Weigh-ins, Setting Goals & Tracking Progress

Howdy folks! This weekend, I broke down and finally did a weigh-in. It has been many months since I did so, because I find that body weight can be utterly discouraging. And guess what! It was. I haven't budged in months - sitting at a large-and-in-charge 314 lbs. Yea, way too much, but thankfully a lot of muscle in there (somewhere) and that isn't a bull excuse. I am lifting more now than I ever have, which feels great and lets me know that while the weight may not be changing on the scale, my body is certainly changing.

On that, I am really looking a lot different. The overall muscle mass I am seeing is a hell of a lot better than my old flabby self from a year ago. Being committed to change and hitting the gym 4-5 days a week has paid off. But that isn't enough! Losing weight (in the form of body fat) starts in the kitchen and I tell you, that is where I am faltering.

A big guy like me needs a lot of calories, but I tell you, I am getting too many even with my gym calorie deficit. So, I finally got back onto an app that really did help me in the past. I dropped a rather solid 30 lbs back in 2012 when I was tracking my calories and doing just cardio. The app? MyFitnessPal. No doubt, some of you have heard of it or even use it already! If so, good on you. Keep at it.

Right now, I am looking at doing 2 lbs lost per week, so I need to get in 2030 calories at the most. I bet I was exceeding that, so time to get to the goal portion of this. I want to drop down to 265 lbs, which a few folks (mostly trainers) I have talked to all agree that sounds about as low as I can go and still be pretty jacked, though we will see. Goals can change as time goes on, because I do know I am far more concerned with a lower body fat percentage than a lower weight.

What does that mean? It means at 2 lbs per week, I have at least six months to go before I hit that goal and most likely far, far more than that with plateaus and whatnot. For those unaware, a plateau is when you simple stop seeing progress and often just need to switch things up. The 2 lbs a week goal is a healthy pace, too, so going for dramatic weight-loss really would hurt me in a few regards. Remember, I am trying to do fat loss with muscle gain, so that is a delicate balance and I don't want to see the scale go down, but my muscle mass diminish too.

So the time to start logging my calorie intake and workouts is upon me. Please, join me on MyFitnessPal, you can find me under OldHat02 (or check by my email Oldhat02@gmail.com). I would love to see you readers get on there and join me in getting in shape!