The big oak (Quercus) needs to drop some dead limbs!

Picture a rather large human, frog squatting into a loop of giant green rubber bands while dangling from a bar in a tiny shed while heavy metal blares. I wouldn't do it in public.

The bands came in a big wooden ACME crate along with an anvil, a portable hole, and a rocket. Meep! Meep!
 
45 stupid jumping jacks

BP
135x5x5
185x0 (stapled)

Squats
45x5
135x5
185x1
225x2x2

This felt really good I just don't want to overdo it. My legs are much stronger than my core right now.

DL
225x5 DOH
315x1 MG
365x0

About 1/3 of the way up my right knee popped loud enough to be heard over the heavy metal and box fan blowing in my face. A sharp pain at the moment, but it feels fine now and doesn't look like it's swelling. I just thought it best to drop it and call it a night on the DLs.

5 band assisted pullups (from now on to be known as supra pullups)x5

My grip felt like poop at this point.
 
So 317.4 today. That's up .6 pounds from last Saturday. I knew I would gain getting back into lifting and this isn't nearly the gain I expected. Last time was a 6 pound gain so this is 10x smaller. The good news is that I have hit the 50" belly measurement mark (-10"). This puts me halfway to the 40" goal. It also puts me past one of the milestones for getting my new bike.

I really thought I'd hit the weight goal first or at least that they'd be very closely tied. I would really like to be below 300 if and when I get the bike. I realize that I will have limited options for riding here as biking on any busy roads or highway is a bad idea. My wife's boss was run over by a truck riding a bike here and people do not look for bikes and don't know how to behave around them. I'm still considering the bike, but it's a big investment if I can't use it much. I have a hilly mile and a half between me and the first highway so I could ride back and forth on it and there are some short trails in the town where I live. I will likely take my cheapo bike to the trails and see how that goes. Either way I want to hold off for that 299.2 or at least get closer.

My hope is that once I adjust to lifting that the weight will start coming down quickly. I have high hopes for this week and I'm very pleased to be down to 50" belly. That's huge, but five months ago it was 60".

If I could keep a 2 inch a month pace I'll be below 40" before Halloween. The assumption is that the loss should slow, but I haven't had the usual pattern of rapid loss then slowing. It's been erratic in the short term, but very incremental and gradual on average. I'm hoping since there hasn't been a rapid loss that there won't be a significant slow down either.
 
According to the body fat estimator below I am 34% BF. That's down from 42% in December. I've gone from 21" to 18.5 inches in my neck measurement. That's 8% down and an average of 1.6% a month. Based on 25% being the cutoff for obesity, I lack 10% to be below the obesity mark. If I maintain 1.6% a month (1% per 18.5 days) I'll be below 25% by Halloween.

The weight would be 278 by Halloween at the current average of ~.22 pounds/day (1.54 pounds/week).

So stay on task and this Halloween will be a banner holiday.

Also, by my current rate of loss I will reach 299.2 on July 29th. I would really like to lose at 2 pounds/week which would be ~.29 pounds/day. This would move 299.2 to July 6th.
 
I think I've found a new signature line:

body fat = 29% "You meet the army recruitment body fat percentage standard."

What do you think, Quercus? Should I drop everything and join the Army?

Good work on dropping the inches on the waist. I'm thinking that's probably the main thing once the weight drops into a reasonable range.
 
Lyrics to an old song I was taught in elementary school originally from WWII era:
You're in the army now, you're not behind a plow. You'll never get rich digging a ditch. You're in the army now.

Me, I'm not in compliance. How does the Army calc compare to other BF measures you've done?
 
Army calc is a little low at 29%. The one that I posted the spreadsheet of (uses HT, WT and waist) says 32.2%. My little hand held gizmo (which is notoriously inaccurate) says 33.5%. The spreadsheet that calculates it without the waist says 36.2%, but pretty much every single method I've seen estimates it as lower than that. I think I'm just a large framed individual.

I do think that once I get down close to 200 pounds, I'll spring for the DXA test and that will be a good enough guide as to where I am.
 
View attachment 20683

I put a battery of obesity measurements together. It's unanimous, I'm obese! It will be nice to start meeting those goals. The waist to height ratio seems the strictest, but it is 37" for my height so it will be met at the same time a the IDF circumference goal. It's just reduced to 25% increments of % achieved. In other words it will leap from 25 to 50% complete. These are all achievable.
 
You're definitely on the right track. I hope your high hopes for this week pan out for you! I'm also hoping for some good results this week since I've gotten back on track. We'll see how it goes. Keep it up. :)
 
Thanks Mandy! I hope you week goes well too.

Today I push mowed, trimmed hedges, and lifted.

squats
45x5x2
95x3
145x5x5
This was much harder than I had imagined. I'm not used to the volume. I'll see how I feel by Tuesday and adjust accordingly.

OHP (overhead press)
45x5x5
95x5
I followed some good advice and started from the minimum weight on this with just the bar. It didn't feel like I had done anything so I did one set with a little bit of weight.

BOR (bent over row)
45x5
95x5x5

4 band supra pullupsx4
10 second hang
20 second hang

50lb dumbbell curls 1 set of 10 (5 each arm)

It'll be a long road to a pullup. The progression will go like this.
Stage 1: 1 set of pullups to failure + 2 sets of max time hangs until 10 reps is attained
Stage 2: 2 sets of pullups to failure + 1 set max time hang until 10 reps both sets is attained
Stage 3: 3 sets of max reps pullups until 10 reps all sets attained
stage 4: Remove one band repeat (sort of see below)

It will take a long time to get to stage 4, but afterward timed hangs aren't likely to benefit much so I would likely substitute replacing the removed bands in the same pattern as the timed hangs and repeat the stages that way.

I'm at 1,600 calories so I will need to eat a bit more. That happens when you keep busy all day.
 
You too missy!

spin bike
1 hour
avg HR 139
peak 156
min 93
1 min recovery 30 bpm

I had a hard time getting my heart rate into the upper aerobic range. I upped the resistance.

Also, GoT (Game of Thrones) is perfect for the ride. Right at an hour long and it keeps the attention.

2,300 cals today. Got a new restaurant in town that has lots of healthier options and lists he cals on the menu.
 
I love GoT!! I was reading the books but had to stop when this season started. It was probably a little silly to even start reading them when I did... I'll wait until the series ends and get back into the books again.
 
I don't have the books. I just picked up the 1st season of the show. I don't have cable/satellite/antenna so I find out about shows from others or when I stay out of town and get them. I've gotten sweat on 2 books so I'm probably going to stop reading on the bike.

DOMS had got my legs. I'm super sore and my weight is up 4 pounds. I'm lifting again tonight. I'm going to have to push through on the squats. I should have started lighter when I upped the volume.
 
2,300 cals today

Super brief jog as warmup

Squat
45x5x2
95x5x3
115x5x2

I backed off because my quads felt like poo.

BP
45x15
95x5
140x5x5

DL
135x5 DOH
225x3
315x5 MG + Mg

Assisted pullups 4 bands
5 reps
25 sec hang
28 sec hang

50# db curls x 12 (6 each arm)
 
Here's what my weight is doing as I get back to lifting.
I gained 1.4 pounds the week of the first session. from (316.4 to 317.8)

The day after the second session I went up an additional 5.2 pounds (317.8 to 323.0) which is a 6.6 pound total gain (316.4 to 323.0)

Today following a 3rd session I am back down to 320.1.

I've been on for calories except for one day during this time and riding my bike on non-lifting days for an hour. My belly measurement is holding at -10" which I reached last week. I hope that this decrease is the beginning of a losing trend rather than just a blip. I know what I am doing is beneficial to my health and fat loss, but it is still difficult in having patience with the rebound in weight.
 
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