Pheidippides’s BodyBlog

Good news is the scale this morning said 170 lbs and 19.9% bodyfat — the first time I’ve reached that low in either measurement since I started this a few weeks ago.

The bad news is my Achilles tendon is definitely sore today, not horribly so, but enough that I’ll probably catch some flak from my physical therapist later this morning.  It’s the last day of the month and I have a ton of work to do at the office anyway so I’m going to take the day off any exercise, give my tendon a rest.  I’ll have to lay off the running for at least another week and maybe try some biking or swimming.  It’s too bad, because as I ran along the river yesterday I could feel that old surge of desire to keep going longer and faster and I had too rein it in.  Got to take it slow now if I want to get back to it later.

I ran again this afternoon — 3 miles in 24:34, or about 8:11 pace.  The pace felt pretty good aerobically — not too challenging considering how little running I’ve done over the last 12 weeks.  It shows my aerobic work in the gym is helping me maintain at least a minimum aerobic level.

I think I’m pushing the Achilles tendon too much at this point, however. It didn’t really hurt, but there was just a bit of soreness, and according to my therapist I need to avoid soreness there altogether.  It’s killing me but I have to avoid pushing the running too fast.

Fortunately the weight lifting doesn’t seem to be causing a problem for the tendon, so I can stick with that.

even if the numbers don’t look that way.  I feel like I’ve gained some muscle and lost a bit of the layer of fat around my abdomen and chest, but the scale doesn’t show it, and my lifting hasn’t shown much progress yet.  I went to the gym this morning and did barbell bench press, barbell squat, stiff leg deadlift with dumbbells, biceps curls, and french curl, along with a few other exercises and some brief mild cardio time.  The slow gain in the lifting in part reflects my caution in avoiding overdoing it — I really don’t want to hurt my back or my Achilles tendon and get set back, so I’m taking it a little slowly.  My body feels like progress is being made, so I will remain optimistic.  I continue to have serious doubts about the scale’s ability to measure bodyfat percentage accurately.

I reset some of my weight lifting goals, now that I’ve been doing this for a few weeks and have a better sense (a) where I am now, and (b) what kind of progress I can expect.  The new goal date for all five benchmark exercises (squat, bench press, barbell rows, overhead press, biceps curl) is March 31, 2008.  The goals are not overly ambitious, I think, but that’s appropriate considering I also am trying to control my weight and get back into running, two things that don’t necessarily go with trying to improve weight lifting strength.

In my workouts I’ll emphasize these exercises and probably add in regular and straight leg deadlifts to make sure I’m working my back and hamstrings as well.

Ran 5 miles at moderate 8:24 min/mile pace in 42 minutes, followed by walking cooldown, along decomposed granite shoulder of bike trail.

This was my longest run by far since August.  Achilles tendon held up O.K.  I took some ibuprofen, iced it, and massaged it afterward.  It doesn’t hurt or feel swollen, leaving me cautiously optimistic about my ability to restart running by the beginning of 2008, with an eye on running a 5K by mid-spring.  I just have to be very careful.

I went easy on the food yesterday, and as a result finally saw some progress this morning.  Weight = 171.2 pounds, .8 pounds lower than when I started and about three pounds less than the day before (still suffering from post-Thanksgiving bloat) and 20.3 % bodyfat, about .7 % less than when I started.  Of course, both figures are within the margin for error, but they still represent improvement over the day before.

I will make a concerted effort to eat well over the next week, meaning the following:

1) eat just a little bit less than I usually would at meals

2) drink lots of water to keep myself feeling full

3) avoid eating anything after 8 p.m., except in very, very small quantities

4) no morning pastries or junk

5) fill myself with vegetables when possible

If I stay on track and do at least four cardio workouts (over 30 minutes each at over 75% MHR each time) between now and the end of the day Friday, I should be able to lose another pound by weigh in Saturday morning.

Still eating too much.  The problem is not sticking to a regular schedule and filching snacks here and there, and also eating a little more at meals than I need to.  I won’t cut bodyfat percentage unless I eat less.

I do think I’ve packed on a little muscle since I started a couple of weeks ago.  I’ve been concentrating on compound exercises like squat, bench press, and barbell rows — exercises I’ve never emphasized before.  I want to gain some strength and muscle while I lose fat, and from everything I read concentrating on these exercises is the way to go.  I get at least some cardio activity with every workout and usually try to get my heart rate up to a steady rate of over 140 or to 160 or so for shorter intervals.  I think I’m managing to maintain reasonable cardiovascular fitness even while I continue to take time off from running to rest the Achilles.

I’m shooting for some perceptible weight loss by my Monday morning weigh in.  Have to be good until then.

The day after Thanksgiving is probably a bad day to record one’s "progress" on losing weight and body fat.  Given how much I ate yesterday, though, the results aren’t too horrendous.  In 10 days since beginning to record stats I’ve gained 2.2 pounds and packed on an additional .4 % body fat to my frame.  I’m pretty sure some of that is garbage weight from eating too much in the last couple days, and with a few good days I can get back on track by Monday.

The good news is that some of my weight gained is probably muscle, because I’m making some progress on lifting.  I’ve improved my meager stats in the bench press and squat.  I’m going somewhat cautiously on both to avoid injury, and because I am working without a spotter.  In fact, the other day I was a bit too bold on the bench press, and I found myself with the bar against my chest without the strength to get it back up.  I managed to get out the situation by myself without injury (I won’t explain how).  If anyone had been watching (I don’t think anyone was) it would have been good for a few laughs at my expense.

So, lesson learned: don’t go to failure on the bench press without someone spotting me.

Today I went to the gym and did a little lifting and then spent half an hour at any easy pace on the elliptical machine, burning about 470 calories.  I did 12 reps of 140 pounds on the squat, which was good enough to surpass the goal I set last week for December 31.  I also did 10 reps of 80 pounds on the overhead press, also good enough to beat my Dec. 31, 2007 goal.  It’s less a testament to my fast progress as proof of the softness of my starting point and uncertainty of what goals to choose.  Until trying the other day I had rarely done barbell bench presses or overhead presses, and I had not done many squats or barbell rows in a while.  I’ve adjusted my goals upward, and set my goal date as March 31.  My goal will be to improve lifting standards only modestly while also losing a significant amount of fat and overall weight.   By increasing strength I hope to maintain or slightly increase lean body mass while I lose fat, thereby reducing body fat percentage and getting closer to my goal.

I can tell this Bodyspace thing can be addictive and can get out of control if I don’t watch out.  I have work to do, after all.  It does seem to be very motivating.

Well, now I’m very confused.  My skepticism about the accuracy of my body fat scale having been echoed by others, I decided to try the caliper method.  I have some calipers that I haven’t used in a while, and I took measurements of my waist, chest, and thigh, trying to follow the Bodybuilding.com article by David Robson.  I took several measurements of each, entered the results in the calculator in his article, as well as my weight and height, and the highest measurement I got was 12.04% body fat.  The highest measurement I got at my waist was around 16 mm, at my chest about 12 mm, and at my thigh 8 mm.  But I’m not sure if I’m taking the measurements correctly (I was taking them by myself).
There is no way that my body fat percentage is 12.04%.  According to the height/weight/waist measurement calculator lower in the article, it should be around 21%, which corresponds with what the scale is telling me.

I suspect the measurements I am taking with the calipers are not quite accurate, and probably would be more accurate if taken by someone else.

For the time being I’m going to continue using the scale as a means of tracking my progress, while being somewhat skeptical of  the numbers it gives me.