Fat Camp – Part 2
Halfway there!
As you know from Part 1 of Fat Camp, six members of our family have undertaken a friendly competition of exercise and diet as a way of motivating ourselves to lose some excess weight and improve our overall health. Travis and I have gradually taken the lead but, as I’ve said before, anybody can still win.
The next five weeks of the contest proved that, BIG TIME.
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01/01/2022 – Initial weigh-in
Name Starting Weight
Dad 255.4
Mom 168.6
J.B. 193.8
Travis 234.2
Danielle 165.2
Andy 242.8
The fifth week of our contest was a bit of a mystery; I knew it meant something, but I wasn’t positive what.
2/06/2022 – fifth week of contest
Name Strt Wt Crnt Wt Ttl Lbs Lost Ttl % Loss
Dad 255.4 235.0 20.4 7.99%
Mom 168.6 159.0 9.6 5.69%
J.B. 193.8 182.6 11.2 5.78%
Travis 234.2 214.6 19.6 8.37%
Danielle 165.2 157.6 7.6 4.60%
Andy 242.8 237.0 5.8 2.39%
Total lbs. Lost 74.2
As you can see from the spreadsheet, I was the only one of the group who actually lost weight for this week’s weigh-in. I must applaud my family for their honesty. In some groups, certain members would have avoided admitting weight gain, or even failure to lose. In other groups, some would just lie about their losses, but not my family.
My bunch knows that lying is usually counterproductive. You know, the whole, “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” As in, if you lied that you lost two pounds this week, then you’d have to actually lose THAT two pounds the next week, before you tried to lose some more, or risk feeling compelled to compound your lies.
But not my bunch.
Not that there was no justification for our lower performance this week. There was a cold snap that hit every bit of our competitors’ home range. Here in Piggott we had an inch or so of sleet topped with an equal amount of snow, which then melted a bit before freezing.
Does the expression, “like snot on a doorknob,” mean anything to you?
Yeah, it was slick.
As is typical where I work, a lot of staff called in, unable to make it to work because of the slick roads. As is typical of me, I went to work anyway, even though I live farther away than anybody else.
Much of our group (maybe all) missed at least part of their planned exercise for the week. Yes, that included me. Hey, it’s hard to walk when it’s hard to walk.
Uh, yeah.
Seriously, the road in front of our house was a sheet of ice such that every step risked a slip and fall. Even the yard was a sheet of ice. We had an addition to our driveway poured last week, for me to park out of the mud. It was poured just before the sleet started. Of course, the uncured concrete was immediately covered in ice. When I stepped carefully on it I immediately skated all the way across it and stepped down into the yard, which was also incredibly slick.
At work, the parking area and roads were, and still are, so slick that walking is not a possibility. Dang it.
At home things did get a little better by Sunday. That day it got warm enough that Annie and I braved the now slush on our road. Of course, we had already weighed-in by that time.
Anyway, as I said, I was the only one in the family who lost weight this week, and my loss was a fairly consistent 2.4 pounds. Probably because I too had started a colon cleanse. Still, the family as a whole gained 2.6 pounds.
I felt good about myself as, with Travis’s slight gain, I passed him in total pounds lost this week. Because of my obesity, he was still ahead of me in bodyweight percentage lost, however…and that’s how the winner will be decided.
Speaking of Travis, in a phone conversation with him during the week, T told Annie and me that eight-year-old John asked to run with him one day. The two went out and ran two miles…at just over nine minutes per mile!
Incredible! I’m so proud of my grandson. I don’t know of very many eight-year-olds that can run two miles. I know of far less that can average nine minutes per mile!
I’m very proud of my son too, for being the kind of dad he is, encouraging his son to run with him, even though T has a competition to think about.
Of course John’s participation in T’s exercise could motivate Travis to run and lose more weight. If so, more power to him.
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What will the future of this contest bring? I figure, especially with having the motivation of a running partner like John, Travis will pass me up again. However, I think I will eventually pass him for the win because, hey, I have a lot more extra weight than he does.
We’ll see.
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One more note, for some time now I have had little lumps in the knuckles of a couple fingers on my left hand. They hurt when I hit them just right or grip something oddly shaped, but none of that is very often and I have ignored them for a year or so. Recently I noticed that they have gotten larger, so I think I’ve ignored them long enough.
The pain in my right shoulder gave me the excuse I’d been looking for, so I set up an appointment to see Brandy Pace, APRN, my “doctor” at the Piggott Clinic. She sent me for an X-ray of the shoulder and said she’d need to do an ultrasound of my hand to give me a referral on it.
The ultrasound will be next week, but the X-ray was done and showed…nothing. Well, nothing except old age. Yeah, arthritis in my shoulder. It seems like every time I get something checked, they tell me I have arthritis wherever they are examining.
It’s good because there’s nothing worse in my shoulder, but it’s bad because there’s really nothing I can do about the pain. It’s also good because they said continuing to lift won’t make much difference, as long as I don’t lift too heavy.
I hope they’re right. It sucks to have to lift so light though.
2/13/2022 – sixth week of contest
Name Strt Wt Crnt Wt Ttl Lbs Lost Ttl % Loss
Dad 255.4 234.4 21 8.22%
Mom 168.6 158.8 9.8 5.81%
J.B. 193.8 185 8.8 4.54%
Travis 234.2 214.4 19.8 8.45%
Danielle 165.2 157 8.2 4.96%
Andy 242.8 235.4 7.4 3.05%
Total lbs. Lost 75
In general, the longer someone is on a diet the more losses are expected to decrease.
There are a lot of reasons for this. One, dieters tend to lose enthusiasm for the unpleasant sensation of avoiding foods they like. Two, they get tired of being hungry and rarely feeling satisfied. Three, the dieter starts to resent the exercise it takes to lose weight because, four, the body begins to resist losing fat.
In other words, even if the dieter is exercising the same, and eating the same, the body is not losing as much weight.
One very plausible theory for why this happens is that scientists say humans evolved to store energy in the form of fat during times of plenty (spring, summer, and fall). They do that so that they can survive the lean times (winter) by breaking down that fat and living off the stored energy. To make the fat last longer, the body metabolism slows down.
That is probably part of what has happened these last couple weeks.
This week, however, Andy bucked the trend by losing 1.6 pounds. He was the weight-loss leader this week. Danielle and I tied for second with a loss of 0.6, which was a much more impressive performance for her than for me. Travis and Ann lost 0.2 each which allowed me to gain a little ground on T, who remains the leader in the contest which, as I said, will be determined by percentage of starting bodyweight lost rather than pounds shed.
As you can tell by Andy’s rebound, it’s still anybody’s contest to win. Travis and I retain a decided lead but everyone else is hot on our heels.
I suspect my less-than-expected loss was due to our trip to Sweetwater over the weekend, which prevented my usual Sunday morning weigh-in after a night of not eating. Since we have no scales at the cabin I had to wait until we got back home, which was after a couple meals. I think that loss will even out when I get back to my regular weigh-in day and time.
Time will tell.
2/20/2022 – seventh week of contest
Name Strt Wt Crnt Wt Ttl Lbs Lost Ttl % Loss
Dad 255.4 229.8 25.6 10.02%
Mom 168.6 159.2 9.4 5.58%
J.B. 193.8 182.2 11.6 5.99%
Travis 234.2 214 20.2 8.63%
Danielle 165.2 158 7.2 4.36%
Andy 242.8 236 6.8 2.80%
Total lbs. Lost 80.8
This weigh-in I took over the overall lead in the competition. Because of my obesity going-in I predicted early-on that I would eventually take over the lead in the competition and probably carry it through to the end.
However, a corollary to “Time will tell,” is “Anything can happen.” This week I got sick. Annie and I spent the weekend at Sweetwater and Saturday evening I felt like I might be coming down with a cold or, worse yet, one of my periodic sinus infections. I awoke on Sunday with congestion, itchy eyes, a runny nose, and frequent sneezing fits.
A couple days of rest and I was forced to concede that it wasn’t a cold…it was a sinus infection. Dang it!
The doctor prescribed a steroid shot and a course of antibiotics, and recommended not overdoing exercise for a while. Overdoing it? I’m obese and out of shape; I breathe hard when I exercise good judgment.
Seriously, I only took those two days off from exercise, but being sick also leaves one more open to injury. Have I mentioned the “twinges” I’ve had now and then? Well, I went ahead and walked the first day after my sick days and, guess what: twinges in both feet.
I’ll try to take it easy for a few days and see how the twinges go. I’m hoping they go “away.”
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The only good thing that came from me being sick was that I called in sick to work and got to spend the night at home. So, even though we spent the weekend at the cabin again, I got to ride the scales after a night’s sleep.
Overall it was still a slow week.
2/27/2022 – eighth week of contest
Name Strt Wt Crnt Wt Ttl Lbs Lost Ttl % Loss
Dad 255.4 229.6 25.8 10.10%
Mom 168.6 159 9.6 5.69%
J.B. 193.8 182 11.8 6.09%
Travis 234.2 214 20.2 8.63%
Danielle 165.2 158 7.2 4.36%
Andy 242.8 235 7.8 3.21%
Total lbs. Lost 82.4
Annie, J.B., and I tied for second place this week, each losing 0.2 lbs. I don’t know what J.B.’s reasons were, other than the fact that he didn’t have much to lose in the first place. Annie and I have reasons why we didn’t lose any more weight by the time of the weighed-in – we were sick last week, preventing us from walking the first half of the week; another ice storm hit preventing us from walking the last half of the week; and we had granddaughters Harper and Hallie over the weekend which kept us from walking but also allowed us to eat the food the girls said they wanted but didn’t actually eat. I know, we weren’t FORCED to eat what the girls didn’t, but I was raised at a time when you didn’t waste food, and the training has stuck with me.
That’s my excuse anyway. It sounds a lot better than, “I ate it because I wanted to.”
Andy took a lot of the weight from those arguments, if you’ll forgive the pun, as he was sick too, and the ice storm hit where he lives too, and he had Harper and Hallie all week until Annie borrowed them for the weekend…yet he managed to lose a full pound.
Maybe one of the reasons Andy lost a pound, and a good reason for granting him bragging rights, is he and his wife, Madison, who is not in the Fat Camp competition, took part this weekend in a tennis tournament. Both won the championship for their division of the tournament.
Way to go, Andy and Madison!
2/27/2022 – eighth week of contest
Name Strt Wt Crnt Wt Ttl Lbs Lost Ttl % Loss
Dad 255.4 229.6 25.8 10.10%
Dad 255.4 227.6 27.8 10.88%
Weigh-in was on Sunday, February 27. I was a tad disappointed that day when I didn’t lose as much weight as I expected, but figured part of the reason was eating more than I planned, but also not wanting to waste food that the girls didn’t eat.
Well, I got a little surprise Monday, which supported my excuse. When I got up I popped into the bathroom for my morning ablutions. Before I got dressed or ate breakfast I stepped on the scales. I had lost two pounds exactly since the previous day’s weigh-in.
Yep, I had dropped to 227.6 pounds.
Now that I’ve told you that, I have to use 227.6 as a starting place for the week, rather than including it in my loss for the weigh-in on March 6. We’ll see if that works against me or not. We’re planning a trip to Oklahoma this weekend, and taking a couple of our grandkids (Scotty’s kids, Pfieffer and Payden) with us. We’ll be celebrating granddaughter Emma’s 10th birthday. Celebration can make weight loss difficult so we’ll just have to wait and see…
03/07/2022 – ninth week of contest
Name Strt Wt Crnt Wt Ttl Lbs Lost Ttl % Loss
Dad 255.4 227.4 28 10.10%
Mom 168.6 159 9.6 5.69%
J.B. 193.8 182 11.8 6.09%
Travis 234.2 213 21.2 9.05%
Danielle 165.2 160 5.2 3.15%
Andy 242.8 236 6.8 2.80%
Total lbs. Lost 82.6
I know, I know, excuses excuses. OK, with that out in the open, Annie and I had a fantastic weekend with six grandkids and celebrating Emma’s birthday. While I tried to limit excesses of misbehavior, they were inevitable. I even ate a small piece of Emma’s birthday cake, which was actually a “larapin’” good pan of brownies. Don’t worry, I only ate one small brownie, but man-oh-man it was good. Eating on the road didn’t help us either, as we chose to treat ourselves to fast-food as we fed the grandkids.
Rumor has it that a couple freshly-made cookies may have disappeared too. Oops.
To make things worse, the famous weight-loss plateau has hit me. Even though I get hungry after every meal, the weight is stubbornly trying to stay on.
03/13/2022 – tenth week of contest
Name Strt Wt Crnt Wt Ttl Lbs Lost Ttl % Loss
Dad 255.4 225.6 29.8 11.67%
Mom 168.6 161 7.6 4.50%
J.B. 193.8 183 10.8 5.57%
Travis 234.2 209 25.2 10.76%
Danielle 165.2 159.6 5.6 3.39%
Andy 242.8 232.6 10.2 4.20%
Total lbs. Lost 89.2
Remember what I said earlier…that it’s still anybody’s game? This week proved it.
Andy had a great week, losing an impressive 3.4 pounds. Way to go, Andy!
Look at Travis! After I took over the lead from him a couple weeks ago, he managed to drop a whole four pounds this week. Wow! Considering how much weight he’s lost up until now, that is pretty impressive. As a 32-year-old young man he’s in way better shape than me, and took advantage of that to supplement his calorie-restricted diet by increasing his running. If I remember correctly, he is running as much as three miles several times a week. In addition, he has taken up weightlifting more seriously than in the past.
My own cardio/exercise regimen consists of walking about two miles most days, which includes well less than a mile of running a couple times a week, if my “twinges” allow it. This week I only lost 1.9 pounds. I know the weight-loss plateau is a normal happening during a new diet and exercise routine, but I…don’t…like…it.
I talked to T last evening and he said that, after he sent in his weight for the week, he weighed again yesterday evening and his weight was down to 206!
03/13/2022 – tenth week of contest
Travis 234.2 209 25.2 10.76%
Travis 234.2 206 28.2 12.04%
If T’s new weight is correct, and I have no reason to doubt it, that would make his weight-loss as a percentage of his original weight 12.04%.
In other words, Travis took back the lead in the contest!
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Where do we go from here? Will Travis hang on to his lead for the win? Will I retake the lead once more and cruise to victory? It’s even possible that injury, boredom, or loss of commitment will cause one or both of us to “fall off the wagon” and someone else will end up in the winner’s circle.
You know what I’m going to say now.
Only time will tell…and we have five more weeks to go!
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Woohoo!! Way to go guys!!! Keep up the good work and hopefully this continues in a positive direction!!!!
I guess you’ll have to wait until next week to find out. Ha ha. Thanks for the kind comment.