Free Spirits Rowing

Kicking off this thread for 2021.
Goal this year is to get below 90kg.
Started with my weight loss drive on Sep 14 2020 weighing 114.3kg - cut down my food intake and only having one meal (supper) per day, trying to walk every day, and erging most days - feeling much better at a healthier weight.

Date________Weight (kgs)_____Weekly Change_____Overall Change_________2021 Change_____________
14/09/20______114.3
04/01/21______97.6______________0.4 _______________-16.7_______________ ----- __________________


Paul G

Good luck with your weight loss Paul, given your success last year and your sensible approach you‘ll be sub 90kg before you know it

Grobi wrote: ↑Tue Jan 05, 2021 9:57 pm Good luck with your weight loss Paul, given your success last year and your sensible approach you‘ll be sub 90kg before you know it

Thanks Peter - I have been doing a lot of research recently into heart health, and have come to the rather obvious conclusion that losing weight is one of the most important things you can do to reduce the demands placed on your heart - this has made me doubly determined to continue on the path I am currently on, AND I got tired of having to constantly dodge harpoons every time I went for a walk on the beach .

Paul G

paulgould wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2021 10:56 am I got tired of having to constantly dodge harpoons every time I went for a walk on the beach .

Thanks for starting a new thread Paul. I lost some of my post Christmas weight this week. Still a long was to go before I'm back in the green zone (sub 95kg).

Paul V

Date________Weight (kgs)_____Weekly Change_____Overall Change
02/01/21______99.2
09/01/21______97.9______________-1.3_______________-1.3

Great start to the New Year Paul, green before you know it!

Paul Victory wrote: ↑Sat Jan 09, 2021 11:40 am Thanks for starting a new thread Paul. I lost some of my post Christmas weight this week. Still a long was to go before I'm back in the green zone (sub 95kg).

Paul V

Date________Weight (kgs)_____Weekly Change_____Overall Change
02/01/21______99.2
09/01/21______97.9______________-1.3_______________-1.3

Thats a fine start to the new year Paul

I have had a good week and managed to match your weight loss .
The new medication is working wonders and I am feeling far more energised and able to get more consistency into my rowing.

Date________Weight (kgs)_____Weekly Change__________2021 Change__________Overall Change_______
14/09/20______114.3
04/01/21______97.6______________-0.4 _______________-0.0__________________ -16.7 __________________
11/01/21______96.3______________-1.3 _______________-1.3__________________ -18.0__________________

Paul G

Well done Paul.

I think you’re going to leave me far behind.

Hi peeps,

Well I should be here too. In October last year I went to my doctor for a check up and heh presto had a shock. My mouth and my desire to sate my stomach had led me to the awesome weight of 127 kg, 20 st! Wow. Immediate intervention. Since that fateful day I am now 112kg, sustained my weight loss over the holidays and have just rowed my first row in over eight or so years.

My goal is in stages; first get to 110kg. Then 108kg, when I typically stop feeling heartburn, then 100kg, then 95kg and then to get to 92 kg. At that stage I would like to stabilise and then push for 87kg (when I was at my fitest as an adult living in Zimbabwe in 1997-2000) and then finally push to 85 kg, if I can. I will be hitting the big Five-O in July so hitting below 100kg by then would be great, if not 95 or 92.

This is a long term goal and I aim to maintain whatever final weight I can get to.

Willing to support you guys and to receive some gentle encouragement through this process. Good luck!

Wojtek

Date________Weight (kgs)_____ Change__________2021 Change__________Overall Change_______
.Oct /20______127.6
13/01/21_____112.2__________-15.4 _______________-15.4__________________ -15.4__________________

wojtek wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 1:56 am Hi peeps,

Well I should be here too. In October last year I went to my doctor for a check up and heh presto had a shock. My mouth and my desire to sate my stomach had led me to the awesome weight of 127 kg, 20 st! Wow. Immediate intervention. Since that fateful day I am now 112kg, sustained my weight loss over the holidays and have just rowed my first row in over eight or so years.

My goal is in stages; first get to 110kg. Then 108kg, when I typically stop feeling heartburn, then 100kg, then 95kg and then to get to 92 kg. At that stage I would like to stabilise and then push for 87kg (when I was at my fitest as an adult living in Zimbabwe in 1997-2000) and then finally push to 85 kg, if I can. I will be hitting the big Five-O in July so hitting below 100kg by then would be great, if not 95 or 92.

This is a long term goal and I aim to maintain whatever final weight I can get to.

Willing to support you guys and to receive some gentle encouragement through this process. Good luck!

Wojtek

Date________Weight (kgs)_____ Change__________2021 Change__________Overall Change_______
.Oct /20______127.6
13/01/21_____112.2__________-15.4 _______________-15.4__________________ -15.4__________________

Nice to see you back, Wojtek, after a long hiatus.
You are off to a great start on the weight loss journey - one of the things I have found that works really well is having a daily walk in place of a meal(usually in the middle of the day for an hour) - another rather obvious one is cutting out the majority of highly processed and fried foods out of your diet( for me cutting out crisps has helped a lot) and getting on the rower just about every day with a long slow distance session.

As for me, I increased the rowing volume this week, and counterbalanced it with an increase in rubbish food consumption resulting in a net loss/gain of 0.0 kg!!

Date________Weight (kgs)_____Weekly Change__________2021 Change__________Overall Change_______
14/09/20______114.3
04/01/21______97.6______________-0.4 _______________-0.0__________________ -16.7 __________________
11/01/21______96.3______________-1.3 _______________-1.3__________________ -18.0__________________
18/01/21______96.3______________-0.0 _______________-1.3__________________ -18.0__________________

Paul G

Paul,

Agreed! I have not eaten processed food for the past couple of months, except for tinned tuna, sardines, sweetcorn. I like the idea of a midday walk! I eat well, but cook pretty much everything that I am going to eat from scratch.

I have managed four rows since I started back, and whilst I know that my times are far below what they were, they will get much better!

Hope to kee seeing the weight come down.

wojtek wrote: ↑Wed Jan 20, 2021 2:18 am Paul,

Agreed! I have not eaten processed food for the past couple of months, except for tinned tuna, sardines, sweetcorn. I like the idea of a midday walk! I eat well, but cook pretty much everything that I am going to eat from scratch.

I have managed four rows since I started back, and whilst I know that my times are far below what they were, they will get much better!

Hope to kee seeing the weight come down.

Wojtek , you are doing great so far - don't worry about your erging speed at the moment - consistency is far more important, so doing a longish, steady row just about every day will rapidly become a habit and your times will improve quickly.
WRT the lunchtime walk replacing a large lunch(I would often have 6-8 pieces of white toast with butter and jam), I did a rough calculation that an hour walk will burn off 200-300 calories more than you would burn off naturally (your BMR), and not having a 500-1000cal meal will give you a net calorie change of around 1000 calories. Just with that change you will have a net weekly calorie change of 7000cals, which is close to a kg( approx. 7700 kCal).
I know the maths is not exact, but that is the general principle.
Add to that the calorie burn from a daily 45 min row(approx 400-500 kCal burned) and the weight will fall off.
One really important thing though is to make sure the lifestyle change is sustainable - you can't starve yourself.

Keep up the good work - you will get to around 100kg in no time.

Paul G

Welcome back Wojtek! That's a very challenging target you've set yourself, but you've made good progress so far and building up momentum is the key to successful weight loss, in my experience. At my peak, I was 124 kg and I managed to reduce this to 92 kg over a nine month period. Mind you, that was 15 years ago and I don't have quite the same energy at 67 that I used to have at 52.

I've varied up and down since then, but have never quite managed to get below 90 kg and I'm currently stuck in the high 90s. I've done very little rowing because of ongoing back problems, but I think it's more lack of motivation than anything else that's preventing me from getting into a good routine.

Anyway, keep up the good work and maybe seeing you in my rear view mirror will give me the incentive I need to start consistently moving in the right direction.

Paul V

I forgot to publish last week's weight in, so here's an update. Bad week the week before last, a bit better last week.

Paul V

Date________Weight (kgs)_____Weekly Change_____Overall Change
02/01/21______99.2
09/01/21______97.9______________-1.3_______________-1.3
16/01/21______98.7______________+0.8______________-0.5
23/01/21______98.2______________-0.5_______________-1.0

Paul Victory wrote: ↑Sat Jan 23, 2021 10:55 am I forgot to publish last week's weight in, so here's an update. Bad week the week before last, a bit better last week.

Paul V

Date________Weight (kgs)_____Weekly Change_____Overall Change
02/01/21______99.2
09/01/21______97.9______________-1.3_______________-1.3
16/01/21______98.7______________+0.8______________-0.5
23/01/21______98.2______________-0.5_______________-1.0

Paul, a good start to the year - heading back in the right direction

Did my highest weekly mileage for some time and was stricter on what I ate so had a good week, and hit the 20kg total loss.

Date________Weight (kgs)_____Weekly Change__________2021 Change__________Overall Change_______
14/09/20______114.3
04/01/21______97.6______________-0.4 _______________-0.0__________________ -16.7 __________________
11/01/21______96.3______________-1.3 _______________-1.3__________________ -18.0__________________
18/01/21______96.3______________-0.0 _______________-1.3__________________ -18.0__________________
25/01/21______94.3______________-2.0 _______________-3.3__________________ -20.0__________________

Paul G

paulgould wrote: ↑Mon Jan 25, 2021 9:18 am Did my highest weekly mileage for some time and was stricter on what I ate so had a good week, and hit the 20kg total loss.

That's quite a milestone Paul, well done! A weight loss of 20kg in a bit more than four months is amazing, keep it up!

Grobi wrote: ↑Mon Jan 25, 2021 4:02 pm

paulgould wrote: ↑Mon Jan 25, 2021 9:18 am Did my highest weekly mileage for some time and was stricter on what I ate so had a good week, and hit the 20kg total loss.

That's quite a milestone Paul, well done! A weight loss of 20kg in a bit more than four months is amazing, keep it up!

Thanks Peter - I have managed to settle into a sustainable routine which seems to be working - my Beta blocker medication has been changed and I am feeling a lot more energised and the VTC challenge has also got me rowing more consistently.
Also managed to improve my diet quite a bit - cut out most of the rubbish but still managing to eat enough dead cow and not going hungry.
I am hoping to keep losing weight until I get to a point where I start losing strength and muscle mass - I'm guessing that that will be at about 83-85kg but as I haven't been at that weight this millennium that is pure speculation .

Paul G

No change this week.

Paul V

Date________Weight (kgs)_____Weekly Change_____Overall Change
02/01/21______99.2
09/01/21______97.9______________-1.3_______________-1.3
16/01/21______98.7______________+0.8______________-0.5
23/01/21______98.2______________-0.5_______________-1.0
30/01/21______98.2_______________0.0_______________-1.0

Paul, still better than gaining.

I had another good week of training and not over-indulging.

Date________Weight (kgs)_____Weekly Change__________2021 Change__________Overall Change_______
14/09/20______114.3
04/01/21______97.6______________-0.4 _______________-0.0__________________ -16.7 __________________
11/01/21______96.3______________-1.3 _______________-1.3__________________ -18.0__________________
18/01/21______96.3______________-0.0 _______________-1.3__________________ -18.0__________________
25/01/21______94.3______________-2.0 _______________-3.3__________________ -20.0__________________
01/02/21______92.7______________-1.6 _______________-4.9__________________ -21.6__________________

Paul G

I'll join in, although I'll only post monthly or so ....

Date________Weight (kgs)_____Monlhly Change__________2021 Change
01/01/21______121.0
01/02/21______118.8______________-2.2 _______________-2.2

Only got back on the erg early January, after a looooong time away, and then could barely manage to paddle 2000m with HR going stupid. Have persevered with a number of longer rows and well spaced intervals, and somehow clocked up 200k this month Weight initially increased rather than decreased in the middle of the month, but has now started to show a drop. Now need to get some real momentum and find my way into a genuine fat burning rowing pattern. There's a thread in the training section as to how to motivate me before boredom sets in.

Slight improvement.

Paul V

Date________Weight (kgs)_____Weekly Change_____Overall Change
02/01/21______99.2
09/01/21______97.9______________-1.3_______________-1.3
16/01/21______98.7______________+0.8______________-0.5
23/01/21______98.2______________-0.5_______________-1.0
30/01/21______98.2_______________0.0_______________-1.0
06/02/21______97.8_______________0.4_______________-1.4

Paul Victory wrote: ↑Sun Feb 07, 2021 12:12 am Slight improvement.

Paul V

Date________Weight (kgs)_____Weekly Change_____Overall Change
02/01/21______99.2
09/01/21______97.9______________-1.3_______________-1.3
16/01/21______98.7______________+0.8______________-0.5
23/01/21______98.2______________-0.5_______________-1.0
30/01/21______98.2_______________0.0_______________-1.0
06/02/21______97.8_______________0.4_______________-1.4

Still going in the right direction

Rob - well done on getting started - overall not a bad first month.

I had a week of bad eating counter-balanced by a good weekend of exercise - pleasantly surprised to show a net loss of 0.5 kg.

Date________Weight (kgs)____Week Change_____2021 Change____Overall
14/09/20______114.3
04/01/21______97.6___________-0.4 ___________-0.0___________ -16.7
11/01/21______96.3___________-1.3 ___________-1.3___________ -18.0
18/01/21______96.3___________-0.0 ___________-1.3___________ -18.0
25/01/21______94.3___________-2.0 ___________-3.3___________ -20.0
01/02/21______92.7___________-1.6 ___________-4.9___________ -21.6
08/02/21______92.2___________-0.5 ___________-5.4___________ -22.1

Paul G

That’s an amazing overall loss, Paul.

Paul Victory wrote: ↑Mon Feb 08, 2021 10:05 am That’s an amazing overall loss, Paul.

Thanks Paul - a lot of the credit has to go to my wife - she has been looking after the food side of things, making tasty but healthy meals, and has lost over 11kg herself - it certainly makes it easier when you can encourage and support each other.

Paul G

Hi folks,

An update.

Date________Weight (kgs)_____ Change______________2021 Change_____________Overall Change_______
Oct /20______127.6
13/01/21_____112.2__________-15.4 _______________-15.4__________________ -15.4
20/01/21_____110.9__________-1.3_________________-16.7__________________-16.7
27/01/21_____111.3__________+0.4_________________-16.3__________________-16.3
09/02/21_____109.8__________-1.5_________________-17.8___________________-17.8

Though the weight is coming off slowly, I am noticing more muscle on my arms and my trousers for school needing the belt on the last belt buckle. My farm overalls have four buttons on the side to fasten the waist. In October it was hard to fasten the buttons and they kept popping. This weekend I could put both my arms down the sides of my overalls and there was still some same left.

Losing the weight, but more importantly getting fitter, slimmer and I think building muscle in my legs, arms and laterals.

Will be better at updating.

Wojtek

PS: for those trying not to eat white bread, I have discoverd and modified a wonderful recipe for oat bread that is nutritious and filling, and does not spike my carbs as much as white bread/rice/potato. If you are interested I can give the recipe here.