Tag Archives: protein

Day 308: The hiccup

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Day 308 - front

  • Weight: 140.0 lbs.
  • Workout C: 29 minutes, 46 seconds; next: Workout C, July 8
  • Total inches: 125.5
  • Protein: 133g (0g over target)
  • Calories: 2,148

I am not prone to mistakes. That’s the upside to being a nutty perfectionist.

So last week, when I passed out from exhaustion, I awoke to a horrifying realization: I skipped my protein shake. Oops.

I have skipped the shake on many days, but always made up for it with extra food. Now, I was in the hole by 83g of protein and some 1,400 calories.

Usually, when I miss my daily targets, it is by minuscule amounts. This was the first time in nearly 300 days that I had come up short.

It took 4 days to make up the deficiency. I just couldn’t let it go until I got it to average out.

I am a slave to the numbers. Keeping a daily record of my diet has been one of the key factors in Project Bulk, the other being regular workouts of increasing intensity.

All mistakes can be fixed. Some simply take longer to correct than others.

Day 308 - side

Day 231: Shaken and stirred

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Day 231 - front

  • Weight: 139.0 lbs.
  • No workout today; next: Workout C, April 20 (makeup for today)
  • Total inches: 124.5
  • Protein: 131 g (0 g over target)
  • Calories: 2,100

The numbers from the last 220 or so days are all lies. Lies, I tell ya!

I screwed up royally.

I bragged about my daily protein shake to a friend last week: “Three cups 2 percent milk, a banana, 3 tablespoons of peanut butter, one scoop of protein powder …”

Friend (who happens to know a lot about building muscles and changing weight): “Just one scoop? Really? That doesn’t sound like enough.”

Me: “Oh, sure it is. I’ve been using that recipe since Day 1.”

Friend: “Are you sure?”

I was. And then the next day, I was not.

I checked.

Recipe version Protein (g) Calories
“The 4-Hour Body” [Amazon | iTunes aff. links] 75 970
My screwed-up version 48 880
My corrected version 74 1,180

Yikes. The actual recipe calls for “30 g whey protein isolate,” which I thought meant 30 g of protein powder or about one scoop. I really needed four scoops of protein powder to yield 30 g of protein.

Sigh. 

The scary repercussions …

  • I overcounted for each of the first 225 days by 90 calories and a whopping 27 g protein.
  • That means I took in 20 percent less protein than I thought, slowing my muscle growth by a possible 20 percent.
  • My measurements for protein and calories are inaccurate from Sept. 1 to April 13.

Using four times as much protein powder per shake means …

  • The cost of protein powder has quadrupled, since I’ll use it up four times faster.
  • The shake tastes much more chocolatey.

Sunday, I started using four scoops in the shake. I didn’t even think about the additional calories. I am that stupid.

After noticing the 1.2-pound gain in the last 7 days, I needed to double-check all of the recipe’s nutritional stats. I realized today, after running the numbers, that I had accidentally consumed 300 extra calories a day, a 15 percent jump from the 2,000-calorie target.

Sigh again.

I am extremely grateful my knowledgeable friend raised the red flag. It allows me to make the corrections and have more accurate numbers.

The first decision is to leave the pre-April 14 numbers alone. I’ll add a note to the spreadsheet, but trying to revise all the numbers in all the posts will be too much work for me.

The second decision is to revise my daily calorie target immediately. Because the protein shake costs 210 more calories than previously assumed, I am dropping from 2,300 calories a day to 2,100. We’ll see if my weight remains steady (as it has been for the past 3 months) or goes up with more muscle growth from sufficient protein.

It’s tough to face a mistake like this, a simple miscalculation that I could’ve caught months ago. But I feel better knowing that I might actually be on the right track, even if I can’t follow a simple recipe.

I can’t lie to myself.

Day 231 - side

Day 105: Eat like it’s your job

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Day 105 - front

  • Weight: 133.2 lbs.
  • Workout C: 11 minutes, 40 seconds; next: Workout C, Dec. 17
  • Total inches: 122.4
  • Protein: 126 g (0 g over target)
  • Calories: 2,261

After 2 weeks of 2,200-calorie days, the next step is simple: 2,300-calorie days.

Surprisingly, my weight has remained stable the last 6 weeks, when I’d prefer it go up. And, of course, with more lean pounds than fat pounds.

A recap:

  • Days 1-14: no calorie counting, no weight gain;
  • Days 15-30: calorie counting, but no target, resulting in steady weight gain;
  • Days 31-61: 2,500 calories a day, resulting in steady weight gain;
  • Days 62-76: 2,000 calories a day, no weight gain;
  • Days 77-91: 2,100 calories a day, no weight gain;
  • Days 92-105: 2,200 calories a day, no weight gain.

The target protein has been a minimum of 122 g to 126 g a day, with the overall average being 136.6 g to date.

The sweet spot would be gaining muscle and losing fat simultaneously. It might be happening now, but I won’t know until I check my body fat percentage again, perhaps in 2 weeks.

It will not be difficult to ramp up calories again. Having already done a month at 2,500 calories, these small tweaks are really nothing. I just didn’t realize that the range of calories I consumed these last 6 weeks would have no effect on my overall weight.

My job continues to be to eat sufficient protein and calories every day. So far, it has been a minor hassle in accounting but enjoyable nonetheless.

Day 105 - side

Day 76: Steady on

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Day 76

  • Weight: 132.0 lbs.
  • Workout B: 18 minutes, 29 seconds; next: Workout A on Nov. 21
  • Total inches: 122.0
  • Protein: 132 g (7 g over target)
  • Calories: 2,026

The first half of November has been very steady. Too steady.

calories 11-15

Calories through Nov. 15

Maintaining 2,000 calories a day (down from 2,500) has kept me at between 132 and 134 pounds. No significant gain, similar to the first 2 weeks when I didn’t track calories. (Protein intake has remained the same throughout all of Project Bulk.)

weight 11-15

Weight through Nov. 15

Naturally, my growth in total inches (arms, legs, waist, hips) has also flattened.

total inches 11-15

Total inches through Nov. 15

Starting tomorrow through the end of November, I am bumping slightly to 2,100 calories a day. I’d rather have slow gain with more muscles than fast gain with excess fat.

The workouts have been fairly static, with no dramatic improvements. I seem to be stuck on a couple of the lifts. One way I’ve beaten the lack of progress is switching the order of the exercises, so I can at least try every other attempt.

I’m probably going to switch to kettlebell swings twice a week in December, just to see if it’ll bulk up my arms faster, which have grown about 0.6 inches each since Day 1.

Even after two-and-a-half months, I own the routine. The routine doesn’t own me.

Day 14: Down for the count

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day 14 front

  • Weight: 122.6 lbs.
  • No workout today
  • Total inches: 117.6
  • Protein: 172 g (54 g over target)

I apparently have a superpower.

Like Peter Parker waking up to stick to walls and shoot webbing, I now know I have a gift. I am immune to calories.

Ta da.

At heart, this isn’t true. While I’ve focused on protein consumption, I’m pretty sure my overall food/caloric intake has been roughly the same. I haven’t stayed at 120 pounds for decades without becoming steady in my habits.

I don’t eat a lot. The few hours of exercise I’ve done these past 14 days haven’t radically increased my appetite.

The next step is to count calories. As much as I love numbers, it’s a minor inconvenience to calculate protein in every bite. And now, I gotta add up the calories, too.

I’ll get used to it. I know this is the standard operating procedure for dieters, so it’s new to me.

In addition to counting those calories, I will continue to eat more. I might burst.

Probably not. But we’re going to find out.

Maybe that can be my superpower.

day 14 siade

Day 2: Learning to stuff my face

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day 2

  • Weight: 122.6 lbs.
  • No workout today
  • Total inches: 112.4
  • Protein: 119 g (3 g over target)

Having done small fitness routines before, I expect a little soreness the day after. But I was lucky today: no aches, just tired. Luckily, it’s a holiday weekend.

Having changed my eating habits radically 5 years ago, I eat small portions of real food daily. My worst habits are eating “bachelor dinners” (popcorn! cereal!) and drinking diet sodas throughout the day.

My new challenge is counting protein grams, something I’ve never done before. I’ve never dieted, so I haven’t endured the mind-numbing task of looking at labels and recording calories and other nutritional data.

The milkshake makes it easier in some ways: 75 calories for drinking about 4 cups in one sitting (though I could easily save some for later in the day). I had planned on going to a friend’s cookout down the street, and he was serving hot dogs and hamburgers.

I searched on Google for the protein content of each, and then estimated if I ate four hot dogs or one hot dog and two hamburgers, I’d be set. That’s more than I usually eat, especially at a party, but this is my “job” now.

The first hot dog was easy, starving from earlier today. And then I had two bratwursts on buns in a row. The third brat was slower, but manageable. (No danger of winning any extreme eating contests here.)

I know that if I stay on target with workouts, then my only other real task is to eat enough protein to build muscles. I like to eat, so the only dull part is looking up numbers and recording them on my spreadsheet.

It’s bodybuilding for accountants.