The Plateau

A very frustrating place to be. I have been on the plateau for the last month and a half and it finally looks like I found the way down off of it. The definition of hitting a plateau is if you have not lost any weight after 3 weeks, you've hit a plateau. My weight would go up 2 pounds and then down 2 pounds and it was this way for a month, therefore PLATEAU. It was time to hit the internet and figure this out. So I started my research to see how other people figured their way off.

According to Journal of the American Dietetic Association researchers found that weight loss typically halts after 6 months and that stall can last weeks, months, or even longer. Well I had been doing well for 7 months so it looks like I am like the rest of the world. Now the hard part was figuring out what would work.

The first thing I needed to do was try to determine the cause. Could I be eating more calories than I thought? Research shows that most people underreport the number of calories they eat. Well I keep daily track of my calorie intake on my Sparkpeople page. I try to keep it around 2000 calories a day and looking at my charts I do see to stay around that goal. According to my Resting Metabolic Rate or how calories I need to stay at my current weight, I need 2715 calories a day. While I am a little over the recommended 500 to 700 calories a day to lose 2 pounds a week I still should be losing 2 pounds per week.

The science behind weight loss is not a mystery. Since I am a mechanical engineer I go back to the law of thermodynamics which express the symmetry of the world. It’s simple if I am at equilibrium with the energy in (in the form of calories intake) is equal to the energy out (in the form of calories expended) I will not lose weight. Since energy cannot be created or destroyed if I decrease intake (i.e. calories) and increase outputs (i.e. energy) the extra energy need for the output comes from me and hence weight loss.

This works well in mechanical systems but apparently not in biology, no wonder I am not a doctor. This thing called metabolism come into effect with the bodies burning of fuel. Metabolism is the number of calories the body burns and is made up of three components: resting metabolic rate, physical activity and a small amount needed for food digestion. The problem it seems that my body has some defense mechanisms when the gap becomes too wide. It slows the metabolism down to preserve itself and its by my age (metabolism naturally slows about 5% per decade after age 40). Great it appears that my bodies working against me.

Since about two-thirds to three-quarters of the calories I burn every day are accounted for in resting metabolism. So by increasing the body's metabolism would help because the number of calories needed each day would be higher.

Now comes the hard part. I weeded through all of those websites that state how to raise your metabolism through gimmicks, pills, natural herbs and stuff and found out metabolism can only be boosted in two ways: increasing the body's muscle mass and increasing the body's heart rate.

Body muscle mass

Metabolism is somewhat a function of genetics, but it seems I can increase basal metabolism by building muscle. Researchers state that muscle cells are up to eight times more metabolically active than fat cells, and muscle burns more calories than fat.

Body heart rate

A person's heart rate has an impact on metabolism – the higher the heart rate, the more calories burned. Exercise or drugs seem to do this and I am too old to do drugs.

Action Plan

Increasing my bodies muscle mass seems to be the clue. Damn that means exercising. Something that I am not great at, hence the shape I am in. For the last 4 months my knees have been killing me and I have not made an effort to swim. In fact the last two months I have not been able to do much walking. Could this be the problem? I had been seeing my general practice doctor about the problem and he had me on 600 mg of ibuprofen three times a day, which did not help. Then finally I went to the orthopedic surgeon and he shot both knees with cortisone injections and within two days I was walking normally and I went back to swimming.

A amazing thing happened I wandered off the plateau.

Back to blogging.

I took a while off getting the identify stuff straighten out, but I know have to journaling and staying on the right path. I checked the weight out today, I normally stay don’t hit the scale until Saturday morning but I just wanted a mid week check. I weighed in at 351 lbs (80 lbs down) now I don’t consider it official but still damn!!!!

I am having a problem getting back to working out. I have this plan for 1005 miles in 2010 and have not started. All the excuses are coming raising their ugly head. It’s too cold, too dark, too late at night. I have to nip this in the bud so I will be starting fresh tomorrow.

Food doing well and I made it through the holidays. Now for the long winter, this is normally my downfall. But not this year, I have a goal to meet and nothing is going to stop me.

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Goals for 2010

I sat down to write my blog today, with a blank page wondering what my goals (or plans) for 2010 were going to be. I could write down all of the easy stuff that I tell myself that I am going to do every year, like stop procrastinating, be a better son, friend etc. But they are never tangible things that I cannot measure, so this year I will make goals that can be measured.

Health

1) Be less than 300 lbs by June 30, which would be a 54 pond loss and will keep me on track to my total weight loss plan.

2) Do 1005 miles by biking, swimming and walking by 2011. I was reading Jennsfitjourney and she had a goal of 2010 miles and I liked the idea but with my knees I figured I could do half of it.

3) Bike the Perkiomen Trail in one day. It’s a 22 mile trail from Green Lane to Valley Forge National Historical Park.

4) Walk the Valley Forge National Park loop. It’s a 5 mile loop through the park.

5) Swim 2 miles at once. This is 142 laps at the YMCA pool. I currently do 44 laps at a time now.

Home

Do all of this myself and not hire anyone. I know it sounds like normal maintenance
but each year I tell myself to do it and it never gets done. So I am making a commitment.

1) Paint the house, inside and out. It needs it, been 18 years and is starting to look shabby.

2) Strip and wax both bathrooms and kitchen.

3) Steam clean all of the rugs.

Well that wraps it up. I will have to track the walking, biking and swimming on daily/weekly bases which will help me blogging more.

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Identity Theft

You know how to really ruin Christmas is to stop at a gas station and have you credit card declined for over limit. Now, mind you I only use this card for gas and I have a $5,000 limit and it’s paid off every month. When I get back to the house I give the credit card company a call and they go over the charges in the last week on the card, and it totals $4,985.

In discussing this with the companies fraud division it appears even the address on the card has been changed. After spending 1 hour on the phone with them and then call the 3 credit reporting agency and my other credit card companies to place fraud alerts on my info, I finally had a chance to think.

Not only am I worried about my credit, but I feel violated. First how does someone get a hold of my card information and just change things. All the companies told me, not to worry I am only responsible for $50 on any bad charges, but I am now the one who has to clean this mess up. The person who did this will probably, not get caught or if they do will not do time.

But I am the one who is the victim and I still have to pay $50 on any bad charges, it’s just not fair. Now, I will try to have a good day today and look at the positive. I have lost 77 lbs, although I missed the lose 25 lbs by Christmas by 2 lbs, I have done well this year. My health is good (even the knees feel better), the family is fine and I still have a job.

I have told myself I will not head to food to comfort this and I will get by, but it still sucks.

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Snow

What a peaceful Saturday. I had done all my weekend chores Friday night and just got to relax on Saturday, watching the snow was really good for me. It calms me and makes me at peace. I love it when you go outside after the storm and everything is still and quite. The crunch under my feet, the sparkle of snow as it drifts.

Then today, shoveling my car out was a task. Ok it was light snow but still 16” is a b*&tch. Afterward my back was bothering me but hey I did it and am proud I did it myself. When I was 75 lbs heavier it would have taken everything out of me. But today, I just had a minor back ache. Even my knees did not feel that bad.

This week is going to be a busy week. Christmas is coming up and I have not even started shopping. My last day at work is Wednesday and I normally leave at 12 pm so that gives me the afternoon. I work well under pressure, no second guessing what people want just pick and go.

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Fat Dude

I reading several blogs today and it seemed that everyone is talking BMI. It’s the new weight measurement tool. So just to check out how I stand on this scale off I head to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute website and enter my stats and hit the button and WAMO my BMI is 45.7. Now what’s that mean to me? According the web site

BMI Categories:
Underweight = <18.5
Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
Overweight = 25-29.9
Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

Class 1 or mild obesity is a BMI = 30–34.9, class 2 or moderate obesity is a BMI = 35–39.9, class 3 or morbid or severe obesity is a BMI = 40–49.9, and class 4 or super morbid obesity is a BMI ≥ 50.

I am in the morbid obesity area. No s&*t, like I could not tell that by looking in the mirror. But the good news I started out with a BMI of 55.3, which was super morbid obesity and I am down to morbid obesity. Now we have classes and numbers and all kinds of stuff.

What ever happen to just fat dude or blimpy? I forgot that’s was not politically correct, but it got to the point, and I am not politically correct.

So fat dude out.

Office Snacks

When I first got into business, Contractors gave booze around the Christmas time. As guy who had just quit drinking I found this ironic, where were they when I was drinking. But as times change Contractors started giving cookies, popcorn, peanuts (Virginia Diner the best). Now when I was not watching what I ate I would be in the kitchen grabbing something all the time.

Today we received I large tin of popcorn, a slab of almond chocolate and a tin of peanuts. Bad news! Someone opened the popcorn and I found myself grabbing a handful every time I passed the kitchen. On the third time I figured since I am keeping a calorie count I would like at the label and see how many calories there are in a handful. So I grab a normal handful and place the popcorn in a cup and it came out to just about one cup. The label said 55 calories per cup. I had 165 calories without thinking, which is about 8% of my calorie count per day. I looked at the peanuts 190 calories in three tablespoons. In three tablespoons that not enough to really get a good taste of them and the chocolate bar who knows what the count it that is.

So off I walked telling myself no way no more. But as I was walking out the door bang a handful of popcorn. Damn office gifts, right up there with the evil supermarket. Hold on there is a common denominator in this and it is me, you know this journaling stuff sucks

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