Am I a fit fat person?

[Fat Jamie]

Have struggled with my weight nearly all my adult life but have always managed to maintain a modicum of activness. Heaven knows how heavy I would have become if this wasnt the case...

Anyways, by august this year I tipped the scales at just over 150kg / 24st (im 6ft 1").

I bought my Concept2 last year and lost weight quickly when using it, but when my son was born in January this year I gave up the ergo until this september (and piled most of the pounds back on).
Ive also been cycling a lot this year and combining healthy eating with cycling and my Ergo ive lost 11kg /2st since september (currently 139kg) and my times are dropping fast!

Im currently able to pull 7:11 for the 2k , 19:13 for the 5k, 23:02 for the 6k and 7681m in 30mins. My recovery after exercise is now much more rapid and I feel like i have plenty more to give. Im hitting all my targets way before plan and I know ill be under 7min/2k,19min/5k, and 39min/10k before the month is out, especially whilst my gut keeps shrinking and therefore my stroke increasing!

So (without trying to massage my ego too much!), am I doing well or what?! (time wise)
I feel like the fastest fat bloke in town.

This time I feel like the break through is complete and I wont let it slip again. The joy of going down a belt notch every couple of weeks is too much to give up, I always new my Concept2 would end up saving my life.

[Carl Watts]

Yes your the fastest fat bloke in town.

If there is anything I have noticed about people that have been big for a while and still doing some exercise is that they also adapt quite a bit of muscle strength. The reason for this I believe is as simple as overcoming gravity ! If your moving 150Kg everywhere it's like me with an additional 50Kg strapped to my back for everything I do and yes it's going to build muscle for sure.

The secret is to now loose all the fat and further improve your cardio. You will notice a very rapid improvement in your times so this should be encouraging enough for now to keep you going.

If you start to plateau or get bored with the longer rows you should be doing then get RowPro, it will keep up your motivation as it's like having a workout partner or personal trainer with you for every row.

[Citroen]

Read this: http://concept2.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=21204

[Fat Jamie]

Citroen: Yes, thats inspiring and all well and good, but im not quite in that league.

To be honest ive always carried my weight well and have never really looked as big as I actually am, but interestingly my times are alot faster that that guy in the story and he's now 60lb lighter than me.
That was more my original point, I feel that ive adapted quickly to the C2 and that lb for lb, I must be a fairly quick puller. I'm keen to see if that is true or not, as if I ever reach target weight i'd love to compete in a few tournaments as im competitive by nature and relish the challenge.


Carl: Youve hit the nail on the head, overcoming gravity has always done me well in turns of muscle mass, but I do also have a natural tendency to be able to build muscle quickly. MY father was a semi-pro athelete and my Grandfather a professional footballler, and in my younger years I was a county level rugby player so I have always considered myself lucky to have inherited a 'sporty' gene (although ive abused that gift with my excess weight).
Having hit 32 years of age now and having a baby son ive decided enough is enough, if I dont realise my potential now I probably never will.
Im watching my intake like a hawk and my daily 'allocation' is set at 2500cal max with a realistic target of 2000 cal, with exercise im seeing a daily average of just over 2000cal per day, which considering my 'weight maintaining' limit is 3400cal, seems to be good enough for a sustained loss of 1 to 2lb per week.
Of course completely cutting out unhealthy snacks makes the job a lot easier..

As you rightly say, as my weight drops so do my times. When my gut reduces in size Im keen to see how much my stroke will improve as ill be able to reach properly!Flexibility all round is my biggest gain so far.

I'll be keen to take a closer look at RowPro at some point in the future but so far rowing against myself (pace boats) is enough to stop quitting!

[hjs]

I don't want to put you down, but you are fooling yourself, 6.1 and weighing what you now way is simply not healthy and that is not caused by your muscles. Your joint and heart have to work very hard. It's a good thing that you are working out and have gotten fitter, but yo
u can be a lot fitter and faster.
Do you know you bodyfat % ?


ps Keep up the good work, but set yourself ambitious goals. You are in for it for the long run...

[Fat Jamie]

Im fooling no-one, im fully aware how overweight I am and consider myself very fortunate to have not suffered more side effects in relation to my weight.

One thing worth noting though, I am able to cycle for hours on end, I can run a complete rugby match, my rowing times are comparable to many people half my weight.
I also dont have joint issues, in fact a knee cartiledge injury caused by squash a couple of years ago has completely healed.
Also, my cholesterol levels are recorded as Low, my blood pressure is normal, my resting heart rate is 55bpm.
So as per my original point, I feel that for my size or lb for lb, I am fit. Certainly fitter than every other person ive come across within my weight category. If fit is a bad choice of words then perhaps 'doing well' works.

Im excited at the prospect of gaining much more fitness as the weight reduces, im very keen to see how low my times will go.
For now, every single time I get on my erg I feel fitter and more capable.

[hjs]

Im fooling no-one, im fully aware how overweight I am and consider myself very fortunate to have not suffered more side effects in relation to my weight.

One thing worth noting though, I am able to cycle for hours on end, I can run a complete rugby match, my rowing times are comparable to many people half my weight.

In biking and erging also weight is not so much a problem. Not that it helpes but can still get some ok results. But if you manage to loose some good weigh. Say get to 100 kg you will be a lot faster.

[Fat Jamie]

100kg is my first big goal.

[hjs]

100kg is my first big goal.

I have no doubt you can. Really go for it !!!!! Make a plan and stick to it. Make sure that plan is ambious but within reason though.

[luckylindy]

It's fantastic that you are erging and biking, but it sounds like you need to couple that with some lifestyle changes. If you gain weight when you row less, it means you are eating too much. By maintaining healthy habits, you can continue to lose weight and get healthier even when life throws you a curve ball (baby, sickness, job change, move, whatever).

I see a lot of overweight people make statements like "I can't help it, I'm just naturally heavy". Many of these people may have slower metabolisms than naturally skinny folks, but they are always the ones in control. Eat fewer calories than you burn in a day and you'll lose weight over the long run ... sure, hours of aerobic exercise make this much easier (both physically and mentally), but a life without exercise does not directly result in obesity - only overeating does.

Keep up the great work with your rowing and weight loss, but at the same time consider your diet and how you can make healthy changes that feel sustainable for life. Then when that next baby comes around and you're pulling all-nighters changing diapers, your fitness might slip a bit but weight won't go back up.

[Fat Jamie]

Thanks for the comments.

As I mentioned above though, I am calorie counting and have made drastic changes to my eating habits.
For the last couple of months ive set a daily max intake of 2500cal with a target of 2000cal. Couple with my exercise routines im now routinely coming in at 1500-2000cal per day.

If I were to stop rowing/cycling all together, I would still be eating at least 900cal per day less than is needed to sustain my weight, and in theory still losing around 1lb per week.

I put together a spreadsheet in order to track my calorie intake and work out my averages, I have found this to be a great help.

as a side note, I did my first 10k row last night (about time!) and pulled 39:15.7 , pleased with that one!

[Richard441]

I consider myself a fit fat person. I have been into a pretty solid training regime for about a year now and have lost +/- 50 pounds in the first 6 months but have hit a plateau which I have been unable to get past.
My diet still basically sucks and i know that is still my biggest hurdle. i set a goal to row 50-60k per week and have done pretty well but havent seen much weight loss in the last several months.

I figured that my workouts were lacking intensity.... i used to be able to see results when i pull avg. 2:00 for 60 min. I dont think i get the same workout any more because my fitness levels have improved. I recently printed off the UK version of the interactive weight loss workout which has me doing shorter, high intensity pieces. I am into the third week and am hoping to see some improvement.

I am the first to admit that i am still a chubby slug who is a long way from fitting into a racing shell again but i am pleased to see that my times are continuing to improve in my ranked workouts. I know that the diet is the last piece of the puzzle that i need to get in line but having trouble.

until then, I am figuring that am the fastest 315pound heavyweight out there.... pretty weak claim to fame i know.

[Fat Jamie]

Great response!

60mins at 2:00 ave split is very good going ,so good on you for keeping it up so long.

if im honest I havent ever rowed a 60min+ session so I wouldnt know what my best times are, but im sure it wouldnt be much faster.
I've managed to also get my diet in check, commiting to rowing 5+ times a week has had the effect of me not wanting to undo all that hard work!
Why dont you try creating yourself a calorie log? Ive found it really usefull to physically see how many calories ive consumed during the day and it gives me incentive to not shove extra food down my throat. At a glance I can work out my daily and weekly averages, amount of calories burnt through exercise etc etc. Happy to send you a copy in excel if you like, its not elegant but it does the job!
The effect of everyone commenting on my progress and the number of notches on my belt increasing as I tighten it is now all I need to drive me on.
Ive come down from 330+lb to 302 since early september, with 4lb coming off last week alone.

All the best keeping your diet under control, its all a state of mind.... and you can do anything your put your mind to!

[gregsmith01748]

Hi Richard,

Nice work on the 50 lb weight loss, that's a pretty awesome achievement. When I was losing weight, I found that there was a very direct relationship between calories consumed, calories burned and weight change. The intensity of the workout certainly does increase the calories burned per minute, but is generally done for a shorter time. For the same interval of time, here is how the calorie burn compares for different splits

2:00 - baseline for comparison, an hour of that, based on your weight would burn 1490 calories.
1:55 - would burn 13% more calories (1684)
1:50 - would burn 30% more calories (1937)
1:45 - would burn 48% more calories (2205)

but if you do 3 x 10' intervals at 1:50 instead of 60' at 2:00, you would burn 970 calories instead of 1490.

Now, there are some folks that strongly believe that high intensity interval workouts can promote more rapid weight loss. Google "Tabata" to find out more about that. There are others who take the idea that weight loss is best done with long, slow rows as gospel. I think it all comes down to calorie burn. Having said that, I heartily recommend that interactive weight loss program. Just adding variety to your workouts will keep you interested and progressing.

What I think is going on is that you lost 50 pounds. That alone reduces your BMR calorie burn by 550 calories a day. So, if your rows were creating a 550 calorie debt per day, when you started, you'd lose about 1 pound per week. Now, since your eating has not changed, you are at calorie break even.

The message is that something will need to change to get more weight loss, either you will need to increase to total volume/intensity of your workouts and keep your food intake the same, or you need to make make dietary changes.

The other thing that that I found hard to manage is that exercise makes me hungry. If I don't watch what I eat, I definitely eat enough to compensate for the exercise.

The last thing to keep in mind is that plateaus happen. If you are doing the right things, then you'll pop off the other end of the plateau and start losing again.

[Carl Watts]

The slower longer rows are better for weight loss.Get you HR into the UT2 zone and keep it there.It may feel easy to start with, but if you do it for an hour and a half it's not feeling that easy at the finish.

The reason is simple really, longer rows at lower paces are more sustainable from one day to the next.

I find that even if you increase the pace but make the row shorter i.e you effectivley burn the same number of calories or even less calories it still takes more out of you and you may not be able to repeat the same row the next day.