2021 Fitness & Weight Loss Challenge

[JAD]

I never hurt myself by running longer, but I sure did running faster.

[pangloss]

I can hurt myself running in any sort of way. I wish Garmin awarded badges for the various injuries!

In other news, I just did 50 pushups (16+20+14). I can't remember the last time I've done 50 pushups in a day--probably 1998 or 1999...maaaybe 2012.

Sent from my moto e5 cruise using Tapatalk

[BehindBlueI's]

I never hurt myself by running longer, but I sure did running faster.

I did when I was dealing with my neck/nerve issue. The jarring aggravated things, causing flare ups of muscle spasms in my back when further irritated the nerve, which caused more spasms...

[0ddl0t]

Just some friendly BTDT advise, don't worry overly much about times until you get your weight closer to where you want to be. Don't stress your joints to the point of injury, because that's a sure way to board the roller coaster of lose weight, hurt self, gain weight, think you're healed, lose weight, hurt self, gain weight.... I wasted probably four years in that cycle and a lot of it was due to pushing distances or speeds I shouldn't have been.

It's also hard to make time gains when your nutrition is more about weight loss then recovery and when you're keeping your activity levels more even vs gains, rest, race day. The program you use will enforce that and you'll see gains, but just be honest with what your real goals are right now. Don't put chasing a time ahead of weight loss (assuming that's your real goal at the moment).

Yeah it is a balancing act between motivating myself with challenges and avoiding injuries.

Big goals for this year are to complete a half Ironman (late June) and potentially a full Ironman (November). It would suck, but I'm confident I could manage the full Ironman swim (2.4 miles in 2 hours 20 minutes) & bike (112 miles in 8 hours 10 minutes) portions right now, but I wouldn't bet that I could follow that up with run/walking 26.2 miles in 6 hours & 30 minutes. So building running proficiency & endurance is my main focus at the moment (continued weight loss will be nice, but it'll be pretty slow going from here and with loose skin it isn't like I can ever look forward to a beach body).

A 10 minute mile (achieved), 30 minute 5K (nearly there), and 60 minute 10K (a ways to go) are just proficiency goal posts I have along the way. I consider them roughly analogous to a 2 second 7 yard A-zone from concealment.

To give myself the best chance at avoiding injuries I'm following a plan & alternating days, running 3-4 times per week, rotating between 3 very different shoes (minimalist, traditional, maximalist), warming up/cooling down each time, targeting a cadence of ~180, and doing a fair amount of cross training/stretching/core exercises. I also have a pretty decent base for being on my feet, having averaged 10,000 steps/day for the last 8 months/100 lb and corrected my gait issues (used to be a fat-guy-waddle supinator, now neutral). But running is still higher impact and definitely carries a risk of injury.

If anyone has any other tips I'm all ears. I do plan to have a few sessions with a running coach after I've gotten the covid vaccine.

[Joe in PNG]

On the right track: 203.5 this morning.

201.7 this morning. Will celebrate with Tim Tams.

[0ddl0t]

6th week of 2021 check-in. These are weekly averages:

-- JAN 06 Dexa scan: 28.6% body fat --
Week___Weight_NavyBF_highBIA_lowBIA_Lean_Fat_Calor ies
JAN 01-07: 244.5__30.9%__31.9%__N/A____167.8_76.8__1811
JAN 08-14: 239.9__28.8%__32.6%__27.4%__169.3_70.6__2190
JAN 15-21: 236.3__27.4%__31.9%__27.3%__169.0_67.3__1834
JAN 22-28: 234.4__26.4%__30.6%__26.0%__170.3_64.1__1884
JAN29-F04: 231.4__25.5%__30.3%__25.9%__169.5_61.9__2103
FEB 05-11: 229.1__25.3%__29.1%__24.7%__169.3_59.8__2268

1 mile run:
Nov 15: 11:20
Nov 21: 11:13
Nov 28: 10:42
Dec 06: 10:18
Dec 12: 10:35
Dec 20: 09:59
Dec 26: 10:25
Jan 03: 09:24
Jan 16: 09:52
Jan 25: 09:00
Feb 08: 08:44

I'm getting close to dipping below the "obesity" threshold based on body fat, and below the "severe obesity" threshold based on BMI...

Category________ Lbs (BMI)___Body Fat%
Hyper Obese_____ >453.7_____ 76.6%
Super Super Obese >388.9_____ 64.6%
Super Obese_____ >324.1_____ 52.6%
Morbid Obese____ >259.2_____ 40.5%
Severe Obese___ >226.8____ 34.5%
Obese________ >194.4____ 25.0%
Overweight______ >162.0_____ 20.0%
Normal_________ >119.9_____ 7.5%
(weight categories for someone 5' 7.5" )

[RJ]

6th week of 2021 check-in. These are weekly averages:

-- JAN 06 Dexa scan: 28.6% body fat --
Week___Weight_NavyBF_highBIA_lowBIA_Lean_Fat_Calor ies
JAN 01-07: 244.5__30.9%__31.9%__N/A____167.8_76.8__1811
JAN 08-14: 239.9__28.8%__32.6%__27.4%__169.3_70.6__2190
JAN 15-21: 236.3__27.4%__31.9%__27.3%__169.0_67.3__1834
JAN 22-28: 234.4__26.4%__30.6%__26.0%__170.3_64.1__1884
JAN29-F04: 231.4__25.5%__30.3%__25.9%__169.5_61.9__2103
FEB 05-11: 229.1__25.3%__29.1%__24.7%__169.3_59.8__2268

1 mile run:
Nov 15: 11:20
Nov 21: 11:13
Nov 28: 10:42
Dec 06: 10:18
Dec 12: 10:35
Dec 20: 09:59
Dec 26: 10:25
Jan 03: 09:24
Jan 16: 09:52
Jan 25: 09:00
Feb 08: 08:44

I'm getting close to dipping below the "obesity" threshold based on body fat, and below the "severe obesity" threshold based on BMI...

Category________ Lbs (BMI)___Body Fat%
Hyper Obese_____ >453.7_____ 76.6%
Super Super Obese >388.9_____ 64.6%
Super Obese_____ >324.1_____ 52.6%
Morbid Obese____ >259.2_____ 40.5%
Severe Obese___ >226.8____ 34.5%
Obese________ >194.4____ 25.0%
Overweight______ >162.0_____ 20.0%
Normal_________ >119.9_____ 7.5%
(weight categories for someone 5' 7.5" )

Solid work brother. Keep it up.

[BehindBlueI's]

I've either gained a touch over 5 lbs in 3 days or my scale is acting up again. I wonder if it's temperature sensitive, as it's in the part of the house that's on a slab and is easily the coldest part of the house.

[RJ]

I've either gained a touch over 5 lbs in 3 days or my scale is acting up again. I wonder if it's temperature sensitive, as it's in the part of the house that's on a slab and is easily the coldest part of the house.

Any chance the feet of the scale are damaged?

I had an older scale that worked well for a number of years. It started to behave a little oddly (like, weight swings of a pound, two pounds, five pounds) over a week or so. I replaced the batteries, no change. Well, as I was looking at it, a teeny round metal disk fell at my feet. I looked and one of the little rubber feet (of 4) had deteriorated due to wear, allowing the pressure pad (there are four) to shift. The teeny pad was what fell out.

My theory was that the degraded rubber/pad allowed the scale to wobble slightly, resulting in unbalanced sensed weights from the strain gauges to the microprocessor, and the scale could not deal with that.

So we bought a new scale. Unfortunately, it measured about 4 lbs HIGHER in average weight than the old one...which was kind of a bummer. I did compare it to the scale at the gym, and the new scale was accurate, so we kept using it. Anyway, just a thought.

[BehindBlueI's]

Any chance the feet of the scale are damaged?

I had an older scale that worked well for a number of years. It started to behave a little oddly (like, weight swings of a pound, two pounds, five pounds) over a week or so. I replaced the batteries, no change. Well, as I was looking at it, a teeny round metal disk fell at my feet. I looked and one of the little rubber feet (of 4) had deteriorated due to wear, allowing the pressure pad (there are four) to shift. The teeny pad was what fell out.

My theory was that the degraded rubber/pad allowed the scale to wobble slightly, resulting in unbalanced sensed weights from the strain gauges to the microprocessor, and the scale could not deal with that.

So we bought a new scale. Unfortunately, it measured about 4 lbs HIGHER in average weight than the old one...which was kind of a bummer. I did compare it to the scale at the gym, and the new scale was accurate, so we kept using it. Anyway, just a thought.

Maybe. I had my son check it this morning and he'd gained nearly 3 lbs in a similar amount of time per the scale, so I'm pretty satisfied it's the scale. It started swinging 5 lbs or so before and I changed batteries and it was ok. It's a cheap one anyway, and rather old at this point.