Last Week Of February

Last week of February and I'm feeling super lean. I've kept to my diet about 97% percent of the time. Weight has remained pretty much the same, but the abs are totally exposed - especially in the am. We'll see.

UPDATE

Ok...the data are in. I'm officially in the single digits of body fat percentage. This morning the calipers read 9.3%. Ah...the thrill of victory!

Counterintuitive Progress

Since Monday I've upped my daily calories by about 200-300. I've also limited my cardio to only a half hour a day - most of which is low intensity. Today I hopped on the scale and weighed 160 even. I feel super muscular and my abs are really starting to appear. Even in the evening after 6 meals my abs are still visible.

Bodybuilding is often counterintuitive, I've found. You'd think doing more (as in dieting more rigorously, doing more cardio - and in some instances lifting weights more often) would get you more results. But the precise opposite is often the case.

So, I get to eat more (which not only makes my body look more muscular and leaner, but also has given me more energy and revitalized my face), exercise less and look better. It's a no-brainer.

Making Adjustments According to Results

So, I've decided that my early start at peak fitness is really propitious in that it gives me plenty of time to figure out how my body works. As Tom Venuto sagaciously suggests, the bottom line is really about your results and that according to them, one must make adjustments. It's getting the right energy balance that produces fat loss. That's the key distinction. It's not a question of simply doing more or eating less (although that is obviously the underlying principle to successful fat loss). One must also eat enough and not burn too much. Too few calories or too many burnt calories will not result in successful fat loss. (i.e. Biggest Loser)

A female bodybuilder informed me yesterday that she did not lose the last of her fat until she upped her daily calories to 2,000. The increase in calories fed her muscles. They, in turn grew and ate up the remaining fat on her body - body fat that would not go away when she was consuming 1500 calories a day.

This to me is very fascinating. It's counterintuitive, to say the least. So, what I'm going to do is up my calories by, say, 200 a day. I'm going to keep my cardio between 30-40 minutes a day. Plus, I'm going to hit my weight training very hard. Next Monday I'll have my body fat measured again and adjust my diet accordingly. I'm not concerned with "weight." I'm concerned with body fat percentage only.

Some Changes

Per Kimberly Anatra's request, I'm going to cut down my cardio a bit (half hour a day - maybe a bit more). I'm also going to eat a larger breakfast. Today I had 3/4 cup of oatmeal for breakfast instead of half a cup. The caloric value of my breakfast was 484 calories. My mid-morning meal, however, will be a scoop of protein powder (120 calories) and half a banana (70 calories) for a total of 190-200 calories.

Having skipped cardio yesterday and slept most of the night, I feel incredible this morning. Body is super lean, too even though my weight is up about a 1lbs and a half.

Room For Improvement

Well, I bit the bullet today and had my bodyfat percentage measured. Turns out I'm at 10.6% body fat (I had suspected to be about 9 or so). The good side is that I look pretty darn lean for that percentage. I'm excited to see what results will accrue when I drop another couple of percentages. I have 142 pounds of lean muscle. By adding a zero to that number and multiplying it .20 you can figure out how many calories you can eat. (Clarification coming soon) For me it comes out to about 1800 calories (although I think that might be high). Upward and onward!

Today I'm exhausted - no doubt owing to the extremely extensive cardio work and multiple egg-white based meals over the weekend. I'm skipping cardio for the first time in 7 days. My body needs a rest. My head is a little tweaked out.

Also, I'm not sure I want to lose anymore body weight. In fact, I'd like to simply concentrate on body fat percentage. This really is, at least at this point, all about body fat and not so much "weight."

I'm also going to experiment this week by doing only a half hour of cardio every day. And instead of eating 5 meals, I'm going to eat 6. My last meal will consist of cottage cheese or yogurt with raw oats. Even if my weight should go up, I'm interested in seeing what my body fat reading will be next Monday. Part of the reason I chose January 1st as my starting point (and not the spring as many do) is because I want to be able to figure this stuff out with leisure and in a spirit of cool dispassion. Also, since this is my profession, I'd love to be able to say that I did it, that I know the science of fat loss experientially. Besides, the idea of maintaining 6-8 % body fat is very tempting - if it is, in fact, possible. We shall see.

Proof in the Pudding

Exactly one month from my promise to not make any exceptions on my diet and to increase my cardio between 4-5 days to 7 days a week and the results are in. Does cheating matter? Does it really stoke the metabolism and actually facilitate fat loss? Well, I intuitively knew it didn't much like I knew that spending a whole bunch of money once or twice a week didn't do much good for your budget. But now the facts are in.

On January 1st I weighed 165.5 and today on February 1st I weighed in at 159 first thing in the morning - and 158 after doing some cardio work. That's a loss of 6 lbs. But even if we grant that some of it is water weight, it's still significant. My body is changing drastically.

Moral of the story; Everything counts. Especially calories.