Low back squat and higher calorie weekends

Most hard core Powerlifters squat with a low back squat. You can lift more from that position. I've used a high back squat all my life. Since it seems I'm going to be sticking with powerlifting I decided to start using a low back squat. Today was my first day using decent weight from a low back squat position. I built up to 5 reps at 300lbs using a low back squat. I always assumed it would feel uncomfortable. But it felt great. I felt much stronger and I seemed to pop out of the hole more naturally and effortlessly. I'm looking forward to seeing how this works it strength worse at my next meet.

I always struggle with my diet on the weekends. I thought of a simple fix I tried this last weekend and it worked. I ate 500 calories more on Saturday and Sunday, 1000 calories more total than I'd usually eat to lose weight. And I dropped my calories 200 a day during the week, which is also 1000 calories. It's the same calories for the week. I'm just eating more when I struggle and eating less the days I'm usually fine dieting. 

I weighed in today at 271. I've lost exactly 75lbs. 55 more to go until I hit my goal of being in the 220lb powerlifting weight class.

To much on to little calories

Tonight at weightlifting I could barely finish my workout. I'm exhausted. After doing minimal training the last year I jumped full throttle back into weightlifting 3 nights a week, CrossFit 3 nights a week, and calorie restriction. I'm trying to do to much, to soon, with not enough calories. Tonight I'm getting a full 9 hours sleep. Tomorrow I'll increase my calories and do less weight at CrossFit. I got much to excited about getting down to the 105k weight class. I need to slow down my weight loss and take care of my body. I'm not as young as I used to be. My body isn't nearly as able to tolerate the abuse it used to.

update on calorie change

A couple days ago my sports nutrition coach changed my daily calorie allotment. It took a couple days for me to figure out what the new calorie regiment would feel like. On my non-training days it feels like I have lots of carbohydrates to eat at everyone meal. On my training days I eat the majority of my carbs before, during, and after training. The rest of the day I only have a dozen grams of carbs to eat at each meal. Even though my carbs feel low the rest of the day, I never feel hungry because I have 300 grams protein and 125 grams fat each day. I've always felt best eating lower carbs  and a little more fat than most people. On the occasions I've tried low fat diets I fell apart quickly. I lost strength, endurance, and energy. This diet seems perfectly suited for my body type. I'm down to 304 pounds. I've lost 14. Just 75 pounds to go to hit my goal of being a 105k.

rest between sets for olympic weightlifting

During my last weightlifting meet I felt fatigued by the time I got to the Clean and jerks. I decided I'd try and take less time between lifts during training to see if that would help increase my endurance during weightlifting meets. I've set the timer on my phone for 4 minutes. Every time the timer goes off I do another set regardless if I feel recovered or not. So far this has rocked my legs! They are tired and pumped up once I leave the gym. The next day my legs are always much more sore and fatigued than I'm used to. This approach probably burns more calories which will help me get to my goal of lifting in the 105k division.

On another note, my depression has subsided a lot the last couple weeks. I'm sure it has to do with working less and sleeping more the last couple months. I had been suffering from severe depression, most likely caused from working 80-90 hours a week for 9 straight years. I've only been working an average of 50 hours recently. Life feels so much better being well rested and having the fog of melancholy lifted.

back squat day and increased calories

Today i was scheduled for 2X4 sets of back squat @147k (315lbs). On any other day that would be an easy couple sets, but it was a rough night last night at the prison. After all the adrenaline from last night my body was exhausted. It was all force of will and determination, but i was able to make the lifts.

About a week ago i started to struggle to finish my workouts so i increased my calories. Increasing my calories helped a ton. I maintained my weight during that week and started to feel 100% again. As of last night i decreased my calories again to 3250 calories a day. I'll lose about a pound a week with that. I'll keep you informed on how the weightlifting is going with the decreased calories. 

weight loss and olympic weightlifting part two: metabolism and olympic weightlifting

I've been trying unsuccessfully for over a year to lose weight while training olympic weightlifting. I was using the MyFitnessPal phone app. MyFitnessPal is great. It's easy to use and can be used anywhere. When using that app I assumed my metabolic rate was around 3000 calories a day. It was 3300 back when i was training triathlon 20+ hours a week. I assumed it would be slightly lower now that I was olympic weightlifting 4 times a week. I was wrong, and my assumption caused massive problems. I'd start dieting, I'd plan on losing 2 pounds a week. If my metabolic rate was 3000 calories a day and there's 3500 calories in a pound of fat, I'd have to cut out 7000 calories a week, which is 1000 calories a day. So I'd eat 2000 calories a day plus any calories I burned from workouts.

3000 (metabolic rate)
-1000 (calories per day for 2 pounds weight loss a week)
---------------------------
2000 (calories consumed per day)

Using this formula I'd get hungrier and hungrier everyday until I couldn't handle it anymore and I'd binge eat gaining more weight than I had lost. I decided to stop using MyFitnessPal and go back to using Dietpower. Dietpower is a program similar to MyFitnessPal, but the biggest differences is that Dietpower will figure out my metabolic rate, MyFitnessPal doesn't.

Now that I've been using DietPower, it's shown me my metabolic rate is much higher than 3000 calories a day. It's 4130 calories a day to be exact. That makes a lot sense as to why I was overly hungry and why I need more calories now. Muscle burns calories. I'm burning more calories now that I'm a weightlifter and have more muscle then I did as a triathlete.

Since starting to use dietpower I've dropped from 311 pounds to 299 pounds without being very hungry at all. So the good news is I'll be able to be more loyal to this diet because I'll be more comfortable. The bad news is I've decided to limit my weightloss to 1 pound a week and at that rate it will take me 68 weeks (May 2016) to get to my first goal of getting into the 105k weightclass. And it will take me 93 weeks (Oct 2016) to get to my 2nd goal of getting into the 94k weight class.

going low carb and olympic weightlifting

I've been trying to drop weight the old fashion way, calorie counting. I've been failing miserably. I've never really been able to lose weight by counting calories. Back when I used to compete in triathlons I was able to lose weight going low carb, and then maintain my weight by counting calories. I asked my Olympic weightlifting coach Shane Miller if he thought I could still be successful in olympic weightlifting while going  low carb, he said ok but that he'd want me to eat carbs before and after my intense weightlifting days on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. I have a weightlifting competition this Saturday at Miller weightlifting and I don't want to mess up my performance so I won't start the new diet until Sunday. I tried to google low carb and olympic weightlifting and there wasn't any information online. What info there was had to do with bodybuilding which isn't applicable to olympic weightlifting. I also tried looking up some info on low carb on some olympic weightlifting web sties, again there was no info at all. So when I do start the diet I'll post how I feel and how my strength is doing with the low carb diet. It'll be an interesting experiment.

dieting, food cravings, and strength

Back in the day, when I was an endurance athlete, I was on calorie restriction for what felt like FOREVER. One of the lessons I learned while staying endurance athlete light (gaunt) was that I needed to take a break from calorie restriction on occasion. I can tell when I need to stop dieting and go into a maintenance phase because I start resenting having to eat less than I want and I start craving lots and lots of crap! I hit that point of food obsession this weekend. For the next 1 to 2 weeks I'm going to maintain my body weight. After the food cravings go away I'll go back to dieting again. While my calories are increased not only will I be preparing my body to lose weight more comfortably but I'll gain more strength too. More food and an increase in strength, it's going to be a fun couple weeks!

I'm currently weighing 260 lbs. I've lost 20 pounds since picking up Olympic weightlifting. 54 more pounds to go until I've hit my goal of getting into the middle heavyweight division (94k weight class).

week 4 of Olympic weightlifting and weight loss

Today I start my 4th week of Olympic weightlifting. The last 3 weeks I've mostly been training to learn correct form, yet my strength is still gaining quickly. The first 3 weeks my coach Shane Miller, had me doing power snatches and power cleans from the knee, dead lifts, presses, squats, etc. This week my coach is going to have me start doing power snatches and power cleans from the ground. I'm excited about progressing to this next phase of Olympic weightlifting.

So far my weight loss has been progressing quickly and effortlessly. During the 7 years of hard core dieting and triathlon training I learned my body responded much better to weight loss if I dieted for a few weeks, then spent a week maintaining my weight. In the first 2 weeks I'd been averaging 2,500 calories a day and I lost 12 pounds. For the 3rd week of Olympic weightlifting I raised my calories to 3,400 and maintained my weight of 268.8 for the entire week. This week I'll be returning to a calorie restricted, high protein and fat, moderate carbohydrate diet. I'm going to try and keep my weight loss at about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pounds a week. If I stay consistent with this schedule I should hit my goal of being in the masters 105k class by May, just in time for the New Mexico state games.

chasing Arnold day 4

I started my run this morning as soon as there was enough light to run safely, 6:50 AM. I had to cut it short so that I could be home to take care of my youngest when my wife left for school. I ran 3.5 miles. I haven't come close to rebuilding my endurance or speed yet, but I felt better than I had in a long time.

There's not much better than triathlon training on the highway 14 here in New Mexico, also called Turquoise Trail. It's much easier to get up everyday and train when I know I get to see views like these.

 

When I laid my son down for a nap today I hopped on the rollers and did a little cycling while watching The Walking Dead on Netfix. Thank goodness for streaming movies and TV shows, otherwise indoor cycling would be torture!

Currently my metabolic rate is a little above 3,000 calories. Yesterday I burned 822 calories and ate 2,607 calories. Another day of low carb diet success, I should hit my goal weight of 200 pounds no later than mid summer 2013. I'm currently 227.

calories burned during an Ironman

On Nov 20th 2011 I competed in Ironman Arizona. In the 15 hours of racing I burned 6,842 calories. Ironman is a great way to burn off calories!

long brick days equal big calorie days!

I did my 1st two back to back long brick workouts since my bike accident in early Sept. Friday I did a 67 mile bike ride and a 6.2 mile run, I burned a total of4,444 calories, my metabolic rate is currently 3,200 calories a day, so I was able to eat 7,644 calories without worrying about gaining any weight!

Yesterday I did a 14 mile bike followed by a16.5 mile run, I burned 2,411 calories, so I'll be able to eat 5,611 guilt free calories! I love long training days!

Those 2 training days were a gut check. I was hurting at the half way point. By the end I was slow and tired. Very slow. Very tired. Considering I haven't done a dang thing since early Sept I did surprisingly well. I've decided to attempt racing Ironman Arizona on Nov 20th. Because I was unable to train for 2 months and I'm now riding an old, heavy, off brand road bike I doubt I'll be able to break my Ironman PR of 14 hours 37 minutes. I'll just be happy to just finish by the Ironman cut off time of 17 hours.

Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!

new body weight new nutrition needs

For years my bodies nutritional needs were around 300-350 calories per hour on my long bike or run days. If it was a cold day I'd use 400-450 calories per hour.

This year I've felt bloated on my long days so I tried adjusting how many calories I consume during training. After a few weeks of experimenting I've found that I only need 200-250 calories per hour. I believe my nutrition needs has changed because I'm training at a much lower body weight than the last time I trained for an Ironman. 50 pounds lighter actually. Since I weigh less it makes sense that I use & need less calories during exercise. Now that I feel better on my long days I'm able to bike & run longer at a higher quality. I never stop learning when triathlon training!

calories burned during Ironman triathlon

On November 2011 I competed in Ironman Arizona. I weighed 182 pounds and burned 6,842 calories. Apparently Ironman distance triathlons are a great way to burn calories!