Better this week.
170.7 lbs at 15.0% bodyfat.
I have crossed over to the obsessive side and I'm tracking my diet with MacroFactor, and the plan is to adhere to its baked-in coached tracking feature. In theory, if I stick to the plan, I should slide into my goal right before the new year. And I have a new goal - 155 pounds. Not sure I want to maintain at that weight, but I'll find out. My overarching goal is to cut down to an ideal fat mass, and then simply spend the rest of my life gradually adding lean mass (until I can't).
Also, trying to apply more rigor in the gym. I've been winging it for 8 months now, and while the improvement has been significant, there's been no real effort to track and progress - adding either reps or weight, weekly. After wasting some time looking at various apps, I realized that this is a tailor-made task for a spreadsheet. So my spreadsheet is built, and I'm beginning with "Find my 12," which is to identify the highest weight (which will be a embarrassingly low weight) I can move for 4 sets of 12 reps. Once I hit that, I'll increase weight and reduce reps - and then progress on new weight until 4 sets of 12 reps is acheived once again. Rinse/repeat.
Sounds good, with some caveats:
1. There may be an age when lifting to failure makes potential for injury exceed strength/muscle benefits. I’ve not seen anything specific on this topic though, so I’m open to someone changing my mind.
2. You’re probably sacrificing some aerobic training by focusing so much on weights. I’ve mentioned this before, but studies show mortality benefit from resistance training plateaus pretty quickly, around 40 minutes per week. Meanwhile, moderate intensity aerobic training continues to show benefit up to 600 minutes weekly, with no harm up to 2000 minutes.
3. There’s a threshold when body fat percentage is too low. For younger people, that’s generally 5-6%, but it seems to be higher with age, such that 8-10% may be the floor. How tall are you?
Appreciate the feedback.
Regarding workouts to failure, my routine is a work in progress. What I'm really aiming for is a way to measure/track and progressively lift more, and while putting together a regimen I thought it good to break it down to small weights I could do 4x12 to failure, more or less, just to establish a base. Also, important, most of my lifts are on machines or dumbbells, so failure is in essence just a matter of releasing or letting go with little to no risk. In Office Space parlance, "I wouldn't say I'm failing, Bob." So maybe going forward, once I can hit three set of 12 reps and then "fail" somewhere south of 12 on the 4th set - then I'll be ready to increment to next weight and progress once more until I hit 12,12,12, n, again. My plans are pretty fluid at the moment.
CARDIO! - I hate cardio, BUT, I love walking. I've got circuits measured out that vary between 4 and 7 miles, and weather permitting I do at least three, sometimes four or five walks per week. I kind of want to work a 5K run into my routine too, and maybe get a bicycle, but that's about where my cardio effort will peak. I'm not doing treadmills, stepmills, indoor bikes, etc. anymore.
On bodyfat, I'm 6'0" tall. Optimistically, if I can hit 155 I might touch 9%, but really don't know. It's more a personal challenge at the moment, and realistically probably not where I'll land long term, but I do have the classic skinny guy genes (Hey Sydney Sweeney, how you doin?). Maybe 11-12% for the long haul is where things settle.
to 25.6%) as estimated by the smart scale I have at home. Lot of work to do but I'm making steady progress. Per Strava, I ran 68 slow, somewhat painful miles in the brutal heat of July. But made some decent gains in getting my HR to come down and it feels a little bit better each day. Light years from where I was a couple/few years ago but better than I was yesterday.
