Journey to 190

So, I've always been on the heavy side. I am certainly not as heavy as I use to be. I was in the 275-300 range when I got out of college. It's my goal to get down to 190 lbs by the start of the next golf season. Which in Ohio is April-ish. I plan on using this blog to track my progress. I plan on updated with workouts, food logs, recipes, and measurement updates.  

Current Measurements
Height: 72.5 inches
Waist: 39 inches
Weight: 230 lbs, my previous low was 198 lbs about 2 years ago. So I've been fluctuating a bit over the past two years. It's about time I really get my weight under control. 

Goal: Lose 40 lbs by April 1st, 2016

When I first lost the weight I went on a crazy 1500 calorie diet for about 6 months. It worked out to really get me started on losing most of the extreme obese weight I was carrying. Then I started just being more active, with golf and working out. I really got down in weight when I went on a paleo lifestyle for a year. My new plan is to try to get back to eating minimally processed foods and cutting back on the carbs. Luckily I like to cook. So part of this blog will probably be some recipes I come up with. I also enjoy working out. So I never really worry about my activity level. What I have a hard time doing is controlling my eating habits.

Method
Losing weight is pretty much burning more calories than you take in give or take a few things like hormones and the way processed foods can have an effect on your body. I plan on eating more healthier foods so this gets a bit easy. Luckily I do not drink pop, soda, or coke (depending on where you live).

Leptin is a pretty tough hormone to beat. It's a hormone in the body that basically keeps us from starving. It stores information like how much fat we have and the hormone can cause to eat more if we lose too much fat too quickly. This is why people plateau when they try to lose weight or tend to always fall back to a typical weight range the body has become accustomed to. The goal is to get down to 190 and then re-establish a baseline there. First to get there I need to figure out my daily energy requirements. This is a good article I found about 3 years ago on how to do that. It gives a very easy way to give a person a starting point in how many calories it takes to maintain their weight and activity. 

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/how-to-estimate-maintenance-caloric-intake.html/

To start out with the human body basically burns 11 calories per lb of weight a day resting for a male (it's 9-10 for a woman). If you are younger and have that lucky high metabolism then it might be higher like 12-13. If you are older then it might be lower like 9 or 10. Another aspect of this is actually the calories used to break down food. If you have a higher protein diet, it actually takes more energy to break down protein than it does carbs. This can typically range from 5-15%. 10% is a good number. The biggest impact is your overall activity level. This can increase that value from as little as 10-20% (sedentary lifestyle) to as much as 100% (heavily active). Another factor is just your overall body and hit's metabolic rate. This is nearly impossible to actually estimate and just should be considered in the fine tuning. If you are not losing enough weight, or you are losing too much too fast then adjust the calories as you go along. 

What I like to do is find out what my sedentary calorie intake is and then adjust that and bring in exercise. The goal is to never eat food to cover what I did exercising. This is a bad habit to form and can curb your weight loss gains. 

I found a good video last year. A interesting story on this is. The guy in this video went to highschool with me and was in my class. It's just strange how the internet can work like that. In his video he starts off with the same baseline as I found on that article I linked above. He breaks down how to find out how many macros you should be eating. By macros I mean Carbs, Protein, Fat. 

https://youtu.be/7cc18wLJW3k

My Estimated Calorie Limit & Macros
Weight: 230 lbs
Resting Calorie Rate: 11 cal/lb
Adjusted Calorie Rate: 11 x 1.10 x 1.15 = 14 cal/lb per day for a sedentary lifestyle. 
Calories per day = 14 x 230 lbs = 3,220 calories (this value has matched similar values in the past when I've actually used a daily activity calculator and put in every minute of activity I did in a day. This method is a lot easier)

Now since I want to lose about 2 lbs per week. To lose 1 lb of fat you need to burn 3500 calories. Given that muscle gain and loss. As well as water loss or gain in the body can cause weight ins to not show the true nature of fat loss. If you stick to a good program than in the end you should see the fat loss over a longer period of time.  To lose 2 lbs per week I will need to burn 7000 calories per week in deficit, or 1000 calories per day.  

Calories per day = 3220 - 1000 = 2220 calories per day limit.

Of that 2220 calories per day I am going to try to hit these macros. 

Protein: 1.0 grams per lb = 230 grams = 920 calories
Fat: 0.35 grams per lb = 80 grams = 720 calories
Calories remaining = 580 = 145 grams of Carbs

Before I go into what I am going to identify as the type of food I want to eat. My philosophy on fat intake is that saturated fats are not bad as people think they are. You heard me right. There are plenty of threads on the forum that go on a lengthy debate on this subject. For those who have argued with me on this subject, do not start the argument here. In the end, I will probably eat a good amount of red meat. I will probably eat butter, bacon, avocados,and lots of eggs. I do eat a lot of lean meats as well.  

Like I said before I had success under the paleo diet. I plan on getting close to that again. Here is a list of things I am limiting myself on in terms of carbs allowed. This might expand as I do more research on recipes I want to try. 

Carbs Allowed: All vegetables, Steel Cut Oats, Brown Rice, Quinoa
Carbs Not Allowed: Any sort of sugar unless on a rare special treat. Processed breads or products with flour. 
Meats minimally allowed: Processed meats like hot dogs

Activity Plan
I am not a big fan of running. I never could get use to running outside. If I do run I tend to do HIIT training on a treadmill. I prefer to do complex weight lifting and circuit training. How much can I push myself in 30-45 minutes. By the end I want to make it very hard for me to want to get off the ground.

I find it fun because you can really mix it up. It also brings in weightlifting and cardio together. I plan to post my workouts. I don't know if I want to keep track of how much I can lift. I really don't do progressions. I am not really looking to increase how much I can lift, though I will increase the weight if it becomes too easy. 

My typical exercises have been around using Yoga, Circuit Training, Pilates, and typical weight lifting. I like to really focus on my core and hip area. I really work on my glutes, hip flexors & adductors, quads, and abdominals. For me golf is a full body action so I tend to do full body workout routines. This typically lends towards complex movements which also tend to push the heart rate as well and burn more calories than isolation exercises. 

I am hoping to work out 4-5 times a week, mostly during my lunch breaks at work. I also have a Planet Fitness membership where I can go on the weekends or after work if I wasn't able to work out during lunch. I might start working out before work as well as a change of pace. 

So that is about it. I hope I can make my goal in 5 months time. It's ambitious but it's something I need to do to better my life and to make me a better golfer.