Weekly Weigh-In and Strength Training Update

This was another good week, though I repeated my pattern of eating too much one weekend evening and therefore having a lot fewer of those weekly flexible calories during Sunday-Wednesday. I went to the gym five times so those extra calories helped me succeed in having a 1300/day average. However, I’d like to work on not getting like that in the first place. The most annoying thing about it, funnily enough, is that I don’t know how many calories I ate. I know I ate too much of the amazing chocolate chunk challah, but how much too much? 500 calories? 800 calories? I rounded it off as best I could and moved on, but I need to pay more attention in these situations.

On Tuesday, my Zumba friend and I tried out a different class at another of our gym’s locations. It was fun, but had a lot more emphasis on hips/gyrating movement. And I thought I looked uncoordinated doing dance steps...ah well. I’ve improved at my regular Zumba class, so I’d improve here too.

Guess which one I am?

This week’s weigh-in:

	6/8/2014	8/19/2014	9/30/2014	10/29/2014	11/6/2014	11/12/2014
Weight	191.2	182.6	181	181.4	179.6	179.6
Pounds Fat	82.7	72.5	70.3	70.8	70.3	68.8
Pounds Muscle	67.3	66.8	65.2	67.3	65	67.7

Weight is the same, which is actually great because I was worried that the previous week was just a fluctuation. Also, look at the fat! I’m now down fourteen full pounds of fat from when I started in June, and haven’t lost any muscle in the process, which is hard to avoid with weight loss. That kicks ass. Or more accurately, I kick ass.

I will probably lose some muscle eventually since I don't think I'd end up with 70 pounds of muscle on a 135-pound frame, but it's great to have lost purely fat till now. 

I think part of that is because of my workouts, but more specifically the strength training. Since July, I’ve been trying to do it at least once or twice a week. I keep track of the weight and reps I do on my phone, and try to up the weight when it gets too easy - for me, that means I can do at least 15 repetitions. When I first started, I put all the machines on the lightest setting (at least I intended to), and I'm making my way up the weights.

Here’s a before and now for the amount of weight I use, in pounds - I use my made-up names for the machines, but put the real names in parentheses.

	July	November
Reverse Pull-Ups (Lateral Pull Down)	55	80
Raise the Roof (Overhead Press)	30	65
Slow Crumping (Vertical Chest)	35	50
Show off Your Pecs (Preacher Curl)	30	40
Defy Gravity (Seated Dip, just started on this one last month)	70	75
My Arms! (Dual Axis Row )	50	85

Most of the time, I don't use every machine every time, but I do as many reps and possible - slow and steady - until I've exhausted the muscle. It's pretty much the method I learned when I did strength training with an actual trainer, and since I'm getting stronger (and trainers cost more than God), I'm sticking with it for now.

Anyone else strength train? I want to hear about it!