Wiped out!

 Phew, what a roller-coaster the past dozen or so days have been. Dieting, exercising, counting calories, and trying to find a balance that fits me. Making sure I am getting enough food in to power the furnace, and making sure I don't over do the exercise and out the fire out. 

Yesterday was a busy old day, but before I get onto that, let me mention my highlights so far. 
Increased exercise load, or back to my old normal should I say (with exception to yesterday, but we will come to that)
Reduced food intake, more specifically reduced calorie intake. Ending most days with a 1500+ calorie deficit.

The result of which is a loss from between 14 and 19lbs, depending which starting weight you use. I will be conservative and call it 14lbs. But that is in 10 days, so I am not complaining at that. As usual all weigh-ins are dry. Post activity, post pee etc. Dropping from low 240s to high 220s in that time makes me happy.

I am of course mindful of a couple of things. Early days in weight loss are always productive, seeing a big drop off, then it tapers, but I am OK with that. Even OK with a couple of fluctuations along the way. I am not expecting the same from next week, and would guess at 224 by the end of next week, 222 would be amazing. 
I am also well aware that I carry a lot of muscle mass too, so getting anywhere near what some of the guides recommend. For example, after a weightloss program I did before, I was down to 196lbs. I was asked if I was seriously ill, and told I looked unwell.

So when you see the chart below, it is a bit of a concern. The 132-167 is normal range. 174-202 is overweight, then the next 2 are obese and severely obese. OK 278+ is a bit of a reach even for me, but if I was 174 I would have lost a lot of muscle mass and be wasting away, and somehow still be overweight. Another great reason to ignore science at times.

5 ft 10 in (70 in)	132–167 lb	174–202 lb	209–271 lb	278–376 lb

Next up is blood pressure, when it was tested at a job assessment recently it was quite high. Obviously stress of the situation wasn't helping, but on checking when I got home, it was indeed high. In 2 months I have brought that down to a much better place, and can feel the difference.

Also resting heart rate is a good measure for me, as the weight has gone on, the resting HR has risen. For my weekly average to be 45 or more is a sign I am not doing great, and that is roughly where it has been of late. However the last few weeks have seen that decrease too, and I am back around 40-41bpm average now. Again my body feels in rhythm and unstressed like this. 

However that brings me on to yesterday and today. Deciding to push myself a bit yesterday, I was off, the weather was nice and all that. I first did a 4.5 mile dog walk, then came home and went to the park to do 3 miles of running, including a 10 min benchmark run at high intensity. Then I came home, had a bowl od porridge, and went out for a 30 mile bike ride. The calorie deficit for yesterday was 3,300 by the end of the day, so massive!

I went to bed knowing sleep would not be great, and I was right. Lately my sleep score has been high 80s, last night, just 57. My resting HR was also up to 43, and I woke feeling lethargic. As expected really then. 

So today I need to take things a bit easier, nothing big planned, just a walk in a little while, then maybe a turbo session this afternoon just to loosen things up and keep things moving. Amazingly from all that, I have no aches and pains that I didn't before the day started, so that is nice.

Now if I can just wake up a bit, I can go for a little walk, stretch the legs, relax the mind, and get some fresh air. 

Thanks for reading.