Old Dog's Diary (once a week i hope)

[Old Dog]

I'm Old Dog, Also knows as Chris to some people. I'm 43 years old 5' 11" or 180.3 cm. I weight 270 lbs or 122.5 kg.

About 5 years ago I was in an accident and injured my left hip, knee and ankle. After a few surgeries, I am able to walk fine now with occasional days of pain and immobility in my left leg. I was given early retirement and am currently working from home and collecting retirement. I don't get out much so I've lived without much exercise for the last 5 years. I went to the doctor for a check up for the first time in a while and found out I was 270 pounds. From here i decided to lose weight. I tried jogging but that lasted a day cause the next day i couldn't move my left leg due to internal swelling in my hip. The doctor recommended a pool workout but i'm not real big on getting in water with people who i'm not certain of their cleanliness, that's probably a little weird but that's just me. Now that I've outlined my situation I'll get into what i'm doing about it.

About 2 weeks ago i bought a recumbent bike online and set it up in my living room. I sit on it and pedal (keeping my heart rate around 120) while watching videos, reading a book or listening to music for about 35 minutes. I then do 20 push-ups and 30 crunches. I also take a stroll after dinner not measured just walk around outside for about 20 mins.

I've changed my diet keeping my caloric intake to about 1800 to 1900 measuring serving sizes to what is listed on the packages. That's the only thing i'm doing with food because i don't really understand all that other stuff. I completely cut soda out of my diet and switched to water and don't eat anything sweet. I also go out to eat once a week with my mother because she's getting old and I want to spend time with her. When we go I generally order something relatively light but i'm sure that stuff is several hundred calories off my plan.

In the past 2 weeks I've missed one day of exercise because i was out helping my brother with his broke down car for a day and didn't get back till it was late and i was tired.

My target long term is about 90 lbs of weight loss to about 180 lbs and my short term is about 10 pounds a month for now. I don't own a scale so i have no idea if I've even lost anything yet.

The kinds of things i eat are:

Breakfast: Omelette 2 eggs, diced turkey, rotel: tomatoes and green pepper, shredded cheese, salt and pepper, and 1 sausage on the side and one serving of oat meal.

Lunch: Turkey or Ham sandwich: 2 slices of bread, Ham or turkey, cheese, brown mustard and pickles. and a bowl of soup.

Dinner: Burger or Breaded Chicken sandwich: 2 slices of bread. hamburger or chicken patty, cheese, pickles brown mustard. With burger i'll have a veggy on the side with chicken i'll have some baked waffle fries.

And that's my current situation. I don't really have anyone irl to discuss this with and my family doesn't really get involved in dieting so I'm on my own here, but that's ok cause that's just how i do things. But it's nice to have people to discuss and throw out new ideas so that's why I'm here.

One question though for anyone who happens to read this, should I get a scale? I'm worried that the numbers not changing may discourage me but then again it would let me know what i'm doing isn't working.

 

[alligatorob]

Hey Dog (or Chris), welcome to the forum!

I think it is admirable that you have found a way to exercise and started a diet, that's no small accomplishment. And starting this diary should help you. I know it has helped me.

You will find this a good place to discuss your dieting and exercise. There are lots of friendly and helpful people here who can understand your issues, we all have similar ones.

On the scale, I would buy one, but its not necessary, kind of depends on you. I find weighing a good metric to track how I am doing. I understand your concern about not seeing the numbers change, weight loss is slow and day to day your weight will bounce up and down even when you are losing. You will find a lot of discussion about that here.

I look forward to reading about your progress!

 

[Llama]

Hi Chris and welcome! I like your bare-bones approach to weightloss and think it'll both work well and be very practical. I did wonder one thing: I don't know your portion sizes of course but just from the listing I'd expect your day to have more than 1900 calories. Do you mind me asking how you calculated your calories?
About the scales: weighing can be helpful or just stressful, depending on how you handle it. Another way to track progress is to take measurements of, say, your waist, thigh, and chest circumference and check them once every two weeks. Those numbers often don't go down as quickly as your weight but they are solid evidence of progress that only needs a piece of string.

 

[Old Dog]

@LaMaria

The portions are moderate. The way I calculated is i use a lot of pre-packaged items or use the small food scale in the kitchen to measure. I go like this generally.

Breakfast: Omelette 2 eggs = 140 kcal, Rotel 1tbsp = 5 kcal, shredded cheese 2 ounce = 110 kcal, Turkey 1 slice diced = 30 kcal
Sausage 1 pre - formed = 110 kcal
Peaches and cream oatmeal 1 pkg = 130 kcal

Lunch: Sandwich 2 bread = 140 kcal, 1 ham slice = 70 kcal, 1 cheese slice = 70 kcal, brown mustard = 5 kcal
Soup = 420 kcal

Dinner: Burger 2 bread = 140 kcal, burger patty 80% lean = 290 kcal cheese = 70 kcal, pickles = 5 kcal, brown mustard = 5 kcal
Mixed Vegetables .5 cup = 23 kcal

That's todays meal schedule tomorrow i'll probably replace the burger with chicken but this is the general idea. The servings, except for the soup at lunch, are all pretty small but i eat the full can of campbells chunky soup for lunch which is pretty filling, keeps me from feeling like i'm starving before dinner.

Something i didn't bring up before is i do all the cooking myself so i don't have anyone adding to it.

 

[Llama]

That explains it and sounds very reasonable. Home-cooking is a wonderful thing, by the way!

 

[FoodC]

@Old Dog I just found your diary, and I am proud of you that you decided to share your story here!

First of- yes you need a scale, but don't weigh yourself often than once per 2 weeks or even better would be once per 1 month.

I can give you some advice, but I would like to know more about you:

• What time do you wake and what time do you go to sleep every day?
• Do you work sedentary or physically?
• Do you eat every day the same? If not please describe one more day
• Do you have any health problem?

 

[Old Dog]

@FoodC Hello, thank you for the advice, i'll try to answer your questions as best i can.

I wake up at 5 am and sleep at 10 pm.
I don't do anything physical outside of my daily exercise and my after dinner walk.
Every day is mostly the same but i change up a few things like the flavor of the oatmeal and for dinner i'll have chicken and potatoes instead of burger and veggies every other day.
Health problems are just my bad left leg but i can get around. just can't jog or anything impacting like that.

I think I will get a scale and hide it in my closet so i don't compulsively get on it every time I walk past it.

 

[FoodC]

@Old Dog
What do you drink during the day and how much (you can describe by the amount of drinking glasses)? If it is coffee or tea please tell me also about milk or sugar.

 

[Old Dog]

@FoodC

2 weeks ago i drank only diet cherry cola just cause that's the flavor i liked. for the past 2 weeks since i decided to start losing weight I've been drinking water only. I've been considering the flavored water mixes that they sell but i don't know what's in those. Can't be worse than soda is what i was thinking. I guess i drink about 200 or so ounces of water a day i have a 22 ounce water bottle that i fill about 10 times a day using my brita water filter.

 

[FoodC]

You are right there is a lot of sugar in the flavored water. The best is to drink your normal water as you drink. Try to drink 125 ounces per day. 200 it is too much. Too much water isn't good because you lose minerals from your body that way.

Could you try to eat 4 times a day? Make a 4h break between meals.
1 meal around 5:30-6:00 am (if you are going to do some exercise before breakfast as stretch you can eat breakfast after your exercise time)
2 meal around 10 am
3 meal around 2 pm
4 meal around 6 pm (dinner 3-4h before sleep)

I would recommend to give up all cheese, wheat bread, mustard, and pickles.
Instead of cheese, you can add one more egg
Wheat bread you can change for real homemade whole wheat bread
Instead mustard, use homemade dip (yogurt, garlic, pepper) or find some healthy dips on the internet
Pickles you can change for real homemade fermented cucumbers or other fermented vegetables.

Try to eat 150-200 gram vegetables to each meal
Try to use only healthy oil to your food (do not fry or heat it). It can be olive oil, linseed oil, sesame oil etc.
If you'll eat fruit, do it before 2 pm

You can start to make some healthy smoothies once a day or salads. I like that you eat soups. Those are really friendly for digestive system)

It is enough for now. Learn about your feeling and try this everything for 2 weeks if you want. After that time we can add something more.

Where did you get the information about the amount of your daily calories?

 

[Cate]

Hi, Chris & welcome to the forum. Finding a "diet" that works for you is the go & everyone is different. Taking measurements is a great indicator of how you are going. So many people get scales obsessed & they can do your head in. As I said everyone has their own ideas on that & we are all different. You will know you are losing when your clothes start to get loose & that will be a great incentive. Adding vegetables to your omelette and sandwiches would add nutrition & help bulk them up. I love mushrooms & zucchinis & tomato in my omelettes. Do you like avocado? I love 1/2 an avocado with a little balsamic vinaigrette & sometimes a boiled egg. Avocados are healthy fat & very filling. I don't really cook but when I'm "baching" I eat lots of raw veggies, like celery, carrot & snow peas & eat them with some hummus and/or tzatziki. The less processed food we eat the better I think. Making your own soup is easy & freezes well.
All the best with this. You seem to have the right attitude & that helps a lot. Welcome to our little part of the world.

 

[Trusylver]

Could you try to eat 4 times a day? Make a 4h break between meals.

Studies show, increasing meal frequencies does not aid in fat loss, having extra meals during the day to boost metabolism is a MYTH this is just one of those studies Increased meal frequency does not promote greater weight loss in subjects who were prescribed an 8-week equi-energetic energy-restricted diet. - PubMed - NCBI .

I guess i drink about 200 or so ounces of water a day

This is about right for a male of your weight and activity level.

I'm 43 years old 5' 11" or 180.3 cm. I weight 270 lbs or 122.5 kg.

With a BMI of 37.5 you are within the obese category and your target weight is on the border of normal/overweight. None of this however tells me what your fat levels are like, Do you know what your bodyfat% is ? this would make calculations more accurate to you rather than trying to bludgeon a solution with a poor quality tool.

Based on your stats, the best estimate for your maintenance calories is 2,574 calories per day based on the Mifflin-St Jeor Formula.

I've changed my diet keeping my caloric intake to about 1800 to 1900 measuring serving sizes to what is listed on the packages.

This is a good target number based on the info above.

Your eating plan is fair, but as @LaMaria said there is benefits in cooking, having less processed food is of benefit. It would be good if you could track your food for a little bit in one of the online trackers to see what the macro and nutrient breakdown of your diet is.

About 2 weeks ago i bought a recumbent bike online and set it up in my living room. I sit on it and pedal (keeping my heart rate around 120) while watching videos, reading a book or listening to music for about 35 minutes. I then do 20 push-ups and 30 crunches. I also take a stroll after dinner not measured just walk around outside for about 20 mins.

This is a great start for somebody who has been sedentary. The bike is a good choice fore somebody having hip issues and not liking the pool.

As you are able, try to get in more strength building exercise, as this will help maintain your lean muscle mass while you are in calorie deficit to loose fat. Pushups are good, crunches depend on how your doing them. I can suggest more exercises depending on what equipment you have available to you. As somebody who has Arthritis and Bursitis in my hips I fully understand the limitations.

 

[Old Dog]

@FoodC @Trusylver Thank you for the input, I'll try to work in some veggies and a little bit of dumbbell work once i'm comfortable with it.

I went and got a scale today and it's showing 259 after 2 weeks. I think this is just the effect of switching to water from soda, i hear that reduces water weight a lot or something a long those lines. No way i lost 11 lbs of fat in 2 weeks.

Body fat is showing at 37% ish and bmi at 36.5 I'm guessing i need to drive these numbers down quite a bit but it doesn't really change what i have to do in the end i suppose.

I'm currently trying to think up a good challenge for myself that doesn't break what i want to do. Just doing the workout every day doesn't seem to be much of a challenge since i do that anyway. Maybe light increases in intensity or reps here and there? I'm not sure.

 

[Trusylver]

Body fat is showing at 37% ish and bmi at 36.5 I'm guessing i need to drive these numbers down quite a bit but it doesn't really change what i have to do in the end i suppose.

Using the Katch-McArdle equation your maintenance calories would be 2166 calories (400 calories less than previous estimate) Basing TDEE on lean mass is more accurate than basing on total bodyweight.

my caloric intake to about 1800 to 1900 measuring serving sizes to what is listed on the packages.

So your daily deficit is around 366 - 266 calories this means you have room to cut a little harder.

I went and got a scale today and it's showing 259 after 2 weeks. I think this is just the effect of switching to water from soda, i hear that reduces water weight a lot or something a long those lines. No way i lost 11 lbs of fat in 2 weeks.

Cutting a lot of sugar will cause a drop in water weight, however there is a good chance that a reasonable portion of your loss is fat. When we loose there is almost always going to be a combination of water, fat and muscle lost. Weight loss is rarely as straight forward as we would like, there will be fluctuation up and down and the rate of loss is generally not linear.

 

[alligatorob]

Hey Dog, good to see you sticking with it and working through things. Trusylver is one of the gurus here, listen to her advice.

I went and got a scale today and it's showing 259 after 2 weeks. I think this is just the effect of switching to water from soda, i hear that reduces water weight a lot or something a long those lines. No way i lost 11 lbs of fat in 2 weeks.

I also lost 11 lbs in my first week, it happens. You are right it can't all be fat, but some of it is. In my case I gained one of the pounds back the next week, but then continued down. Something similar will probably happen with you.

My approach to weighing is to weigh often, usually several times a day. It has taught me a lot about how weight fluctuates, and at least a little about why. I know that approach doesn't work for everyone, you have to find what works for you.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Llama]

To keep it simple, now that you do have a scale, why don´t you keep doing what you are doing for a week or so and see how your weight reacts? If you´re losing weight as is you may not need to complicate things further. The advice Tru gave you is great, but if you can save it for when the weight gets stickier (it usually does, over time) you´ll still have some room for easy-ish changes.

 

[Old Dog]

Ok i made a few minor investments. I purchased some resistance bands and connected them to a post behind my bike. The cycling honestly just feels too easy. so the 20 pound resistance bands allow me to do 3 sets of 30 curls, punch like motions, and pull up like motions. One set every 10 minutes. As far as being able to cut more calories goes I'm not even certain how much would be safe. I had already changed some stuff out to add fruits and veggies and ended up around 1500 kcal. So I added a fiber bar to get me to 1660 ish. anyway i'll keep tweeking it and i have a snack on hand just in case I feel weakness or something from too much starving.

 

[alligatorob]

Hey Dog,

1660 ish is probably good for you right now. That's about 1,000 calories below Trusylver's maintenance estimates, you should lose weight at a steady pace. Your exercise plan sounds good as well.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Petal001]

Hi Chris welcome to the forums . I am not going to give much advice on dieting because as Cate says we all approach things differently and so long as we are happy with what we are doing it’s good . Well done on tackling the weight and your health . I find writing here helps even though I took a few months break early this year . I put on weight in that time but I am losing again .

Good on you and best of luck with it all

 

[aiminglow]

Hello, Chris! Great to meet you, and I'm really looking forward to hearing your story week by week as the pounds drop off!

I think I will get a scale and hide it in my closet so i don't compulsively get on it every time I walk past it.

Yes - the scales are great to show objectively (along with all the other signs, like looser clothing , increased energy etc) how we are progressing, but they do tend to get too much on our minds. I've taken to hiding mine under the bed!