quick weight loss, packing, and moving

In a couple days of eating low carb I've dropped from 316 pounds to 309.6 pounds. I've been sick since Saturday, so I'm sure some of my weight loss has to do with being ill. But still, I'll gladly take losing 7 pounds no matter what the reason.

We're moving into our new home tomorrow. Apparently moving the weekend of good Friday and Easter is a bad time to move. All but a couple of friends have bailed out of helping us. Moving sucks. Packing and moving an entire house of five people with only three helpers sucks much worse.

low carb diet for weightlifting and weight loss

Since Valentines day I gained all the weight back I had lost using a nutrition coach. I'm back up to 313.4 pounds. My body has always responded well to low carb diets. I usually feel great while I'm on them. The only problem I've ran into is that I struggle to finish weightlifting workouts when going low carb. The last time I played around with low carb I found that if I ate rice before my workout and drank Gatorade during my workout then I'd have the energy to finish the weightlifting workouts. The carbs before and during training didn't slow my weight loss much at all.

So, today is my first day back on a low carb diet. I'll report all things low carb, weight loss, and weightlifting here as I experience them

low carb diet and olympic weightlifting final update

My low carb diet/experiment went for 10 days before I fell off the wagon. I realize 10 days isn't a long enough time to make any big gains in knowledge, but I can share what bits of info I did pick up.

I found during that time of low carb I gained strength while losing fat. I didn't follow the low carb diet and train long enough to see if the strength gain were equivalent to a regular diet, but i did gain strength while on the low carb. I set a couple lifetime PR's during the 10 days I was low carbing it.

- I fatigued quickly at explosive exercises like snatches and clean and jerks. Training at more traditional weight training was fine, but the balistic exercises I couldn't do many of.

-I couldn't finish the long grueling workouts my coach had planned for me as well as I could on a more traditional diet. I countered the loss of endurance on the hard workout days by eating a high carb meal right before training. I only had to eat the high carb meal a couple times a week, for the harder training days. The other workout days were form and recovery days and I could finish the workout while continuing low carb and without a high carb meal. The high carb meal made it so I could inish my workout just as well as when I was eating a more traditional diet. Eating the high carb pre-workout meal only slowed my weight loss of a low carb diet slightly, barely noticeable amounts..

low carb and olympic weightlifting workouts

This morning I had my 2nd olympic weightlifting workout while on the induction phase of a low carb workout. I felt fine at first, but I became fatigued about half way through the workout. I want to lose weight, but not if it means screwing up my progress in weightlifting. So I've decided to eat a couple cups of white rice before my strenuous workouts, and a cup of milk with whey protein post strenuous workouts. I only do 3-4 difficult workouts a week, so I'm relatively certain if I follow a strict low carb all week except when I eat to fuel myself well for a strength training session I'll get the best of both the weight loss and weightlifting.
This morning I weighed in at 290.4lbs, a loss of 4lbsin 3 days of low carb dieting.

Low carb and olympic weightlifting day 1 and 2

I'd Googled Low carb and olympic weightlifting to see if there was any info on the web, there wasn't. I decided to use myself as a guinea pig and post everything I learn here on my blog.

Day 1: My first day going low carb was Sunday. By noon I was thirsty, a little irritable, and by that evening I had a headache. Other than those three things there's nothing interesting to report.

Day 2: I woke up weighing 294 lbs. 4/10ths of a pound lost in one day. Pretty good so far. Day 2 was even more boring than the first day. I woke up with a little residual headache from the night before. Other than that I felt completely normal. During my work I felt just as strong as usual. I fatigued quicker, but I think that had more to do with having competed in a big weightlifting competition on Saturday. It's almost 4pm, I've worked out, and I've been doing this diet for over a day and a half & I feel completely normal. I don't feel any of the horrible side effects I've read about the induction phase online.

So far this experiment is very boring. Nothing of any significance to report. It will be interesting to see if my endurance returns while I'm on the low carb diet or if I'll struggle to finish my workouts until I increase my carbs again.

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.

My first 2 goals for Olympic weightlifting

Like I said in my previous post, I'm starting Olympic weightlifting on Monday.I'm currently weighing 280 pounds, so my first goal of Olympic weight lifting is to get down to 230 pounds so that I'll no longer have to compete in the super heavy weight division. I'd like to eventually get down to to 190 pounds so that I could compete in the 85k division (169-187 pounds). That means I have to lose 90 pounds. My body has always responded well to low carb diets, so that's what I'm doing. I'm in my 3rd day of low going low carb. So far so good.

Here are the men's weight classes of Olympic Weightlifting:

MEN
56 kg	≤ 56.00kg 123.3 pounds
62 kg	56.01kg – 62.00kg 123.22 pounds-136.4 pounds
69 kg	62.01kg – 69.00kg 136.422 pounds-151.8 pounds
77 kg	69.01kg – 77.00kg 151.822 pounds-169.4 pounds
85 kg	77.01kg – 85.00kg 169.422 pounds-187 pounds
94 kg	85.01kg – 94.00kg 187.002 pounds-206.8 pounds
105 kg	94.01kg – 105.00kg 206.822 pounds-231 pounds
+105 kg	≥ 105.01kg 231.002 pounds

low carb induction phase

This was my 4th day back to the low carb diet induction phase and 4th day back to duathlon training. The 1st few days of the induction phase I was grumpy, tired, and light headed. My workouts had been horrid. This morning I woke up and felt great. During my 17 mile bike ride today I also felt wonderful. This morning I weighed in at 230 for a loss of 6 pounds in 4 days.

The training program I'm on right now will have me peak for the Missile Man duathlon on Saturday Febuary 2nd at White Sands Missile Range New Mexico.

the art and science of low carb performance and triathlon

After 7 years of triathlon training, calorie counting, fat restricting, and yo-yo dieting I got down to 175 pounds, I was fast but was miserable with hunger all the time. I was also grouchy a lot and injury prone. I finally fell off the wagon earlier this year and my weight shot back up. I read the book The art and science of low carb performance and am trying this whole low carb thing with triathlon training. So far I'm loving it. Yesterday and today I did brick workouts (a bike followed immediately with a run) that was long enough I needed to eat and drink to have enough energy to finish the workout. The book said once I'm keto adapted I could eat fat rather than sugary sports drinks and bars during my ride to sustain energy, so today I added a TBSP of olive oil to each of my water bottles. Today at the end of my 2 hour brick I felt great, still had energy, and hadn't bonked. I had a bit of a head ache from not taking in any salt during my workout, the book said I was supposed to drink bullion to avoid head aches and cramps, but I'm ever the critic and rarely do what I'm supposed to.

This morning I weighed 224 pounds.

Lessons learned today:
#1 Olive oil and water works as well as power bars, gels, and Gatorade for long workouts but I need to add bullion for the salt.
#2 Don't ride a mountain bike 20+ MPH down a bumpy trail 2 weeks after having a vasectomy.
#3 Don't try to bunny hop a curb on a mountain bike on fatigued legs after a long run.
#4 Crashing on a mountain bike trying to bunny hop a curb hurts much worse shortly after getting a second vasectomy performed by a mountain bike seat.

temporary digression

I'd been on a low carb diet I'd read about in the book "The art and science of low carb performance" for two and a half weeks. In that time I'd lost 17 pounds. Although I was getting fantastic results I became frustrated because that book didn't go into a lot of detail about how to eat their version of a low carb diet, so I started eating a more traditional diet for endurance athletes and promptly shot back up to 235 pounds. The book "The art and science of low carb performance" mostly explained why a low carb diet works for ultra endurance athletes. The book said I should buy the book "The art and science of a low carb lifestyle" for a more detailed explanation of how to eat his version of a low carb diet. So I purchased the book "The art and science of a low carb lifestyle" and started reading it last night. I'm back on the low carb diet as of this morning and am expecting a lot of the confusion I had previously to be worked out by this book.

Today I went on a 9 mile run and it hurt. My problem during the run wasn't my endurance. My endurance was sufficient. My problem was that I'm just to heavy to run long distances right now. My body was beat the heck up after that run. I'm very motivated about training for my first 50k ultra endurance trail run, but I'm afraid I need to postpone training for an ultra until I'm at a lower body weight. Hopefully now that I have the book "The art and science of a low carb lifestyle" I'll be more capable of getting to that lower body weight so I can resume training for my goal of earning my 1st ultra endurance trail run belt buckle.

low carb and endurance running

I'm currently attempting to build up my run miles for next years Angel Fire endurance trail run. It'll be a challenging 31 mile run over mountains and through valleys using national forest trails starting at the base of the Angel Fire ski resort. Currently my endurance is poor, I have a long way to go. Last week my longest run was 6 miles. I ran it slowly and it was uncomfortable.

Earlier this week I started a low carb diet I read about in "The art and science of low carbohydrate performance". It's a low carb diet for endurance athletes. When I started this diet I assumed my endurance and speed would decrease. I was also fully expecting to feel horrible. So far I feel great. Today I ran a little over 7 miles consuming nothing but water and felt fantastic. Feeling even better than I had felt on a traditional endurance athletes diet was not what I was expecting, but that is exactly what has happened.

On my first day of my low carb diet I lost 2 1/4 pounds. I'm back into the 220's again! So far I'm loving this.

a new sport and a new diet to go with it

I've decided to give up cycling for awhile (see last post for the reason why), I'm now finishing my 1st full week of training to be a pure runner.

I'm adapting a new diet to go along with my new exercise routine. I'm trying a low carb diet from a book called "THE ART AND SCIENCE OF LOW CARBOHYDRATE PERFORMANCE", by Volek, phd and Phinney MD. Tim Olson who followed the low carb diet advise found in this book won the Western States 100 mile trail run with a record-breaking pace. Now I'm going to try it too! I'll let you know how the low carb diet works for me while doing an endurance athletes regimen. Stay posted!