This Post is part of my Project Weight Loss and a follow up to Days 6-8.

Meal Photos and Nutritional Information

The following are photos of some of foods/meals I’ve been eating. I’ve included the nutritional information to the best of my knowledge for each food/meal.

Lowfat Cottage Cheese & Strawberry Topping
Calories: 130
Fat: 2g
Carbs: 17g
Protein: 11g

Salmon Steak Sandwich (Made with Light Wheat Bread)
Calories: 250
Fat: 5g
Carbs: 20g
Protein: 30g

Fiesta Grilled Chicken – Lean Cuisine
Calories: 250
Fat: 7g
Carbs: 27g
Protein: 19g

Fruit Salad

As you can tell I like to keep my meals nice and simple

Weight & Body Fat Percentage Check

Day 9 – 195.2 pounds – 22.8% Body Fat
Day 10 – 197.6 pounds – 22.6% Body Fat
Day 11 – 197 pounds – 22.6% Body Fat
Day 12 – 197.6 pounds – 22.8% Body Fat
Day 13 – 197 pounds – 22.5% Body Fat
Day 14 – 196 pounds – 22.1% Body Fat

I’m guessing that the slight weight gain between day 9 and day 12 is due to recovering from my mild flu. It seems that I gained back a couple of the pounds I lost too quickly on days 6-8 due to catching the flu.

The slow weight loss and the small decrease in my body fat percentage looks great for days 12-14. It indicates that I’m minimizing muscle loss and maximizing the burning of fat.

Exercise & Workouts

Days 9-10 and 13-14: I did my regular 20 minutes of cardio followed by 20 minutes of weight lifting and strength training.
Day 11-12: These were my off days, I skipped exercising

Cheat Meal

One of my cheat meals during this period was a greasy Reuben Sandwich with Fries from a nearby diner. It was delicious and satisfied my cravings for fast food. Once I was done eating it I also realized that by avoiding fast foods I’m not really missing out on much. I will still have an occasional cheat meal every couple of days since I don’t expect myself to eat 100% healthy meals for the rest of my life. Having such great expectations would require a very restrictive diet that I don’t think I can realistically live with. Occasional cheat meals also boost the body’s metabolism, because the human body requires a lot more energy to burn their high caloric content.

Thanks for your continual feedback and support if you have any related ideas or helpful weight loss advice please share in the comments section.

This Post is part of Project Weight Loss and a follow up to Days 3-5.

Hunger & Energy

Since I’ve been trying to eat 4-6 small meals throughout the day, I’ve noticed that I get hungry every 2-3 hours. The smaller meals are great and leave me feeling light and energized.
I have also noticed that my sleeping is much better. If I only get 5 hours of sleep on a night or two, I still wake up in the morning feeling very energized. It seem that with the healthier eating and exercising, my body has been much more efficient even during my sleeping hours.

Friends & Flu

I had some friends over yesterday who were going through my fridge trying to find some food, I knew I’m eating healthy when they made fun of the foods I had
I recovered from my mild flu rather quickly, I think this is mostly due to taking one full day of rest and then gradually increasing my workout intensity in the following two days. In the past when I’ve had a flu, and decided to mostly rest for a few days, I never recovered this quick.

Weight & Body Fat Percentage Check

Day 6 – 197 pounds 23.9% Body Fat
Day 7 – 197 pounds 24.2% Body Fat
Day 8 – 195.8 pounds 23.2% Body Fat

It seems that I’m losing weight a bit too quickly, I think this is mostly because I’m still in my first week of adjusting my eating and exercising habits. I’m also a bit concerned about how I’m losing pounds while keeping a somewhat stable body fat percentage. This means that I’m not maximizing the burning of body fat and minimizing the burning of muscle tissue. If this pattern continues I will have to decrease cardio training time and increase weight lifting time.

Exercise & Workouts

Days 6-7 : I did my regular 20 minutes of cardio followed by 20 minutes of weight lifting and strength training.
Day 8 : This was an off day.

Thanks for your continual feedback and support

This Post is part of Project Weight Loss and a follow up to Day 2 & Before Photos.

Value of the Public Commitment

Making a public commitment on here to lose weight has been very motivating especially during moments of weakness. Over the past couple of days I caught a mild flu. As a result, I took some time off relaxing. While I did skip working out for a day, I was tempted to skip my workout the next day. Being reminded of my public commitment on here, helped me to get the workout done anyways. It was a much lighter workout, just a few minutes of walking, however afterwards I felt much better. While making clear specific goals is motivating, sharing those goals and making them a public commitment is even more powerful. This is why I recommend that you make your goals public commitments because during moments of weakness you will remember that if you give up you are not only letting yourself down but also others that you told.

Weight Check

Day 3 – 201.8 pounds 23% Body Fat
Day 4 – 198.2 pounds 23.6% Body Fat
Day 5 – 197 pounds 24.2% Body Fat

It seems that I’m losing weight a bit too quickly, this is probably due to my flu. The next few days will clarify if the weight change was actual burned fat or just water loss as result of catching the flu. Catching the flu generally cause fluctuations in the body’s water levels. While it might seem that someone with the flu is losing a lot of weight, most of this weight is water instead of fat. As a result, usually when a sick person is recovering, their body will start putting back some of the water weight slowly.

Exercise & Workouts

Day 3 – This is the first day I felt I was getting sick however I was feeling fine physically so I performed my regular 20 minutes of cardio followed by 20 minutes of weight lifting.

Day 4 – Due to my flu, I skipped exercising on this day. Since I’m planning to workout 5 days a week, this also made a great off day. Off days, or days that you don’t exercise, are important because they allow your body to recover. Additionally off days are good psychologically because they prevent exercising from becoming a boring everyday tasks. Taking an off days is like taking a short vacation, where you come back feeling more refreshed and focused.

Day 5 – I just walked for 20 minutes. Afterwards, I tried lifting weights, however due to my flu, I felt a bit too week and decided to skip the weights.

Supplementation

I have been taking a daily multivitamin. One thing that I noticed on day 3 of taking the multivitamin is my skin looking healthier, and feeling softer. This is why I recommend that anyone take a daily multivitamin.

Overall Feeling

Even with my flu, I have been feeling a bit more energized as a result of eating healthier foods and exercising. I also have this great 2-3 hour window after each workout where I notice I’m very productive.

Your encouraged to share your goals with everyone in the comments section making them more of a public commitment