March 24th, 2012: Continuing the slow crawl back. Down one pound to 291.
Clothes. One of the worst things about being fat is the necessity of clothes. When I started this, I was at the midway point of the big and tall stores – 3XL. I was well on my way to 6XL, and then after that, well, I don’t know what’s after that. I think maybe I’ll start a little discussion on clothes when you’re fat. I’ll start today with shoes.
Shoes. When I was a firefighter, I wore only two types of shoes, like, for 8 years. Either White’s Smokejumper boots, or running shoes. Then, as a fat dude, I only wore one kind of shoes – Merrell slip-ons. Laces went out the door at 300 lbs. It was a big production to put on shoes with laces between 280 and 300 lbs. Find a hard back chair, sit down, stretch lower back, and then hold breath. Exhale breath in this manner: uhh, uhhh, umm, uhh, while tying shoes as fast as possible. However, because of the gut, I couldn’t put my foot flat on the floor, so the shoelace was always kind of loose. Then pretty soon I had to use Doctor Scholl’s insoles because my feet hurt all the time. All the time. And here’s another thing, when you look at the wear on the soles of my fat shoes, it was always on the outside as I had to roll my ankle that way as I waddled. Insoles only do so much, and then your feet still hurt. Then finally I came to the realization that I’m obese, and that’s why my feet hurt.
Tomorrow: pants.
March 24th, 2020: It’s really hard to believe that one food-excursion, as the program refers to it (cheat day, fuckup, whatever) once a week, or even once in a while, can be so damaging to your numbers. I’ve heard people say that one-single bad day of eating shouldn’t matter any more than one-single super-duper calorie shredding workout. This is both true and false, and gray.
Here is a program lesson to illustrate how those excursions add up, and can make your journey tougher. It’s borrowed from the Beyond Diets program endorsed by the gym at which I am a trainer, and one in which I also endorse. If I’ve made any errors here, I apologize. Feel free to correct me via a message on this blog.
I have to make it as simple as I can because that’s how I can understand it, and then I take it from the Beyond Diets program and apply it to The Program. However I’ve understood it and used it has worked for me, and I’m assuming I’m mostly, if not entirely, correct in this explanation. It’s science, but the caveat is that all these numbers average out over a span of time, provided you maintain fidelity by using food scales, nutrition labels, careful arithmetic, patience, and perseverance. If not, the science won’t work and you’ll just begin machine-gunning at targets in the dark or noises in the bushes, hoping to get lucky – which you won’t.
IF you wish to lose a pound of fat in the time period of a week. You’ll have to have a deficit of 3500 calories in the span of time. A calorie is a unit of energy, and that’s how many of these a pound of fat has. The first question you should ask is: A deficit based on what number?
The answer to that question is that you calculate your deficit based on a number called “resting metabolic rate”. This number is how many calories you burn just by living – no exercise included. It’s breathing, organ functions, etc. Preferably, you’ll get this measured in a clinical setting using a machine, such as the MetaChek (Metabolic Rate Analysis System Machine) we use at the club where I’m a trainer, but it can also be estimated using internet websites. As always, you get what you pay for though, and the estimates are just that, so if you wanna do this right…
Anyhow, when you’ve determined that number, which is a daily-value, you’ll multiply it by 7 (7 days), and then try to come in under it by 3500 calories in a week. This is your deficit, and you create it not by fucking around, you create it through diet and exercise. Period.
For example, my MetaChek RMR is 2491 calories. This is how many calories I burn per day if I did nothing else besides hang out and do paperwork at my desk or whatever – no focused or sustained exercise. In one week, that equals 17,437 calories. That’s my calorie budget for the week. If I can come in under that by 3500 calories, using a preferred combination of diet and exercise, I’ll lose a pound of fat, and though I don’t have millions of data points to back me up, I do have my own experiences with myself and with clients, and have yet to see it empirically refuted – provided I’m honest, they’re honest, etc. (when someone isn’t being honest with me, I can figure it out very easily). So I better eat less and/or move more so my number is 13,937 net calories if I want to lose one pound of fat that week.
Consider this info today, extrapolate if necessary, ask me questions or request clarifications, or correct me if you see something that doesn’t add up – it’s still a work in progress. More tomorrow, or soon after.
