Weekly Update: Weight Loss Right On Track

It hasn't been easy, everyone's metabolism slows down with age and mine is no exception, but the increased physical activity (as in loads of pedaling) along with keeping the same healthy eating habits has paid off. The weight has been coming off on an almost weekly basis and when it stalled right at 165 Lbs. I decided to mix it up with some weight training in the afternoons after work. Well, that seemed to do the trick as my body weight as of this morning is now 160.5 Lbs.

Here's the progression my body weight has followed since early February. I used Garmin Connect to get a nice graph out of the data I had to input manually. The weight on the left is in kilograms, so if you want to convert it to pounds just multiply by 2.2.



Again, it hasn't been as easy as it looks. I've been going to bed hungry almost every other night and not because I haven't eaten dinner, but just because my metabolism has kicked into high gear and the calories that I put in don't match up with what I'm spending. It is that simple, if you want to lose weight you simply need to use more calories than what you are putting into your body. I wish I could tell you there are shortcuts, but the simple truth is that you have to put in the work, dieting alone only works for so long. You have to make a commitment to a healthy lifestyle, which incorporates exercise into your daily routine. You don't have enough time in the day? Make time for it! Anyway, enough ranting for now.

Weight Loss Progress Stalled, Extraterrestrials and other weird stuff

Well, this weekend was chock full of social and family events and they all involved a certain degree of eating. The training during the week was not particularly hard, but at least I managed to stay at 165 lbs, as of Friday morning, so I won't check my weight again until next weekend :-) In addition, there was no Saturday ride, as one of the events was a weeding on Saturday morning. While the weight loss has been stalling a little bit, my fitness keeps improving. However, when you track and analyze your training rides and rejoice in your progress, all you have to do to bring you down is check out YouTube and watch videos like this one:



You'd only know who Fabian Cancellara is if you followed cycling. The guy probably won't ever make it to a Tour de France overall podium, but when it comes to one day races, he's more or less like The Terminator, feels no pain and he won't stop until he crosses the finish line first. The numbers displayed on his bike computer are on the Superhuman level. Now, if those numbers don't mean much to you, here's the guy in action dropping other pros (watch closely the attack at 0:52), as if they were weekend warriors hanging on for dear life:

Power to Weight Ratio: Or How a Slimmer Juan Goes Faster Uphill

Before I get all technical on my not so hard-core readers, power to weight ratio is a very simple concept. If you manage to lose weight but still maintain the same strength on the bike, you are bound to go faster uphill and even on the flats. I witnessed this very same concept in action this past Saturday, as my overall average speed increased over an even longer route than the previous two outings. Now, due to the crappy weather we had the past two weekends, I opted for workouts on the trainer and during that time, I lost four pounds. That's right, losing 4 Lbs. can make that much of a difference.

No weight lost this week to report though, all the celebration from Miriam's birthday kept me at 165 Lbs. No regrets,the food was great and I didn't gain any weight back :-)

I leave you with a video of a funny guy pretending to climb one of the most legendary climbs of the Tour de France like a boss. He claims to be a tennis pro, but I can't say it's true because I don't follow tennis at all.