Fit by 60! - TomO's Pledge

[bethann1156]

Hi Tom! Way to go on your success this weekend at the buffet AND super congrats on the 232.6 number...How sweet is that!!!!! Are ya walking on cloud 9 yet? You should be!

 

[brucev1162]

Hey Tom! Stopping by after my forum hiatus. Congrats on the weight loss.. I know it feels great too! Once I lost the extra tonnage I had.. my back felt better and my knees don't hurt as much! Great job!!

We need to do that Saturday Gym routine sometime soon. Looks like my weekends are starting to free up now that the move is behind us! Just let me know...

Later!

Bruce

 

[TomO]

Hey Tom! Stopping by after my forum hiatus. Congrats on the weight loss.. I know it feels great too! Once I lost the extra tonnage I had.. my back felt better and my knees don't hurt as much! Great job!!

We need to do that Saturday Gym routine sometime soon. Looks like my weekends are starting to free up now that the move is behind us! Just let me know...

Later!

Bruce

Definitely! My weekends are kind of shot until after Memorial Day, but let's do it in June.

One big benefit that I haven't noted yet is that I stopped snoring. Makes the wife a LOT happier!

 

[TomO]

Hi Tom! Way to go on your success this weekend at the buffet AND super congrats on the 232.6 number...How sweet is that!!!!! Are ya walking on cloud 9 yet? You should be!

Hi Beth, yes I'm actually on Cloud 10! Of course, I'm sure the scale will go up a bit tomorrow, but even if it goes back to 234.0, it's a nice taste of what's to come.

 

[Happychubette]

Congratulations Tomo. Thanks for stopping by my diary this a.m. I did make it out for a walk today but boy, after talking to you (reading your diary) I know I would feel better if I were doing some strength training. Good for you.

I am working hard at keeping my spirits up and doing the right thing. Today is better than yesterday. Tracking calories so good on that front.

 

[TomO]

Congratulations Tomo. Thanks for stopping by my diary this a.m. I did make it out for a walk today but boy, after talking to you (reading your diary) I know I would feel better if I were doing some strength training. Good for you.

I am working hard at keeping my spirits up and doing the right thing. Today is better than yesterday. Tracking calories so good on that front.

Thanks, Kelly. Glad you did that walk today, and I bet you are too. Way to go on tracking your calories. And yes, I bet you would feel better if you did some strength training. It's especially good for women, since they tend to lose bone density as they grow older, and strength training has been shown to prevent that.

 

[Kaitie]

Re: your post in cannon's thread.

I agree, this no child left behind crap is so ridiculous! Why put ELL's through the pressure of testing when they moved into the country less than a year ago! Why not accommadate them a bit and have the test in a variety of languages---or at the very least Spanish. It's really unfair. You should see the panic and fear in my munchkins eyes when they get this test and they can't even read the first question.

 

[TomO]

I agree. It's basically a way of "de-professionalizing" teachers. The whole idea is to force out the good teachers and leave the schools in such bad shape that no one will be able to argue with giving tax breaks to wealthy parents who can send their kids to private schools.

And anyone who thinks the end result of "every child left behind" isn't "teaching to the test" is nuts. Sure, there are some teachers like my wife who don't do that, but for every one of her, there are a thousand whose jobs are on the line, and will teach to the test in every way possible. As a result, kids don't learn civics or social studies or art anymore. We are training a nation of data entry clerks, but data entry clerks who can't compete with the ones in China and India.

This is one of the most short-sighted and stupid campaigns in education ever imposed on the schools, and it is no surprise that it came from the same people who brought us the most disastrous war in our nation's history.

 

[Risty]

Hey Tom, I'm so happy for you that you broke your plateau! And that it's the lightest you've been in 17 years, that's just great Good luck on round 4!

 

[TomO]

Exercise Log - 5/14/2007

Thanks, Risty. I'm ready for Round 4!

Steady State Cardio Day -- UGH!
StepMill - 65 minutes
1,019 calories
Max HR = 148 (87% of max)
Avg HR = 131 (77% of max)

271 floors
5.7 miles

 

[Cannon 2006]

Wow, lightest in 17 years is saying something. As annoying as plateaus are, nothing is better than that feeling when you finally beat one.

 

[TomO]

Wow, lightest in 17 years is saying something. As annoying as plateaus are, nothing is better than that feeling when you finally beat one.

Thanks, Cannon. Yeah, I've defeated three of them in a row. They don't scare me nearly as much anymore.

 

[CoachCrimson]

grats on busting the plateau, and on hitting the new low. havent had a chance to read all 71 pages of your diary quite yet, lol, but i am a little curious about something. i noticed in some of my random selections that you have hit over 95% of your theoretical max heart rate. what is the longest you have sustained your heart rate that high for continuous? also, i am curious to see if you will actually hit 100%, and maybe go beyond. you are about the only person i know who keeps such meticulous track of his heart rate. i have always been somewhat critical of the max heart rate estimations, since the ones i have seen are generally only based on age. and i say BAH! to age as a limitation, lol.

 

[TomO]

grats on busting the plateau, and on hitting the new low. havent had a chance to read all 71 pages of your diary quite yet, lol, but i am a little curious about something. i noticed in some of my random selections that you have hit over 95% of your theoretical max heart rate. what is the longest you have sustained your heart rate that high for continuous? also, i am curious to see if you will actually hit 100%, and maybe go beyond. you are about the only person i know who keeps such meticulous track of his heart rate. i have always been somewhat critical of the max heart rate estimations, since the ones i have seen are generally only based on age. and i say BAH! to age as a limitation, lol.

Hi Coach. When I first calculated my max hr, I used the 220 - age formula, which would suggest that my max was 162. However, as I got into better shape, I would hit 162 pretty regularly, and even have gone up to 164 and 165. So I looked around on the web, and found a . Using this, I decided my max hr was really 169 or even 170.

I can keep my hr at 95%, or about 161-162 beats, for around 45 seconds top. If I'm doing HIIT, or heavy intervals, I generally don't go longer than 30 seconds at max HR -- my oxygen just gives out.

The difference between 90% (for me, 152 bpm) and 95% is quite dramatic. I can sustain 90% for between 5 and 8 minutes, depending on how I'm feeling.

As for max hr declining with age, I have not seen any evidence suggesting this is NOT so. I've "tested" this with my 23 year old daughter, who's in quite good shape. She was just as exhausted as I was at 95%, but her limit was 190 bpm, a rate at which I would have literally been dead.

What is true is that as you get into good shape, age shouldn't deter you from going to 95% (as long as your ticker is OK). And the benefits to your cardio vascular system should also be equally beneficial.

 

[sirant]

Now now Tom....

I hope by saying you are ready for round 4 that you don't mean the plateau to come..... Thats negative thinking buddy. I burned a lot of incense this past week in your name. Actually I was a bit worried I might have moved your plateau over onto myself since I have slowed dramatically in the past week or so. Luckily today I am down into the 246 range, but not quite ready to adjust the ticker yet. But don't bother planning for round 4, plan on skipping over it all together. You can do it!

Good work in any case buddy. I knew you had it in ya! Hopefully your latest plateau buster will continue and I can get my butt going again and play some catch up. As it stands now it knocks my birthday goal back a week, but with any luck I can pull some good weeks before then and get back on track.

The scale gods must be pleased.....

sirant

 

[TomO]

I burned a lot of incense this past week in your name. Actually I was a bit worried I might have moved your plateau over onto myself since I have slowed dramatically in the past week or so.

I was wondering why this plateau ended 10 days early! Well, I seem to have a surplus of incense on my hands, so I'll send it your way. A lot of people don't know this, but the incense burned to end one plateau can't be used for the next one; you have to start over. So I'm burning it all in your name, pal. I bet yours will go away in a day or two.

 

[TomO]

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Weight: 233.6 - no surprise, I expected it to rise a little after yesterday's low reading.

Food was a 4 out of 5 for quality, with 2,697 calories:
Fat: 90 gm, 30%; 21 gm saturated, 7%
Carbs: 277 gm, 38%; 46 gm fiber
Protein: 189 gm, 28%
Alcohol: 10 gm, 3%

With my NARM of 2,345 calories, plus 1,019 calories from my workout, I ended the day with a deficit of 667 calories, and a month to date deficit of 6,432 calories.

I notice that my current body fat reading is 24.4%, down from 25.3% at the beginning of the month. I can feel it in my clothes as well. A pair of shorts that was just right a month ago is now getting pretty loose.

My goal this month was to get to 234.0, with body fat of 25.0%. I'd say I've got a pretty good chance of making it.

My kids are mortified that I buy all my clothes at Costco, but it's a good thing. I have a feeling I'm going to go through quite a few of them by the time I reach my goal. It's one thing to give away a $100 pair of slacks. But a $15 pair of cargo pants you got on sale - not so hard. Good thing I work at home, generally in shorts and a tee shirt.

 

[jlynne]

Hi Tom. Can you tell me what you use, or how you measure your body fat? I know you are not relying on that Tanita scale, but what are you relying on to get to that 15% in '08?

Many congrats on the on-going weight less and seeing your lowest weight in 17 years! That has to feel just great.........for you and for those grandkids yet to come.

Thanks, Lynne.

 

[TomO]

Hi Tom. Can you tell me what you use, or how you measure your body fat? I know you are not relying on that Tanita scale, but what are you relying on to get to that 15% in '08?

Many congrats on the on-going weight less and seeing your lowest weight in 17 years! That has to feel just great.........for you and for those grandkids yet to come.

Thanks, Lynne.

Thanks, Lynne. I use an Omron body fat monitor, the kind they have in a lot of gyms now. I cross checked it against measurements with calipers, and for me, it's pretty accurate. You can get Omrons from amazon.com for not too much money.

All the impedence monitors work basically the same way. You have two points of contact, and the device sends a small current through your body. Since fat has a different impedence than muscle, the device can use an algorithm to determine fat content. However, and this is the big "gotcha" with this kind of device, the portion of your body that's being measured must be a good proxy for your entire body.

This is why the scales work so poorly for most men. The current basically measures the fat in your legs and lower pelvis. That is typically where men do not have fat stored, so scale monitors can give a very low reading. My Tanita, for example, gives a reading of 19%, compared to the real reading of 25%.

The handheld Omron monitor uses your upper body (arms and chest) as a proxy. For me, this works well, but you'd have to look at your own body and decide.

Before buying one, you might go to the gym and get a free measurement (most gyms will do that as an enticement for you to sign up with a PT). If the reading seems fairly accurate, then you can get one.

 

[TomO]

Exercise Log - 5/15/2007

Cardio Coach, Volume 5
60 minutes
1,019 calories
Max HR: 163 (96% of max)
Avg HR: 137 (81% of max)
11 minutes at 90% +

I did this one last on May 5th. Here's my results from today:

View attachment 3446

compared to the session on May 5th:

View attachment 3447

There's NO difference, except for the heart rate, and it's amazing what a difference a mere 3 beats per minute makes. I just could not improve anything today; I was struggling to keep up with last time. I get so competitive with myself, sometimes I view it as a failure not to improve something. I have to realize just matching a high performance can be a victory in itself -- especially as I grow older, LOL.