staying the course 205 to 185…losing 20 pounds

With my weigh-in on Friday at 189, I again pondered what my weight goal should be.

When I started on July 9, 8 weeks ago, I was at 205 pounds, and set an initial goal to be at 195 in 4 months…

…and was at 194 in 4 weeks …called it 195…well ahead of my 4 month goal

So I reset the goal to be at 185’ish prior to Ironman, with adjusted new intermediate goals.

With a 189 weigh-in…I’m going to call it 190, which is more likely my ‘real’ weight, since I’ve seen a trend where a single low value is followed by a little bounce back up, before descending again.

So in looking at my chart, even though I ‘exceeded’ the 191’ish goal, a 189-190 still is in the 191’ish range…that is to say, I didn’t blow the doors off the goal…since I lost 10 pounds the first 4 weeks, 5 pounds the next 4 weeks…so will be interesting to see what the next 4 weeks looks like.

When I say that I have a weight goal, my ‘real’ fundamental weight goal is a daily one…simply put:

A 1,500 calorie ‘budget’ leftover by the time that I sit down for dinner every night…and then eat dinner until ‘satisfied’, not full or uncomfortably full

My daily, mid-week total calorie budget is typically in the 3,000 calorie range: 2,000 Base Metabolic Rate + 1,000 exercise calories burned daily…more on Saturday with BIG workouts

so in simple terms, mid-week this typically means eating 1,500 calories during the day, and 750-1,000 calories at dinner…leaving a 500-750 daily calorie deficit

So that’s the daily plan…and looking at the numbers, I’ve been pretty consistent in getting there…losing 1 pound a week = 3,500 calories, so over 7 days, a deficit of 500 calories a day.

…without that minimum 1,000 calorie exercise burn, following the same formula, I would have to cut my calorie intake to 500 calories total for breakfast, lunch and snacks before dinner…uh…like, I don’t think so…or eat 1,000 calories during the day, and adjust to a 1,000 calorie budget sitting down to dinner, and then left with a spartan 500’ish calorie dinner…not my idea of a good time

…so I’ll just stay the course, and see when 185 shows up.

My other option is to just stand on the 190 level, be happy with the 15 pounds gone, and let my body stabilize at this new weight level…although the only real reason to do that would be if I’m getting sick, or my workouts are suffering…which up to now hasn’t happened.

I do have a bit of a concern about my high-end bike power…I haven’t seen much comfort at the 270 Watt level, although some solid rides at my Ironman goal 200 Watt range…as recently as yesterday…and I feel faster on the run, which is where I would expect to see more speed without the weight to carry.

…with the high summer temperatures, it’s hard to compare test results in the heat vs. my most recent tests in cooler weather a few months ago, so will see if I can get a bike and run test in the next month to see what’s going on.

So, I’ll check in again in 4 weeks…maybe an interim report if something meaningful is happening

…expecting to be 187’ish or less on September 30

…’2 Gatorade bottles’ of weight to shed to get to 185 🙂