June 24th, 2012: I had to push the issue and it paid off. I lost two pounds in one night, and I’m gonna have to admit that it’s likely that “water weight” thing. For now, though, I’ll take it to the bank. I did 90 minutes of cardio last night that I could only describe as grueling. It was probably the hardest I’ve worked since my firefighting days. For my effort, I weighed in at 250 lbs. this morning. 100 lbs. lost in 175 days.
I’d love to say that I’m done, but you know that’s never gonna be the case. Even if 250 was my goal weight, I think I’d just be starting a new battle. But – it’s a great milestone for me, and I’ll sit back and enjoy it for an hour or so. Then it’s back to the grind. 61 more pounds to go.
I’d love to say I could lose the remaining 61 pounds in 107 days, which is what the math would predict if I set a trend-line to my data thus far. We’ll see – I had this predicted loss of 100 lbs. in 6 months, and my math and efforts and the program didn’t let me down. In fact, as you can see, I came in a little under budget. However, I may gain back some poundage in the next few days, and at 180 days be back above 250 lbs. It’s science, but there’s a margin of error involved here.
June 24th, 2020: Today I weighed in at 182 pounds. According to the WebMD chart, that means my BMI is 26, which puts me in the category of “overweight”.
BMI, or body-mass-index, is a formula developed in the 1830’s. I use a lot of mathematical calculations that old, or even older, every day. This one probably needs to be moth-balled in practice, though. It’s way too simple, like dirt simple. However, I’m proposing a goal for myself to lose the weight I’d need to in order to reach a “healthy” BMI. This weight is 167 lbs. I’m doing this just as a matter of curiosity. I like to see for sure about some things before I totally dismiss them.
I measured my body-fat the other day at 12%, so this goal could be interesting. Some days I feel like I’m running on fumes as it is. I measured my RMR at 2491 calories. I eat around 2200 calories a day, and I’d say I burn an average of 800 calories per day through exercise. I’m living in deficit world already. I have no timeline for this, I just wanna see where it goes. I’ll probably tell you all about it in the last days of Fat Ass No More – Part 2.
If you need a fitness/weight-loss goal, I wouldn’t recommend using BMI. As I said, I think it’s dirt simple. A concrete goal of some kind is absolutely essential, though and I recommend using the old SMART goal plan:
S = specific
M = measurable
A = achievable
R = relevant
T = time bound
I’m sure if you’ve sat through a workplace training at your job, you’ve heard of SMART goals. For weight loss/physical fitness, this format is particularly relevant.
As a personal trainer, it’s difficult to develop a plan for a client when given only the parameters of “lose fat and gain muscle”. Even the overall goal of weight-loss is too broad. It’s likely that your first session with a personal trainer will revolve around developing these goals if you don’t already have them squared away.
The trainer can help you develop these goals based on the SMART system if you don’t have them ready at your first session. Sometimes it takes some outside, honest, and professional suggestions to nudge you on to the correct path. The trainer will take information from your past, your present, and fit them into goals for your future, and hopefully base them on your interests.
If you come to me as a client, what I just wrote is what you can expect from your first session if you’re brand new or if you’re kinda starting over. Then, over the course of our time working together, you can expect a lot of information about how to train your brain to fit into the program. The nuts and bolts of your program is what we’ll develop specifically for you. The Program, this thing I refer to all the time, is a program for how to follow your program. Hope that makes sense.
If you follow your plan – TO THE FRICKIN’ LETTER, and if we build in some flexibility to allow for tweaks here and there as we go along, then success is normal, failure is the exception. You just gotta be ready to point yourself in the direction of lifestyle change and then hold on cause here we go.
I’ll write this only one time, but then you have to forget it: I started and stopped weight loss programs probably 100 times before I finally got my shit together and stayed on my train out of hell. You might do the same thing, but this is not something you are allowed to fall back on until you have to – for you, when you start, this is your last chance. Now forget everything but those last 5 words: “this is your last chance”.
