Thanks for asking Wrangell....

Yes, I cited racquetball...even though I haven't been on the court for a month and I'm not sure if/when I'm going back. To be quite honest, I'm just not mentally at the point where I'm ready to take it off my list of activities. I just can't imagine not playing anymore....so I listed it.

My recovery is going very well, the physical therapist is very impressed with my progress....he says my rapid progress would lend towards my not needing surgery. He explained that the mensicus can heal at different rates based on the trauma/damage to it...since I'm recovering quickly, he's optimistic that I'm healing nicely and this whole thing may be essentially a really bad sprain.

Not to sound pessimistic (sp?), but I'm not certain I'll get off the injury to easily. When I walk, I can still hear/feel a certain clicking in the joint and something, like a bad transmission, isn't quite right. I can't imagine it'll go away over time...so we'll just have to follow the PT and see how things progress & develop.

In the meanwhile, on Friday (yesterday) I returned to my spin-class for the first time since the injury. I think I noted this earlier in my journal. I did the whole hour & 20-minutes w/o problem....but I did notice that even a modest effort drove my HR up to where it used to be at a higher degree of intensity, so I suppose I lost some oomph with my 30-days down. Also (to no surprise) riding 'out of the saddle' proved a bit uncomfortable. The knee wasn't sore afterwards nor today...so I'm hoping it only gets better from here.

The good news is that over the course of these last 30 days I've really hammered on my upper-body and focused my cardio with the swimming. I broke my swimming record by swimmign 4-miles (130 laps across & back in the indoor Olympic pool) and worked the weights between swim days....as a result, I think I made some progress on my chest...and I managed not to gain weight. You may recall how concerned I was that if I stopped with my massive cardio I'd regain weight. What I noticed was a drop in appetite during this less active period.

This made me realize something. The body knows what the balance is; it has a means to know when you're not eating enough and running in a deficit. I can exercise more and eat more, or exercise less and just eat less: the net results are about equal. When the injury cost me the spinning/racquetball...it removed about 8 hours of cardio from my week, which is about 4,600 calories. In the end, I merely had to reduce my daily caloric intake (on average) about 650 calories. It wasn't too difficult, to no surprise I wasn't as hungry. Anyways, now that I have spinning back, I'll get back my 3,200 burn per week....but to really make weight-loss progress, I'll have to lean-out when it comes to replacing those calories.

So it makes me think...is this what it takes? To lose weight I must endure hunger and deprivation? Many dieticians will say "NO, you should not be hungry on a proper diet".....ya know what, I say that's bull. The body knows when it isn't getting enough and it darn well does it's thing to provoke you to eat. You can fool it with a large glass of water and maybe go heavy on the bulky vegetables...but it'll catch up to you sooner or later.

Ya know, I've been crazy-hungry and made myself a HUGE salad, and then had some vegetable soup, and then lots to drink. Yes, my stomach feels full and I can sense the capacity of my stomach being filled....but I can also feel that hunger still driving me. Perhaps I'm just tuned into my body this well, but it's as if I can still feel the low blood sugar and my body saying "Thanks for the salad and all the bulky low-calorie food....but dude; we need us some SUGAR in the blood and until you give it to us, you're going to feel the need to feed. The only thing that seems to work for me is hitting the Dark Chocolate, the stuff with high cocao (not cocoa, cacao)....to some degree it just gets the body to chemically feel what it's chasing to stop the hunger.

Hmm....a lot of this is self-reflection, but maybe someone will read this and it'll be food for thought.

On another note, I've been checking-out knee braces. Despite what we're lead to believe, most my doctor friends are telling me that the braces really won't help or even reduce the liklihood of a recurring injury. Apparently the load is just too much for a brace to handle. My PT-guy says they've done studies and the incidence of injuries was the same for football players who wore braces vs. those who didn't. Go figure. I still plan to get one, if it can lend some degree of stability and help..why not. It's said that the brace, more then anything, just helps remind you that you have a weakness that you should stay aware of.

Wrangell.....if you're still tuned-in....what are your thoughts on braces?

Anyways, tomorrow is my twins birthdays (turning 6) and I have to be up & ready to go to Olivia's Tea House in the morning....oh I just know it's gonna be fabulous!!

...and you're ignoring my question (the tri, running etc.)

Nice job on the journal BSL. Hope this doesnt mean you wont be making regular appearances in mine anymore... Speaking of which, I should be providing some updates tomorrow as things hopefully slow down a tiny bit with work and life in general.

OMG.....sorry for not addressing this, didn't mean to ignore it.

I have no time-frame on the triathlon..I just know I wanna do one....it's a "goal". At this point running is simply not part of the equation. My Physical therapist says I'm making great progress and he insists he's going to get me running AND teach me how to properly run. I'm looking forward to that very much.

Right now I can do a spinning class and I'm pretty sure I can bike ride just fine....but I'm still feeling sore on my knee and I don't have complete range of motion. Once I'm fit to run and can run at least 5k, then it's time to start hunting-down a triathlon. I'm told I should start by just doing a "sprint", the shorter distance. I'm not out to win it, just complete it. I know many will laugh, but I'm gonna keep it to fresh-water lakes for now. If this becomes a passion, I'll see about salt-water, but I'll have to train with a group....I am absolutely not comfortable in the ocean, let alone by myself!

Today I spent some time with my buddy the othropedic surgeon. Again, he does arms/hand....but he's seen my MRI's and has examed me. He says I have an unusual tear in my meniscus, it runs all the way from the front to the back. What he figures is that some 23 years ago, with my dirtbike accident, I tore it good...and a month ago playing racquetball I tore it the rest of the way. The sound/noise I hear & feel when I move my knee is a flap in the meniscus being moved around. He says I should just learn to live with it, but if it's a problem they can go in & trim it. He says, based on my recovery, it's very unlikely I tore or seriously injured my ACL....so it's just a super-nasty sprain complicated by a tear in the meniscus. I'll just have to continue with PT to see how things resolve. I'd prefer to avoid surgery, but I'm prepared to do it if it'll help.

Hey Betty....you do the 5k on the treadmill?...and what is NROL?

A good day.....

Weight-trained on my own in the home gym for about an hour from 11-12:15, guesstimated at 650 calories burned

Went to Spectrum and took the 5:30-6:30 spinning class, immediately followed-up with swimming a mile in the pool (about 37 minutes of continous swimming). Calorie counter said 1,580 calories for spin/swim.

On a good note, I met with a friend/paint-contractor that hadn't seen me for a year and he was just blown-away with my "change"...he said I used to have a bit pot-belly and double chin...and now he said he couldn't get over the dramatic change in my body. He commented on my "huge" arms, defined legs, etc. I hate to admit it, but it really felt good to hear. It's amazing how our own minds don't allow us to see the difference on account of the change happening so gradual.

I'm really happy with the way things are progressing...as the fat goes away and the muscle builds, it's all coming together and starting to blossom. It also makes a big difference what clothes I wear...if I wear the baggy shorts and a loose shirt, it all just looks big & tenty....but with a fitted shirt and my bike shorts, the look is entirely different; it shows-off the cuts & leaner nature.

The knee is healing, but still sore and I don't have full range of motion. Gotta stay on the therapy and hopefully things will resolve.

Anyways...

Calories "in" estimated at: +2,900
Calories burned: base metabolic -2,380
exercise -2,230

Results: Deficit 1,710

Sounds good BSL. What are you using to estimate the calories burned? Just curious because the numbers for the weight training you estimated are much higher then what I normally estimate for myself. BTW...Joker's Journal of Change misses your feedback.

I find it works best if you list what you DO, verses what you plan to do, or what you would like to be doing (ie:raquetball) We get an image of ourselves that we are this and we do that. But hey, that's so cal for ya. (i lived there 15 years so I can make fun)

i'm really glad you started a journal- this whole time I thought you were a girl.... shhheeeeeeesh,,, sorry.


FF

Yeah, I was surprised by that number too.....

I wear a Polar (brand) Heart-Rate monitor. You program in your age, height, weight, gender, etc and it projects the amount of calories you burn. I was weight-training for about 2 hours, but I had to take a few business phone calls and just rounded my reported time down to 1 hour & 15 minutes. In reality, the recorded caloric burn is reflective of the weight-training AND 45 minutes of just wearing it. The thing is, working-out at the home gym there's no delays like chatting with people, etc....so I tend to go from exercise to exercise, and the program assigngs more calories burned to a heavier person.

I think the unit is fairly accurate. If I mountain bike for an hour, it'll generally project anywhere from 550 to 650 calories, which is right on par for what those fancy clinical studies put such exercise at.

My goal is to do a triathlon....
And I hope & plan to return to racquetball when my knee gets better....

But aside from that, everything I've reported is stuff I've done, not plan to do. My thought is to report and track what I've done each day and how many calories I've taken-in. And I might mention what I have on tap for the next day or the week to come...but unless I do it, I won't be reporting it as if it was done.

nice work man! very nice in deedy!

What specific routines are you using in the gym? set and rep schemes?

Hey Steve! Cool that you started a journal.

Been reading through and I'm uber confused by your math and stats. First off, let me second that your calories burned estimates do seem a tad high to me (e.g., 1580 calories for 1:40 of spinning and swimming activity seems like a reach).

Beyond that...are you seriously training with what you believe is a calorie deficit that exceeds 1000 calories per day yet not losing weight (of either fat or muscle)??? I must really not be understanding what you're doing or your description of how your body has been changing lately (improvements in body fat % without weight loss).

Here's where it breaks down for me: When you take in fewer calories than your body burns, you will lose weight. Period. It might be fat. It might be muscle. If you think you have created a deficit - whether it is large or small - and you are not seeing your pure weight go down over time (that is, after accounting for daily fluctuations in water and waste), then you either are guessing wrong about how many calories you are burning (overestimating) or wrong about how many calories you are eating (underestimating) or both. Your activity level is what tells your body what to do with the calories it gets. But it can not create a surplus or deficit when one does not exist.

It sounds to me like you've basically been eating at around your maintenance level, but since your body NEEDS those calories to create muscle and fuel your activity, you are losing body fat while gaining muscle. This is not deficit eating. Not sure if that's your intended goal.

I'd love to hear what I'm missing, because there is no better indicator or explanation for what your body's metabolic rates are than examining the data of the past....

Let me figure-out the names for all these exercises and I'll post 'em up! Promise!

I never really thought anyone would care to read this stuff....so I'll have to be more specific since people are trying to make sense of it.

I got to the gym at around 5pm and just started spinning in the empty spin-room, at 5:20 people started showing-up and it was apparent a class was about to start (I didn't have a schedule). I basically just ran with the class (the 5:30 class) until it ended an hour later. In all, I was spinning for a total of about 1 hour & 25 minutes...and because I've been recovering from my knee injury and not biking much, it didn't take much to see heart-rates of 155-165, which only sends the calorie-count much higher then lower HR's (the thing obviously uses heart-rate to determine/project calories burned). When I walked out of spin-class I had about 942 calories indicated burned.

LOL...I then walked down the hall on the way to the pool and bs'd with my racquetball buddies for about 15 minutes....and by the time I entered the pool the calorie-counter was up to almost 1000. I suppose the "fair" thing to do is hit "pause" on the counter between activities...but if you think about it, I've got an elevated caloric-burn happening after 1.5 hours of spinning and I am burning those calories...so why not let the meter run?

Anyways, in the pool I swam my mile w/o stop and charged the whole way through...almost a HIIT-swim routine. Some of you may remember that blonde hottie (Melissa) I met a couple weeks back...well, we got chatting about the underwater ipod player and I got out of the pool another 15 minutes after I finished swimming, then hit the shower to rinse the suit & equipment. When I took-off the chest strap, I read the cal-burn at 1,580-something. If you figure I started into exercising at 5pm and wrapped it up in the shower around 8pm...then it sorta makes sense. I just figure calories burned are calories burned, obviously I'm catching some of my BMR with an elevated rate on account of post-exercise.....

If you feel it's more appropriate to hit 'pause' between routine transitions & hottie-chat, then I'll do it. But if we're gonna go that, we may as well take our BMR, divide it by 24 and subtract that amount from each hour we exercise?


Huh????

I dunno dude....I'm just recording what I'm eating and the amount of calories burned while exercising. Each day is different, as you'll see. I take what I eat and compare it to my BMR + exercise....I figure if I'm in the negative, I should be losing weight.

I'm gonna tell ya guys...I've not been to my nutritionist for about 2+ months now! He's a great guy, but we just can't seem to get it together. He likes to see people every week and I just don't dig that. He see's people who need a diet designed and monitored....I have never followed any prescribed diet, I feel I know nutrition well enough that I don't need remedial instruction. I do share with him exactly what I do eat and he's very pleased with everything. What I go get out of him is 2 things:

1) Accountbility
2) Someone to pester with my incessant training, nutrition and dieting questions!

At this point Alan (my nutritionist) is just a friend who I check-in with (usually every 3 weeks) to be evaluated. He weighs me, takes several body-fat% measurements and breaks down the numbers. I like knowing I'm to be evaluated....it's a 'bar' or form of goal. If we postpone a week, I like it...it just gives me more time to make further progress...and it pushes back the date at which he tells me I need to give him more money to set more appt's.

I'm long over-due to come in, and I've sent him sevral emails and he's been unresponsive....time to get on it!

What is happening? I'm definitely losing weight...I can see & feel it on my body, but I'm also gaining muscle. I really don't feel comfortable telling everyone here that I'm stacking-on muscle and looking huge...it sounds like bragging and sooner or later I'm gonna have to post-up a pic and I don't want to disappoint. And you know how it is, unless you look center-fold, it's embarrassing posting-up a pic of yourself on a world-open forum and having strangers see your flaws & 'what remains to be lost'......

I think I'd be more comfortable if I took the pic and did like SmithMachine and invert the colors (like a negative)...that way you don't really see my face and who I am, but still see my body. Ya know, I've got nothing to hide except everything

Back to your comment....I consider a "deficit" when more calories go out then come in, simple as that, no?

Today....

Breakfast:
2/3-cup whole-wheat protein-enriched no-sugar cereal with some raisons & 1/5-cup lite soy milk. 3/4-cup combination of orange juice, anti-oxidant green-machine juice and green-vibrance powder. Small piece of salmon, probably about 2 ounces (size of 2 small fingers). uh, say maybe 400 calories?

Snack 4 prunes, 6-7 almonds uh, maybe 240 calories?

Mountain biked with Noel, just under 2 hours....calorie counter said 1,180 calories. Again, HR a bit higher then normal on account of being off the bike for one month while recovering from knee injury.

Side note: Noel is 10 years younger then me, he's fit, relatively thin and is from Jamaica. When we rode in the distant past, he'd easily keep-up and beat me....today, even with my lame knee, I was easily WAY ahead of him. At one point he fell nearly 1/4 mile behind. But last we rode I was at least 30 pounds heavier and I've been spinning/riding for months, while he's been behind his keyboard and not on it as often. Still, good to clean his clock! He will respect my authorit-Tie!

After biking we hit some Mexican food. I had them prepare the machaca with chicken instead of pork, and no butter and minimal oil. In all, I ate the equivalent of about 2.5 eggs, 6 ounces of chicken (white, no skin), 1/2-cup rice and 1/2-cup beans. Ice-Tea with no sweetner or even artif. sweetner. I did have about 12 chips and there was some cheese over the beans. After 2 hours of exercise and a fairly light pre-load, it felt good. Noel noticed how lean I was keeping it. I don't know, I'm guessing about 1,000 calories?

Not too hungry for dinner, had one chicken thigh & some salad. Err....say 375 calories? I really think I'm counting light on the calories, could that post-ride meal really have been a grand????

So let's see.....

I'm gonna put calories in at 2,015 but since the evening isn't over yet, I may hit some dark chocolate, so let's just add another 185 to round things off.


Calories in: 2,200

BMR 2,380
Exercise 1,180 total out: 3,560


Result: Deficit - 1,360


Right now, all those beans, rice & protein have me feeling pretty darn full. Today, like yesterday, will be another deficit day!

Have you tried tracking your actual caloric intake for a week? I mean using measuring cups, food scale, and food labels? Might be interesting to see if your off at all on your estimations or if your right on the money with your caloric intake.

If you don't adjust downward the hours you spend doing activities from the BMR, then you are double-counting for that time. If you don't exercise a lot, the estimates don't get too skewed. If you're talking about a significant chunk of time, then it starts to matter more.

The question whether you are losing weight is not really a question about how you feel or what you see or how much muscle you gain. Those are issues of body fat % and body composition. If you are losing weight, your scale numbers are going down, pure and simple.

I can see you saying "Well, the scale is not a good measure of your health or your fitness improvement" because you'd be exactly right.

The scale IS a measure of weight loss. Losing weight is not the same as losing fat and gaining the same amount of muscle (or more). It means losing weight. Period. It is also the best statistical piece of information you have about whether you are deficiting - which as you note means just that: more calories out than in.

Most of us prefer to focus on fat loss for good reason. There are some athletes for whom pure weight loss does matter. For example, someone might prefer to sacrifice muscle that is not helpful to creating power for their sport (e.g., cyclists who climb don't want to carry a lot of upper body muscle).

Beyond that, though, there ARE benefits to tracking actual weight loss even if your GOAL is in the body composition department. Namely: weight loss gives you your best after-the-fact data about whether your caloric estimates are actually true. So, if you think you have a 1000 calorie deficit over a chunk of time and you are not losing approximately 2 lbs per week from this, then your math is wrong. You are not in that deficit that you think you are.

It may not MATTER to you that the math is wrong. And it doesn't say anything about the gains you are making anyway in body composition. Personally, when I'm guesstimating for myself, I rely on relative change more than absolute values anyway. I just don't understand people who bother tracking this data (e.g, logging or writing about the deficit created) if there is no after-the-fact check that your data is remotely correct.