Week 48 Progress Report: Start Your Day Right

Greetings! First, the week-ending numbers:

Starting Weight:	216.0
Original Target*:	216.2
Adjusted Target:	214.2
Actual Weight:	212.0
Loss/Gain:	– 4.0
Total Loss:	90.6
% of Goal:	65.4%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 1.9
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

And now for the Month 11 ending numbers:

Starting Weight:	212.8
Target Weight:	202.0
Actual Weight:	212.4
Loss/Gain:	– 0.4
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 0.1

Essentially, then, Month 11 was a wash. However, it could have been much worse: I could still be hovering around 215 – 216. That it ended a wash was because I got back on the program last week. As of this morning, I weighed 211.6, despite a large dinner and forgetting to log my bedtime snacks. The way my weigh-ins fluctuate, it’s not inconceivable for me to weigh in at 209 or slightly less by Monday, which would put me under the monthly curve and undo the last of the holiday excess.

Week 43 Progress Report: Christmas Challenges

Source: Lynda's Recipe Box

First, let’s go over the week-ending numbers:

Starting Weight:	211.8
Original Target*:	225.2
Adjusted Target:	209.5
Actual Weight:	212.6
Loss/Gain:	+ 0.8
Total Loss:	90.0
% of Goal:	64.9%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.1
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

So yeah, I went backward, which I haven’t done since the end of September. Over the last six months, I’ve averaged about a 1.6 lbs./week loss, about 1.5 lbs./week over the last quarter. Those dates include five weeks in which I went backward, particularly the couple of weeks after I lost my mother and the week I went to the hospital (where I gained four pounds in two days, due to the “shipping backlog”). Although these numbers are a little below plan, I’m still satisfied with the results.

Week 35 Progress Report: Sleep and Cookies

Image Source: Flickr

Let’s first look at the week-ending numbers:

Starting Weight:	226.0
Original Target*:	239.6
Adjusted Target:	223.7
Actual Weight:	222.6
Loss/Gain:	– 3.4
Total Loss:	80.0
% of Goal:	57.7%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.3
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

Note first that the adjusted target reflects a 2.3-lbs./week loss rate rather than the 1.8 lbs./week I originally planned on. As I discussed in the month-end report, I’m shooting for less than 200 lbs. by January 1 as part of a 90-Day Challenge, so the adjusted target reflects the rate at which I need to drop to make that goal. It’s early days yet, but so far, the 166-kcal cut I had to take in my calorie budget has only slightly inconvenienced me. In fact, I’d say that as well as I’ve done over the last eight months, I’ve probably hindered myself more by not sleeping enough than by overeating.

For most if not all of my adult life, I’ve been a night owl, going to bed in the wee hours of the morning without even the bare excuse of partying all night. When I was younger, this was because I most often worked night shifts, whether it was at fast-food restaurants or call centers. More and more as I got older, though, either the nature of the business I was in or pressing financial concerns demanded varying shifts, extra hours, twice a second job. At the same time, my friends and family all eventually had regular day jobs with regular hours, so my social life often demanded that I wake up after minimal sleep, often as little as 3½ hours. Not surprisingly, this meant I occasionally overslept when my overtaxed body and mind demanded it.

Week 17 Progress Report: Should I Keep Cutting My Calorie Budget?

Sorry I’m late again; I’ve overslept the last couple of days. First, the weekly progress report:

Starting Weight:	256.4
Original Target*:	272.0
Adjusted Target:	254.6
Actual Weight:	254.0
Loss/Gain:	– 2.4
Total Loss:	48.6
% of Goal:	35.1%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.9
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

As you can tell from the monthly progress chart, the scale says I went backward near the end of the week, but I still ended up doing better than my planned loss rate.

Yesterday was the end of the plan month. Here are the numbers:

Starting Weight:	262.4
Target Weight:	254.4
Actual Weight:	253.8
Loss/Gain:	– 8.6
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.0

Overall, I think I’m doing better. Yes, I still tend to take advantage of my daily steps and weekly bowling because subtracting the calories burned gives me leeway on the budget. But the most that gives me is about 240 extra calories on a busy day (about 400 on a busy Sunday).

Last night, for instance, I overdid it a bit on dinner — at least, as close as I could estimate it — so I ended the day without my usual bedtime snack to keep the numbers in the green. (Besides, I still felt full by bedtime, so it was no hardship.) When I weighed in this morning, I’d lost 0.8 pounds, so I figure my estimate was a little high but good.

Week 16 Progress Report: Plateaus Aren’t Really Flat

Here are today’s numbers:

Starting Weight:	257.2
Original Target*:	273.8
Adjusted Target:	255.4
Actual Weight:	256.4
Loss/Gain:	– 0.8
Total Loss:	46.2
% of Goal:	33.3%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 2.9
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

This last week is hard to describe. There wasn’t a day since Tuesday that I went over-budget; yet on Wednesday, my weight shot up a discouraging 2.6 pounds, wrecking my effort to achieve the May challenge goal of 3% loss.

I’m almost certain that much of the fluctuation depends on how much sleep I’ve gotten when I weigh in, as well as the vagaries of estimating some portions and the calories I’ve consumed. For instance, yesterday I got up at 3:30 am to pick my cousin up from DFW International Airport, so I weighed in shortly thereafter. After taking him to Gainesville, a 1½-hour trip with a 45-minute stop at Cracker Barrel for a 500-calorie breakfast, having consumed my normal travel mug full of coffee (with a little extra at Cracker Barrel), I weighed again for the heck of it when I got back home. The scale told me I had neither lost nor gained anything. I should have expected at least a fractional difference because I was wearing street clothes rather than pajamas. Weird.

(How do you get a 500-calorie breakfast at Cracker Barrel, where carbs and fat abound? Simple: A side of two eggs — I prefer “over medium” — and a side of their Loaded Hashbrown Casserole. A lot of their breakfast entrees are under 550 calories, so long as you don’t get “All the Fixin’s.”)

Week 13 Progress Report: Settling Down for the Long Haul

I’m only a little overdue for the weekly report:

Starting Weight:	264.2
Original Target*:	279.2
Adjusted Target:	262.4
Actual Weight:	262.4
Loss/Gain:	– 1.8
Total Loss:	40.2
% of Goal:	29.0%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:	– 3.1
*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

It’s also past time for the monthly report, which is graphed in the upper left. On the monthly charts, the target weight is calculated from the first day of the month, while the master chart is calculated from the starting weight. Unlike last month, in which the “actual” line was far more often above the “target” line than below it, this month the “actual” was consistently below the “target”, though not always as far below it as I would have liked. This next month is already off to a rocky start, as I’m almost a pound over where I should be. However, since the target drops a little less than 0.3 lbs./day and my weight can fluctuate as much as 1 lb./day, I can get back on track pretty rapidly.

To date, I’ve lost 40 pounds in three months, or about 13.3 pounds a month. Not bad when you only plan to lose about 7.7 – 8 pounds a month. I now have about 98 pounds to lose in order to achieve a BMI of 24.9, which would be in the “healthy” range. However, as I’ve noted before, the rate has slowed down; I can’t plan on big drops now any more than I planned on the big drops in the first six weeks. This is where patience and determination have to take over and get me through the long haul because at just under 2 pounds a week, it’s going to take a bit more than a year to shed all that weight. Probably longer, because I fully expect the rate to slow more once I pass the halfway point.

And that’s not thinking about any plateaus.

Week 7 Progress Report: “Cutting Calories Doesn’t Work!”

Image source: lapbandsurgery.com.

Start Weight:		276.0
Original Target*:		290.0
Adjusted Target:		274.2
Actual Weight:		274.2
Loss/Gain:		– 1.8
Total Loss:		– 28.4
% of Goal:		20.5%
Avg. Loss/Wk.:		– 4.1
	*Original target calculated from a starting weight of 302.6 lbs. and an average loss/wk. of 1.8 lbs.

Compared with previous weeks, 1.8 pounds doesn’t look so dramatic. However, if you look at the bottom of the progress table, you’ll see that 1.8 pounds a week is exactly what I’d hoped and planned to lose from the beginning.

When my article on the deadly sin of Gluttony published on Catholic Stand, the first commenter argued that diets which depend simply on cutting calories are doomed to fail. Why? Because of hunger! Sooner or later, the hunger drives the dieter to overeat, and before you know it, they’re right back where they started! “Why don’t you see reunions on The Biggest Loser?” he asked rhetorically. Because just cutting calories doesn’t work.

Well, yes and no. Many people, when cutting calories, set a drastically low calorie target. For example, one friend of mine decided that she would not only start running again but eat no more than 500 kcal/day. Of course, hunger defeated her, despite her being a very strong-minded woman. The calorie target was much too low!

Ash Wednesday Fasting and Abstinence: What to Do?

Although, strictly speaking, this isn’t a religion blog, two important dates in the Catholic liturgical calendar are coming up this week: Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) and Ash Wednesday. And Ash Wednesday kicks off the Lenten liturgical season. Both days have implications for Catholics on a weight-loss program, especially if you’re from a more traditional parish or community that observes the pre-Vatican II practice of fasting all 40 days. For non-Latin Rite Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant communions that observe Lent consult with your priest, deacon, or minister on the rules pertaining to your church. (Once you find out, let me know!)

If you celebrate Mardi Gras, it falls under the “diet holiday” rule, especially since the next day you’re gonna pay for it. On the “holiday rule”, you try to eat as you normally do during the day so that, when the party comes, you’re not overly hungry. But when the party comes, don’t worry about tracking the numbers for one night — just enjoy yourself. If you don’t normally do Mardi Gras, you can still give yourself a night off. After all, you’re saying “farewell to meat” for the next 40 days!

Fun Fact: The last time I successfully dieted, in 2009, I started on Ash Wednesday. Although I went to bed very hungry, I felt good about keeping myself honest. It was a good start.