Warrior Fitness Phase II

I am really pleased to have lost 20 pounds over the past few months, and I look and feel a lot better than when I was trudging along at 240, but at 220 I am still a far cry from my svelte 190 from my rowing days at Oxford. Check out this skinny Adam Neary from many years ago, traversing the old rock wall:

Fact is, I may never see 190 again, but I think 215 or 210, maybe even 200 if I really push, would be fantastic. In fact, somewhere around 240 I told myself that it would be AMAZING to see a “1″ as the left-most number on the scale again if I hit 199.

Before you object, let me say that I realize weight is just a number, and there are a TON of other factors in health. I know this, and so I thought I would lay out how I am approaching fitness given my busy schedule (newborn baby at home and CEO of a technology startup).

Preview:
It all comes down to:

• Nutrition
• Endurance
• Speed
• Strength
• Flexibility/Balance…and inward calm

Nutrition

Let’s not kid one another. If I am going to lose weight, it’s mostly going to be about calories in more than calories out. The problem is that 90% of the time, I am eating about as healthily as a human can. It’s the 10% of the time that we need to worry about, but in any case here’s what ‘good’ looks like:

Lean body mass:
– 220 pounds * (1-24% body fat) = ~167 pounds lean body mass

Protein
– 4 calories per gram
– Eat 1 gram per lb of lean body mass
– 167g protein daily

Carbs
– 4 calories per gram
– Eat 1 gram per lb of lean body mass
– 167g carbs daily

Fat
– 9 calories per gram
– Eat 1/4g – 1/3g per lb of lean body mass
– 42-56g fat daily

Scaling
The above leads to 1,786s calorie per day. For now, I am at 2,400 calories per day (realistically) of input, so on a given day, either we take in some alcohol (at 9 calories per gram) or a bit more food, but if food, we should try to keep protein/carbs/fat proportions.

At scale, this works out to:

• 72g fat daily
• 224g carbs and protein daily
• As little refined sugar as possible
• As little alcohol as possible
• At least 25g fiber daily
• Less than 2,000mg sodium daily
• Less than 250mg cholesterol daily

The truth (finally)
The truth is that none of the above really matters, though it has provided a great guide as I have gone through periodic bouts with logging the food to gauge macronutrient balance. But no, what matters is that 90% of the time I stick to this sort of diet, and then 10% of the time I binge eat/drink. I just love to eat a ton of food. After a long, frustrating day, it’s possible for me to eat an entire large pepperoni pizza, an order of buffalo wings, a couple manhattans, and a 6 pack of beer. I love food and I love feeling full.

So while I would love to watch each and every calorie go down meal by meal, that’s really not going to matter. For me, it’s all about the frequency and severity of binge eating, as well as whether I am eating late at night. So that’s what I am actually tracking, and the rest of this is nutrition section is sort of kabuki to some degree. I know how important it is, I know how I am doing, and the rest–like everything in life–is execution.

Endurance: Cycling for low heart rate, long duration

Cycling is a recent obsession of mine. It’s world’s better than running, which I find miserable to do for more than 2 hours at a heart rate of 150 or more. When I cycle to work on the ferry and take the GW bridge home to Hoboken, I have a round trip of just over 26 miles (a marathon if on foot…), and it’s a lot more fun.

But more importantly, the sustained cycling tours on the weekends mean low heart rates (145-155) for 4+ hours, and that’s great for weight loss that day and weight loss the rest of the week, since it aids metabolism as well.

The goal: The marathon of cycling is the Century, a 100-mile cycle. I figure a good time goal for my first Century is 8 hours, which works out to an average cruising speed of just 12.5 mph. My usual weekend ride is 38 miles, so I’ve got some work to do, but that’s what goals are about. Oh, and there’s a beautiful 100 mile loop coursing along both sides of the Hudson if you cross the river up by Bear Mountain State Park. Can’t wait to chew through it.

Speed: Running for high heart rate, short duration

On the other end of the spectrum, I would love to always be able to run off 4 miles in 30 minutes. At various points in my life, this was achievable, and I don’t have any aspirations of pushing that farther. Keeping an 8mph clip for 4 miles is just good health, and though I despise running, there’s no other activity that keeps the heart rate up in the 180+ range for 30 minutes.

I mean, the reality is, Adam Neary is built for comfort, not built for speed. I am built to knock things over, and so speeds at which actual runners would scoff still pose a decent challenge for me. When I was younger, it was no thing, but here we are!

The goal: 4 miles in 30 minutes
I haven’t been running, and today I ran 4 miles in 34:50. I don’t have a ton of ground to regain, but I definitely need to tighten up the running and how speeds over 7mph drive up my heart rate.

Strength: Weight training for high exertion circuit training intervals

I have loved a hard workout in the gym since my football days many (many, many…) years ago. I have gone through a broad range of weight-lifting styles and approaches, but I fell in love with the 300 workout, inspired by (and rumored to be an integral part of) the movie 300 with those strapping Spartans. The workout is a circuit training series involving–what else–300 reps:

• 25 pull-ups
• 50 dead lifts at 135 lb
• 50 push-ups
• 50 box jumps at 24″
• 50 floor wipers at 135 lb (total nightmare)
• 50 dumbbell clean and press at 36 lb
• 25 more pull-ups

Oh yeah, and I time it. To get the maximum workout output, I do these in heart rate internals. Basically, I push as hard as possible until my heart rate reaches 185, then I rest and stretch until it drop to 135, then I push until I get it back up to 185. I go through perhaps 12 of these cycles in the ~45 minutes it takes to get through the routine.

Right now, given my weight, the only thing I just can’t do on its own is the pull-up set. I do weight-assisted pull-ups on a machine until I can eventually get there, but I have a LONG way to go. Here is a video of the “floor wipers” I am talking about above. As I said, total nightmare.

The goal: Complete the 300 workout at full weight and no assistance…in 40 minutes.

Flexibility/Balance…and inward calm: Bikram Yoga for extreme heat, breathing control, heart rate control in 26 poses over 90 minutes

I love yoga, and if I had to limit my workout to one of the 4 above, I would probably choose yoga. I have a very intense, numbers-oriented approach to damned near everything. I have a constantly cycling inner dialog whether I am working out, working at the office, or sitting at dinner. I am…not a calm person.

But yoga is a 90-minute meditation, and it does not allow for numbers. There are no clocks, no heart rate monitors, no anything. And Adam Neary is built for knocking things over (see above), not for standing on one foot holding my other foot over my head as I lean forward…for 90 minutes…in 110 degree heat! I actually find the meditation profoundly calming, and even though I force out all active thoughts about work and home, I find a ton of clarity after these sessions.

On the physical health side, it’s just ungodly hot and difficult, and it literally took 3-4 years of yoga before I could make it through the entire session without sitting down and resting. I had to get acclimated to the heat and used to the rhythm of the process. There’s breathing to practice, and there’s the poses themselves. When you can’t breathe and you get light-headed, you sit down…sometimes you lie down. Even if you’re standing up, sometimes you have to wait out a poses or two to catch your breath.

The goal: The goal has always been to make it through an entire class without missing a pose. Good luck.

Outcomes

The biggest areas I am going to need to work on to achieve these goals is to cut down on the binge eating, work on the pull-ups, and build endurance on the cycle. If I can get those happening, I think the rest will fall into place, and clearly these all relate to both weight goals and execution against goals on the fitness side.

If I do succeed, here’s what it looks like:

Body weight
I have gotten down from 240 to 220. Now the immediate term goal is 215 (before the holidays!). Then it’s 210, 205, and finally 200 (ok, actually 199!). I don’t know if I will ever see a “1″ in the left-most digit on the scale again, particularly given my love of food and beverage, but we shall see! Maybe I will put timelines in place once we get to 215 and get through the holidays.

Body fat percentage
I am currently at 24-25% body fat, down from north of 30% (!). For me, 17% would be a killer goal. I have regressed the relationship between weight and body fat for me given my lean body mass, and it looks like this:

• 215 lb => 22.72% body fat
• 210 lb => 20.89% body fat
• 205 lb => 19.06% body fat
• 200 lb => 17.22% body fat
• 199 lb => 16.86% body fat

So ultimately, it would be great to see 17% body and see 199 pounds. From what I can see, these two things seem to go together. And both of them are damned near unreachable!

In the meantime, I am going to keep at the fitness, which always feels a lot more achievable than weight loss for me, though clearly they go hand in hand. In the meantime, any thoughts from you guys? Things I should be thinking about?