SmokedDeathDog

It is really great to read all the accomplishments that everyone is having on WW. I am not using WW but it is good to see that it works. I am doing something similar but the one part that I don't have is a support group that you see weekly as you weight yourself.

I am on a journey to lose weight, down 50lbs today since I started sometime October (started at 305!). I have been averaging about 2 lbs a week. Over Thanksgiving I went to "Fitness Ridge", a Biggest Loser Camp for 1 week. While there, you ate between 1200 - 1500 calories a day and exercised about 5 - 6 hours a day. The part that had my light bulb turn on is when they talked about how we lose weight. They said if you eat more calories than you burn in a day, you will gain weight. They advocate counting calories and eating healthy. I have never wanted to count calories. I did a test while I was there, called an RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate) which tells you how many calories a person burns in a day without exercising. Once I knew what that was, I then adjusted my eating so I ate less than that in a day. Then if you exercise, you add those calories to the ones that you have burned. You basically control how much you lose every week by how many calories you are eating.

I learned a few things while doing this. The first is I can do a ton of moderate exercise without consuming a ton of calories. On the 4th day at Fitness Ridge I did hit a wall while on my morning hike. I didn't have the energy that I had earlier. It was like that for the rest of the week. That meant that I was burning fat.

Anyway, I lost 8lbs (I think) that week but gained a ton of knowledge. So now I count calories and try to stay within a range (very important distinction for me, range). It seems to be working. I wanted to lose weight faster (like I have when I was younger, I'm really not that old) but 2 lbs a week is healthy and steady. The real surprise for me was that 3500 calories is a pound. I knew that but when I figured out how much exercise that is, it gave me a whole new perspective on what I was eating and how much I was burning in a day.

As far as exercise, I have been riding but damn is it cold outside, so I don't ride outside that much yet. It took a few months (!) to be able to finish one of my Carmichael DVD's (1 hour long) that I used to do a few years ago. By the time January came around, I was able to ride 3X's a week, 1 hr at a time and finish with a great workout. My wife decided to ride with me in the house, she is in great shape and didn't have a hard time doing these. In January we started an 8 week Power series by Carmichael. We just finished that up and I am so much stronger, but still I am not as strong as I was 3 years ago when I did the Seattle to Portland ride. My average speed is lower (for the 5 rides I have done outside this year) that it used to be. I have a Garmin 705 that tracks my speed, HR, distance, etc and uploads it to the computer. What is nice is that I weight 10lbs less than I did when I did the Seattle to Portland ride in 2009. Today I did a 20 mile ride and it was 43 degrees out, I am still cold.

Here is the amount of miles I have ridden since I started in October
October- 5 rides, 32 miles, 2:44 Hours:Minutes
November - 11 rides, 87 miles, 7:40 Hours:Minutes
December - 15 rides, 180 miles, 14:32 Hours:Minutes
January - 15 rides, 191 miles (1 week trip, no riding), 14:23 Hours:Minutes
February - 12 rides, 171 miles (10 days in India, on additional week out of town, no riding), 11:30 Hours:Minutes
As you can see by my time, I am getting a little faster. All but 5 of these rides are on a trainer in the house.

Anyway, love to see everyone's journeys, it is inspiring and helpful.

Ron