I swam out to a buoy over the weekend from the shoreline of Lake Murray, probably 150 yards away, without resting or taking a break until I reached the buoy. I would’ve drowned after 50 yards trying to do the same last year.
It’s been a week since I first weighed myself at a thundering 344.2 pounds. As I said before, I’ll keep weighing myself every Wednesday morning and update here with my findings.
Drum roll, please…
Jan 21 weight: 344.2 Jan 28 weight: 338.2
I lost exactly 6 pounds in one week. Absolutely phenomenal.
I’ve never done before and after shots when undertaking a new diet, but I want to this time — since it’s the last. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture/video of myself when I first started my new lifestyle on the 15th, so the 28th will have to be my starting point.
I’ll post on every Wednesday, the same day as weigh-in, for the duration of this charade.”
It’s amazing looking at the video knowing that I’m looking back at myself, even though I don’t recognize me. Those shorts were 3XL I believe, with an elastic waist, and were incredibly tight on me. I was dying. I remember sitting down at my desk after filming the video thinking to myself:
“Hmm, 6 pounds, I’ve never lost that much weight before.”
Looking back at the first entries on 344 Pounds over the weekend made me think: if this is where we came from, how much further can we go?
Rest assured, we’re all going to find out together. I’m going to push the limits of my body and see how much fat I can lose, how much muscle I can gain, and see what my body is capable of doing.
I’m prepared to work for months and years to find out. Hopefully, so are you.
You have to count calories to lose weight, but you also have to actually record and track those calories throughout the day and keeping a running total.
Otherwise, it’s impossible to know if you’re keeping a calorie deficit.
Here a variety of ways on how to track calories:
1. Online calorie tracking – there are a ton of websites out there, much like MyFitnessPal, that allow you to track and monitor your daily calories through the web. Not only can you input the calories of a particular food item on these sites, but you can use sites like MyFitnessPal to actually tell you how many calories you just ate. It’s convenient.
2. E-mail draft – Many people keep an e-mail account open all day at work or school for that matter. It’s easy to just keep a running e-mail draft open throughout the day and just update it every time you eat something.
3. Notebook – You can just keep a notebook near you during the day to keep track of your calories. If you’re always on the run, just use a piece of paper, fold it up, and keep it in your pocket. Update it throughout the day.
4. Phone application – If you have a smart phone, you can track calories using your iPhone, Droid, etc. Just search the marketplace for your respective phones for “calorie tracker.”
5. twitter/blog/forum/etc - Track calories on a very public venue, including your blog, twitter, forum, etc. It does require some time, and constant access to the internet, but I tracked calories for for the 6 months of my weight loss journey online. It’s hard to cheat on your healthy lifestyle when you’re posting calories of everything.
Personally, I counted calories using a few of these methods, namely twitter, the blog, an e-mail a draft, and finally just a piece of notebook paper.
Do I have to keep tracking calories forever?
Yes and no. I haven’t “officially” tracked calories for months, but I always keep a running tally in my head on a daily basis. I’ve been doing it for a while though and it’s like The Matrix for me, meaning I can look at a piece of food made at home and as long as I know the ingredients, I can tell you with a margin of error of 10% its calorie content.
On the flip side, that’s something neither myself or anybody else for that matter can do at a restaurant. I can look at mashed potatoes at a restaurant and they can honestly be 200 calories or 800 calories. It just depends on the amount of potatoes, butter, milk (2%, whole, etc), etc.
Tracking calories is pretty straightforward, you just need the tools to do it and consistency. Track your calories every day and you will lose weight.
I was on the local CBS station, WLTX, to talk about counting calories earlier this morning. Take a look at a sample of daily calories, plus some information on counting calories I shared this morning with viewers:
I also have a couple of protein shakes a day (48g of protein per shake). When combined with whole food, I get just over 200 grams of protein a day — an important part of any muscle building diet.
I still hover around 2,000 calories a day. It’s true to build muscle one must consume more calories than they burn, but I’m still concerned about gaining fat so I’m not consuming too many calories in excess at this point. I am doing less cardio and eating a lot more protein and for now I seem to be building muscles rather nicely, so I see no need to change what I’m doing.
As always, I’ll monitor my progress and adjust my calories as necessary.
Finding the blog for the first time today? Glad you found us! I lost 144 pounds between January 2009 and April of 2010 and am now on a mission to build muscles. We’re a community of folks trying to lose weight, build muscles, and live a healthy lifestyle. We invite you to join our efforts!
