Easing into a fat loss phase


It's only September 6th, but I know that losing fat is a slow process, so I'm going to start easing into it today. My schedule really doesn't call for me to start until October 1st, but I've decided that it will be less of a shock to my system to start it slowly.

My overall goal this year is weight gain, but I want it to be mostly in muscle, not fat, so I've been enthusiastically training, eating protein, all of that stuff. And since I lost at least a month with my shoulder strain in April, I wanted to give myself an extra month of muscle-building (in September - this month), but today I started worrying about how miserable it will be to suddenly switch over to salads in October, so, like I say, I'm easing into it.

Luckily for me I kinda have to "force-feed" myself to put on weight, and it's something of a relief when I know that all I need to have tonight for dinner is enough to not worry about being hungry in the middle of the night, and I can do that with a light meal, with crackers, and maybe some cheese.

I weighed in this morning at 168 pounds, and I'd like to keep my weight closer to 165. I can see a bit of "the pudge" around my waist from my enthusiastic eating in August, so it needs to be done.

Since I started this year at 160, my original plan was to gain a pound of muscle a month, and allow for three pounds of fat gain, bringing me to 175, but that may not be achievable. The last time that I was below 20% BMI I was between 155 and 160, and I want to get to that BMI by the end of the year, and I'm starting to figure that 165 (hard and lean) should be my final goal this year. If I achieve that, I know that I will have gained ten pounds of muscle.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Avoiding heartburn, and digestive problems during weight loss

Image
I just woke up a little while ago, have fed the dogs, and as usual early in the morning I don't have much of an appetite, but I did have a breakfast biscuit and am drinking plenty of water, including 16 ounces of decaf coffee. My goal nowadays is weight loss, but my goal always is to not make myself feel miserable. A couple of years ago I started feeling some heartburn (I'm not as young as I used to be!) and a good friend of mine recommended some over-the-counter meds that have been helping me to sleep (which was when my heartburn was at its worst, lying down). During the day I haven't been troubled much, until this past month when I started dieting. To my suprise, simply "putting a little bit on my stomach" does the trick for me. I don't have the appetite first thing in the morning to wolf down stacks of pancakes, but luckily it's not necessary. I have some breakfast biscuits in my kitchen, and I also carry some on my trike. They're called "Belvi...
Read more

Training to build muscle and avoiding injury

Image
Training to build muscle is a very delicate balance. You have to train hard and heavy enough to encourage new growth, but not so hard and heavy that you injure yourself, even a little bit. The strain that happened on my right shoulder last April was very minor, but it was enough to hold back my training for at least two months. Injuries happen, that's just the way it is, so you can't always avoid injury, but you can do things that give you better odds of staying healthy. And it's like everything else, it's not enough to just know those things, you gotta do them. Here's the video version if you prefer: One of the most frustrating things to do when you've been looking forward to a workout is warming up with light weights, but it's just the way that your body works. I'm old enough to know better, but there have been times when I've been impatient, and went too heavy too soon in the workout. Bad mistake! I just set out some weights for tomorrow's wor...
Read more

Losing weight with the whoosh

Image
If you've ever wondered if "the whoosh" is true when it comes to weight loss, I'm here to tell ya, it is. It may, or may not happen to you, but it's about to happen to me, and I'll see if I can explain my experience with it. I'm already a fairly lean man, probably in the low twenties BMI, which is perfectly healthy, but every once in a while I want to see my abs again, and I cut back on the calories. And it's very noticeable, as I start to "show" at bit, I suppose looking like the first trimester? It's only four or five pounds, and then I wake up one morning and it's gone. So if you're like me, I can tell you how long it takes, which is about two months of steady and consistent dieting. I've done this, or have tried to do it, many times in a long life, and I've discovered that the time it takes is exactly right after you've given up - you would have seen the whoosh the next day. Yes, I've given up on the whoosh mor...
Read more