In the paraphrased words of the Wicked Witch of the West: “Oh what a [week], what a [week].”
Work cropped up again this week to kind of bite my plans in the butt, plus I was out of commission two half-days (ish) when I was going to do the exercise thing. Add to that the food issue that came to a head Wednesday, and it did not make for a great week.
There was no back-slipping, so it wasn’t a “bad” week, but there was no real progress, so it wasn’t a good week. So … a mediocre week?
Food: So, other than the, shall we say, “issues,” earlier this week, I think I reasonably recovered and still ended the week good on food and good on macros. Total % macros for the week was 103% for each, meaning I hit my 30/35/35 split. Calories were 101%. Where’s the discrepancy? As in, how do I end up 103% on macros but 101% on calories? Rounding issues.
Remember that even though everyone says 1 gm fat is 9 calories and 1 gm carbs or protein is 4 calories, that’s not quite true. Not all carbohydrates, protein, nor fat molecules are the same, and there’s a variable amount of energy you get from their use. Let’s look at Oreos® for an example. According to nutrition data that’s published, 1 Oreo® has 2.3gms fat, 8.3gms carbs, 0.3gms protein. Do the math and that’s 55.1 calories. But, 1 Oreo® is listed as having 53 calories.
It’s a trivial difference of 2 calories, but, multiply that across a week’s worth of 420 gms fat, 1093 gms carbs, and 1092 gms protein, and you get 12,518 calories. Using actual calorie measurements/listings, I got 12,347 calories for the week, instead. Again, trivial all things considered, a discrepancy of just 1.4%. But, that’s how we can get “101% of calories” for the week while also doing “103%” of fat, carbs, and protein goals.
That’s why my “secondary” goal for food is to be within 5% of the actual goals, since, no matter how carefully you weigh things and account for every single nibble and lick and slurp, there is still a few-percent margin of uncertainty. (The primary goal is to hit things at 100%.)
Exercise: This week, I would say I “treaded water” with respect to exercise. There was nothing bad, per se, but I certainly did not progress as I wanted. I walked once, did the elliptical 4 times, and rowing machine 3 times. Total of 2618 calories from cardio (according to my Apple Watch), which is more than the ≈1875 goal in order to lose ½lb through exercise. That’s why it wasn’t bad. It was still the fewest calories in the week since Week 03, but again, it was well within the green.
Sleep: Not much needs to be said here. I met my general goal, one night was <8 hrs because I went to bed too late and had a morning telecon, and I only took one nap. So, good on sleep.
Measurements: This is where the week is “meh” but also “good.” As I noted Sunday morning, bodyfat percentage was down this week, more than anticipated. Weight is also down by 1.2 lbs, but it has been pretty stagnant this week. You can see the steady trickle upwards until Wednesday, and while it’s gone steadily down since then, it’s extremely slight.
I have two more weeks until a planned 1-week-long maintenance phase, and I’d really like to be at 214.6 lbs by that point. That’ll be >10 lbs down, so I’ll’ve hit that magic number for me, and it should be totally doable at –1.55 lbs per week for the next two weeks … after all, that’s what I was losing the first few weeks.
However, I am slightly concerned. The above is part of a graph where I have been tracking my weight since “re-started fitness” back at the beginning of 2019. Each vertical tick is 1 month, each mark is the average weight in 1 week. You can see that I did well for about 5 weeks in 2019, and then the amount of loss decreases, reaches a steady state, and I give up. I am concerned that my loss has been 1.5, 1.8, 2.0, 1.4, 1.3, 1.2 lbs for the last few weeks. It’s tapering off. I know that these kinds of fluctuations happen all the time in weight loss. But I can go back as far as 2008 for me and see the same pattern.
I think I’m more motivated this time, and again I have no travel plans (except a possible road trip in 3 weeks) until October at the earliest, so no interruptions. I need to smash through this bottoming out, and smash through –10 lbs. At the time of that trip in October, I hope to be at 190 lbs and 21.1% bodyfat.
Points: Well, I did better vs last week, and I tied Week 02’s best of 66. The biggest issue was getting points off for not doing any strength training (a line item) and not doing any core exercises (I put myself down as doing this twice since I did the rower for ≥15 minutes in addition to ≥40 minutes of other cardio).
Looking Ahead 1 Week: So, work is going to kick my ass again this week, I already know that. I am going to try to do a bit better planning so I can make better use of time. I need to keep up fluid intake so I don’t dehydrate again. Re-normalize my sleep schedule is also important since I’ve been going to bed too late, but I’ve been still getting up at the same time.
For food, I need to really focus on and stick with what I have planned. The nibbles, licks, slurps, crumbles, sneaks, etc. this week killed me with respect to making real progress on weight. For exercise, let’s repeat what I said last week: I really need to bring back in weights and core exercises. Even just 15 minutes per day with core, and I’ll be happy for that progress! That’s why for my weekly points, I’m supposed to do 15 minutes of core body work 7 days per week. Just to get moving and get something in to start the day. Finally, with respect to measurements, I need to see weight drop. I suspect that it’s the excess food that eff’d me up this week, but for my own motivation, I need to see that number drop and get back on track with weight loss. I am concerned that motivation will falter if I don’t. And because of the cheating earlier this week, I will be happy if bf% stays the same … doesn’t even need to go down this week, just don’t go up!
This coming week should also be the last week I’m in “cut plan 6.16,” which is the –1 lb/wk based on averaging 220±5 lbs. The following week I should be going down to plan 6.13, which is for 210±5 lbs.
My Fitness Blog 