From >450 to <160 lb by 2022

Saturday update of my trailing weekly averages:

Week _________ Weight ___ BF __ Calories
October 25-31: ___ 272.5 __ 37.5% __ 1599
November 1-7: ___ 269.8 __ 37.4% __ 1575
November 8-14: __ 265.7 __ 36.5% __ 1536
November 15-21: _ 263.1 __ 35.9% __ 1600
November 22-28: _ 260.4 __ 34.3% __ 1616-ish (today's calories still TBD)

1 week average of 1.0% weight loss, 1.6% body fat loss
2 week average of 2.0% weight loss, 2.2% BF loss
3 week average of 3.5% weight loss, 3.1% BF loss
4 week average of 4.4% weight loss, 3.2% BF loss

The weight loss looks pretty close to perfection so no nutritional changes are planned for next week. I don't think the loss in body fat percentage is sustainable - and it may not be "real" since lately I've been doing a lot of core strength training that seems to be rapidly slimming my waistline (a primary measurement in the Navy BF calculation/estimation). I have a Tanita BF scale coming to try to have two (rough) BF data points to use in the ~3 month intervals between dexa scans...

I also ran a mile this morning with a metronome beating at 176bpm in my ear to set my cadence. And while it was my best time since starting my weight loss journey, it really wasn't that close to my sub 10 minute goal so that will have to wait for next month (at least my knees felt fine though):
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That greenish-yellow custom heart rate zone is based on the VO2 max test I did and, judging by the fact I felt pretty good despite supposedly being over the lactic threshold for the last ~6 minutes, I think I've probably increased my lactic threshold a bit during these last two months of running:
20201008_161846-jpg.37999


I plan to get another Vo2max test (and Dexa scan) after New Year's to document progress & adjust training zones...
 
Oh wow, that's looking awesome. You're increasing every single one of your metrics!
 
I've talked about trying to improve my running form and gait, but haven't really gone into detail about my most persistent gait struggle: supination, or rolling along the outer edge of your foot while walking/running:

supination2.png

Between my weight and supination I was not only hard on my joints, but absolute murder on my shoes:

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20201129_144800-1.jpg

How did this happen? I suspect it is because as I packed on pounds I adapted my gait to give my thighs clearance which made me bow-legged:
bowlegged.jpeg

I doubt I'm alone in adapting my stance around my obesity - a study showed that people with class III obesity have a stance width of about 22 inches compared to a stance width of 13 inches for the overweight & moderately obese. So I think over the 10+ years I was super obese that I adapted to keep my foot flat against the ground while keeping my feet far apart. After losing a lot of the weight I could move my feet closer together under me, but initially I lacked the flexibility to keep my feet flat so they defaulted to their former angle.

Unfortunately, physical therapy for obesity related conditions is not covered by my insurance. Juggle swords and somehow stab yourself in the thigh? You're covered! Eat too much, lose the weight, and try to adapt back to a healthy alignment? Not covered...

So I've been looking up supination PT exercises online and they do seem to be helping. Basically I stretch all my leg muscles and in particular try to flex (or pull with my fingers) my toes back towards my shin when stretching my hamstring. I also am using a tennis ball to roll muscles and the underside of my foot. In addition to the stretching, I'm also trying to really concentrate on keeping my feet pointed straight ahead and landing flat when walking/running.

Results? Here is the wear pattern on my cross trainers/walking shoes:
20201129_194952.jpg
supination.jpeg

So I still have some kinks to be worked out (my big toe now seems to be doing a bit too much work), but the wear is waaaaay better. These shoes, incidentally, are 45 days old and I only wear them every other day. My running shoes show a bit more supination, particularly the thicker cushioned pair, but I think working on this is really helping keep knee pain at bay.
 
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Great job recognizing and changing that! Alignment is so important for knee health and the role of the ankle in that gets overlooked sometimes. I often see the opposite in very overweight people as well, by the way, especially in women: instead of pushing the knees out to make space for their thighs they´ll push their knees in to passively stabilize their legs. In that case you don´t just get knee problems but often also extremely weak leg muscles, which can take a long time to retrain after they´ve been like that for a couple of years.
 
That is good recognizing and correcting that. I had severe over pronation of my ankles which, yes, led to severe pain...i'm not sure if i corrected it because years ago a physio told me I would either need custom orthotics or would have to quit running. I quit running. That's partly why I'm so impressed that i can seem to run without pain this round. Mine was never due to weight, as i was quite thin at the time--i think it was just genetic.
 
Err2 said:
1 week average of 1.0% weight loss, 1.6% body fat loss
2 week average of 2.0% weight loss, 2.2% BF loss
3 week average of 3.5% weight loss, 3.1% BF loss
4 week average of 4.4% weight loss, 3.2% BF loss

The weight loss looks pretty close to perfection so no nutritional changes are planned for next week.
Click to expand...

This past week my weight loss has accelerated so I consulted my oracle (the all-knowing spreadsheet) and it said I need to be consuming at least 1700 calories/day at my current activity level. 150 seems like quite the jump compared to the 50 calorie increments I'm used to, but I've triple checked the math and can't find anything wrong.

So my calorie goal will now be 1700 with around 170g of protein (40% of calories), 170g of carbs (40% of calories), & 38g of Fat (20% of calories). Fiber will stay at 30g for the time being.
 
Weekend update of my trailing weekly averages:

Week _________ Weight ___ BF __ Calories
November 1-7: ___ 269.8 __ 37.4% __ 1575
November 8-14: __ 265.7 __ 36.5% __ 1536
November 15-21: _ 263.1 __ 35.9% __ 1600
November 22-28: _ 260.4 __ 34.3% __ 1616
Nov 29 -Dec 05: __ 256.8 __ 33.3% __ 1624

1 week average of 1.4% weight loss, 1.0% body fat loss
2 week average of 2.4% weight loss, 2.6% BF loss
3 week average of 3.4% weight loss, 3.2% BF loss
4 week average of 4.8% weight loss, 4.1% BF loss

As I mentioned Thursday this recent weight loss was a bit too rapid so I have increased my calorie target to 1700. I still cannot do a pull-up, although I can now pull myself up maybe 2" from the bottom so there has been some progress. This morning's mile run took 10:18 so I shaved off 24 seconds over last week's effort. I had to push really hard to do it: my heart rate was in the low 170s for the 2nd half & I was totally gassed afterwards so I don't think I'll have enough room for improvement to hit 9:59 next week, especially since I donated blood this afternoon and it takes my body/blood a couple weeks to regain all of its oxygen carrying capacity. But my legs & knees felt great with no discomfort whatsoever.
 
Interesting post on feet, mine sure do like the new weight I put on them. I had gotten to the point it was painful to walk any distance at all, now I am fine. And I wore my shoes out much the same way as you did. My shoes don't last any longer now, but they wear normally and wear out because I use them a whole lot more! Not sure I will attempt running, you are a lot younger than I.

Be careful exercising after the blood donation, for at least a day or so. Did not know it takes so long to recover the oxygen capacity.
 
alligatorob said:
Be careful exercising after the blood donation, for at least a day or so. Did not know it takes so long to recover the oxygen capacity.
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Yeah, aside from walking the dog this evening I haven't done any exercise after donating. Tomorrow I will do my normal strength training and I don't expect to feel any detrimental effects. Those tend to come from the heavier intensity cardio activities when I notice I'm feeling a little bit off (not unwell, not tired - I can just tell I'm not at 100%). But if I'm not working so hard I'm gasping for air, I can't tell any difference before/after blood donation...

After donation your body replaces the lost fluid volume within a day or so, but fully replacing the red blood cells and hemoglobin takes over 4 weeks. A pint is roughly 10% of the average person's blood volume so it is no surprise studies have shown roughly a 10% decrease in vo2 max immediately after donation.

As a bigger guy, I have more blood volume (at 5'7-8" & 255 lb I should have about 12 pints whereas a 5'6" 130 lb woman should have about 8 pints) so I can no longer feel the difference after 2 weeks, but I can still observe slightly decreased performance if I'm monitoring things like how long it takes to sprint up a hill on my bicycle (or which gear I can do it in). After 3 weeks the difference has shrunk to within normal day to day performance variation. My next VO2 max test is in 5 weeks and I'll be back to 100% then...
 
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It used to be 2 weeks for me as well. Donating blood is basically the reverse of what racing cyclists do when they train up in the mountains for a while to get better by increasing their red blood cell count the legal way...
 
LaMaria said:
It used to be 2 weeks for me as well. Donating blood is basically the reverse of what racing cyclists do when they train up in the mountains for a while to get better by increasing their red blood cell count the legal way...
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Yeah - makes me wonder if anyone has studied using EPO after donating blood...
 
It was originally developed for people with long-term kidney issues and bad anemia. I´m not sure of the side-effects but they may not be worth it for the slight inconvenience blood donors go through.
 
I just think how amazing the body is replacing all our lost blood like that. What amazing little systems we have :) And so cool that scientists over time come to see how this all works--donating blood to each other, the different types...all of it so amazing!!
 
Blood pressure update since dropping the diuretic:

124/58 70
117/57 64
109/64 55
118/69 62
107/57 61
117/72 49
114/63 69
115/58 62
120/63 60
115/70 56
110/53 57
106/65 59
111/68 69
116/58 64
99/47 58
113/68 51
112/52 70
112/63 62
99/49 69
114/60 52
112/58 64
108/66 54
114/59 56
119/63 66
114/52 72
116/61 58
--- cut Lisinopril dosage down from 20mg to 10mg ---
102/53 62
105/58 65
112/54 56
112/60 63
103/61 58
102/54 54
108/53 62
112/58 59
--- cut Lisinopril dosage from 10mg to 5mg ---
120/62 56
117/60 66
118/56 62
117/55 54
128/75 44 - stressful day, triple checked (elevated BP with super low pulse seemed strange)
119/58 51
105/52 54
111/56 69
115/59 57
--- discontinued Lisinopril dosage ---
108/52 69


It should take about 48 hours for Lisinopril to get totally out of my system so I'll be crossing my fingers the next few days to see if I'll be able to come completely off all blood pressure meds.
 
My blood pressure is looking good so far at 48 hours since last dose. Today it was 119/64 67 initially and, after relaxing a few minutes, went down further to 106/58 60. Cautiously optimistic I can kiss those pills goodbye for good...
 
This was posted in the Sugar detox thread, but I think it is worth repeating here:

LaMaria said:
If you haven´t yet try watching "Sugar, the bitter truth" by Robert Lustig (Youtube) as well.
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The video is long and at times very dense, but I found it very eye opening and feel very fortunate to have blindly stumbled into a "no added sugar/sweetener" (and higher fiber) diet at the beginning of my journey. I think it probably has a lot to do with why I was able to eat so few calories and almost never feel hungry (not to mention helping lower blood pressure).
 
This was a common day before:

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That was 1 20oz Dr. Pepper, 3 king size Reese's Fastbreak candy bars (because buy 2 get 1 free), 1 entire Little Caesars Extramostbest hotnready pepperoni pizza (surprisingly a more balanced, if excessive, meal than I would have thought), and 1/2 gallon of whole milk. 5000+ calories and I was often still hungry!

This is typical of today:
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1700 calories and I am not at all hungry after eating the first 1500... I still have a major sweet tooth, but (almost) all of today's sugar is coming from fruit (in this case 1 banana, 1 apple, 30 grapes, & an assortment of bell peppers & jalapeños).
 
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