Week 17 - The Numbers Are Finally Doing My Head In!

So here's the thing.  I bought a new set of scales this week.  They really satisfy the geek within.  The Fitbit Aria scales would have to be right up there with regards to the those really wanting to get their nerd on in the area of....well.....bathroom scales....They of course have a digital readout that displays your name and that of up to 7 other individually recognised people.  They measure your bodyfat percentage (more on that later).  Of course they actually weigh you and display the number on the screen *yawn*.  Perhaps best of all, they connect to your home wireless network and upload the results for your viewing and analysis pleasure.  With your own account on the manufacturers website you can track all sorts of wonderful numbers like you Body Mass Index (BMI), calorie intake and Basal Metabolic Rate (there's a blog post in that little guy I can tell you!).

In addition to those features you can connect with other online services to pump in even more magical figures.  For example, the chart below is a representation of my average weight for the last 15 weeks based on my daily weigh ins.  I imported the daily figures for most of it.  But, my scales will do it automagically from  now on!  The dangly dots below the line are the days where my weight was pulling the average down.  The ones above the line the opposite.  It's interesting to see what the last week looks like after being ill and not training as much.  It kind of had a delayed effect.

Click on me to make me bigger!

Another awesome feature is that any exercise that I track with my heart rate monitor is also automagically uploaded to my online record and the calories I burn are offset against my daily intake.  Distance covered is also measured in the same way if I run as my heart rate monitor watch has a GPS in it.  All bases covered!

I now have to admit that it is not all geeky fun and games under the new measurement regime.  My new scales weigh me 1.7 kg heavier than my old ones.  That figure again 1.7 KG!!!  as a point of reference, the industrial strength professional type scales at my dietician weigh me in at 700 grams heavier than my old scales.  Given that the quality of those scales is superior to either of mine, I think it is safe to assume that whatever my actual weight is, that her scales are likely to measure the closest to it.

But, what does that mean in terms of the measurements taken with my old scales and tracking my progress going forwards.  Well I could adjust all the figures taken with my new scales down by 1.7kg once they hit the online presence.  In preference to that however,  I have gone back and adjusted all my old measurements by 1.7 kg in the wrong direction.  Putting that in the context of this week's weigh in....I was 500 grams lighter if I add 1.7 kg to last week's figure, but, still 300 grams heavier than my all time low the week before, even if I add the 1.7kg to it too.  I would have turned in a 101.9kg today on the old scales, but, it was a 103.6 on the new.  On the dietician's scales it would have been a 102.6kg and that is probably the closest to accurate.  Have I given you a taste as to why the numbers are, for the first time, bending my poor little brain a bit more than it can probably maintain for any length of time.

The resolution of course is to try my best to forget both the figures on my old scales and those that I might register at the dietician.  I need to just work with the numbers I see staring back at me with their happy little blue LED eyes sparkling each morning.  The amount of weight I have lost has not changed after all.  Everything has just shifted a little to the left so to speak.

Just quickly before I let you go, have you ever wondered about scales that claim to measure your bodyfat percentage?  Mine do and this week I did some research on it.  I was skeptical to begin with and as it turns out rightfully so.  For starters when I hopped on the scales the first time they registered me as having 41% bodyfat!  Now I know men are renowned for looking in the mirror and seeing Hercules rather than the Homer Simpson physique staring back at them, but, I was fairly dubious at that reading.  The next day I registered 18% and have ranged between that and around 20% ever since.

Any sources I consulted that were not selling the scales, all but wrote off bathroom scales as a reliable way to measure bodyfat.  From what I understand, the method used by these scales is to send a small electrical charge through your feet that makes a kind of circuit with your body.  The resistance of the electricity is measured and based on the principle that the charge will flow more easily through fat than muscle because muscle is more dense, the theory goes that a reading of a percentage of body fat can be taken by how fast the electricity makes the journey.  Sounds fair enough right?  Problem is that as we all know, water has a pretty gnarly impact on all things electricity.  Same goes here.  Now I don't know which way it goes, but, your results will vary greatly based on your body's hydration level.  It was put to me also that the electrical charge only forms the circuit used to take the measurement as far up as the top of your legs or if your legs touch prior to your hips only that distance.  The rest of the measurement is based on guesstimation.  Quite frankly that system doesn't cut it for me and I shall be looking at the figure with nothing more than a whimsical smile suggesting moderate disdain and the marketing ploy and half baked science behind it.  Did I sound like Sheldon Cooper then?  That's what I was going for....

Thanks for sticking with me till now.  I feel like my training is back on track and am looking forward to the week ahead!

Week 16 - Crossing the Line

It was always going to happen eventually.  No weigh in day loss today.  An 800 gram gain on the day.  On a brighter note, my weekly average weight was 400 grams lighter.  It might appear to be an easy thing to say after that result, but, I really am coming around to the weekly average weight as being the measure of choice.  On competition weigh in day, the figure on the scales at that point in time is crucial.  Prior to that the weekly average of weight taken every day really does seem to reflect the efforts of the week as a whole much better.

So what was so different about this week?  I've been crook.  Had a head cold that has meant I have only trained twice in the week and even then, not at 100%.  The biggest difference on weigh in day was not training fully on the day before.  That usually tips the scales dramatically, but, also directly impacts the average for the week, albeit in the right direction.  In some ways I think it is good practice for if\when I might have to 'make weight' for a competition.  Although I think I would use other methods beside exercise to extract water from myself before rehydrating for the actual competition.  No use expending unnecessary energy that could be used in a bout.  That however, is a completely different blog post!

The chart below tracks my weekly weight change since I started 16 weeks ago.  The purple line denotes a 1kg loss for each week as a goal, the blue line is my weigh in day weight and the green line that starts a couple of weeks in is the average of my daily weight checks for that week.  It's an updated version of the one I posted in Week 7.  You can see that this week saw that average weight match up exactly with the 1kg per week point.  Hence that line has been crossed.  I have been somewhat pleasantly surprised that it has taken this long in all honesty.

I knew this day would come and I would have to reassess my goals.  I think it is pretty healthy to revisit goals periodically and that there are obvious checkpoints that present themselves along the way.  That's not just in weight loss of course.  It goes for all kinds of endeavours.  The question of mind does also pop up.  Now that the 'easy' losses are undeniably over, do I have the mental strength to push on?

Something I spoke about a couple of weeks ago in my Biggest Guy in the Room post, was the psychology of turning up the difficulty on training by not being able to use muscle over technique.  The underlying theme is really what will be the reaction to things generally becoming more difficult.  When it comes to going from mediocre to good, or from good to great, are you willing to do the extra hard work that it takes?

The extra work on the weight loss front means putting more in on the training front.  But vastly more important than that in terms of results on the scales for me is really tightening up what goes in my mouth.  To this point I have been good with my food intake.  Quite good really.  But perhaps not good enough to get where I ultimately want to be.  To maximise the outcomes of weight loss from here and by that I mean lose fat and not muscle, even if it is at a goal of 500 grams (or less) per week, means getting a little more obsessed about the food I put on my plate and it is more than just counting calories.  It's making the calories count!  I know I could actually be consuming a higher volume of food if I made more intelligent food choices for my daily calorie allotment.  That has always been my biggest issue though.  I don't drink.  I don't smoke.  I don't gamble or do anything that I think can be considered one of the more common social 'vices' (I won't profess to being an angel though).  My problem has always been just liking to eat and I think this will be harder work for me than nearly anything that I do on the training front.

I like to think of doing well in this process as being a metaphor for success in most endeavours in life.  Whatever you are trying to achieve great things in is going to be hard work.  Achievement of great things is measured on an individual basis. There is no challenge in eating healthy for some people.  They might have a ridiculous metabolism and can eat anything they want with no apparent impact.  Or they may just be able to say no to things that aren't great for them in the same way I can with cigarettes for example.  Not smoking doesn't phase me in the slightest and I have never been interested in even taking a single puff.  For someone that loves to smoke, not doing so would be an entirely different proposition.  For many I suspect that quitting smoking is tantamount to achieving greatness.  For others, it might be going back to school and learning to read (how much I admire someone who does that).  For me it will be not only meeting the strict dietary requirements of what it will take to make light heavyweight, but, more so making that a habitual change for life.  While Martial Arts is the vehicle for change, the ultimate greatness of this journey will be where I am at in a few years time.  Will I still be living lightheavy?  Do I have what it takes?  Let's find out shall we...

Week 15 - How Dense Can You Get?

An interesting week on the scales where the debate between focussing on the weigh in day or average weight for the week continues.  This morning I recorded a 1.6kg loss on the day.  This was very surprising given that I was expecting around 500 grams.  Funnily enough, 500 grams was my average weight loss this week.  What may sound strange is that I would prefer the 500 grams at the moment.  I am mindful that dropping weight too quickly at this stage will mean that most likely I am sacrificing muscle density.  Which of course is inevitable to some degree but not the outcome I am looking for overall.

The most probable cause of my big drop today was lack of proper rehydration after my training session last night.  I don't know about everyone else, but, I sweat a lot and pumping water back in at a ratio of 1.5:1 (as in 1.5 litres for every 1 litre of sweat lost) as instructed by the Dietician, is a hard thing to do when you can drop 2 litres of fluid in a single tough training session.  So I'll expect a correction tomorrow and hope that I can come close to today's weigh in next week or I could be facing my first gain!  Regardless of that, I weighed in at 101.6 kg today, which is 17.8 kg lighter than I was at the start of February.  I am a little sad and proud at the same time to confess that I am also now in the order of 40 kg lighter than I was at my heaviest a couple of years ago.  At the same time I am very happy that those days are behind me.  At some stage I'll put up a comparative "before and after" photo, but, maybe only if I get enough requests....

Anyone heard of calorie density?  I first came across the concept on the website I use to keep a food diary.  Whilst on the topic of a food diary, I can really recommend both keeping one and the CalorieKing website.  As I understand it from various sources, an incredibly high percentage of people who not only succeed in weight loss, but, also maintain the loss longer term, track their food intake in something like a food diary.  The CalorieKing website is a free resource that not only helps you record what you eat, but, has a massive database of everyday foods that you can search and click to add to your food diary on the site.  It also tells you the all important macronutrient content of the food and even the micronutrient content if you are interested in diving a little deeper.  Even if you don't go to a dietician, the site also gives guidance on daily calorie and macronutrient intake based on your current age, height and weight as well as your weight goals.  I have adjusted my macronutrient targets based on my Dieticians recommendations, but, I can confirm that when I followed just the website's suggested approach I have lost up to 30kg in a previous effort.  Unsolicited plug ends here!

Hmmm..Bang for your calorie buck?  I think not!

So calorie density.....also known as energy density as per the article written by Dr. Barbara Rolls, Energy Density and Nutrition in Weight Control Management, is a pretty simple concept really.  The foods that we know are bad for us have more calories per gram in them than the foods that we know are good.  Well the theory is a little bit more detailed, but, that is the basic premise as I read it.  Dr. Rolls describes the importance of understanding the energy density of the foods we in when trying to lose weight.  She explains that 1 gram of fat has 9 calories in it.  Whereas 1 gram of protein has only 4 calories.  So a diet that lowers your fat intake will obviously help in the weight loss department given that what we are really talking about in a balanced diet is meeting our nutritional requirements within a given number of calories that will sustain a healthy weight.  Too many of calories will result in the body storing fat in commensurate levels to the amount of calories we consume in excess of our body's needs.  Conversely a net deficiency in the caloric intake for any given day will result in the body diving into fat reserves to burn as the fuel needed to sustain life.  So basically, eat a few less calories than you need and you will drop some kilos.   PHEW.....I should have issued a big word alert for that lot.  Didn't know I had it in me did you!

Of course a balanced diet does include the right mixture of those all important macronutrients and fat is one of them, along with protein and carbohydrates.  What I take away from the calorie density story is that if you measure food by weight, then foods with a high fat content have more calories per gram.  Well derrrr....The other big thing in the theory is about water content.  The killer thing about healthy foods that have lower calorie density (that is less calories per gram of food) is that they tend not to be as filling as foods with a yummy high fat content (Did you know that fat aids your taste buds in tasting food?  Hence fatty foods tend to taste better.).  Of course you can eat more of the good foods I guess.  For example, 1 medium sized orange is 68 calories, whereas 1 of those 'fun size' packet of chips has 104 calories.  Which one is going to make you feel fuller?  The 20 grams of chips?  Or the 230 gram orange?  But, if you want to be really smart about it, eating foods with low calorie density and high water content is the key to feeling fuller and consuming less calories.  Dr. Rolls study results showed that by adding water to foods you can reduce their calorie density and feel fuller.  She found that it wasn't even about drinking the water, it was actually about incorporating it into the food!  The study showed that people felt fuller after adding water directly into say a casserole, rather than by drinking the same amount of water from a glass and then eating the casserole.  Pretty interesting huh?  Well I thought so anyway.

If my summary of calorie density is about as clear as caramel mud cake (oh so yum), my fully endorsed site of the week, CalorieKing, has a good summary here - LINKY.  If the concept grabs you, the food database on the site also rates the food in it by calorie density.  So when you check on the food you are about to eat, you can tell what bang for your buck you are getting so to speak.  The more stars, the better it is!  Seriously, I only plug the website because it has helped me so much in tracking what I eat and to educate myself as to what I can eat each day to hit my calorie and nutritional targets.  I cannot keep it all in my head after all!

Week 14 - The Biggest Guy in the Room

I'm somewhat in shock after my weigh in this morning.  This week was really quite topsy turvey with regards to the settled routine that I have found myself in.  Social events on what are meant to be good eating days.  Training sessions on different days and times.  It did my poor little slightly OCD head in a bit....to the point where all indicators were that I would put on weight.  I expected a few hundred grams, which in the scheme of things isn't very much.  But.....damn it....I work hard to go down on the scales and every bit counts.

So to find another loss of 200 grams this morning nearly floored me.  Even better than that was that the average of my weight for the week was down 300 grams.  At this rate I will reach my goal in 2035......but, hey, who said I was in a hurry.  I am sure I can keep flogging myself until then.....Just joking.  I won't be happy if I only lose 200 grams every week.  But, I will take what I can get this time for sure.

We had a top flight MMA coach visit our gym this week.  From what I can tell it is relatively common to get in an outside expert to train specific things or even just share their expertise and perspective on their particular discipline.  There even appear to be promoters who will bring out top coaches or ex-fighters from overseas to run seminars (or workshops as I call them).  You may recall that I went on one such seminar not so long ago and shared some of the experience in a previous post - An Unexpected Pleasure.  This session was a little different as it was set up directly by our coach and it was his coach running it.  That personal connection makes it all the more meaningful in my opinion and it was a great night to be involved with.

One thing that finally cemented in my thinking on the night was something that has been circling around up there somewhat without me wanting to approach it directly.  Put simply, I am no longer the biggest guy in the room.  It sounds simple enough.  Even something that could be completely positive.  To be fair it is positive in many ways.  I am trying to get smaller after all.  I need to be downsizing if I ever hope to achieve my goal weight and to compete at light heavyweight.  It is also quite confronting in some respects as well.  Now stay with me for a minute while I draw a slightly left field comparison.

Wreck-it-Ralph - the biggest guy in video games

I am a professional computer nerd.  By that I mean I work in IT for a living.  More than that, as with most people that work in the industry I have a natural interest in geeky computer type stuff and my brain lends itself to a general understanding of the concepts involved.  Enough to keep me gainfully employed at least.  I have over the years also held more than a passing interest in computer games as is often the case with the nerd herd.  To this day I can still be found on the odd occasion to be logging into whatever the game of choice is for me and some of my geeky brethren.  Now before you judge....know this, as at 2011, the ESA study titled - Essential Facts about the computer and video game industry (that you can read if you follow that link), the average age of a video game player was 37.  I am now 39....so doing the maths....I am average!  Yay....I think.  So what's the point?

When you play computer games, generally you can set the how hard the game plays.  So when you are starting out, you set it at easy.  Then, as you improve, you up the difficulty level to keep it challenging and fun.  That's the theory anyway.  In fact, many people will play the same game from start to finish at each difficulty level just so that they have completely beaten the game.  Then there's someone like me.  I'm really not all that serious about it.  Not 'hard core' as they say.  I tended to play games on one of the easier settings.  Maybe a little too easy.  Just to get that sense of accomplishment.  I'd often try the harder difficulty levels and sooner than I'd like to admit I would usually end up losing interest as the 'winning' kind of drifted away.  I wasn't willing to put in the time to get good enough at whatever game it was to really beat it.  There were exceptions, but, not many.  Again, "what is the point?" I hear you ask.

I've reflected previously, that in my martial arts training, my size has often hidden my inexperience and lack of skill.  I have been able to muscle my way out of situations that would have otherwise seen a more skilful person win out.  Well, I am no longer the biggest guy in the room.  On any given day or night of training, there can be anywhere from one to five guys that are bigger than me.  Which to be honest is awesome.  Not only are they great people, but, for so long I was worried that I was going to break my training partner because of a size mismatch.  Now, with rare exceptions I can match up with guys that are at least as big as me.  Better still, I can match up with a wider variety of more skilful people and while in most cases I am still bigger, it is not so much as to mask where my skills are lacking.  Add to that the change in my mindset towards an approach to training where I want to explore all positions and situations, dominant and inferior and my drop in size is really opening up some new opportunities in my martial arts journey.  It also forms part of my exploration of what it means to be a good training partner and efforts to become one.  That's a good thing right?

There is a challenge for me in there that sticks out quite starkly.  The difficulty level of the game has just been turned up a level or two.  Whilst much of me is thrilled at the new challenges that are presenting now that the muscle option is not always possible, there is a part of me, perhaps where the confidence and ego dwells, that is nervous to say the least.

I was outclassed in a competitive session recently.  Nothing to do with size.  It was all about skill level.  After I got over my frustration at my own lack of ability in the particular discipline, I resolved to practice more.  Spend time practicing the fundamentals of the skills that I need to work on to be better.  I'll never be the best, but, it doesn't hurt anyone to be the best I can be.  The question floating in the back of my mind that came forward after the session with the visiting coach this week was around how will I react to the difficulty level being turned up a notch or two now that I can no longer hide behind being 20kgs heavier than everyone else.  To be fair, those around me are really improving their skills too.  People are genuinely getting much better and it tends to correlate to how much effort and time on the mats that they are investing.

There was also the opportunity to practice one on one with the visiting coach on the night.  I found myself excited and terrified in equal measure at the thought.  There's nothing to say that I would have been one of the few chosen for the privilege, but, I pretty much took myself out of the running by doing a fantastic impression of a  remarkably large invisible man.  Even though the outcome of that opportunity was made certain by his skill, not my size, the question remains, day to day, can my ego cope with not being the biggest guy in the room and having my deficiencies highlighted as a result.  The only answer I have to this point is, so far so good.

I'm enjoying everything about where I am training, what I am learning and generally the whole experience too much to find a new game to play.  It is the vehicle for the progress in my weight and health that has worked so well for me until now.  Why would I want to give it up?  Can you hear me convincing myself along the way?  In all honesty, I think I just need to process the changes in my own introverted way.  They are pretty big changes in terms of ego and impressions of self-worth in the context of what is at its core a competitive, albeit very supportive environment and my own desire to compete in this sport of MMA.

There are so many positives in not being the biggest guy in the room.  I guess sharing what I thought was an interesting part of the psychology might help me, if no one else.  So thanks for indulging me if you have made it this far.

Week 13 - Excuses Excuses

Maybe it's too harsh to call them excuses.  My results weren't so bad this week really anyway.  I did have a couple of days worth of illness that I wouldn't wish on anyone that prevented me maximising my training this week, but, that is about the extent of the excuses really.

On the scales, on weigh in day I was 200 grams lighter.  Interestingly, averaged over the week I was a full 1 kg less.  It's the first time that my loss was bigger on average than the single weigh in day result and the gap between the two figures that I track narrowed as a consequence.  I'm looking forward to how the results for next week shape up as I build back up to full intensity.  Still feeling less that 100%, but, I hope the week will not suffer too much.

I went back to the Dietician this week for a check up so to speak.  With regards to my diet and weight loss progress there was not too much to report from the visit as the results so far stand on their own merit.  The message that I received was keep steady on the path I have chosen until such time as there is a need to change.  Indicators for that are things like, a plateau in weight loss or a distinct lack of energy and the like.

Whilst it is of no great concern at the moment, I have been finding it hard to meet the macronutrient targets that I have been set.  Macronutrients are carbohydrates, proteins and fats and I have been given daily intake targets for each in grams based on my goal weight.  For example, I am to try and have 1 gram of fat for every kilogram of my goal weight.  That means that each day I should try to consume 93 grams of fat in my diet.  Believe it or not, when I eat well, I struggle to reach that amount and so I need to eat certain extra foods to get the overall figure up.  Vegetable fats are far better for you than animal fats (naughty animal fats...so yummy).  So it can be a case of cooking with olive oil or having some peanuts.  Even good quality organic peanut butter is good and one of my personal favourites.  It's important to be wary that the calories are high, but, in terms of the overall balance, the fat needs to be consumed as part of the broader plan as counterintuitive as it sounds.  The right fat intake will actually aid in weight loss as is the case with all of the macronutrients.  Balance is the key!

When I say I'm not hitting the targets, with the exception of protein, I am generally under the intake levels that I have been prescribed.  I'm not too fussed to this point. So long as things are not too far out of whack and I am not under in protein, which is rarely the case.  With enough protein, I should be able to maintain a good level of fat to muscle loss ratio.  After all, the main game is to lose that excess fat and hang on to as much and indeed build muscle levels where possible.  I don't use supplements.  Nor am I trying to be a bodybuilder.  I haven't lifted weights in years.  I am however, trying to maintain and improve my muscle density and strength through my training in order to maximise my potential in relation to my martial arts.

To that end, the second part of my visit to my Dietician was to start to track my weight loss in terms of body fat levels.  To achieve that, I had a skinfold test done.  This is where several predetermined points of your body (7 in this case) are tested using calipers to measure the thickness of the subcutaneous (just beneath the skin) layer of fat present.  The measurements of each site are taken between two and three times each to allow for any errors and then averaged and added together to give you a final figure.  There are a variety of scientific formulas that can be used to calculate body fat percentage depending on which points of the body are measured.  However, in the reading I have done on the topic, the variance is too great for me to bother with that and I am going to use them as an absolute value and measure the progress in those terms against a scale given to me by the Dietician.   I have found the same scale (pictured below) in various sources when researching the subject more broadly, so I figure it is a pretty good measure to go with.

My measurements totalled 88.5mm.  So if I am considered a 'Normal' male I would be in the 'Good' range, which is a pretty pleasing result really all things considered.  My Dietician put me in the 'Athletic' category, which I guess is a compliment albeit one that puts me back in the 'Average' range for the purposes of this measurement.  Realistically, I am pretty happy either way.  It has not been often in my life that I could say that I have been even average in terms of the dimensions or measurements of my body.  I would have been well into the 'Poor' range not that long ago.  What a difference 3 months can make.  I'll take that result every day of the week!

In a couple of months, I will go back to the Dietician to have the measurements taken again.  Assuming that I continue to drop weight it will be possible to determine how much of that weight is body fat and what percentage is muscle.  From what she told me for every kilogram of body fat that is lost where the skinfolds total is above 80mm you will drop 10mm from your skinfold test result.  Where you are under 80mm you will lose only 5mm for the same kilogram of fat.  So using this baseline result (rounded to 90mm for the purposes of the exercise), if I lose 4 kilograms of overall weight in the next 2 months and it is all body fat, my skinfolds would sit at 65mm.  If there is any muscle loss then that figure will be higher.  If it turns out that I am dropping muscle mass, then I will need to look at both my diet and training methods.  This will be possible from an educated perspective with the benefit of the skinfold test results.

I love getting my nerd on!  Nothing like throwing a bit of science and statistics into the mix of the sweating and huffy puffy work.  I'm just lucky that I have spreadsheets and calculators along with the marvels of the Internet.  Without those I would be lost as I don't think my maths or my brain generally could keep up...