Weight Loss and exercise

I have been reviewing my stats over the past several days. I can definitely see a change in fitness level. However, I do not think this explains all of it. This started happening when I bagan to use my new running shoes. They are *very* responsive, meaning that much of the energy that goes into stepping onto the ground while running is yielded back when the foot leaves the ground. Given this and they are new shoes, compared to my beaten up shoes that I have been using, I think this has made a noticeable difference.

Today I broke another personal record. I knocked myself out with my heart rate going up to 176 (not smart at all), averaging about 160. This is where it is interesting. My average pace was 12:20 for a mile. Holy moly! That is twelve and a half minute mile! I improved over one whole minute “overnight”. I still find this difficult to believe. I looked at the stats with my old shoes, and the best I was able to do was 13:45 minutes a mile.

I am finding that I need to change the way I run and how I pace myself with these shoes. They are responding that differently to me. Maybe this is a bit too much for me? It does not have the shock absorption that other running shoes have. I have not decided on keeping them. If I run very slowly, kind of like jogging, my body bobs up and down more which I think increases the shock on my knees. When I start running, this becomes better. I think I can feel the difference in my knees. I may get a pair that are less responsive but has more cushioning. Another thought is using these shoes for trail running.

Any thoughts about this? These running shoes are costing me only $60. These shoes have very good ratings for training shoes. An average pair of running shoes costs over $100. Not bad at all.

Come to think of it, this is sounding to me like the old time Keds commercial where if you were to wear their sneakers, as a kid you can leap tall buildings. But in this case, my running stats appear to support my observation. Time will tell going between the two pairs of shoes. Maybe it is just that they are new shoes?

As an update to my above post, I do not think my running stats have actually proved anything yet. This just really fascinates me by wondering what is going on here. I am perplexed. Even though the stats seem consistent, I still think it is possible that my watch may not be working right. There is no reason for the foot pod transmitting the pace information to not be working. So who knows?

Good shoes do make some difference.

Fairly normal day today. I didn't edit the swimming calories lower since I didn't have a lot of walking and I set my base low to account for the added calories. 567 calories of exercise logged.

Food was light in meals and heavy in snacks. 2058 calories.

My weight is 173, so it is bouncing around a bit. I am going to take today off from exercising so I can better prepare myself for tomorrow. From what I understand, time allowed for recovery is important. For one thing, time permits the muscles to be completely repaired. I will eat my now regular 2500 calories today. I will post yesterday’s calorie intake/burned later today. Once again, because I did not allow for time to recover, I was able to run only half the distance I should be able to run, walking even half of that.

I’m back to 158. My next goal is to get back to 153. I was hoping to be back to 158 by October so I’m happy I’m there now.

@MountainDewed: This is good news, you being ahead of your goals!

@Tucson - There is so much mythology on building muscles that sometimes it is hard to separate fact and fiction, but I think the tearing down and building up cycle of muscles is real science. The night and morning after a lot of exercise, lots of protein helps (I am less sure thee is solid science behind that, but I think so). My own anecdotal evidence says the risk of injury is much higher on the second or third day in a row of the same intense exercise until you have done it a lot and have plenty of strength and endurance.

EDIT - My bad habit continues; going to be way over today (already am) and dependent on a long paddle tomorrow. Forecast looks good so it will probably happen and I will get away with this, but I need to curb it. I do seem to have calories too low though; maybe. I will have to see what I weigh in the AM after going way over today.

Yesterday I ran and walked 1.82 miles. I burned 194 calories. BTW this turns out to be 106.6 calories a mile. This makes for a target of 2694 calories. I consumed 2457. So I was 237 calories short. I am going to have to make up for this today. This would make today’s target to be 2737 calories, since I have not exercised.

For shits and giggles, I determined calories burned using MET for comparison. During my entire exercise, I used 5.7 mph for my running, and 4.2 for my walking. This is close to being accurate. This turns out to be about 170 calories burned. The difference between MET and watch calories burned is about 24 calories which is about a 15% difference. I think this is a realistic difference given what the MET approach does not consider.

My stomach has been upset the last few days. I called my gastro doc and left a message with a nurse yesterday.
MFP calories 933. Apple Watch steps 2,774
Water intake 67.6oz

I didn't exercise today and ate close to 3000 calories!

It has become something of an experiment after the recent low weights. If I spike way up tomorrow, I will go back to bringing it a little lower and assume I have been seeing low spikes from timing and dehydration. If it is under 155, I might let the big overage slide since that would mean I have still been dropping kind of quickly the last few weeks.

Shocker weigh in this morning - 160.2! Sunday night I weighed 150.2. 10 pounds is the biggest swing I have ever seen. Neither weight is really an accurate reflection of where I am. I think the truth is pretty much right in the middle. Paddling this afternoon will probably knock me back down into the middle.

My weight is 173. I have taken 8868 steps today. I have run intervals and walked for 4 miles. I have burned 452 calories. This provides a target of 2952. By the end of the day, I will have consumed 2879 calories. So maybe a granola bar is in order.

I was not paying attention to my heart rate again. Reckless. This time unfortunately I have established a record of 179 bpm. I will try to keep it below 170. I need it to go up to at 170 in order for me to get an excellent workout, but my average ends up being closer to 160 which is doable. I will need to more frequently check this throughout my exercise. BTW my max bpm calculated by the most accurate formula so far states a value of 167.

Interesting note here. My watch appears to be *reducing* the calories burned as I *increase* my effort, creating a significant deviation by itself. I will no longer use the watch anymore for this purpose. I still need a starting value for a given workout and duration that I can adjust to find a more accurate value. This is where my weight remains stable. I will use the MET approach for these values. I have used this approach to determine the calories burned for today. I may need to re-evaluate my daily calorie basis.

MFP calories 981. Apple Watch steps 3,673
Water intake 50.7oz
I’ve been nauseous most of today. I called the gastro office back and my primary doctor’s office. I go in tomorrow for lab work.

Paddled 11.4 miles. That plus walking gave around 1700 for burn which seems high but I accepted it.

I actually consumed about 2400 calories today plus rolled forward an adjustment of about 1600. Going to have to roll forward another 800 into tomorrow. Mayb split it and roll 300 into each of the next 3 days.

Weigh Friday.

An adjustment to my previous figures. 12,791 steps. I walked an extra 16:45 minutes on a 6% grade. This resulted in 80 calories. Pretty steep. Besides being a cardio workout, my muscles hurt. So a total of 532 calories burned which makes for a target of 3032 calories. I have consumed about 3000 calories. So I have met my target. Tomorrow I will not exercise. I need some recovery time.

I noticed that shoes do make some difference in performance, but not that much. However, I think most of the difference is being able to go for a longer distance. I do not seem to be as worn out as I normally would be. My heart rate is up, my speed is up, but near the end of a mile where I would normally be very exhausted, I can go a little more distance. I think next time I can complete my mile before heading into the restaurant. I expect my calories burned per mile changes.

I weigh 172 pounds. No exercise today.

I weighed this morning out of curiosity even though it isn't a standard weigh in day for me -157.8, so it is settling back toward the mid 150s again. I think the crazy high sodium dish for dinner the other night along with all the fruit made me a sponge for water and I am still drying back out.

Well another day of being nauseous. I received a call from a nurse around 1 PM. She went over my symptoms then said she would speak with my gastro doctor. Really what was the purpose of calling me??? I called twice for that???
MFP calories 752. Apple Watch steps 4,285
Water intake low felt too nauseous

~9300 steps and an hour of swimming. I accepted the 678 calories. Seems a little high but still giving the low base plus logged calories a chance.

Actual consumption today ~1600. Rolled 800 into today, knocked of 600 and rolled forward 200 to tomorrow.

I will weigh in the morning. Really not sure what to expect but I hope to see another drop down toward 155.

4,021 steps. I walked 1.87 miles. I burned 105 calories. So this makes for a target of 2605 calories. I consumed 2700 calories. So I am about 100 over. I will roll this forward to tomorrow, which is when I will exercise. I will run at least two miles. This time I will walk one minute, and run for a half a minute. The time running has been increase from fifteen seconds to the thirty seconds.

PS I do think I am unreporting calories burned. So I am watching for my weight to eventually go down which will confirm my suspicions. If I reach 170, I will adjust my calories burned accordingly.

I was 157 this morning but I forgot to weigh before my shower. After the shower, I weighed 157.4 and I am calling that 157.

I think I have been over reporting burn by accepting numbers. I turned off Pacer integration this morning.

174 today. I waited too long before running. I had some tasks to do, but forgot the time. I will try to run at 6 or 7 PM today. This late maybe the running track for today. Traffic.

No exercise. My target is 2500 calories. I have consumed 2820. I am over by 320 calories. Four miles of exercise tomorrow should take car of this.

173 pounds. A bit premature, but I may have gained a pound. However, most of the time I was using the watch. Only recently I have been using MET which cones up with noticeably lower values for calories burned. So I will continue to use the MET approach to see what happens. If I continue to gain weight, I will drop my starting callories back to 2300. It is now time for exercise.

I went way over again yesterday and made to rolling surplus worse instead of better. Way worse; I rolled forward 2100. This morning I paddled 13.7 miles, which I edited down to 1710 calories (125 per mile from what I consider an accurate source though I think my board is harder than average tot paddle a given distance). Right now, at ~1:30 in the afternoon, I have 477 calories left if I want to come up even. Might go a little over; the Parmesan panko flounder I am planning for dinner is 330, according to the recipe.

Weighed after paddling; I did eat breakfast before going and stayed reasonably well hydrated. I weighed 155.