I'm a lightweight (rower)

Posted in: Sport

This time last year I was the heaviest I've ever been and now, thirteen months later, the lightest I've been as an adult. In a year I've lost at least 10kg (22lbs, 1st8lbs). The significance of today however is that I weigh pretty much exactly 75.0kg which is the qualifying weight for Lightweight Rowing AND I did a benchmark 2,000m row. It wasn't very fast, 7:06, but then I am recovering from a sore throat and have a lung full of phlegm, not to mention still being on a calorie restricted diet (ergh).

According to my fancy Tanita scales I'm currently at 8.3% body fat. Which is pretty damn low; not quite "walking anatomy lesson" but certainly on the way. For comparison, male athletes vary between 6% and 12%; more here.

So, how did I lose 10kg? After hours of reading and assimilating scholarly nutritional texts, womens' magazines, physiologists' deepest secrets, and all the while studiously avoiding the fridge's whispered promises, I put together the following plan. My Magic Formula For Losing Weight is...

...eat less and exercise more.

So that's basically what I did for a year.

In some future blog I'll write more detail about what I did and ate. In the meantime I will say engaging in aerobic and anaerobic exercise was key, so if you're casting about for more on weight loss there's something I wrote a long time ago, how to get, and stay, motivated.

As a final aside, to row Lightweights at Cambridge University means being not more than 72.5kg. If I were to weigh that my body fat percentage, assuming I miraculously didn't lose any muscle mass, would be 5%(!) Another reason I'm happy not to be in university...

Posted by Paul Makepeace at May 7, 2007 02:07 | TrackBack