Okay, first, the box scores:
Starting
Weight:
|
241.6
|
Original Target*:
|
257.6
|
Adjusted Target:
|
239.8
|
Actual Weight:
|
238.6
|
Loss/Gain:
|
–
3.0
|
Total Loss:
|
64.0
|
% of Goal:
|
46.2%
|
Avg. Loss/Wk.:
|
–
2.6
|
*Original target calculated from a
starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.
|
|
Yesterday, I put on a pair of dress loafers I hadn’t worn in
some months and discovered something I didn’t think to expect: my feet have become
a little smaller. Feet become pudgy as do other parts of your body. As well, excess
weight tends to push the bones out to the sides. I’m not so much pleased by the
change as I am disconcerted.
As I’ve mentioned before, when I began my program, I started
using Samsung Health to count my daily steps. Every night, I entered the mileage
and my active time into the Lose It! app, which calculates the burn and
subtracts it from my total calorie intake. So far, so good, except that my
phone’s battery is getting weaker and the app consumes quite a bit of power
when I’m walking. Recently, I’ve pulled out my phone to check things only to find
it’s shut itself off, either to conserve power or because it’s already lost all
charge. Many of my most recent entries have been estimates. The important thing,
though, is that Lose It! rarely subtracts more than 200 – 250 kcal for my
walking unless it’s an unusually hectic Sunday and I bowl that night.
This morning, after my weigh-in, my calorie budget dropped
to 1,598 kcal. I’ve mentioned before that an intake of less than 1,500 kcal/day
for a prolonged time can be unhealthy. I’ve estimated that, with the calorie deficit
I calculated at the beginning of the program, I’d hit the floor level at about
223.7 lbs. That isn’t far away. This led me to look at the way and reason I
initially set up my program. Bear with me; I’ll try to keep the math to a
minimum.
In calculating calorie deficits, Lose It! uses the Mifflin
St.-Jeor equation to estimate your basal metabolic rate (BMR), while another calculator
I’ve relied on in the past uses the Harris
Benedict equation. At my current weight, the Harris Benedict formula comes
out higher by 154 kcal. However, Lose It! estimates a sedentary personal
activity level (PAL), including office work and a light amount of walking, to burn
about 145% of your BMR, while the Fitwatch calculator estimates the PAL at a
more couch-potato rate of 120% of your BMR. This means the Fitwatch PAL-modified
metabolic rate comes out 288 kcal lower.
(Some might be wondering, “If the PAL-modified rate is a
multiple of the BMR, then as the BMR comes down, the difference between the two
should get smaller, right?” Yes, you’re correct. “But that would mean the
difference is relative, yet your deficit—the amount you’re subtracting to lose
weight—is absolute.” Again, you’re correct; in fact, my budget after the deficit
is actually less than my BMR. That’s okay, it’s not so much less that my
body’s at risk. But remember that the number of calories in a pound of fat,
3,500 kcal, is also absolute. To burn a pound of fat, you have to eat at least
500 kcal/day less than your PAL-modified rate no matter how great or little the
difference is from your BMR.)
Keep in mind that both estimates are rough approximations. A
warning
I hadn’t noticed before on the Fitwatch site says, “This calculator will
underestimate caloric needs for the extremely muscular and will overestimate
caloric needs for the extremely overweight.” According to Jill
Corleone of LiveStrong.com, “In some populations, the Mifflin St-Jeor
equation is the best available, according to a July 2018 study published in Frontiers
in Endocrinology. In the study, the researchers looked at obese Caucasian
subjects who had health risks like diabetes and high blood pressure. In this
population, the Mifflin St-Jeor equation was superior to the Harris-Benedict
equation.”
Caucasians with diabetes and high blood pressure. Hmm …
sounds like someone I know.
The Lose It! website doesn’t have an option to say, “I plan to
lose 1.8 pounds per week,” which was always a fairly aggressive plan; the
closest I could get was 1½ pounds a week. However, you can adjust the budget in
25-kcal increments. So when I began, I adjusted the budget down by 400 kcal,
trusting the Fitwatch calculator more than I should have. (I just don’t have
the money or time to get a more accurate calculation from a dietician.) For a
1.8-lbs./week loss rate, I should only have adjusted it down 150 kcal. No
wonder I lost so much weight so fast.
So I’ve concluded that, while I should still keep track of
my steps, I don’t need to subtract them from my calorie intake; I only need to
adjust my deficit back up. My budget is now 1,843 kcal, which is closer to my
average actual intake for the last two weeks (~1,757 kcal). This should mean my
budget won’t hit the 1,500-kcal threshold until I drop to 184.8 lbs. It should
also mean that the loss rate after that point shouldn’t slow much—at 1,500
kcal/day, I should still be losing about 1.5 lbs./week when I reach my plan
goal of 164.
But why mess with success? First, since my job is taking
care of my mom, the calories I expend doing it are on average no more than an
office worker. Walking as deliberate exercise should be separate from
walking as part of one’s normal daily activity. Tracking steps is a good thing,
but it tends to blur the distinction. Second, until I get a new phone battery
or a FitBit, I’ll most likely have more episodes when the phone runs out of juice
and shuts down on me, forcing me to estimate my steps. Why worry about it when I’m
not really any more active than the average Joe Sixpack? (Oh, I’m more active
than I was, but I’m not playing softball or basketball weekly; I’m lousy at
most sports, anyway.)
As for the August crunch challenge:
To tell the truth, I forgot all about it until the other
day; it’s been a little on the hectic side around here. My first attempt at it
ended quickly in despair. And for a double dose of honesty: I have always hated
exercise for exercise’s sake. In fact, one of the reasons I took Army JROTC in
high school was that it got me out of the PE requirement. (“And yet, you went
into the Marine Corps?” you ask incredulously? Well, yeah; like I’ve said, I
was a teenage Walter Mitty wanting to be a Barney Badass. And besides, their
dress uniforms are the sharpest of all the services.) For a while, not long
after I moved to Texas, I did work out three times a week at the YMCA, but I
got discouraged and quit.
Which is all to say, I’m not psychologically ready for the
exercise portion of getting in shape. I still want to pass the Marine PFT. But
I was nowhere near as reluctant to start losing weight as I am to start
exercising. I’m looking for something that will flip on the switch in my mind
that gets me enthusiastic and tells me, “Okay, let’s do this! Let’s roll!” I
think it will take some research to develop a plan and create reasonable
expectations; the original inspiration for the weight-loss program was the
comment my coworker made when we were discussing bariatric surgery: “You don’t
have to lose much … just 1-2 pounds a week.”
In other respects, though, everything is going great. I’m
now 19 pounds ahead of my original goal line and 1.4 pounds ahead of the
monthly progress chart. I’ve already lost half of the weight for the “Lose 20
Lbs. by Halloween” challenge and am closing up on the halfway mark on my plan
goal. And I’m often surprised by how much less it takes to make me feel full.
The other night, Ted and I baked a medium Sam’s Choice pizza, which I expected
to blow the budget, but we could only finish a couple pieces each; it wasn’t
that long ago I could eat 3/4ths of a medium pan pizza by myself. (On the other
hand, if the local Whataburger brings back their green chile double
cheeseburger, I’m gonna blow the budget at least once. Just saying.)
So, we’ll see how the deficit adjustment works out in
practice. I’ll let you know if it has to be returned to the original setting.
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