Okay…here it is…my weight chart since just after Ironman Florida last year.
In my weigh-in this morning, I was 205 pounds…the last time that I stood on a scale was January 15, 2011, and I was 202 at that point.
The first graph are my weigh-in’s between IM Florida (November 6, 2010) and January 15, 2011…skipping the Christmas holidays…so you can see there is a bit of an ebb and a flow, but in general, you can see that I squeezed down about 5 pounds before the Christmas holidays, added some of it back…and didn’t record another weigh-in until today.
So after 2 weeks of a low exercise taper before the race last Sunday, combined with travel and a substantial amount of great food, fine wine and craft beers, I’m once again at the high end of the range…graph 2.Â
Based on the amount of ‘jiggle’ in my ‘love handles’, I _know_ that there’s 5-10 pounds of fat that I really don’t need to carry around, without any deep analysis or testing required.
Considering that for years, I’ve been in the same weight range…played football in University at 208 pounds…and yes, for the record I’m 5’8″, and built like a muscular little fire hydrant…my body, if left on it’s own, seems to find the 200-205’ish range a comfortable and strong place to be.
So I’ll need to shake things up a bit to peel down into the 195’ish range…but I’ve decided to give it a shot.
Since I want to lose fat and muscle, and not have a negative impact on my training, I’ll take a conservative weight loss path…also knowing that trying to lose too much too soon, the body can adjust…thinking that it’s starving…and cannibalize (reduce) muscle and store (add) fat in response.
If I’m standing at the starting line, healthy and 205 pounds, with strong training results for the next 4 months, there’s nothing wrong with that…so I’m not going angst over the scale…nor want my training to suffer…however, if I’m at the starting line, healthy and 195 pounds, with strong training results for the next 4 months, I’ve just bought myself 10-20 minutes of speed on Ironman day…and that _could_ be the difference between a PR (Personal Record under 12:57:44) or just-another-Ironman 🙂
My earlier post about weight and speed:
http://www.irondaughterirondad.com/lose-weight-race-faster/
My goal will be to lose .75 pounds a week / 3 pounds every 4 weeks, so run a deficit of about 375 calories a day…common ‘conservative’ numbers for a guy my size are a 1-2 pound weight loss per week, so a .75 loss target, should keep me on the healthy side of that.
The Mayo Clinic’s 10 tips for weight loss success
Since counting calories is actually not very exact, my ‘real’ target will be a 500 calorie a day deficit…and since weight can fluctuate all over the place on a daily basis, I’ll look for the following benchmarks, Friday mornings, 4 weeks apart:
August 5:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 202’ish or less
September 2:Â Â Â Â 199’ish or less
September 30:Â Â 196’ish or less
October 28:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 193’ish or less
Having said all that, in reality, I’d _love_ to squeeze off even more weight (well, ‘fat’ actually), so we’ll see if I can meet-or-exceed my goals…without training or health compromises…and who knows, maybe the thinner, slimmer me, is just waiting inside looking to be discovered
Stay tuned…or join in 🙂