My monthly fatloss progress report....

Today's Post:  Monday, 7-23-2012

A.  This month’s report is a mixed review as well.

(Except for my first few months where almost every month was a loss of half a pound to one & a half pounds, the news has been bad or just OK since then.)

Simply put, that bad news is that the things I began to help me re-lose the 7 pounds I now am over my goal weight (and begin to lose the 10 to 20 pounds additional excess belly fat I have on top of that while adding that much muscle) have stalled. 

Last month I lost the half pound and the bit on my waist I gained the month before and am now the same as I was two months ago.

The much better news is my several new efforts that I’ve kept doing are working!  (And, I’m still doing all the things that helped me lose almost 20 pounds initially.)

I lost 3 pounds a few months ago from the calories burned by many days of bad coughing from one of my rare chest colds.

But instead of gaining that back and more, I’ve kept it off and have now done so for many weeks.  That means the things I added and kept up HAVE kept me from gaining.

The related and better news is that I DID do three of the five new things consistently over the month since last time that I’d hoped would help me lose a pound or two, etc.

One. I ate no almond butter in my after dinner snack after eating nearly enough of it to make a pound per month difference in my fat level, about 3500 calories a month when I was gaining each month instead of losing.

Two.  I did successfully keep doing a second vegetable-only for lunch semi-fast each week without any noticeable problems or too much hunger. 

Three.  I did eat a bit of raw broccoli florets almost every evening at my after dinner snack and did not overdo the nonfat cottage cheese or Irish cheese or no sugar apple sauce.  So my record doesn’t show I ate too many calories to compensate for not eating almond butter.  (Eating the raw broccoli florets almost every evening instead of just sometimes, helped do that.)

Of the five things I began, the two that I’ve not maintained are a) using a small pedal exerciser while reading at home in the evening and b) adding more muscle.  They are stalled.

a) I found I kept falling asleep while reading in the evening which stopped my pedal exerciser so often I just gave up on using it.  (I will make more of an effort to resume that and an even stronger effort to resume it on weekends however from now to next month.)  Even enough total use during the month for half a pound of fat removed from me and my scale reading from then on would help. 

b)  I am stronger and likely have gained a pound or two more muscle from my recent efforts to do more with heavier dumbbells.  But I have stopped making gains.  With a couple of exceptions, I may have reached a point where using heavier weights might injure me and doing more repetitions would over-run my time available.  The better news is that once the summer heat leaves in the mid to late fall, I may make more progress.  I’ll overheat less and my testosterone is higher in the fall as well.

B.  But what more do I need to do to add muscle and lose fat enough to restart losing a pound or so each month on the scale until I lose the 7 pounds I am over my goal weight and 10 to 20 pounds more fat than that too off my belly?

The four strategies I’ve come up with are these:

The most important two are the two that I believe will make the most difference.  I’ll describe those two first.  The third one may help but my main motivation for adding it is to see how well the Weight Watchers people teach what I already know.  The fourth one I’ll try but don’t now have high expectations for it.

1. Once I get a bit more control over my schedule, I’ve a plan to go to the gym one night a week for access to heavier weights which may help, particularly with adding muscle to my legs.

(Using a light moderate weight for two thirds of the way down squats every other week and for deadlifts every week will likely add at least 10 pounds to my legs, buttocks, and lower back muscles.)  (Doing heavier bench press and lat pulldowns in a similar style every other week with the deadlifts may also help.)

One set a week of two normal speed repetitions and then five slow speed both up and down repetitions with a light moderate weight will likely avoid hernias and knee problems using a heavier weight might cause.  But if I build up to what I think I’m still capable of, I think it will do the job.

I can’t do the 335 pounds for reps in the full squat or the 415 pounds in the deadlift that I once did in my twenties.  But if I can build up to two thirds squats with 275 and deadlifts with 315 for such slow repetitions I may regain a good bit of the muscle mass I had then.

Tim Ferris found that doing such intense exercise takes a week to recover from.  But that also means I can be effective for muscle building going once a week.  That’s far more doable than going two or three evenings a week.

If I even add 5 pounds of muscle, that may well burn enough extra calories to lose 15 pounds of fat and 10 pounds on the scale. 

And, I think that is likely doable.  I just need to get myself into a position where I can do it.

2.  If I once get to where I can work at home and either afford the new recumbent bike plus desk or get an at my desk exerciser I can retrofit to my existing desks at home and work that I can afford, that will help enormously!

At worst, by using this most of each workday, I’ll burn enough calories to remove something like 10 pounds of fat and add perhaps 3 pounds of muscle. (I posted on this a few days ago.  The creator of the desk plus recumbent bike, the ActivOffice Exercise Desk, Bryan Wassom, although already a runner, lost 18 pounds in 9 months by using it.)

If I do these two things well, the worst case is that I’ll reach my goal weight, lose 7 pounds on the scale, and lose likely at least 3 inches from my waist.

The best case is that I’ll be more muscular than now but 14 pounds lighter and 7 pounds LESS than my goal weight and will have lost all 6 inches from my waist.

3)  Because I may be able to access it sooner, it may help me lose a pound or two of fat, and it WILL help me know who best to refer to Weight Watchers to, I plan to join the Weight Watchers online program.  (I know enough that if I could make a weekly meeting one evening a week, I’d use it for the one day a week strength training instead.  But I may be able to try the online version soon.)

4.  If and only if I’ve got these first 3 things successfully in place while continuing to do the things I already am doing, I plan to try the two supplements that I posted on recently that seem to help people lose belly fat. 

Taking them may help; and losing an extra inch or more off my waist would be great!  But since they are a bit pricey, I think their effectiveness may be minimal, and KNOW the first two things work and the third one might add some extra results, those 3 are my priority.

C.  I’ll keep up the efforts I’m already making. 

I have lost about 18 pounds since I was at my fattest and before my first fat loss effort and 10 pounds this time that I have kept off.

I firmly intend to keep that fat off!  So I will keep up the things I do to keep it off!

PS:  I’ve not yet found an at your desk exerciser I can use at my current work that would NOT require a different desk at all and that would cost a third or a fifth of what the recumbent bike plus desk costs.

So, since I’ve not been able to find what I need, I may have to find a company to make it.  (I know a design that will work and recently found out it wasn’t patentable even when it first was put into volume use.)

The version that for sure would retrofit to existing desks and be smooth enough to ensure you could use it and work without using it distracting you from work, might well be patentable however.

In addition to its proven fat loss benefits, I found out that having such an exerciser at work would improve my memory and mental sharpness on the days I used it!  I posted that news several weeks ago.

At my new job I do have enough more knee room under my desk, I'd known I might be able to get one of the tiny bicycle style exercisers and begin using that a few hours a day.  (They are just pedals and a support stand available online for about $150.  Not fancy; but an extra 200 calories a day on it will trim off some fat.)

And, it seemed silly not to try it already for that extra fat loss. But when I got the news it would improve me mentally too, I decided to try to implement it soon.

Then I realized I could go to the local sporting goods store to see if they had such an exerciser.  That way if I tried it and it didn't work out right away, I could return it.  The news then got better.  I asked and they would refund my money if the exerciser turned out right away not to be usable.  But even better, instead of $150, it only cost $50!

I did set that up and found that at work even with the extra knee room it was a bit too hard to stay on it and it took double the knee room I’d have needed at my last job and fifty percent more than I have now.  I do now use it at home.

But the big payoff and results will be when I can get one that I can use at work.  Even 20 hours a week for 150 calories per hour is about 3 and a half pounds of fat loss per month until my excess fat is mostly gone.  Even 100 calories an hour for 15 hours a week would make a huge difference!

I'll let you know how I do on what I can already do and when and if I can add these other things.