Ben's Fat Loss Diary

[Llama]

That sauce sounds delicious, especially with your additions. Sometimes I'm jealous of the grocery options you guys get!

 

[Cate]

That shrimp dish looks seriously delicious!

 

[Ben_In_NC]

Today was another really strong day. Started out with an hour-ish at the gym hitting chest and shoulders, came home, made and drank a high-protein (78g!) smoothie, and then 4.7 miles of easy running. Total calories consumed for the day were 2937, and the target was 2943.

Legs tomorrow morning.

 

[Ben_In_NC]

That's good, ideally there should be as much time between strength training and your running as possible with the strength work before the run.

This comment is...relevant for today.

I had what may be my strongest/most intense leg day workout ever this morning. It was my standard leg day workout, but for whatever reason I was able to apply more intensity than usual today. The run started an hour after finishing the leg workout...and it was one of (if not THE) my slowest runs at that heart rate since I started doing the low-heart-rate plan. But in the end, my heart rate was in Zone 2 for 50+ minutes on the run, so that's the most important part of it anyway. My ego can take the slow speed on Strava.

TODAY'S WEIGH-IN: 202.1 (down .6 from yesterday, down 2.7 from begin of cut)
STRENGTH TRAINING (lower body): https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/9201055691
TODAY'S CARDIO (4.7mile easy run): https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/9201721307

I just realized that I never put any goals in the first post. Adding these to the first post, but also here...

• Eat within 5% of daily calorie goal (defined by LoseIt) at least 76 of 84 days (90%) during the 12 weeks.
• Complete 80% of planned strength and cardio training workouts
• Lose at least two pounds in both July and August (not saying September just in case I get to the end of August and like where I am)
• Get down to 190 or less by October 1st

On the bottom two goals, I'm not generally a fan of outcome-based weight goals in general, but in this case, some very conservative weight-loss goals do seem appropriate.

 

[Llama]

Looks to me like if you stick to the first two goals the other two should follow

 

[Ben_In_NC]

I’m having one of my absolute favorite lunches: black beans, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and smoked chicken thighs, topped with avocado and seasoned with homemade Mexican seasoning. Great tasting and excellent macros! The garlic and tomatoes are home-grown. (Didn't do homegrown onions simply because we had some red onions that my wife bought that needed to be eaten.)

 

[Cate]

Looks to me like if you stick to the first two goals the other two should follow

with LaMa. I like how you leave September out for now as you may just be happy with how you are then.
Once again that food looks scrumptious!

 

[Ben_In_NC]

If it isn't obvious by now, my #1 nemesis in all this is a weakness to go wayyyyyy off track with food. I've been absurdly consistent with strength training since October of 2021, and even longer than that with steps/cardio…

Yeah, 10K or more steps every single day since early April 2021. That’s borderline embarrassing.

At any rate, yeah, food is my issue. That’s why I’m posting a fair bit about what I’m eating, and intend to continue to do so: I do well to remind myself how much I like the nutrient-dense stuff! It helps that this is the week the garden really started reliably producing to the point that it’s pretty much guaranteed I will have some combination of fresh squash, zucchini, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, sweet peppers, kale, and/or garlic available to me every day. I didn’t take a pic of my dinner, but it was the following: home-smoked chicken breast, sweet peppers and garlic sautéed in avocado oil, and cucumber/tomato salad marinated in white vinegar.



This evening was a bit cooler than it has been most of this summer, so I took the dog for a longer walk than usual—a bit over 2 miles.



Coming up tomorrow: pull day (rows, lat pulls, pull-ups, curls, shrugs) in the weight room, no run. Might give the dog another long walk after I lift in the morning.

 

[Llama]

Liked for the cute dog Food is my main stumbling block as well: I probably haven't had more than 2 days a year below 10 000 steps in the past ten years. I just like walking. Food on the other hand, even though eating well makes a huge difference for my health issues, is extremely hit and miss.

 

[Ben_In_NC]

I probably haven't had more than 2 days a year below 10 000 steps in the past ten years.

Wow! That's impressive!

 

[Ben_In_NC]

Great day overall to close out the work week. Hit all nutrition-related goals today, had a strong pull workout at the gym, and will be around 13K steps despite no running or other dedicated cardio today.

Sharing a little spreadsheet with some of the stuff I'm tracking. (Some Friday stuff is approximated since the day isn't over.)

DATE	DAY	WT	7DayWtAvg	7DayAvgChg	CalGoal	CalEat	Cal Burned	NetKCal
7/11/2022​	Monday	204.76​	207.54​	-0.35​	2960​	2955​	4314​	-1109​
7/12/2022​	Tuesday	205.29​	206.83​	-1.50​	2964​	2963​	4178​	-965​
7/13/2022	Wednesday	202.72​	205.51​	-3.14​	2943​	2937​	4288​	-1101​
7/14/2022​	Thursday	202.05​	204.42​	-4.37​	2938​	2943​	4446​	-1253​
7/15/2022​	Friday	201.20​	203.50​	-5.39​	2931​	2908​	approx 3600	-300​

 

[Ben_In_NC]

I realize the calorie burn number (from my Fitbit Charge HR) may not be accurate, but in terms of scaling one number against another and the general shape of the graph, it will be something that I'll be able to use to triangulate my maintenance calories. (I was a math major in college and am a major data analysis geek. )

Dinner was lentils over jasmine rice, and air fryer shrimp over home-grown tomatoes and basil. Crazy good. Pic and details attached.

 

[Llama]

You're definitely off to a good start there!

I realize the calorie burn number (from my Fitbit Charge HR) may not be accurate, but in terms of scaling one number against another and the general shape of the graph, it will be something that I'll be able to use to triangulate my maintenance calories. (I was a math major in college and am a major data analysis geek.

And I love that It looks like people who enjoy something about the process itself do better with the whole long-term weightloss thing, so keep on geeking.

Those shrimp on basil and fresh tomatoes look to die for.

 

[Ben_In_NC]

It looks like people who enjoy something about the process itself do better with the whole long-term weightloss thing, so keep on geeking.

Oh don’t worry. I will!

Got to see the sun rise across from the Greensboro airport during my long run this morning. Pretty warm and humid, but felt good overall, and even better to have gotten ‘er DONE!



Technically, I suppose I “cheated” by running harder on what was suppose to be my last day of all Z2/easy running. I did this intentionally, because I realized that tomorrow is scheduled to be a recovery-paced ride…so I needed something to recover from, right?

RIGHT???

So, yeah, 5 or so of those 12 miles were run faster. I broke it down like this:

1mile EZ
2 miles Z3
1 mile EZ
2 miles Z3
1 mile EZ
2 miles Z3-4
1 mile EZ
1 mile Z4
1 mile EZ
1 minute hard closing kick. (Got up to zone 5 by the end of this.)

With regard to Saturday (long run day) nutrition, in the past I have operated on significantly fewer calories on weekdays during calorie deficits, and have thus allowed myself 1000 extra on long run day. Given that I’ve ramped up the day-to-day calorie intake quite a bit, I think for now I’m going to try +500 on Saturdays.

Scale was up a bit from yesterday this morning, at 201.9. Still down almost 3 pounds since Monday.

Breakfast was Greek yogurt mixed with cinnamon and protein powder, topped with granola, pecans, and berries from the garden. Sooooo good. Big bowl, too! (Standard-sized dinner plate included in pic for size context.)

 

[Llama]

12 miles? That's... (converts furiously) half a marathon? Wow! Quite the casual run

 

[Ben_In_NC]

12 miles? That's... (converts furiously) half a marathon? Wow! Quite the casual run

Oh yeah, I guess I didn’t mention that my Saturday runs are usually 10 miles or more. I just pulled all the Long Run tags that would fit on one screen from Strava. There’s one missing: on 4/2 I did a half marathon race, so it’s tagged as a “race” rather than a “long run.” So, including that one, we have the last 17 Saturdays represented. Looks like only four times in that range was I under 10: one when I was recovering from an ankle injury, two the weekends before and after the race (taper and recovery,) and the one when we were on vacation in NY and I just didn’t have time to run longer.

So, yeah, I go long on Saturdays.

 

[Llama]

Super impressive, dude!

 

[Cate]

Wowsers, Ben. You are a man on a mission!

 

[Ben_In_NC]

Wowsers, Ben. You are a man on a mission!

I dunno. If I were truly "a man on a mission," my eating wouldn't go as off-track as it does at times.

Speaking of eating, tomorrow afternoon brings the first little test of willpower during the cut. We're having a good-sized group of people over (around 30,) and some of the food we're serving is great...but isn't exactly in alignment with my health/fitness goals. I do have a plan for resisting. I've front-loaded my calorie intake so that I should be fine with eating in accordance with what I've planned for tomorrow.

LoseIt Calorie Goal Today = 2937
+500 = 3437

Calories consumed = 3435.

That'll work for now. Really just guessing in terms of how many more calories I should eat on long run day. I'll be paying attention to that over the next few weeks...

 

[Llama]

That's a lot of guests. I always struggle with knowing when to have a little bit of the "sometimes foods" I might otherwise crave and ultimately binge on and when to just avoid them altogether because a little bit would just make me want more.