Ditch the Scale

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Note: There are approximately 3,500 calories in a pound of body fat. I’m going to log my calories burned per workout with a goal of burning at least 3,500 per week so I know that I’m doing enough exercise to lose a pound of fat. Actually, any combination of calorie reduction and calorie burning totaling 3,500 will do the trick, so if you watch the caloric intake while doing the workout program – you lose faster.

Remember when I wrote that bullshit? I sure do.

Last week, I burned 8,700 calories during my workouts. Yeah. And I didn’t lose a friggin’ pound.

So – just what the hell is going on? To be honest, I did have a huge dinner last night. Chicken, noodles, dressing, mashed potatoes, jello, corn, and lots of gravy. Then a piece of cake for dessert and a huge bowl of ice cream with peanuts and caramel syrup around 10 p.m. Oh – and I had some cheese while I was waiting for dinner.

I tend to eat this way a couple of times per week. I’ve been better over the last three weeks, but I love to eat and I figured after a 2-hour bike ride earlier in the day, I owed it to myself.

Is the scale the be-all, end-all in this story? It shouldn’t be and I know better. I was coming home from church getting excited about all the sunshine and thinking about the ride I was about to do. I quickly changed into my riding outfit, which consisted of biking shorts, two pairs of socks, a long and short-sleeved t-shirt, leather gardening gloves, and a head band for the ears. It was 42 degrees.

There was a little snow melt drifting onto the road, but they were mostly dry. The sun was so bright that my eyes hurt. Perfect, blue skies and only a little wind. I headed east for the country roads. I rode medium hard, not pushing down hills (it was too cold for that), but attacking the uphills. To me, that means getting out of the saddle and trying to climb them as fast as I can. I wouldn’t normally be doing this so early in the season, but the time spent on the trainer had me feeling confident and fit.

I tend to ride one course in particular because it extremely quiet – that is, no cars. I also tend to know how hard I’m riding based on where I am on the course after thirty, then sixty minutes of riding. I was running about two minutes behind my late season rides of a year ago after thirty minutes, which held to the turn around after one hour of riding. I was feeling quite strong and very comfortable.

There was a head wind to deal with on the ride back and my toes were very cold as I pulled in the driveway exactly two hours after I’d begun. I felt great. Not a bit tired and wondering if I would have time for a hike with Dakota before dinner. I didn’t, but the fact that my brain was working that way was quite positive.

So, back to the weight thing. Here’s the real deal. I’ve been working hard for almost three weeks. I’ve gone from running a little over thirty minutes to just over fifty. I’ve taken the belt in a notch and a half. I feel looser and stronger and I’m riding like it’s early summer already. Normally, I don’t get on the scale. If I hadn’t, I’d have been so pumped about the way things are going. I should be. I’m staying off that thing for awhile.

Bike duration: Two hours.

Training Heart Rate: 135 bpm.

Calories burned during workout: 1,800.