I’ve written previously on this blog about my Fit at 40 challenge and, for those who haven’t already seen my excited tweet from earlier today, I weighed in and found that I have hit my “realistic yet challenging” goal of getting to 14 and a half stone (92kg) by my 40th birthday (I’d already completed the three races at 10K distance or above which was the other part of the challenge).

#Fitat40: Achievement unlocked. 92kg (Just under 14st 7lb); 2 weeks to go http://t.co/mQGE4DP6 http://t.co/LMvbfQl3 #stoked

Thursday 22 March 2012 12:59 via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@markwilsonit

Mark Wilson

I have to say that I’m totally stoked. Whilst some people might say something like “yeah, whatever, so you lost some weight, it’s just willpower isn’t it?”, I can tell you there’s a lot more to it than that – it’s taken a year (so far) or hard work and dedication, together with the occasional bought of self-degradation after falling off the wagon. This wasn’t a diet, it was a change in lifestyle; reprogramming my brain if you like (and this week’s BBC Horizon documentary which examined how two hormones impact our appetite and “fullness” was very interesting).

I’ve still got 2 weeks to go until my 40th, so there’s room for a stretch target yet (actually, I’ve set myself a goal of losing another 13kg before my 41st birthday – to bring my BMI into the “healthy” range – how achievable that is I don’t know as that’s going back to around my teenage weight but it’s worth a try). Most importantly though, I’ve achieved what I set out to do by my 40th (a fitter, happier, healthier me) and raised a chunk of money for The Prostate Cancer Charity in the process. If you’d like to donate to The Prostate Cancer Charity, my JustGiving page is still up and running!

So, here are the stats:

Incidentally, on a recent overseas trip, I noticed that our (heavy) suitcase weighed 21kg. That’s how much less weight my body is carrying around. Scary really.

It’s been a few months since I gave an update on my Fit at 40 challenge but last weekend I ran the Milton Keynes 10K, which marks my third major race since taking up the challenge. Whilst my time was best described as disappointing, I did at least run the whole course (for which the last mile or so is all uphill!) in torrential rain and I don’t think I’ve ever been so cold…

Meanwhile, the weight loss continues: inevitably, Christmas saw a couple of pounds added (although it was mostly the pre-Christmas celebrations – over Christmas I continued exercising – including spinning on Christmas Eve and a run with my brother-in-law on Boxing Day) but I found it really difficult to push through my previous milestone and was stuck at 100kg (15st 10lbs) for a couple of weeks until, suddenly, I managed to blast through it.  Since then I’ve been religious about counting calories, making full use of the Weight Loss Resources website and making sure that I’m getting plenty of exercise (tracked on Runkeeper). Sadly an injury in January – immediately followed by snow and ice in February – meant I couldn’t run for a bit, but I kept up the swimming and spinning… and I seem to be fixed up now.

After getting stuck again at 97kg (15st 4lb) and 95.25kg (15st 0lb), I weighed in on Saturday and was really pleased to be able to say that I’ve now lost my third stone placing me at 93.5kg (14st 10lb). That means I still have 3lbs to lose before 5 April but I’m confident that I’ll make it. And, for the first time in goodness-knows how many years I’m now simply overweight, instead of obese (my BMI is now 29.5, down from 35.5 at the start of the challenge)!

As for the running, well, I was tempted to enter the adidas Silverstone half-marathon (I did say I might try for a half-marathon at the end of the challenge) but I’m starting to feel the odd twinge at about the 5 mile/8 km mark so I don’t really want to risk injury right now.  I’ve entered the Bupa London 10,000 again in May – and hope to knock 10-12 minutes off my 2011 time. After that, I may see if I can build up to a half marathon but, for once, I listened to my wife’s advice and decided not to risk the whole challenge by pushing my body too far – I may feel better than I have in years, but I’m not 25 any more and my knees are certainly telling me that 10K is about my limit at the moment (I ran just over 13K once, when a bridlepath was closed and I had a 3 mile diversion to get across the river!).

As for my fundraising for The Prostate Cancer Charity, so far I have raised around £1100, with another £650 pledged from friends and family, but I’d really like to make it to £2000 (plus gift aid). You can donate on the Internet or, in the UK, by SMS (text message) – just text MWIL72 £1 (or whatever your donation is!) to 70070.

So, where next? Well, “Fit at 40” was a good start, and going from almost no exercise to my current levels, whilst losing just over three stone was no small achievement. I know that some friends and colleagues have doubts – after all they see me eating badly from time to time but we all do that – and the whole point has been about making sustainable lifestyle choices – not living like a saint.  I could have “gone on a diet” but past experience tells me I’ll pile it back on.  This slow, steady, sustainable weight loss seems to be working (and its always good when people comment how much weight I’ve lost).

I still have a bit of a belly though, so I’m not stopping here – it would be great to lose another couple of stones over the next year – and I’m going to give it a shot.  I won’t be pestering friends for sponsorship but it’s my personal goal.

My health is improving too – I did recently start taking medication to control my high blood pressure but that in itself is not an illness – I have a family history of hypertension and if I can keep it under control then that should help prevent serious illness as a consequence. More seriously, at 6.3mmol/L my cholesterol level is too high. Importantly though, that’s down from 6.9 when it was measured 5 years previously – and the ratio of “good” (HDL) cholesterol to “bad” (LDL) cholesterol is improving – clearly “Fit at 40” is working and will continue to work as I lose even more weight (really, I need to get that number down below 6mmol/L and ideally to around 5).

Finally, I recently read an article on the Sydney Morning Herald website about people turning 40, and turning to exercise… well – maybe that’s what’s happening here. Perhaps the sports car, etc. will have to wait until my 50th…

Regular readers will know about my “Fit at 40” challenge and I have to say it’s pretty hard work right now. I lost the first stone (and a bit) and I built up to the point where I ran my first 10K race (albeit a little slower than I would like) but now it’s into the real hard slog… and I’ve found that I need to focus a little harder (although I’m still heading in the right direction).

I mentioned previously how my friend and former colleague, Garry Martin, is providing motivation with a sponsorship deal that requires me to meet certain targets that we have agreed as realistic but challenging. I will lose the three-and-a-bit stone, and I will run three races of at least 10K before my 40th birthday – but I really do hope to do a little better than that (let’s call it a stretch target!)

Friends and family keep on telling me that I’m looking slimmer, fitter, and healthier, but I put that down to wearing dark colours, a recent holiday leaving me suntanned and breathing in/standing upright! The fact is that the scales tell me I’m not shifting the weight fast enough – and the running is getting harder, not easier. Even so, I decided to take a look at my body fat measurements.

It seems that, in the UK, health professionals are obsessed with the Body Mass Index (BMI) – a simple calculation based on height and weight.  That’s all well and good, but some of us really are “stockier” than others.  According to a simple BMI calculation, I am obese (I am) but, I’ll still be overweight when I reach my goal… in fact, I’d need to get below 12 and a half stone to be “healthy”, despite having not been that weight since I was a teenager (and still growing up, rather than out).

In theory, all of this exercise is helping me to build muscle so it makes more sense to understand just how much of me is fat.  For a while, I was using one of the many calculations available on the ‘net but they really do vary tremendously. So much so that they can only be considered as a guide (not much better than the BMI):

• One calculation has my body fat as 34.28%.
• Based on the US Army formula, my body is 32% fat.
• Other tests gave some equally spurious metrics.

More importantly, the calculation I was using wasn’t suggesting any progress – despite clearly losing weight and being a lot leaner, my wrist and forearm measurements (two of the metrics used) are probably not going to change much.

When I look at my “ideal weight” there are just any many ideas of “ideal”:

• Based on the Robinson formula (1983), my ideal weight is 156.5 lbs.
• Based on the Miller formula (1983), my ideal weight is 155.0 lbs.
• Based on the Devine formula (1974), my ideal weight is 160.9 lbs.
• Based on the Hamwi formula (1964), my ideal weight is 165.3 lbs.
• Based on the healthy BMI recommendation, my recommended weight is 128.9 lbs – 174.2 lbs.

Then, last month, I saw that one of the local leisure centres was advertising Body Stat tests (body composition testing) for £5, so I booked myself in.  Using a bio-electrical impedance analysis (BIA) test I was given a range of figures indicating how fat I am and what I should be aiming for. BIA is not without it’s faults but at least by using a commercial product rather than a consumer body fat meter I’ll have increased the chances of accuracy. Just as important was the confirmation that my goal weight is realistic as well as the information that I’m not sufficiently hydrated (drinking more water should help me to lose weight). It also told me my basal metabolic rate (I could also calculate that myself or use a different calculation to take into account exercise and target weight loss), which explains why I’m so damned hungry if I don’t eat enough… and I want to lose weight at a sensible rate or 1-2 pounds a week, not go on a crash diet (I use the Weight Loss Resources site to help with tracking my food and exercise).

Ideally, I would have baselined this when I started the challenge but at least I have the numbers now I’m part way in, and I can check them again as I hit my milestones over the coming months. For what it’s worth, the ideal weight that the Body Stat test came up with was 85-91kg (13st 5lb-14st 5lb) and 13-19% body fat. That seems a lot more realistic than the numbers above and the top end is just below my “Fit at 40” target (so, “Fitter at 41?”)

Just on more thing before I sign off… a quick video from the Dads’ Race at my son’s school sports day last week:

I think I came second (I’m in the green t-shirt). The challenge continues…

Was it just a co-incidence that the Simon Pegg film, “Run Fatboy Run” was shown on British TV this weekend? I think not! (great film by the way).

For those who’ve missed my last “Fit At 40” update – yesterday was the Bupa London 10,000 – and I lined up with several thousand other competitors (including my friend Eileen Brown) to run the course from St James’ Park to the City and back.  This was my first 10K and I’d been training with 5 mile (8km) runs at around 01:06:00, so I was hoping to come in at around 01:20:00 but, to be honest, a finish was what I was really after!

Not only was this my first 10K, but it was my first big race too – and, with the race starting in nine groups (with me in the ninth), the elite runners had completed the race before I was over the start line!

The first kilometre flashed by – I set off way too fast but I was in clear space towards the front of my group and wanted to stay out front so my supporters at the end of Horse Guards’ Parade could grab a decent picture. After that, I tried to settle down into a comfortable pace but my pre-race efforts to make sure I was sufficiently hydrated set me back a bit (and I wasn’t going to “do a Paula” [Radcliffe]).  I couldn’t see the toilets that were supposed to be at 3km so I kept going until I saw a McDonalds at just after 4km – and rushing off the course, down the stairs into the basement and back out again must have cost at least 3 minutes (I wasn’t the only one to do this either!).  Only then could I settle into my planned pace of 12 minutes run, 2 walk at around 12 minutes per mile (I’m not fast!) but the point is I did it!

I have to say that the whole event was incredibly well organised (by the same people who organise the London Marathon), the weather was kind to us, and even though the water station at 7km had run dry by the time I passed, some wonderful people were handing out cups of water just before, at around at about 6.5km (thank you guys).  Kudos too, to the guys who were clearing up the thousands of plastic bottles etc. on the course as well as to the marshalls that lined the whole route.

So, how did I do? Well, my (unoffocial) stats (from RunKeeper) show me at just over 1 hour 30 minutes and the official time was 01:30:04

Even though I’m a bit disappointed with my time, I’m absolutely stoked with the achievement. Not that long ago, I couldn’t run to the end of the street. Now it’s time to push on and lose some more weight, then run another 10K later this year (hopefully at closer to 01:20:00).

The challenge continues…

It’s been a couple of months now since I wrote an update on my Fit at 40 challenge so here’s how I’m doing, in a nutshell:

It’s tough

April included a number of events including my birthday and the Easter holidays but I was doing pretty well – my weight yo-yoed a bit but was heading down overall (I got down to 105kg/16st 8lb) and my mileage was increasing with the runs even if my pace was dropping (towards the end of April I managed my first 5 mile run and, for the first time, I was geniunely confident that I can do a 10K).  Unfortuately I lost my way a little when I ran the Harrold Pit Run – a 4.8km (3 mile) race which I ran/walked last year in just under 33 minutes (my first race) and this year I ran (not walked) it a full 5 minutes slower. I was gutted.

I was a difficult day: the race is in the afternoon and it was hot; we’d had a  a Royal Wedding street party the day before and, although I’d been careful not to eat/drink too much, I’ve since learned that drinking beer the day before a run is not a good idea; and it had been a pretty full-on week as I was attempting to redecorate my office, have a new carpet fitted, and put it all back together again in 4 days. Added to that, I was pretty emotional. It was the first time I’d run in The Prostate Cancer Charity‘s t-shirt, complete with a note on my back advertising my fundraising site and someone said “good on you” as they ran past me.  I’m pretty sure that they were referring to my cause (not the snail’s pace I was jogging at) and that got me thinking about why I was doing it – which seemed to upset me, rather than help me get going. To say I was dissappointed with the result would be an understatement – it was all I could do not to burst into tears at the finish line.

The rest of that final weekend in April was no better either – I’m not sure how, but I finished the 4-day weekend 5lbs heavier than I started it.

The good news is that I’m back on the wagon, watching what I’m eating again, and pushing to lose another half-stone or so before the BUPA London 10K at the end of the month.  In the first week of May I managed to run a 3.4 and a 5 mile loop (albeit in 12+2 run/walk intervals), so I know I can cover the distance – all that remains is to increase my pace (and hopefully cut out some of the walking). My workload has been crazy, which doesn’t help the stress levels but I’m determined to complete the course – there’s too much at stake now!

I’ll let you know how I get on with the BUPA London 10K at the end of the month!