Three-Week Progress Report

It's been about three weeks since I started losing weight, and progress has been pretty good. I've been doing pretty well at eating low-carb foods, and I've been running every morning and going for walks most evenings. I also play indoor soccer on Thursday evenings.

Current vs. Goal Body Composition
	Weight	BF%	Fat Mass	Lean Mass
Starting	241.6	28.7	69.3	172.3
Current	230.8	26.6	61.4	169.4
Goal	198.0	13.0	25.7	172.3

That's 13.4% to goal. I'm a little concerned about the reduction in lean mass, but it's a cheap scale, so I'm going to chalk it up to error for now. If that number keeps declining, I'll know I need to change something.

Diet-wise, I've been doing a pretty good job. In January, we bought half a cow, so my diet consists largely of various cuts of beef. I can happily eat ground beef and steaks almost daily, so it works out well for me. Lunch is often a meatza: a pizza with ground beef for crust and usually one of several hot sauces for sauce. More about this creation in a later post. When I'm craving something sweet, I'll quell the craving with a teaspoon of peanut butter (our local grocer grinds it fresh) or a banana or orange. There's some sugar in each of these, but by managing the craving I avoid eating something more detrimental.

Instead of a full cheat day, I'm just going to have a cheat evening today with pizza and a birthday cake that some of my friends sent me. My birthday's in February, but I'm not complaining. I've had some epic cheat days in the past, but I'm not really craving more than that.

I'm trying to follow a disciplined running strategy. In the past, I've tended to keep running for as long as I feel fine, but after a point, that tends to give me an adrenaline hangover and throw off my workout schedule for the next day or two. Pushing too hard can actually cause me to run less than if I follow a gradual, progressive schedule.

I'm currently running four miles per day, after which I walk a quarter-mile home. As you can see, the third mile of my usual route has a 50-foot climb in the middle of it, which pretty well finishes me off when I'm starting to get tired. I'm going to stick to the four-milers until I can get all four miles into the 8's. I don't want to waste more time running slowly. Once I'm faster, I can run longer distances in the same time.

Running faster is usually just a matter of pushing harder. I know what pace is comfortable, so I just push a little past that. After some time running at that pace, it becomes normal and I can then try to push past that pace. Four miles is starting to feel normal at my 9:xx pace, so next week will be focused on speed.

Initial Weigh-in

I recently decided to stop being fat. Over the last few years, I've gained 40 lbs of unwelcome body fat. It's no mystery how this happened. I worked at a job that was largely sedentary, and I ate a lot of high-carb foods (mostly pizza and sandwiches) and regularly drank sodas. I'm technically obese at this point, though I'm not quite what I would normally think of as obese.

Today, I decided to change all of this. I want to ultimately become as generally athletic as possible. My goal for 2019 is to lose the weight and improve my long-distance running times. In 2020, I want to run a marathon. I don't want to just be a runner, though. I'm currently focused on cardio, but I will be doing some strength training as well. I'm not sure where I'm going with this after the marathon yet.

To lose body fat, I'm going with a basic low-carb, high-protein diet plan, coupled with a progressive cardio routine. There are lots of diet plans to follow, but the ones that actually work are all based on the same basic concept of avoiding carbohydrates and eating as much fat and protein as you want, so that's what I'm doing.

It's worth mentioning that I know this works for me as I've done it before. I love carbs, but it's much easier to avoid them than it is to try to cut calories long-term while eating as many carbs and I would like.

According to the American Council on Exercise, male athletes should have body fat of 6-13%, and obese for men is defined as 25%+.

Body Fat Percentage Norms
Description	Women	Men
Essential Fat	10-13%	2-5%
Athletes	14-20%	6-13%
Fitness	21-24%	14-17%
Acceptable	25-31%	18-24%
Obesity	>32%	>25%

I'm starting at 241.6 lbs and 28.7% body fat. My initial goal is to get down to 13% body fat this year without losing muscle mass, which should put me at 198 lbs.

Current vs. Goal Body Composition
	Weight	BF%	Fat Mass	Lean Mass
Starting	241.6	28.7	69.3	172.3
Goal	198.0	13.0	25.7	172.3

I'm using a body composition scale to track my fat percentage to make sure I'm not losing muscle with the fat. The one I'm using is by Weight Gurus. I think I bought it at Target. I got the cheaper one that uses your phone's camera and a companion app rather than Bluetooth. It mostly works fine, and the app stores and tracks my weight and fat percentage. If I were buying one now, I would probably spend the extra $20 for the Bluetooth model.

That's it for now. I'll be posting semi-regular updates and pointers for the foreseeable future. Stay tuned.