How I'll Be the Biggest Loser...

...by losing 20 pounds.  

A few weeks ago some members of my family thought a fun way to provide weight loss support to each other and get ready for the summer swim-suit season would be to start a "Biggest Loser" style contest.  The premise is simple:  The competitor who loses the greatest percentage of body weight by June 1 is the "biggest loser" and winner of the competition.  To put some skin in the game, there is a $25 entry fee with the top 3 winners sharing the pot.

I'm tall, 6'4", and not obese, just out of shape.  My life-time heaviest and worst physical shape was a few years after college when I weighed nearly 230 pounds.  At my most fit in my late 20's I was close to 190.  I was working out at the YMCA 4 days per week and eating well.  Working out was easy then as the "Y" was 2 blocks from my Indianapolis apartment and I wasn't married with kids.

On January 30 I was 216 pounds with 24% body fat according to my electronic scale.  24% body fat is the high end of "average" percent body fat according to a Wikipedia article.  I realize electronic scales typically aren't that accurate so I plan to get a more accurate measure of my body fat.

My goal is to lose 20 pounds of fat bringing me to 195 pounds and 16% body fat (assuming the starting 24% is accurate).  That will be 9.7% of my January weight.  I'm not worried about losing 20 pounds.  The challenge will be losing only body fat.  I fully expect to have to add weight training, most likely bodyweight exercises, to avoid losing and even building muscle.

I found a very interesting blog written by New York marketing consultant Peter Shankman called A Year To Ten Percent.  The blog describes his attempt to reach ten percent body fat in a year.  Peter is a triathlete who busted his butt to try to reach his goal.  He dropped 30 pounds of fat and gained over 10 pounds of muscle, ending up at under 15% body fat.  My goals aren't as aggressive as his, but a quote from his blog describes very well what I'll be accomplishing and hope to share through this blog:

This isn't a challenge with an end-date. This is about learning to eat healthy, make better choices, not deprive myself of everything, and still lose the weight, get the abs, and be happy.

We'll see if I have the 165+ pounds of lean body mass I need to give me a fighting chance at 195 pounds and 16% body fat.