October 9th, 2008
Weight Loss
I have been working out off and on for about a month or so. I wanted to note the following as I proceed to the next phase of my goals – one of which is to lose weight and increase muscle and have a body like Van Damme by time I am 33. I am 31 now. Good luck with that you arrogant son of a gun… 🙂
Where am I today?
I adjusted a vegetarian diet back in May of 08. Back then I weighed about 210-215lbs. I call it a “fast” so I don’t freak people out. What do you mean you don’t want to eat dead animals? Is there something wrong with you? I could ask – have you ever looked one of these animals in the eyes as it was being killed? No? I didn’t think so – let me eat my rabbit food in peace please 🙂
I have been told my numerous individuals that I “look better” since doing the vegetarian thing; however, my weight is now come back up between 225-230lbs and I am not happy about this. 🙁
Digging far back into the ol’ mathematics memory bank, I decided that I needed to look at the body as a differential equation of sorts. It seems that relationships are much the same and I have noticed that many things in life tend to have analogies else where on how things really work behind the scenes. For example, there are equations in the electrical and mechanical world that are basically the same but just use different methods of representation… for example, a capacitor stores / dampens electrical energy and so does a compressed spring. You may remember physics from back in high-school that the equations for modeling eletrical and physical things are often very much the same even when looking at very different things. A spring and capacitor may be a bad example, but I hope you get the point.
So, for some reason, ever since 3rd grade I have been over weight. I played outide, sports, worked, etc. yet was still overweight. I do know what started it – bologna sandwiches all summer long with a grandpa who thought I was starving even though mom fed us very balanced meals. Something then triggered either genetically or I somehow managed to reprogram my body to retain fat during that summer and it has been the same ever since. I am now 6 foot 1″ and am often referrred to as “big guy” due to the bulkiness of my muscles. Sheaaah.
Here we are though today. I look okay, but I’d like to improve the weight thing for health reasons. Now don’t get me wrong, for the second time in my life – women are finding me attractive again. There seems to be some sweet spot right at about 220lbs where I start getting hit on.
So… here is the goal, lose 30lbs by next summer. That means I need to somehow spend 105,000 calories by next summer if a pound of fat is 3500 cals. If I currently go with the 2200 calorie a day diet and shave off 1000 per day – that could put me at the desired loss in 100 days give or take provided that the burn rate remains constant. That’s the problem – the body adjusts as caloric intake is reduced. It’s all very simple actually – they teach stuff like this in engineering classes. Since the body then compensates by dropping the metabolic rate – perhaps there are ways to better lose weight than starving for a 100 days?
Okay, is there another way? I’ve done the Atkins thing and it works for the first 20lbs or so until the body catches on. Ultimately, no matter what diet I try, or heck even since I have been exercising more and generally eating quite healthy – my body has still decided to convert bell peppers and brocoli into … fat.
I suspect that what may be occurring is that due to the vegetarian thing, I probably had a loss in muscle – not that I had any muscle to start with other than being a big guy. This loss of muscle may have then allowed for less burning of energy maybe. In addition, my body was somehow reprogrammed to gain weight when I was a young man. It must be reprogrammed.
Firstly, to counteract the lack of protein – I started working out and ingesting something called whey protein. I’ve been told that I am looking thinner – though my weight does not reflect it. Did I somehow gain 15lbs of muscle over 5-6 months? I doubt it, though my strength did go up tremendously within the span of 2 months. I shall continue with this program; however, I need to make some adjustments.
I’m going to investigate the role of the thyroid gland in regulating weight gain / loss. I may look at extra iodine for the old’ thyroid.
I’m going to see about accupuncture treatment for weight loss. I had been doing accupuncture to help with my blood pressure. It concert with other holisitic healing thingies, it seems to have dropped my blood pressure by 30 points in about 3 weeks. Eat your heart out Dr. Jinx – Topral XL and Diovan is for the birds…. the body already had what it needed to drop the blood pressure and I hope the same is true because I really don’t want to starve myself for 100 days thus resulting in further lowering of my metabolic rate.
Beyond this, I’m going to see if I have any food allergies that may contribute to a lower metabolic rate.
That’s all for now. As of this writing I weight 230lbs. I would like to weigh about 200lbs. 215lbs seems to be my lower limit. I had gotten down to 205lbs at one point, but that was during the early stages of the divorce proceedings when I didn’t eat for like two months straight almost 🙂
