PH Losers 2020 - Anyone want to join me?

[Funk]

cowboyengineer said:

Funk said:

Do you want adding in to the Wiki table?

Yes please

Done! Let me know if you want height adding in.

[Funk]

Can anyone recommend a decent calories-burned app that'll sync with my Polar H7?

I currently use BLE Heart Rate Monitor as the live read-out and graphing are excellent but I think it's over-estimating on my calories burned at the gym despite knowing my weight, height and age. Here are my last two workouts for example:



Admittedly I'm making my gym sessions count but I'm doubtful I'm burning 1,000 cals/hr doing it. Also ignore the peak HR in the second screenshot, I forgot to stop it before taking off the HRM and it went a little nuts. I deffo didn't hit 234bpm!

I'd like to try and benchmark BLE HRM to see how accurate the cals are - and if it's way off, I'd like to run a second app alongside that's known to be more accurate...

Weigh in night for me tonight - I've had a cold since last Weds so haven't gym'd it up as usual on Thurs and Sat. Back to it tomorrow night all being well.


Edit: current stats are 144.7kg, nearly 41 and 5' 10" if anyone's able to help work out whether BLE HRM is way off..?

Edited by Funk on Monday 13th January 14:22

[Funk]

ben5575 said:

Funk said:

Admittedly I'm making my gym sessions count but I'm doubtful I'm burning 1,000 cals/hr doing it.

Those are both hard sessions there Funk!! And you're a big lad too. I don't think 1,000cals/hr is unreasonable from the tech I've used.

Here's one of mine from a hard kickboxing session. I was averaging 143bpm which isn't far from your 138bpm average in your examples and it averages at 757kcal/hr. I'm 97.5kg, you're 144kg so 50% bigger. Your 1000kcal/hr doesn't sound stupid to me.

Interesting; I'd always assumed it was far too high. It's also typical of my gym sessions, here's the most recent 9 showing duration, av. HR and the cals it reckons I've burned:



Maybe I'll just buy a Fitbit and see if it agrees with the Polar H7 + BLE HRM combo... Actually the Fitbit might be useful anyway as I'm not really tracking anything outside of gym sessions.

[Funk]

ben5575 said:

Funk said:

Interesting; I'd always assumed it was far too high. It's also typical of my gym sessions, here's the most recent 9 showing duration, av. HR and the cals it reckons I've burned:

I *think* the calories burned are also gross. So include calories you would burn for that 1 or 2 hours if you were sat on your arse. So if your monitor is saying 1600kcal over a 2 hr work out, a big lad like you must be burning what, 100-150kcal/hr just staying alive, so that 1600 is actually 1300 net if that makes sense?

But don't underestimate those workouts of yours. I can vouch for a 90min 140bpm average work out as being hardcore. That is serious cardio.

Be great to get any other other feedback though, as like you, there's a bit of fumbling in the dark over all of this.

Yeah, no point in faffing about at the gym; I go in and make it count! My PT has said that he's also pleased to see my recovery time is very good apparently. I would agree that it makes sense to net off the cals against baseline; using the BMR calculator posted earlier it says my BMR is 2360 which works out at 99 cals/hour so you're pretty much spot on with the lower end of your estimate.

The main cardio part of my workout is at the end of my sessions where I'm on the elliptical and get my heart rate up to 150+ for half an hour or so then onto the bike to cool down at the end. The biggest spike in HR is the warm-up on the rowing machine usually, it normally pushes into the 170s. One thing that I've found is that much as I love the workouts they're pushing a little too late into the evening (which means I'm eating later as I go straight to the gym from work) so the PT's suggestion to split out cardio and weights is a good one. The plan is to get into the routine of getting up at 6am and doing the 30-40 mins cardio every morning and the weights every Tues/Weds/Sat at the usual time.

Edited by Funk on Monday 13th January 17:35

[Funk]

Well a slightly surprising 2.7kg (6lbs) loss for me this week; current weight now 142.2kg. Odd, given that I've had to swerve two gym sessions this week thanks to a cold - it never seems to make any sense! Hoping it's fat loss rather than muscle - am back at the gym tomorrow night so it'll be interesting to see how it feels after a week away from it and whether I have to dial back on the weights a little.

Bought a Fitbit Charge 3 tonight - as an all-in-one device it'll be interesting to see how closely it and the HRM/BLE HRM app agree on the stats tomorrow. It's also neat that it integrates so tightly with MFP too.



Edit: Thought more about this overnight and actually it fits with what's changed this week the more I consider it; the only difference this week was the lack of gym on Thurs and Sat - which means there's no way I could've put on muscle. I think that means that each of the weeks I've had a maintain or little net loss actually have been muscle gains offsetting fat loss.

Bold prediction for this week then: as I'm back at the gym from tonight I reckon next week will see only a small loss, assuming I maintain the same dietary regime...

Edited by Funk on Tuesday 14th January 10:08

[Funk]

Christ, I need to be taking on a LOT more protein then... I had 144g today but under the 2g per kg I should be taking on nearly 300g on the days I'm training. Something to talk to the PT about on Saturday!

@ben5575 - the Fitbit and BLE HRM both agreed on tonight's workout so I genuinely am burning that many calories per session then:

Fitbit recorded 1676 calories, the HRM recorded 1791 - but the Fitbit didn't log the 5 mins rowing warmup which would account for some of the missing 115 calories (and allowing some minor discrepancy/leeway between what the two report - they're close enough!).



For a little watch working off a heart rate through the skin the Fitbit's pretty impressive!

Edited by Funk on Tuesday 14th January 23:42

[Funk]

ben5575 said:

I think I would actually die if I ate 300g of protein

The consensus is 0.7-1g per 1lb, so at 144kg, that's 221g to 300g which is a little more reasonable.

Good news on the fitbit front. Thanks for posting that, it's very helpful/interesting.

And always trust your professional PT over some bloke on the internet!

If there's one thing I've learned over the years it's that pros in any industry just LOVE it when someone says, "Yeah but...I read on the internet that...."

[Funk]

Smitters said:

Funk said:

If there's one thing I've learned over the years it's that pros in any industry just LOVE it when someone says, "Yeah but...I read on the internet that...."

Imagine how much weight "...but I read on this car forum..." is going to carry! Mind you, my GP Googled something in front of me once. I actually thought it was cool - look it up instead of bluffing it.

There's nothing wrong with research of course, but at the end of the day, there just isn't a magic bullet or a shortcut. The rude truth is weight loss occurs mainly in the kitchen, not the gym, and that the fresher and closer to it's basic state the food is, the better it is for you. All things in moderation, lots of colours on your plate, a short list of ingredients on packets, all of which you can pronounce. Yadda yadda yadda.

At the end of the day, it's willpower, avoiding your personal pitfalls and points of failure (Maoam Pinballs from the petrol station? I now pay at pump...) and making sure you forgive yourself for the odd slip-up. It's ok now and then, just as long as it's not every day.

It's just not easy to stick to. I have known all this for eight years. I've gone from 88kg to 68kg, back to hovering around 72-75, then slowly crept back up to 81kg from a low of 72 last spring. I'm heavily influenced by what my Mrs is eating, how work, training and my own mental state is going. Even down to the personalities on this thread! Last year, there was one jarring poster and I just quit the thread because it became too frustrating. But, and here's the positive, each time I start to lose again, it's from a lower point, I get back on track a bit sooner and it lasts a little longer. The eventual aim is just to always eat like this, make it a habit, but until that sticks, I'll just keep on rolling and try to minimise the bad stretches.

I agree, especially the bit I've bolded. Whilst each element is important, it's also knowing how to combine them for maximum effect that's important and that takes people who know what they're talking about.

I know where two of my biggest gaps are too - I don't sleep enough (the Fitbit's saying 5-6 hours a night and not much of that in deep sleep, it's mostly light; again, assuming it's broadly accurate..) and I don't cook enough fresh food with variety. I know these are areas that will need to be addressed in order to really boost my weight-loss and fitness plans going forward.

[Funk]

tr7v8 said:

pitboard said:

Is it too late to join in the fun?

Nope, you're welcome. Fun, umm not to sure of that!

I joined the 2019 one in August last year!

[Funk]

Great to see so many people doing well, stick with it!

Is everyone ok with updating the wiki? If you're concerned you'll bork it the post here and one of us will update your stats.

I think we'll also follow the 'no updates in 4 weeks' rule to move any who aren't active on the wiki down to the bottom like last year.

Edited by Funk on Saturday 18th January 15:46

[Funk]

AJB88 said:

Robmarriott said:

84.4kg this week, 0.6kg off, nice to know I can keep up the pace from last year still.

Really need to get some new scales though, I’d like to see body fat etc, what does everyone use?

I've got the Fitbit ones but the body fat calculator is up and down every weight in wouldn't use it to measure any kind of "body fat loss".

Rob, I bought a pair of the calipers mentioned earlier in the thread - probably the most accurate option! My scales can provide fat/muscle/water % but to be honest I might as well ask next door's cat.

These were the ones I bought: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Diyife-Personal-Calipers-... I figured for a fiver they were worth a punt!

poo at Paul's said:

Impressive.
It's obviously working what you are doing, but before going all out cash wise on PT and gym, I am sure you know it will be 95% diet.
BUt Kudos, that is good going.

Share more details, example food diary, what has worked, what hasn't, what has been easy, what hasn't.

Good stuff!

Thanks PaP. Diet absolutely was key - I've actually been going to the gym since March last year and seen fitness levels improve, however I didn't start to see the weight shift significantly until I started Slimming World in August.

I wanted to take things one at a time rather than changing too much in one go, building the gym into a habit before tackling diet. The reason for signing up with the PT at this stage was to start working on getting muscles ready under the flab for when it's gone. I'm braced for the fact that coming from the size I was (and the age I am) that I'll most likely have quite a lot of loose skin once the fat's gone from under it so I'm doing what I can now to mitigate it (such as keeping well hydrated, using Bio-Oil etc) and building muscle to fill out areas such as chest, upper arms and thighs as much as possible.

So is it all working? Yesterday was quite a timely gym session with my PT as we revisited the initial 1-rep-max measurements we'd taken (21st Nov) to see how things have changed and everything is going in the right direction:

Plank: up from 43s to 1m10s
12min Cooper run: up from 1.06km to 1.3km
Bench press: up from 39kg to 52kg
Shoulder press: up from 41kg to 47kg
Leg press: up from 141kg to 168kg

Overall my fitness level has improved significantly, my resting heart rate is typically around 55bpm and my recovery times are very good.

Whilst Slimming World has been great up to now, I'll happily admit I've bodged it together a little - I have zero interest in cooking, it holds no appeal. I bought Slimming World meals which after some investigation aren't horrendous and packed with crap like E-numbers and preservatives - it was a lot better than the old diet of takeaways in the evening and sandwiches, crisps and sausage rolls from the M&S over the road from the office at lunchtime!

Typically a day for me now is:

• Breakfast - 2x Weetabix (SW 'Healthy B' choice) and 250ml s/s milk (first 'Healthy A' choice)

• Mid-morning: fruit (typically a banana or apple)

• Lunch: SW meal of some sort with a Birds Eye Steamfresh veg portion. 2x Mini Babybel (second 'Healthy A' choice) while lunch is microwaving. The SW meals seem to be fairly high-protein and lower fat typically.

• Afternoon: 250g Fage 0% Total Greek yoghurt with a portion of blueberries (both 'free' foods on SW) and a dash of honey (a couple of 'syns' in SW-speak, I can have up to 35 syns/day).

• Dinner: typically jacket potato with tuna, beans, sweetcorn etc - all 'free' foods on SW.

• Evening: If I'm hungry I'll have some fruit or 50g (half a bar) of Toblerone (13 'syns').

It's been easy for me to stick with and crucially I'm not bored of it. So whilst that's a 'good' day from a Slimming World perspective what I'm doing with my PT is 'optimising the optimising' and working out where I can bump up 'free' foods to help with the training I'm doing (such as adding in more protein etc).

I'm very aware it's not perfect but I've been able to stick to it - the changes in the stats above, progression I'm seeing weekly in my gym sessions and the fact I've just had to drop yet another waist size on my jeans show it's working for the time being.

Despite being very much NOT a morning person, I'm planning to move the cardio part of my workouts to the morning, upping the frequency to daily and then the weights in the evenings on the days I go already (Tues & Thurs). Saturdays I can mash it all together as I don't have time constraints that day.
My left arm and shoulder are a real weak spot for me since I had tendinitis in the elbow and I also have rotator cuff impingement. It's why I'm seeing slower gains there than anywhere else and it'll give me more time in the evenings to work on those areas.

Edited by Funk on Monday 20th January 00:43

[Funk]

0.4kg up for me this week which, being honest, I suspected might be the case (or at least a maintain or small loss). After the 2.7kg loss last week and having done no gym for the preceding week it wasn't surprising that getting back into the gym had an effect. There's also the small fact that I had to go down a waist size on my jeans on Saturday which tells me what I need to know... - I'm now down 8" on my waist since August which is nice.

Leg night tonight at the gym, hoping to push up a bit on everything!

Edited by Funk on Tuesday 21st January 15:56

[Funk]

ben5575 said:

Good work. I'm up too, but like you I can nearly do the button up on a pair of trousers I bought as opposed to having a 3" gap at the top

You mentioned the callipers you bought in an above post. If you don't mind me asking, how did they compare to the scales? Were they far out?

They're actually awkward to use as you have to read off the number with them in place - it would've been simple to give them a small plastic loop which slides and stays as the reading point but....they're a fiver so can't really complain. They do seem to correlate with the reading from the FitQuest machine, give or take. It's probably about as accurate as anything's going to be.

[Funk]

tr7v8 said:

lrdisco said:

Please can some one update my weight at 144.3 on the tracker.
Pleased enough with that.
I’m now training regularly, eating 2300 calories a day. Never hungry.
No alcohol and not planning to be drinking for a while.

Just done it for you. 5.9Kg loss well done....

Yes, that's awesome work!

[Funk]

Weigh-in for me tonight at SW; another week where I'm really not sure what the outcome will be... MFP reckons I've had a net calorie deficit this week of 8,199 although I've really gone for it at the gym this week so it'll be interesting to see how that translates.

I'll update later tonight regardless!

[Funk]

Yeah, no probs - although it looks like there are quite a few who've not updated since the beginning so we might see it thinned a little after the 'no-updates-in-4-weeks' rule...

[Funk]

Down 0.9kg (2lbs) this week which is great - 3.2kg this month and a large dump away from 31kg in total now gone.

Also I've discovered that I fking love hex bar deadlifts. I love Leg Day...

[Funk]

SlidingSideways said:

My belt required pulling in a notch this morning to prevent embarrassment on the school run.
A small but positive sign things are changing.

I found that when my weight seemed to stay static for a while. I've gone from a 52" waist to a 44" and am already now thinking I need 42". My size changed so rapidly that I've got three pairs of pretty much brand-new 46" jeans which are destined for the charity shop along with a coat which now looks like a 2-man tent on me...

Gym was heaving last night, it was grim. Couldn't work through my routine in the sequence I need to, loads of waiting around - I know we were all new once etc but I can't wait for it to level off again. Hopefully maybe only another few weeks and it'll be back to relative normality. FWIW I was never a 'NY,NM' joiner - I waited until March!

As a consolation prize I decided to try and smash my PB on the leg press....and I did - was even able to do 10 reps at 179kg which I was quite pleased with! Still need my shoulders to get on board and join the party, my gains there have been pretty crap.

[Funk]

Carl_Manchester said:

Funk said:

stuff.

Funk, been lurking on the thread for a while.

I use the Polar H10 and cross-referenced with an Apple Watch. i think your elliptical numbers are over estimating, make sure your age and weight are in.

For a 40 year old, Over 30/60 minutes you are looking for around a 375/800 cal burn after the 4 week training mark i.e once you have puked up a few times.

Here is my H10 and Watch readouts to help you gauge where you are.

Thanks Carl, appreciated.

My elliptical is 30 mins of my session but conveniently the Fitbit breaks down the individual exercises which the BLE app doesn't - it just tracks heart rate and estimates overall calories burned. Weight, age and height are identical on both apps though. What's your current weight? If I'm heavier than you it would explain the additional calorie burn for me moving that extra around?

I'm now splitting cardio and weights, I was at the gym at 06:30 this morning (ugh). Here's this morning's elliptical session:



Here's the output from BLE HRM & H10 which includes the 5 mins rowing machine warmup and 7 mins cool-down on the bike:



Looking at Tuesday's session though, the Fitbit reckoned 999 cals on weights, 699 elliptical, 34 on the rower warming up and 68 on the bike cooling down - total 1800. BLE HRM reckoned 1983 so they're not a million miles apart. I reckon the Fitbit is under-reading slightly on the rowing though as I have to enter that manually (can't believe it's not listed as a pre-defined exercise like Weights, Elliptical etc are) and it's the thing that spikes my HR the most, up to around 170 but only for 5 mins warming up.

The other consideration is that the Fitbit is only measuring the exact actual activity (ie. not counting periods in between exercises for example) whereas BLE HRM is tracking from the moment I start to the moment I walk toward the exit so a 180-odd calorie variance is probably within spec.

In any event, it's the Fitbit which is getting logged, BLE HRM is ace for seeing real-time HR etc though.

Edited by Funk on Thursday 30th January 17:06

[Funk]

Carl_Manchester said:

Your 60 min burn level looks sensationally good, i am jealous.

I am 96kg.

i am coming down from 103kg back down to 89kg which is my long term weight level.

Sadly the more training you do the less effective it is, I am in my 7th year of cardio.

I have an intermittent trapped nerve in my back which means i need to go up and down weight wise depending on timing and lager consumption. I drink like a fish during summer which affects my weight if i get injured at the wrong time.

This is my third cycle going from 105kg back down to 89kg and each time cardio seems to be less effective.

I'm just over 141kg now so nearly 50% heavier than you, that would explain the calorie rate difference. I've dropped nearly 31kg and imagining doing everything I do now with 30kgs strapped to me just seems insane. I've only been going to the gym since last March and I'm sure that as the weight continues to come off I'll see the burn rate slow down.

Edited by Funk on Thursday 30th January 23:28