimmed to 190 lbs. In Nov, 2010, I started using Lose It! to experiment with body comp. At the 2011 Boulder Peak, I was a whopping 167 lbs.
I guess I post this as visual, documentary evidence of the dramatic effect that watching what and how you eat can improve your body composition. I could get to 185 or 190 through IM training alone. Once I really started watching what I ate, it really came off (remember that the most dramatic weight loss, 20+ lbs, happened after November 2011).
Anyway, I hope this has been motivational for those of you struggling to improve body comp. It CAN be done. A couple of caveats on Lose It!, though:
- Lose It! is VERY generous on calories burned... particularly on the bike. If you did an hour at 20+ mph, You probably didn't burn 1200+ calories. I found that a hard 1 hr OS workout was probably closer to 850-900 cals.
- It may take some tweaking of the settings to get everything right. Play around with the settings a little to make sure you have the right information entered.
- Weigh yourself at the same time of day every time you wigh in. I found that my weight would fluctuate several lbs over the course of the day.
- Eat 5 times a day. I often ate breakfast at 6:00 am, a snack around 9:00 am, lunch at noon, snack at 3:pm and dinner at 6:30 pm.
- Be patient. I'm naturally a thin person, with a thin frame and small bones, even though I'm 6'4". It may happen faster for some than others based on their body type.
Good luck, all!
Comments
Nice work. Did you gain noticeable speed through the weight loss? Any downside to the weight loss?
@Tucker: not everyone has a power meter or a gps. For those that don't, they need to know that Lose It! Is not accurate on calories burned. I used numbers from the PM and Garmin as well, and picked whatever was closest to what those said. I tried to err on the side of fewer calories burned.
@Bill: The only potentially adverse consequence was my Achilles injury, but I have no idea if it was related in any way to the weight loss. Prolly not. I did get much faster on the bike (2:20 HIM split at Boulder 70.3 vs 2:30 in 2009). The run was a bit of a wash because of the Achilles injury. However, since I've been back running, my VDot has improved significantly. In 2009, I was probably at a 43 VDot. Currently, I'm testing at 50, but I suspect that's high for marathon training... I'm pretty sure I'd be hard pressed to run a marathon at 7:15/mi.
That's increidble! Your BMI must be great given your height! Have you picked up a lot of speed on run VDOT? How about absolute wattage vs. watt/kg? Can you provide some data to go w/ your weight loss? Congrats again!
@ Steve, Fantastic work!! We're the same height, but there's no way that I can get as light as you because of my bone structure. I've been down to 242 and 8.3% body fat as measured by a bodpod.
As far as running, also lots of improvement. VDot of 43 in 2009 to a current tested VDot of 50. It certainly is easier to run with 20 fewer pounds! :-)
Steve, great work! Since I rode with you in May of '10, would I even recognize you then? You were pretty skinny then, I thought.
Curious: what does your twin brother think of this? Has he been doing something similar?
My brother has been doing the same thing (I turned him on to Lose It! in Jan. 2011). We're both sitting right around 175 right now. He is primarily a cyclist, so he rides WAY more than I do, and is a stronger cyclist (but I kick his @ss on the run). For some perspective, before he started cycling, he hit 265 lbs in the early 2000's... so, he's dropped nearly 100 lbs (of course most of that came off simply by getting active). I think we probably look more alike now than we did 20 years ago.
Congrats to Steve on fantastic work!