LIFO To FUPA

Dear Cynthia:

This is a day of rest. As such, I’m going to “give it a rest” today. Things have gotten a little sententious of late anyway. Plus, here you are the Human Spark Plug -- the kid with all the energy and dazzle. Sorry.

So lets get historical to see what the raw numbers are and determine if they have anything to do with anything.

The pros tell us that fitness, including weight loss, is a function of both diet and exercise working in tandem. Diet comes in two forms, less food and less fattening food. Similarly, there are two basic kinds of exercise, cardiovascular and strength training. We ought to be able to tell if, applied assiduously, we can see them work.

Two things are for sure: 1.) If I’m slacking off exercise, I’m eating like a pig and 2.) Exercise both suppresses appetite and speeds up metabolism.

Strength training serves to reshape the body. In my case, I had pretty good legs but poor upper-body strength. For all my sins and miss-steps of the past year, both upper-body contour and strength have improved. Slacking off for short periods doesn’t seem to have much effect on strength.

Cardiovascular exercise, as its name describes, is all about heart, lungs and circulation.

There’s a big caveat in all this: Very few could exercise himself or herself slim. The most vigorous exercise only burns 700 or so kilocalories per hour. More sensibly, it takes about an hour on the treadmill for every Big Mac. One pound of fat is the equivalent of 4,200 kilocalories. One half pound lost will require +/- four hours at that pace.

That said, here’s what happened over the last year:

2/12/07 to 3/9/07 193.0lbs to 186.0lbs
Slack
4/16/07 to 4/21/07 191.5lbs to 186.5lbs
Slack
8/15/07 to 11/21/07 196.0lbs to179.5lbs
Slack
12/3/07 to 12/18/07 182.0lbs to 180.0lbs
Slack
12/31/07 to 1/11/08 194.5lbs to 188.5lbs
Slack
1/30/08/ 200lbs
Slack
2/3/08 Blog begins
2/4/08 to 2/10/08 200lbs to 195.5lbs

I think this proves that there is a direct link between exercise and weight loss/gain even though the calories burned through exercise are not equivalent. We can surmise that a calorie consumed in the absence of exercise is more likely to find it’s way to the waist.

Still, how about the 4.5lbs lost last week? While I’m puffed up with pride, it’s not necessarily a sustainable pace. It may not be healthy to maintain such a pace. And, I think the principle of LIFO (last in first out) applies. The fat we piled on most recently is the fat that is consumed soonest. The most stubborn fat has been around the longest and is in the FUPA (you figure in out): belly fat. It is both genetic and intractable. Obviously, it’s a problem better saved for later.

This morning opened with a diner breakfast of two eggs any style, lightly buttered wheat toast, crisp golden hash browns and a steaming cup of our special blend coffee with sweet cream – so wrong on so many levels. Lunch will consist of phlogiston and political promises. Just to be sure, dinner will be a covered dish: Rice Cake Surprise.

Tomorrow look for words I learned at the gym.

Much Love,

Poppy