2016 Contest Prep Week 4
Week 3 was relatively uneventful. So, I didn't feel like an update was needed since I didn't have much to write about. However, week 4 is a different story all together. I actually had a small weight increase. But that has now been corrected. Here's how I did it.
Things were going well. I was down to 201.4lbs by my last post and then at my next checkpoint, I was somehow up to 203.6lbs. However, since my average weight loss was still on track at 1.2lbs/week, I decided to just stay the course and take another checkpoint at the end of that week. And what happened at the end of that week? I was still 203.6lbs and that put me under my target weight loss average.
Making My First Adjustment
Because I was not progressing in line with my targets, it was time to make an adjustment. Apparently, I had adapted to what started out as a caloric deficit. As a result, there was only one thing to do: create a new deficit. One might think that since I was maintaining weight then I should drop my weekly caloric target by 3500*(target in lbs). But that would have been a little overboard.
Although calories in - calories out < 0 creates a deficit, there are a lot of factors at play here - far more than just the calories I ingest and the exercise I perform. For one thing, exercise is something you can adapt to. For example, the more I do some kind of cardio, the more efficient I get at doing it and the fewer calories I burn for the same performance. Don't believe me? Try taking up running after sitting on the couch for a month. Now run 3miles averaging 8min miles monitoring your heart rate. Do that 4x/week for a month and your heart rate for that very same run will drop. Still don't think you're going to get more efficient and burn fewer calories as a result?
Other factors are diet and hormonal responses to name a couple. For example, eating more protein vs carbs for the same number of calories can better assist with fat loss. Check out my week 1. Notice how I elevate protein on most days during the week.
The point I am getting at is that you aren't going to distill every factor contributing to fat loss or lack thereof into a simple algebraic formula. And thankfully, you don't have to. As it turns out, when you walk just below the line of losing fat and not losing fat, it doesn't take much to get it going again. My adjustment was therefore just a decrease of 15g carbs on my normal days, 20g carbs on my high days and 3g fat on all days. I also added another interval to my HIIT training sessions to crank up the intensity a bit.
The Results
As I expected, I ended back on the weight loss train again. That bump I had a week ago up to 203.6lbs is gone. I am now at 201lbs even and I even lost a little more off of my waist line. My average weight loss is also once again ahead of my target of 1.2lbs/week at 1.25lbs/week.
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