185.0 exactly, with Bod Pod XIV on the horizon

So the score this morning was 185.0 English pounds on the Tanita bathroom scale.  Tomorrow is the big day of Bod Pod XIV.  I am anticipating a weigh-in of 184.15 on the Bod Pod due to the inaccuracies & short comings of the Tanita.  The Bod Pod is always lighter.

Three weeks ago, the Bod Pod placed me at 195.7.  If everything goes as expected, I will have lost some 11.55 pounds of gross body weight since that time.  That constitutes an astounding 3.85 pounds of loss per week over the course of the past three weeks.  I thought the hay-days of 3.5 pound fat weight losses were gone forever.  This was just a phenomenon of one good summer, never to be replicated again.  

Nope!  Everything old is new again.  I credit CrossFit, and more importantly, the Kettlebells for getting the cannon balls rolling again.  This new training method is truly astounding.  I just wish I wasn't a pile of training injuries because of it.

We have yet to see how all of these facts and figures plays out in the fat/lean ratio, but hopefully, there will be a big improvement.

This could be the week where the check-box moves to the "Healthy" zone.  I just might be under 20% body fat this time.  Frankly, I should be.  Last time around, I tallied over 151 pounds of lean mass.  If I have simply maintained that much muscle, I should have only 33.15 pounds of fat left on my frame.  33.15 / 184.15 = 18.0016%.  18 < 20, and that moves the check-box to the healthy zone.

186.9...?

Just a few moments ago, the score was 187.0 English pounds on the Tanita scale.  The scary thing is that it flickered back and forth between 186.8 and 187.0 half a dozen times before rounding up, as it always does.  Never have I seen the Tanita round down; it's always up.  My scale will only display read-outs in increments of 0.2 pounds, which is sufficient accuracy for a simple bathroom scale.  Presume I am stuck in the middle at 186.9.

Naturally, this means my weight would be lower on the Bod Pod scale; perhaps even lower than 186.0.

I must say, comrade Kettlebellers, that this is pretty scary stuff.  I have never been this low in my entire adult life.  I am looking downright skinny now.  Were it not for the presence of an abundance of lose skin, I would be skinny-skinny.

This continued precipitous drop is puzzling in the face of some basic input/output analysis.

1. Do you know that I had not one but two Macho Bacon and Egg Burritos yesterday?  According to some rumors that would 2,060 kcal right there.
2. Further I had two chocolate milk protein drinks, fortified with whey & mega-3 fatty acids.
3. Further, I enjoyed the hell out of a sizable helping of nachos, with all the fixings: steak, chicken, black beans, salsa, guacamole, sour cream, cheese.
4. At approximately 151.14 pounds of lean weight, my RMR/BMR is probably right around 1,860.
5. Aaron and I did a back & biceps workout at approximately 10:00am yesterday morning.  I returned to the apartment afterward and crashed (I slept) on the couch until 2:00pm.
6. I vegged out on the couch, watching college football, until the end of the Oregon vs. Stanford game.  [What an upset!]  
7. At that time, I proceeded back out to 24 Hour Fitness where I performed a pretty damn decent aerobics work out: 12 minutes of elliptical (232 kcal), 12 minutes of Olympic rower (152 kcal), 12 minutes of treadmill (142 kcal), and 12 minutes of bike (161 kcal).  In total, this was 48 minutes of work for 687 kcal of energy.

We have only a rough approximation of my BMR/RMR.  We have only a rough approximation of my food-intake.  We have only a loose idea how much energy I expended in exercise.  Still, you would be hard-pressed to argue that those figures balance.  You would suppose I ate more than I burned.  The scale says figures don't balance.  Obviously, I lost weight.  I was in negative figures yesterday

Why such remarkable weight loss?  I have an idea about that.  Yesterday, it occurred to me that the recent cold-snap here in Los Angeles may be factoring into the equation.  In the past two weeks, the Winter has come, to the extent that winter ever arrives in Los Angeles.  We have seen dark overcast skies, lots of rain, some wind, and plenty of 50 degree weather.   That's about as cold as it gets here in la-la land.  The RKC comrades would not be impressed by these temperatures, though.

During this time, I haven't changed my wardrobe that much at all.  I have taken to wearing an Under Armour shirt under my football jerseys, but I am still wearing shorts and a jersey these days.  Yeah, it's a little chilly without my fat-layer to protect me, but I have not caved in.  After the U.S. Army performed unethical human medical experiments on me Germany back in 1990, I swore I would never say it was cold in California again.  Quite frankly, it isn't.

The kiss of this chilly weather may be the explanation for my recent weight loss.  Thermo-energetics are terribly important in biology. They are more important in weight loss than most people would ever admit.   The kcal is just a measure of heat energy, by the way.

Ordinarily, I do lose weight in Winter time.  I know many people are the opposite:  they put on weight during winter.  Not me, I usually lose a few pounds.  Prior to gastric bypass, I was like a bear.  I would fatten up in summer, and lose fat during the winter.

I think half of this long-term pattern continues right up until this moment.  If so, I am pretty excited.  The cold weather--such as it is--should help me to make my ultimate body fat goals a reality.

189.4 and I feel cold

So it's a bit late for this sort of entry, but the score this morning was 189.4.  It would seem that I am now officially below the 190 point, and it looks like this is gonna stick.  If it does, this will constitute the lowest fixed weight of my adult life.

CrossFit is having an impact.  I nailed a CrossFit workout on 6 of the 7 days of this past week.  I kicked it off with the Dark Horse CrossFit group on Sunday hit four in a row on Wednesday.

On Thursday, recovery from Diarrhea and my evening attempt to get out of jury duty caused me to miss both the 4:30pm and 5:30pm classes.  I did an old-fashioned bike/elliptical workout for 45 minutes, netting 617 kcal, so Thursday was not a day of rest.

I went straight back to work on Friday 5:30pm, nailing my best workout of the week.  I was back in the gym 14 hours later for the 9:30am class this morning.  Unfortunately, today's workout was the worst of the week.  My own personal jump rope snapped on the first exercise of the "Buy-In" phase.  This was an ill-omen.  In the workout phase, we attempted to perform hand-stand push-ups.  This advanced calisthenic was categorically out of the question.  It killed my right shoulder.  I might need Dr. Bachner to O-Scope my shoulder before I can do a workout like that.

Easy come, easy go.  You win some and you lose some.  This morning's travesty was one bad workout among many good ones.

The upshot is complicated:

1. I am working out a lot less than in past months.  The clock-time of the WOD seldom exceeds 20 minutes, and is often less.
2. The intensity of that workout is vastly higher than in past months.  A typical WOD is more intense than even a full-cycle ROM workout.  If you work hard at it, you will be out of gas by the end of those 20 minutes.
3. I spend a lot more time in recovery than working out.  I need to spend time cooling off, stretching, warming up, on the roller, in a hot shower, in the sauna, getting a foot massage, etc.
4. I was forced to begin a second cycle of LG Sciences Trifecta stack.  This is a prohormone stack that is the next best thing to illegal steroids.  It should be noted that Trifecta is totally legal and over-the-counter at your local Vitamin Shoppe.  It works almost as well as Dianabol, according to some experts I know.  Pink Magic wasn't cutting the mustard.  It just wasn't possible to recover between workouts, and sustain the intensity of CrossFit without Trifecta.  I really appreciate what Trifecta did for me last summer now.
5. Even with Trifecta, the aches and pains are rife.  No pain no gain.  Usually, where there is pain, there is gain.  I must be doing something right.  I am absolutely improving in all of the different exercises, especially the 200 meter and 400 meter sprints.
6. The girlies are checking me out in the CrossFit gym.  I caught two of them examining me as I was doing pull-ups the other day.  Pull-ups really show my wing-span.  Both of these girls looked away with a degree of embarrassing when I caught them. There were big glowing smiles on their faces prior to that moment.
7. This morning, the ambient air temperature here in Woodland Hills/Canoga Park was around 50 degrees.  I felt the cold very sharply.  In fact, I felt it all night long.  I now lack the insulating fat layer that used to protect me from such mild cold weather.  This reminds me of my time in Europe, immediately after Army Basic and AIT.  After dropping to 192 pounds, I found myself in Mannheim West Germany (when there was a West Germany) right around the time when the weather began turning cold.  That first winter in Germany almost killed me.  You take a California kid, strip him of his protective fat layer, station him in the snow, and I guarantee you he will freeze.  

I hesitate to even mention this, but the guys at work decided to roll out the Halloween video from 2010, and they were showing it yesterday.  The court room was dark this Friday, so I was back at work for a single day.  This video captured me in all my glory at 330 pounds.  That was more than 140 pounds ago.

A certain Pisces dude named Eric (3/12/1981) decided to show me the video on his iPhone.  Just as many have commented, he said I am now unrecognizable.  Although I have known Eric for some four years now, he mentioned that it is hard to believe I was ever that large.

Looking at the video sent cold chills down my spine, and made my hair stand on end.  How did I ever live and survive at that weight?  I don't know how I was able to move around at all and carry that weight on my bad knee.  No wonder I can run now.

Someday, after taking some high def video of me performing a CrossFit WOD, I may put that Halloween video up for display here.  I'll put it side-by-side with the CrossFit video so you can get a before and after look.  You will find it shocking, I am sure.

189.8 Revisited

For the record, my weight this morning was 189.8 pounds on the Tanita scale.  Naturally, it would be lower on the Bod Pod.  May hap even 188.9.  I am not particularly concerned about this for... errr... embarrassing reasons.

Sometimes I forget I am a gastric bypass patient and I mistake myself for Superman.  Such was the case last night.  I had some movie popcorn and some Crunchabunchas together.  This was a bad mistake.  It resulted in a horrendous case of diarrhea.  This forced me out of bed in the middle of the night twice.  Fortunately, it was over and done by the time court resumed this morning.  I am stuck on jury duty, incidentally.

The moral of the story is that I still have relatively sensitive digestion, and I need to be very careful when combining junk foods in odd ways.  The sharp reduction under 190, is probably a temporary phenomenon due to the fact that I was fairly dehydrated this morning.  People dehydrate sharply due to diarrhea.  In some parts of the world, they even die due to dehydration and electrolyte imbalances.  It happens.

I won't speculate about Bod Pod XIV based on these temporary findings.

Bod Pod X: Moderate Risk

So I had my 10th Bod Pod test this morning. It was pretty good. As per usual, it was not everything I had hoped, but (all things considered) it was a pretty damn good milestone. Just like Super Bowl X once was once regarded, this was the best one ever (thus far).

I apologize for the wet-spots on the paperwork, but I spilled some water on the documents.

In summary, the facts of the case are these:

1. My total weight was 196.731, a little higher than expected, but a reduction of 7.003 pounds
2. My fat-mass went down from 55.912 pounds to 48.964 pounds; a reduction of 6.948 pounds
3. My lean weight decreased from 147.821 to 147.767 pounds. This is scarcely 0.05299 of a pound, or 0.86 of one ounce of loss. This is within the margin of error.
4. My Body Fat Percentage decreased from 27.4% to 24.9%. This is a reduction of 2.5%, and just barely enough to move me into the Moderate Risk Category.
5. Conversely, my lean percentage increased from 72.6% to 75.1%.
6. My body volume decreased from 89.135 to 85.61 liters; a reduction of 3.525 liters.

Since I began testing with the Bod Pod on May 13th, 2011 I have done all the following:

1. I have reduced my body fat percentage 19.2% from 44.1 to 24.9.
2. I have lost 65.126 pounds of pure fat, down from 114.09 to 48.964 pounds.
3. I have increased my lean weight 3.027 pounds. I am still net-positive on the lean weight front.
4. I have decreased my total weight 61.92 pounds, down from 258.651 to 196.731 pounds.
5. I have decreased my body volume 31.5 liters, from 117.111 to 85.61 liters.

As we were finishing the test, the fellow conducting my test related a horror story to me. He said he had just performed a test for a woman who showed virtually no change in a month of work. She burst out in tears and challenged the whole Bod Pod methodology. He then asked if he could introduce me to some people and show them my chart. I said "sure!" After all, what would I want to hide?

We walked over to where a television production crew was setting up cameras. Evidently, this was the crew of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition. The CHLI rep introduces me to a pack of three beautiful blonds. I was a bit shy. They were just two pretty. He shows them my chart and explains the situation. They congratulate me profusely. I took a bow. I was a little overwhelmed.

Of course, there was a connection point unstated there. I am sure the woman who cried was (is) one of the subjects of the show. I am sure she was pissed at her lack of progress and public embarrassing. I am sure he was bolstering the credibility of the method by showing me off. Still, it was fun. I got another ego stroke out of that.

I just need to stop being shy around the beautiful blonds. I am not the same old fat guy I used to be. People I know don't recognize me anymore.

One other factor: The Bod Pod was undergoing routine maintenance and certification yesterday. The crew was not undergoing training. Maintenance was the reason the Bod Pod was unavailable to me yesterday. Interestingly enough, I weighed in at 197.2 pounds on the Tanita this morning and 196.731 on the Bod Pod. The gap of 0.85 pounds has now closed to just 0.469 pounds.

Interesting... one day after routine maintenance the gap has closed from 0.85 to 0.469. My Tanita is closer to accurate than I originally suspected. The Bod Pod is a little less accurate than I suspected. In any case, the gap is there, but smaller than suspected.

196.6

So the score this morning was 196.6 on the Tanita scale. The Bod Pod would place me at 195.75. This constitutes a loss of 7.99 pounds thus far in this cycle. This is shaping up to be a very, very good Bod Pod test indeed.

Not much time to gab about it. I have a very full night of training ahead of me. I need to belt out 60 full minutes and then do my hydro therapy. I am also going to break tradition and hit a second full-cycle ROM workout in just one day. That will begin in just a few moments. This will get my blood pumping.

Just one quick story to relay. I went to Fry's Electronics today after work for the first time in a couple of months. I haven't been visiting there very often lately. I have had a lot on my plate, and very little time for recreational electronics browsing.

I purchased just one item, a copy of Code Magazine, and headed for the door. The guy working the security angle at the door is a dude I've talked football with a hundred times (both college and pro). I haven't seen this guy in quite some time. I think the last time I saw him, we were talking about the demolition job the Ravens did on the Chiefs in the playoffs. This was immediately after the game. That was before the surgery. It's been more than 7 months.

As I approached, I expected him to be shocked by my weight loss and make some comments. Nope, no reaction at all. He didn't recognize me. I wasn't wearing one of my trademark football jerseys to help him out either. I had an Under Armor shirt on. As I handed him my receipt for examination, I expected him to tweak at any moment. I thought he would figure it out.

Nope, there was nothing there but a completely blank, vacuous stare. He wasn't giving me the shine or anything like that. He just didn't recognize me. I was just one of a thousand nameless and faceless customers who go out the door with an item.

I decided it would be awkward to tip him off, so I just walked out the door. As I walked to the car, I was flipping out. I've had a hundred conversations with that dude, and he flat-cold didn't recognize me. There was no trace of recognition in his face at all. That was a completely natural miss. It wasn't forced at all.

I can't say I blame him. You don't ever expect to see a 330+ pound dude drop to 195 in just 7 months. I have changed dramatically in a relatively short people of time, and that just doesn't fit the cognitive model we humans have. We don't ever expect to see that.

Well, my own cousin Justin told me the following "If I didn't know it was you, I would never know it was you."

198.0 Exactly

This morning the score was 198.0 according to the Tanita scale in my bathroom. You know this means the Bod Pod would have me at 197.15. This means that I have hit or surpassed the 40% mass reduction point. This should also mean that I very, very close to going below the 25% body fat level.

This also indicates a loss of 6.59 pounds during this cycle with two full days to go. I had 55.912 pounds of fat on my frame as of the last test. If all 6.59 pounds of that loss come from my fat weight, I will now have 49.32 pounds of fat on my frame. 49.32/197.15 = 25.017%. I am so, so, so close! The moment I go below 25% BFP, they will officially move me from the high risk category to the moderate risk category.

The weight mark, the BFP, and the risk category are all major milestones in this process. Bod Pod X is shaping up to be a major landmark in this process.

I need to re-double my efforts in these last three evenings. A major, major milestone is in sight, and I can't miss it this time. Especially not when I had 15 day in this cycle to bring home the trophy.

60 minutes, 6 miles, 938 kcal, all on the elliptical cross trainer

So I just blasted 60 minutes of aerobic exercise on my LifeFitness Elliptical Cross Trainer. I traversed 6.13 virtual miles, burning 938 kcal @level 15. I used the mountain pattern. I nailed in blocks of 22, 23, and 15 minutes respectively.

I also blasted a full ROM cycle, first thing this morning, doubling up on the abdominal rows. This was a good start to the day.

I feel good. I have thoroughly revved up the metabolism. Everything is clicking. I think I am going to walk down to the local McDonalds and have a burger. Then I will walk back and do some biking. Why? Because I can.

I have had very little to eat today. I got 100 grams of protein and about 500 kcal in the form of two protein drinks. I also ate half a chicken burrito from LaSalsa. That probably provided something like 400 kcal. Let's call it 450 for safety's sake. This means I have consumed 950 kcal total today.

My BMR/RMR is currently rated at 1,830-1,860 kcal. I just burned 938 kcal more. Forgetting about the ROM and forgetting about the RMR elevation effect of exercise (something you cannot do) I am at -1,818. I think you can toss in 300 kcal for the ROM and the escalation effect. This would mean I am at -2,118.

Such a heavy deficit is not a good thing. As a rule of thumb, you don't want your deficit to be larger than your total BMR/RMR. That is effectively a starvation diet. This is what leads to losses of lean mass on the Bod Pod test. You know we wouldn't want to see that on this coming Friday, now would we?

Besides that, I will probably get the chicken sandwich and I won't be able to finish it all anyhow. I will see you at McDonalds.

203.2... and 12.21 miles before breakfast

The Tanita score this morning was 203.2, meaning the Bod Pod would have me at 202.35. This is a new low.

That was the score before 30 minutes, 374 kcal, and 10.1 miles on the bike. It was also before the 22 minutes, 2.21 miles, and 366 kcal on the elliptical motion machine. I did all that before breakfast. I bet you can't tally 12.21 kcal before breakfast. And I am on a heavy-duty calorie restriction diet also.

Something strange seems to be happening to me. I seem to be transforming into Superman and nothing can stop the process.

I hammered a ROM full cycle in less than 20 minutes yesterday morning. I worked far too long on my 2011 NFL predictions, and was way too sedentary during that time. After finishing that piece, I was full of the lethargy and fatigue that comes with inactivity. If you are on a calorie restricted diet, your body will take any opportunity afforded to shut down the any unnecessary expenditure and conserve energy. This is why you have to constantly ratchet your metabolism up through exercise.

I felt a little too weak to do both weights training and aerobic training, so decided to lift. I have prioritized lean muscle over fat loss in these past cycles. The workout at my local 24 Hour fitness was very successful. I increased my weight and my reps on nearly everything.

Afterward, I downed my second Pure Pro 50 of the day. By that point, I had consumed 180 grams of protein for the day. I had 30 grams in a Big 100 bar as well. This is (by far) the largest protein total I have consumed since having roux en Y gastric bypass. I felt this was too much protein, but you just can't skip the protein after weight training. You waste your workout that way.

The funny thing was this: Less than 30 minutes later, I was at loose ends, burning up with energy. I knew I wasn't finished for the night. I decided I would at least do a Sauna at 24 Hour Fitness in Thousand Oaks.

I did a hell of a lot more than that. I did 12 minutes of initial warm up on the tread mill, because a lame dude was wasting time on my Olympic rower. I did 12 minutes on the Olympic rower, and I went hard. This was after a full weight lifting regime that included rows and pull downs. I went back to the tread mill and did 10 minutes at higher speed, finishing at 4.1 miles per hour and a level 8 incline. I jumped on the bike and did 15 minutes, burning 220 kcal. I jumped back on the Olympic rower and did 5 more minutes.

It was around that time I noticed a very young, blond, Pisces-looking girl shadowing me around the gym. She positioned herself on the Elliptical machine just in front and too the left of my rower. Of course, this gave me an excellent rear view. This was her third move to position herself near-by me. Co-inky-dink? I think not.

I wouldn't put her a day over 21. She was allowing her custom-cut-up sweat top to droop over her shoulder, exposing her sports bra suggestively. That was no happen-chance accident. That was orchestrated.

Despite strong distractions, when all was said and done, I hammered 54 minutes of constant aerobic activity burning 688.5 kcal. I didn't take time to rest between these exercises. I went straight from one station to the next.

I wasn't precisely exhausted either. I felt I could do more. That was when I started to realize that I was transforming into Superman. Such a workout would put most 45 year old guys under ground. I wasn't really tired.

I hit 11 minutes in the steam sauna, and realized I still had some nervous energy left. I decided 20 minutes of laps in the pool would be the best thing. I proceeded to practice my backstroke.

Somewhere around minute 12 or 13, I noticed that the 21 year old blond Pisces had returned. She was at poolside. She was sitting on a stool, to the right of me, text-messaging. This was night-time folks. It was around 10:00pm. There was nobody there but us chickens. I felt this was unusual behavior on the part of young lady... unless she's interested.

I decided it wouldn't be wise to break the workout to talk to her. Too forward. Finish the workout, then see if you can have a word. I kept swimming. She got tired of waiting after about 5 or six minutes, and started walking around the pool a bit. That was when I knew she was trying to get me to notice her.

I kept going. I was going to finish. She got tired of waiting and went into the hot sauna. Perfect, I thought. That's where I am headed next. We spent about 11 minutes in the sauna together. she was listening to Pandora music on her smart phone. He had about 6 minute conversation about Pandora. She was pretty shy in conversation. She took off after that. I finished my sauna.

Piscean women are usually shy and retreating, and fearful of rejection. There are exceptionally aggressive and assertive specimens, but they are few and far between. Most Pisces girls are not like Rihanna. That was a first brush. It will be interesting to see what happens the next time we bump into each other at the gym.

She'll be surprised when she finds out how old I am.

However, this is another indication that I seem to be transforming into Superman. I'm still around 27% body fat. I am going to be absolutely fucking deadly when I reach 10-12% body fat. I'm not joking either. I'm a little scared of the prospects.

I am going to keep my protein consumption level at around a 150 grams per day from here on out to the finish line. I think this doing me a world of good.

Bod Pod IX... Meh!

The results of the Birthday Bod Pod are in, and in the famous words of Tedy Bruschi, that ain't what were looking for. That is probably a Bellichick saying.

The findings of the study are these:

• My scale weight was 203.734, down from 209.340,
• This is a loss of 5.606 gross pounds
• I now have 55.912 pounds of body fat, down from 62.414
• This is a loss of 6.502 pounds of fat.
• I know have 147.821 pounds of lean weight, up from 146.926 last time
• This is scarcely 0.895 of one pound increase of lean. I guess that beats a poke in the eye.
• My body fat percentage is now 27.4%, down from 29.8% last time.
• This is a 2.4% reduction in Body Fat Percentage, matching my BFP drop last time
• My body volume is now 89.135 liters, down from 92.042 liters last time.
• This is a decrease of 2.907 liters of body volume.

I guess anytime you increase you lean and decrease your fat, it's a pretty good week. The BFP reduction is equal to the one during the previous cycle. Still, I can't help but think it is a mediocre, mediocre, mediocre showing. I have done better before. I was hoping for my best cycle ever. This did not happen.

I should balance that sentiment out by meditating on the look of awe displayed on the Bod Pod operators' faces when they see my progress charts. I must admit that the purple trend line on the BFP chart is as constant as the Northern Star. It just keeps going down and down and down and down on a straight trajectory.

They openly say they wish they owned a trend line that looks like mine.

Still the pronounced saw-tooth pattern on my lean-weight is a spoiler and a bitch. I need to get my lean up to 160, post-haste. I am announcing a new plan to start training with my linebacker buddy as soon as possible. The lean has got to increase.

The cumulative totals the Bod Pod history show are impressive. In just 16 weeks:

• I have Reduced my BFP from 44.1 % to 27.4%
• My lean percentage has gone from 55.9% to 72.6%
• I have altered my body composition 16.7%.
• Cut my body fat weight from 114.090 down to 55.912 pounds
• That is a loss of 58.178 pounds of fat.
• I have cut 51% of my fat weight in 16 weeks.
• I still maintain a net positive 3.261 pounds of lean weight.
• My body volume has diminished from 117.111 liters to 89.135 liters.
• My body volume has dropped 27.976 liters. Think of 28 x 1 liter bottles of Pepsi vanishing from under my skin.

At the same time, we have the sobering fact that I remain in the high risk category. Anyone carrying more than 25% body fat is considered to be at high risk for obesity related health problems. As far as I've come in all this time, I'm still not out of the woods just yet.

Just how far do I have to go get out of the woods? The Bod Pod will change my check mark for the first time when I go under 25%. Unless I do better on this next cycle, it won't happen on September 16th. If I nail the same 2.4%, I will be sitting right on the 25% mark. They will still check the high risk box in that case. Even if I should score a -2.5% BFP reduction, the check box will only indicate moderate risk.

I won't get into the healthy category until I reach 19.99%. How far away is that? At present speed, it will happen in 6 weeks. This is presuming 6.5 pounds of loss each cycle, and no change in lean. In other words, a sub-average performance. This means it should show up on the October 14th Bod Pod. At that time, my body weight should be 184.233 pounds. I should have no more than 36.412 pounds of fat on my frame. Presuming a constant lean, I would have 147.821 pounds of lean mass.

There are better and happier scenarios, but let's not bank on it.

The fact is that my GP and Dr. Quilici have settled on the figure of 17-18% BFP as their ultimate target for my good health. When will that happen? 8 weeks from today is the earliest we should expect to see such a figure. It should show up on the October 28 Bod Pod.

204.8

I'm trying to make my first ever blog entry from my Verizon Android Thunderbolt. It ain't easy. It is a good time killer, as I am a prisoner at the DMV, waiting for my butcher's number to come up.

204.8 was the score this morning. This means I would be 203.95 on the Bod Pod. Less than 24 hours to go and I turn 45, and it will be time for the very important Bod Pod VIII. Let's hope it's great. At the moment, I have lost only 4.54 pounds of scale weight in this 2 week cycle. We also know that the name of the game is lean weight and Body Fat Percentage.

I am hoping for a 3% reduction in Body Fat Percentage this time.

206.2

Just weighed in a moment ago on the Tanita scale, and the score is 206.2. This means the Bod Pod would have me at 205.35 this morning. This is exactly 4.01 pounds less than the last Bod Pod test.

I have been very diligent about protecting my lean weight during this cycle. I executed my 4th Nautilus-style workout of this 2 week cycle yesterday. Two more will follow before my Friday test. Most of my weights and reps went up. This is usually an indication of increasing lean weight. It is usually impossible to increase in strength or stamina without some increase--no matter how small--in lean weight.

This is the right way to kick off the week. This is shaping up to be a very nice test indeed.

207.9 a new post-gastric bypass low

This morning, the digital read-out on the scale flickered back and forth between 207.8 and 208.0. Once again, the Tanita rounded up and not down. The official score is 208.0. For the sake of argument, let's presume I am 207.9. This means that the Bod Pod would show me at 207.05 this morning.

[Editor's note, sorry for the inconsistent math before correction. I wrote this before my morning Muscle Milk.]

Not quite a pound less than I was 9 days ago. Hummmm... kinda scarry eh? Nah, not really. I've been completely focused on lean weight this time.

• Nautilus-style workouts with free weights and machines.
• The ROM.
• The shake weight.
• Core training.
• Push-ups.

Everything is focused on muscle strength and tone. I do believe this is producing tangible results. All my resistance levels are rising. My muscle tone has improved dramatically in just 4 workouts. My muscularity seems to be rising. Muscle memory is a wonderful thing.

I've been aggressive about raising the resistance on the Elliptical Cross Trainer also. I am now working exclusively at level 16, which is very, very intense. At level 16, I burn 365 kcal in just 22 minutes. This is 16.59 kcal beyond RMR/BMR every single minute. That's pretty brutal baby. Most people burn 8-10 kcal above RMR on the bike or the treadmill. A woman performing 1 hour of aerobic dance will burn approximately 7.5 kcal about RMR for the duration. We're talking about a cool 221.2% increase in intensity over that.

Everything is getting easier, and my capacity to do work continues to grow. I can't help but think that my lean/fat ratio is improving.

Provided that my fat loss has been strictly average, I should have lost 0.5 pounds per day on each of the past 9 days. This means 4.5 pounds of fat loss. Knowing that I am scarcely 1 pound lower in terms of absolute weight, the indication is that I have regained 3.5 pounds of lean.

Is this possible? Yeah sure, given muscle memory, it is possible. Remember, I lost 2.556 of pure lean on the last test. That weight might have snapped back as a result of re-hydration. I might have added a new pound in the past 9 days.

If all this is true, my fat weight should now be approximately 57.5 pounds and my lean should be equal to (207.05 - 57.5 = 149.55). My BFP should then be equal to 27.77% this morning. This is progress folks; -2.03% of progress, to be precise.

Since I have been averaging 1% of fat loss per week for the duration of my testing, -2.03% in just 9 days is very fast-paced progress indeed. It is disappointing that such rapid progress still leaves me with 27.77% body fat, which is still considered obese and high risk. I still have a considerable distance to travel.

Is it legit to consider people with 27.77% body fat obese? Consider the following facts. When you go to the butcher's counter, lean ground beef contains around 10% fat. Not so lean beef contains 15% fat. Fatty pork contains about 20% fat. I contain 27.77% fat. I contain more fat than the ground pork on at the butcher's counter. I still contain my bones and my vital organs... at the present moment. If you made a fillet of Dave, that fillet would certainly contain more than 27.77% fat.

Now, isn't the fatter meat the tastier meat? Don't all the super-star chefs on the Food Network say "Zero percent fat, zero percent flavor"? Doesn't Michael Symon say that the most tragic term in the English language is "Lean Beef"? Of course they do.

But with that said, I still have rendering-out to do. I think it is fair to say a man should meet the standards of not so lean beef before we can call him healthy.

212.0 before and after the pool party

Yesterday morning I weighed in at 212.0 on the Tanita scale. This morning I also weighed in at 212 on the Tanita scale. This was before and after the pool party yesterday.

I manned the grill at the pool party. This was a lot of fun, as I rarely get a chance to cook these days. The items on the menu were not of my choosing, but the standard sort of pool-party fare: hot dogs, hamburgers, a bit of Kielbasi, and a few steaks. A good time was had by all, and they liked the way I seasoned the steaks.

Next time, we will do a Paella.

Of course, manning the grill means quality control work. This taste testing. I ate a lot more at this party than I would normally eat in a day. I was quite surprised at the easy with which I consumed hot dogs, hamburgers, sausages, and steak. Normally, I wouldn't have had more than one of those items in a day, and I would never mix. The more complex a dish, the more difficult to digest. Ordinarily a variety of complex proteins, eaten at one time, gives me trouble. Not yesterday. Who knows... maybe I crossed another threshold yesterday.

I wasn't too concerned about my weight this morning. I presumed that eating all that protein was a good thing. I am trying to gain back my lean weight. I did not consume a bunch of worthless candy, cake, cookies and ice cream calories. Nevertheless, I was... interested in the score this morning.

Evidently, the drop down to 209.34 was just a preview peek, and not a real or immediate achievement. I wonder if the 2.556 pounds of lean weight was just water weight, lost to dehydration. Of course, the Bod Pod would score me at 211.15 on both of these past two days, and this is 1.81 pounds higher than the Bod Pod test on Friday. This suggests that I may have lost a little lean weight, but it is not as bad as I originally thought. Just 0.746 of a pound, or less than 12 ounces.

I ran into a former employee of my current firm at the party. He hadn't seen me since the days of 320. He had no idea I had the surgery. This is a big-time Chicago Bear fan who had purchased Walter Payton and Dick Butkus jerseys back in the days when I was building my collection and organizing shipments from China. He flipped out when he saw me.

It turns out that a female cousin of his just had the surgery Friday. I also had my surgery on a Friday. His cousin was in a pre-diabetic stage, and needed the surgery to prevent this long-term terminal condition. It was interesting seeing the look in his eyes and watching his mind boggled. I don't need ESP to know what he was thinking. He was considering the magnitude of transformation his cousin was about to experience. He looked downright inspired.

That was the most memorable moment of the pool party. It must have been a divine appointment. He'll probably go visit with his cousin and tell her my story. This will serve as encouragement to get her through the early days of surgical recovery, which can be a little bit rough.

Bod Pod VIII: Victory spoiled

So today was Bod Pod VIII day. Just what were the results?

• My body weight went down from 220.348 to 209.34.
• This is a loss of 11.008 pounds
• 8.452 of those lost pounds were fat
• 2.556 of those pounds were lean tissue.
• My fat weight dropped from 70.865 to 62.414 pounds.
• My body fat ratio dropped 2.4%
• My official BFP is now 29.8%
• I am now over 70% lean.
• My body volume dropped from 97.356 liters to 92.042 liters
• This is a loss of 5.314 liters of body volume
• For what it is worth, my BMI is now between 29 and 30. Few medical professionals take BMI seriously.

There are reasons to be excited, there are reasons to be disappointed

• I was hoping to go inside 60 pounds of fat.
• I was hoping to go inside 28% BFP
• My BFP dropped 2.4%, which is 0.4% more than we would expect under the benchmark average.
• I lost 1.452 pounds more fat than we would expect under the benchmark average
• This came at a high trade-off, as I lost 2.556 pounds lean more than I should not have lost
• I also failed to gain new lean, increasing the negative.
• The net difference in terms of body fat percentage is negligible. If I had simply kept my lean and been 2.556 pounds heavier, my BFP would be only 0.34% lower.

As always, I was hoping for better. To make it short and sweet, it was an exciting week of rapid loss, spoiled at the very last minute by lean weight loss instead of lean gain.

The next Bod Pod will be on my 45th Birthday. Yep, that's right folks. We are officially 2 weeks away from the moment when Dave turns 45 years old. Shocking, isn't it? Where has that ocean of time gone? How have I dissolved half of 90 years already?

The Dumping Effect

For those who have Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery, the dumping effect is probably single most fearsome side-effect.

Just what is a dumping effect or dumping reaction? A dumping effect/reaction occurs when you pocket stomach releases carbohydrate--most often refined carbohydrates--into the lower intestine too quickly. Remember, the first three feet of your upper intestine are gone. The carbos go straight into the lower intestine.

Biologists don't understand why, but for some reason, this wreaks havoc on your metabolism. You begin to sweat profusely. Your sweat has a strange and abnormal stench to it. The smell is disturbing. You get cold chills. Your body can't heat itself. You may feel cramps in various and sundry places. You heart races. You get nauseated. You feel gas pressure in your gut. You want to throw up, but you can't. You just gag. Perhaps you will burp a few times, if you are lucky.

I am told it feels like you are having a heart attack. The symptoms are said to be similar. I wouldn't know. I have never had a heart attack. I don't plan to have one either. Given my level of fitness, I doubt I will.

When the whole thing is over, you feel like you have been through the ringer.

Believe it or not, forcing yourself onto the exercise bike will make you feel much better. Elevated blood sugar is one of the several reasons for this reaction. Reducing your blood sugar by burning it helps you to recover quite considerably.

Based on what I have been told, the dumping effect only occurs during a relatively brief period of time between 5 and 12 months after the surgery. My first dumping effect occurred earlier than that.

I had a minor dumping effect last night, which was very strange. I just had my last one this morning. It was pretty fucking awful. One of the worst yet. It lasted more than 2 hours.

Let me tell you about two things that will cause a dumping effect; things you will probably never hear about anywhere else. To the best of my knowledge these two substances appear on no Gastric Bypass post anywhere.

1. Liquid or foaming Dawn dish washing detergent
2. USPlabs Jack3d (Pre-Exercise CNS-Carnosine-ATP Augmentor)

I happen to rely on both these substances quite a bit. Dawn is my detergent of choice for all my dish washing needs. Jack3d is my most preferred pre-workout drink. Still, you have to be careful in how you use them. Let me tell you about it.

This morning, when I began prepping my breakfast protein drink, I realized that I hadn't run a load of dishes in a few days. I don't have many dishes to do, so this isn't unusual. Unfortunately, I didn't have any clean Magic Bullet mixing cups left in the cupboard.

I decided to do a quick rinse job on one of the dirty mixing cups. This involves a little water, a squirt of liquid dawn, and a little time on the bullet blender. This should disinfect the cup.

Unfortunately, I was not as diligent in rinsing the cup clean as I should have been. I should have rinsed it several times, and wiped it down with a paper towel. Trances of the detergent remained in the cup, and gave my protein a funny taste. No matter, I thought. Liquid Dawn is a inert and non-toxic. I should be fine.

Less than 10 minutes later, all manner of unpleasantness ensued. This was the second worst dumping event ever. It was pretty terrible.

Never has a protein drink invoked a dumping reaction. I've been living on Muscle Milk for 6 months now, and it has never given me a problem before this event. It had to have been the traces of soap that upset my delicate digestive system.

The moral of the story is simple: Use the dishwasher. If you wash manually, rinse very clean. Any traces of soap will upset you something terrible.

USPlabs Jack3d is one of the best workout energizers available on the market today. It works so well that the FDA is considering taking it away from us. The fucking bastards... If you ask people around your gym or vitamin shop for advise on a pre-workout drink mix, Jack3d is sure to get a lot of favorable reviews.

There's just one problem: By design it is meant to clear the stomach and dump into the intestines quickly. This is not a problem if you drink it by itself, as it is meant to be used. Mix it with a protein drink or some source of carbohydrate, and you will get an instant dumping reaction. It's a ferocious dumping reaction as well. Worse, if you should drink Jack3d too close to a meal, you could trigger a dumping reaction of sorts.

My first, and the worst ever, dumping effect was created in this manner. I was using the Watermelon flavored Jack3d at the time. This is a particularly offensive and unpleasant flavor for me. I tried to sweeten it and add some carbos by putting a teaspoon of vanilla sugar in the mix.

This was a serious mistake. Within moments of drinking the compound, I felt like I had been poisoned. I swear I must have sweat off 2 liters of fluid in the following hour. I couldn't stop shivering and groaning. My heart pounded away the whole time. That was agony. It ruined the whole day.

Use it, but not with any source of carbohydrate.

212.6... oh-oh!

T-48 hours and counting to Bod Pod VIII and my weight just took it's made its move in the other direction. I just weighed in at 21.6. That is up approximately 0.7 of a pound from yesterday, and I was confidently predicting I would be around the 210 mark today.

I spiked up before the last Bod Pod test, and that test turned out pretty well. This is not a reason to panic, but it is interesting. I am seeing a new pattern of a strong downward trend followed by some temporary movement up.

I wonder about one thing: Does this signify the end of the free-fall after the breakage of the last set-point? If so, it means I am going to be stuck here for a little while. It's awfully soon for another set-point to emerge.

We'll have to see. As I go lower and lower, it would be logical for my naturally endomorphic system to fight harder and harder against further loss. Further, my BMI shrinks more and more, tightening the window for weight loss.

212.4

I know, I know, I'm starting to sound like a broken record. 212.4 was the score this morning, according to the Tanita scale. This means the Bod Pod would have me at 211.55 this morning. With nearly 4 full days to go before Bod Pod VIII, I have now lost 8.798 pounds. I might reach 10.798 in gross loss this time.

Incidentally, I just noticed a typo in a previous blog post. I am going to have to go back and correct it. I was pretty groggy yesterday morning.

Down and down I go. The size 42 suit pants I bought yesterday aught to be nice a comfy, with a loose fit.

213.0

Ever had one of those mornings where you wake up feeling like an emaciated skeleton? One of those mornings where you felt like you could see every bone in your rib cage?

No, of course not. Kinda stupid question, isn't it? It would be completely preposterous, save for the fact that I just woke up feeling that way about a half-hour ago. I woke up feeling metabolically low, but I had a gut-level feeling that tremendous progress had been made

This morning, I weighed in at 213.0 on the Tanita scale. This was one of those mornings where the scale couldn't quite make up it's mind just how much I weighed. The digital read-out flickered back and forth between 212.8 and 213.0 about five or six times. The message is clear: I'm somewhere between 212.8 and 213.0, and the scale was having some difficulty determining whether it should round up or round down.

For the sake of argument, let's say I am 212.9 exactly. You know what this means. The Bod Pod would say I weigh 212.05 this morning. This brings my progress to nearly 8.298 pounds in just 8 days. There can be no doubt that I am bursting out of the set-point now. That's just way to fast.

For the sake of argument, let's say that 8.298 pounds was entirely fat-loss. I have some serious doubts about that, but let's hope it's true. This means I should have lost 4.29948 liters of body volume, and my body fat weight should be 62.567 pounds. If my lean remains constant, by Body Fat Percentage (BFP) should now be 29.5%. Further my total body volume should now be 93.056 liters. Wow...

I should admit that I woke up this morning feeling like 3 day old dog shit, run over by a truck, and warmed up in the microwave. Well... maybe not that bad. Perhaps, that is an exaggeration, but I feel like I have been through the ringer.

I am still trying to shake off the grog. This is the reason why I am exercising my brain, writing this blog entry. I'm trying to wake up.

Folks, I still have 6 days to go before Bod Pod VIII. Down and down I go, where I stop, nobody knows. I am looking right down the gun-barrel at an unprecedented week of remarkable progress. Although the way I feel is a red-flag warning sign, things are looking pretty damn good numerically. The anticipation is growing. I am really curious to see the results of this test.

Not a moment too soon, either. One of my Leo buddies is having a birthday pool-party next Saturday afternoon.

218.9?

The body's metabolic high-jinks continued this morning as I weighed in at 218.9 this morning. That's after weighing in at 223 yesterday morning. As You know I weighed in at 220.348 on the Bod Pod scale this past Friday.

That's stock market-level volatility.

My body is going through mad mood swings, metabolically speaking. I can feel it, too. I went to the gym early in the evening yesterday, and was on the olympic rowing machine through all Marshall Faulk's (very long) acceptance speech at the Hall of Fame yesterday ; ). When I got home, I was so damn tired I hit the sack in less than one hour. As I woke this morning, I could feel every muscle in my torso. It feels as if every muscle has thickened and grown, and yet my weight is down. Go figure...

Of course, this is as it should be. I rowed for 22 total minutes, @level 10, for 4,500 yards and 268 kcal. I went fast and hard, averaging 49 strokes per minute. I went so hard I actually had to take a break in the middle. The whole time, Marshall was on the HDTV talking... And Chris Hanburger said they were given 6 to 8 minutes each... Jeeze...

Of course, I chide Marshall for the long speech, but you know I loved seeing him go in. Watching the acceptance speech inspired me to row a hell of a lot harder than normal. What would Marshall do? Congrats! I will blog about this soon!

Every instinct in my gut tells me that I am going through a key transition point these days. I am breaking through my latest metabolic floor. For those unfamiliar with set-point theory, I will give you the 101.

The human body contains a program for everything it should do. This program code is called DNA. You DNA codes a few things in a hard and fast way. It codes everything else in a more flexible and adaptable way, to flex and change conforming with environmental conditions.

You metabolism is a bit flexible, and so to is your body fat percentage. Just because it is flexible doesn't necessarily mean that it is easy to flex. Each body has preferred set-points for calorie burn, muscle levels, body fat percentage, activity level, etc. You can reprogram your set point, up to a point, but it is very, very, very difficult. The system will try to snap back to it's genetic preferences. Your genes will fight you as you go against them.

Contained in that tiny passage is every philosophical justification you will ever need for something as drastic as roux-en-y gastric bypass surgery. In order to defeat genetic programming, surgeons make drastic alterations in the metabolic pipeline. These are permanent alterations your body can do nothing about. Genetic set-points are forced to flex in conformance with a new physical and metabolic reality.

Your arrival at a new, lower, set point is just about guaranteed. 98% of all people who have this surgery hit their target weights. I did that already. For those 98% who hit their targets, 85% of the excess weight is still gone 15 years later.

Just because it's guaranteed, doesn't mean it is easy. I can testify that there have been several points in this process where my body has fought the hell out of me. This past week has presented the toughest battle thus far. My genes seem to be drawing a line in the sand saying "This far and no farther! NOT ONE MORE INCH!" Now, those genes are destined to lose. They can't win, but they don't know that. They are planning to make their last stand... and they are planning to win.

For all I know, I may have already broken on through to the other side of this metabolic barrier. This morning's crazy swing downward may be the beginning of a new and steady free-fall that takes me all the way down to 200 pounds. Let's hope so.

As sure as I am sitting here, I know that something big is going on. I can feel it. My muscularity is increasing. My fat is decreasing. My ability to exercise is increasing at an amazing rate. I will give you one example.

These past two days, I have completed 30 minutes, using the interval pattern, at level 15 on the LifeFitness Club Series Cross Trainer. Yesterday, I burned 504 kcal, moving 3.04 miles in the process. For reference, a woman may burn as much as 400 kcal in 60 minutes of Aerobic Dancercise. We're talking 252% of that intensity level. The cross trainer is one of the most intense exercises you can do, and until very recently, I couldn't do it at all. The pain in my knees was just too great. Now I have no pain at all.