8 January 2009
Shredding The Pounds
Posted by Brad Hefta-Gaub under: Fitness.
One of my goals for 2009 is to get back to “my lowest racing weight ever”. Back in the summer of 2005 I weighed 135lbs. Photos of me from that time show my face and arms as very lean. I remember my brother joking with me at a family birthday party that I looked like some kind of a super hero with radioactive blood. My forearms were so lean that my veins appeared raised about 1/8th inch above the surface.
By no means was I skinny, although I did bump into an old friend who hadn’t seen me for years, since before I had lost weight, and she was so struck by the change in my appearance, that she feared I was terminally ill. She was so relieved to hear I was “just training for an Ironman”… Aside from that encounter, I felt pretty good about my appearance. Mind you, there were still aspects of my body and appearance that I was not happy with. I was still pretty soft around the middle, I didn’t have a firm torso, let alone six pack abs… I still had pretty easily accessible and hearty “love handles”. But I felt great, and had the most positive body image I’d had in my entire life.
I also hadn’t become some massive muscle bound thug. My legs were pretty muscular, but they were frame appropriate. My goal was and still remains to be able to perform over long distances, and so huge muscles don’t provide significant benefit, as they would to a sprinter. No, I was more about chiseling away the softer tissue to leave the lean muscle behind.
At the time, I was commuting by bike 30 miles a day, on average 4 days a week; I was doing 1 hour spin class 3 days a week; I was running 15-20 miles a week; swimming a couple hours a week; and doing about 30 minutes of weight lifting 3 times a week. It sounds like it was a pretty heavy cardio based routine, but the spin class and the weight lifting were new to my body, and they were both primarily resistance based workouts. I am convinced that the bulk of my body composition change was attributed to these workouts.
Nutrition wise, I was not really watching what I was eating, but I was doing so much exercise that it didn’t matter. I wasn’t over eating, but I also wasn’t thoughtfully watching what I was eating.
At this point you might be saying to yourself, sounds like this guy was working himself (out) to the bone. That can’t be healthy? Well, keep in mind that at 5′4″ 135lbs is far from underweight. My BMI at that weight is 23.2, which is well within the normal/healthy range, in fact closer to the top of that range then the middle. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, I’d have to weight 107lbs before I was underweight. And trust me, there ain’t no way (weigh) that’s gonna EVERY happen.
Since the summer of 2006, I’ve let myself go a little. Which is not to say that I’ve become unhealthy. However, at 150lbs, which is where I bounced around for most of 2008, my BMI is 25.7 and I am considered “Overweight” by the CDC and World Health Organization. But the more important consideration for me is that some of my favorite clothes don’t fit! The waist of my favorite pants are just to tight and uncomfortable. My suit jackets don’t fit around my chest (not that I ever wear those, but still, sometimes I need to, and I want to be comfortable)!
So, how do I get back to my “fighting weight”. Well, the workout schedule from 2006 is probably not realistic for me in 2009, in particular I don’t have access to a great Spin class, and I don’t have a 30 mile commute. However the good news is that I have set up some new fitness goals, which will require regular practice, and regularity is the key. I’ve also introduced into my goals one significantly new workout routine (running every day) and one old routine which has a proven successful track record (5,000 miles of cycling).
And probably more importantly this time around, I’ve started to pay closer attention to what I’m eating. I am not tracking my calories per se, and I haven’t created specific goals around nutrition that are guaranteed to force me to control my calorie intake. But I have eliminated dairy and gluten from my diet, and that decision has two positive side effects.
First, it means I can’t eat cheese. And I really love cheese…. which means, if I am “letting myself eat cheese”… I will eat a LOT of cheese. Secondly, although there are plenty of gluten free “bread” alternatives, I have to be honest… they’re not all that tasty. I mean, they’ll do fine in a pinch, you can make a sandwich from them. But really, the gluten free “bread” is only about a step up from cardboard, and is only useful for keeping your hands clean as you eat your “sandwich filling”. The point is, I’m not going back for seconds. In fact, don’t let my mother hear this, but I actually have thrown away a half eaten sandwich because it just wasn’t worth it… saving myself a couple hundred calories, right there!
So, I’m eight days into my new plan, and as of today, I’ve weighed in at 139.2lbs for two days in a row. That’s progress! It’s the first time I’ve been under 140lbs consistently in at least 18 months. I am wearing one of my favorite pairs of pants this morning, and I don’t have the annoying urge to change into my “fat pants”.
Health:
- Date: 01/08/2009
- Weight: 139.2
- Mood: Normal
- Sleep Hours: 9
- Sleep Pattern: Better than Normal
4 Comments so far...
nutritionexpert Says:
Way to go Brad! Just curious why you eliminated gluten? That’s pretty major and difficult to do.
Brad Hefta-Gaub Says:
I decided to eliminate dairy and gluten for two reasons…
1) I eventually want to go completely Paleo diet for athletic performance reasons, this was a baby step.
2) I hope to help reduce and eventually eliminate the chronic sinus congestion I suffer from, and I’ve eliminated each of dairy and gluten in the past with no results, but I hope that eliminating both will make a difference. So far, a couple months in, I do think it’s helping a bit. But it hasn’t been an amazing overnight success.
3) I knew that it would help me control my calorie intake.
hardly Says:
One thing that always amazes me is how much of a difference losing even small amounts of fat can be (assuming you have excess), to various athletic performances (though, surprisingly, not all).
One thing I’d love to see you add to your workouts, Brad, are kettlebells. They can both build muscle strength and endurance, and in ways that other methods don’t. Plus, it’s a great thing to mix into your ‘indoor’ workouts, though I use them outdoors, too. 
hardly Says:
Nutritionexpert:
I’ve been to your website, very nice, and I have to say that I am seemingly continually conflicted about what to eat. I’ve roughly been following the Zone, but loosely. I’ve definitely gotten away from sugar and white items in my diet, but I can’t seem to shake the notion that potatos and whole grains are as bad as they are made out to be. Plus, the Zone is now 15 years old, and I have to believe that further studies have proven parts of it, and eroded others (this is science, afterall).
Brad’s comment about going towards the paleo diet added to this, and I got intrigued: What are your general thoughts about food intake in this modern world? And with a particular bent toward adult (master?) athletes.
