Four weeks

Someone on a forum recently asked me what I've been up to since last posting there. I thought what I wrote was useful, so I'm republishing it here.

"Looking at my fat abs, and deciding to attack with knowledge and experience. I'll make an Excel spreadsheet for the lamest of reasons- I'm putting this to good use and am tracking diet, macros, vitals and training in it.

My weight has been pretty stable over the past 12-24 mos, but stable == 39.68 BMI! When I finally ran those numbers a little over a month ago, I just said , "ENOUGH."

I did some research on keto, and decided that I didn't really want to go full-bore keto, so I came up with a reasonable compromise: a carb-restricted diet. The premise is simple: follow the spirit of keto, but rather than keeping carbs in the bargain basement of my macros, eliminate the bad carbs, pump up the fats and protein, and get more active.

I've been using a pedometer forever, and I recently got the Runkeeper app for my phone. I don't run, btw- I actually hate running, but Runkeeper tracks all sorts of stuff. I've found that if I can get three walks in per week (ONLY 3!), I can get some decent weight loss. My very worse weight loss week was last week-  only 2 pounds. Only one walk. My second week, though, was insane- 8.6lbs dropped.

The dietary component is simple: no pasta, ramen, potatoes, bread or boxed dinner mixes ("Hamburger Helper"). I love this stuff... I really do. It's been over a month since I've had any of it. My wife has insisted that I keep up on fiber intake, so I do consume carbs- but mostly from fresh (or baked) veggies. Butternut squash, tomatoes and cucumber are my current primary carb sources. And... here's the disclaimer: this WILL NOT work for everyone. I eat slowly. Very slowly. Monday night, I consumed a grand total of two cups of tea, a Monster (Ultra- nearly no carbs), and 10oz of ground pork and ground beef patties. My maintenance kcals are currently just shy of 2500/day. My intake was 836... that's a bit unusual, even for me: I'm usually closer to 1400-1500.

Resistance training: not a lot going on for several reasons.

The primary reason is the "lose weight vs build muscle" argument. The last time I tried to lose weight I lifted fairly heavy (for me). I got stronger and looked better, but was still fat. My primary training right now is walking, I'm not certain that a casual observer would notice much difference in me, but my belly has definitely shrunk, and my favorite belt needs a new hole for my smaller diameter. I have two resistance tools which I use at work (there are times where I have to wait for processes to finish, so I can do these). The first resource is a Wham-O "Super-Duper ball". Orange and about 4" across, it's great for squeezing- good forearm and shoulder work. The other resource is about the same size, except it's a 2lb medicine ball. I like to throw this up towards the ceiling in sets of 10 reps. Neither of these will give me huge guns, but they burn calories and keep the muscles primed!"

... and that's me talking some trash with one of the mods at iron-sanctuary.com. If you're into body building, I highly recommend this site.

As always, I am hochspeyer, bloggging data analysis and management so you don't have to.