One of my immediate goals is to get into better shape, and this page is going to detail some of the things that I’ve read on the subject. 

As of August 18, 2007, I weigh 273 lbs and have a BMI of 36, which of course, is way too high.  They claim that a healthy weight for my height (6′1″) is 140-189. 

From what I’ve read, based on my current fitness and strength levels, which is close to nil, I should eat about 1900 calories a day and burn 300 or so calories a day from 30 minutes of exercise.   What I don’t know at this point is how many calories I currently eat and if I’ll feel like I’m starving if I only eat 1900 calories.  I’m guessing that I eat somewhere around 3000 calories per day. I read somewhere that foods with a lot of fiber are low in calories and fill you up faster, so I’m going to eat more cereal and fruit.

Based on my weight, here are some exercises that I like to do, along with how many calories they’ll burn in an hour:

Swimming - 524 calories
Walking Slow - 372 calories
Walking Moderate - 410 calories
Walking Fast - 524 calories
Slow Cycling - 377 calories
Moderate Cycling - 731 calories
Running Slow - 1078 calories
Hiking - 983 calories
Weight Lifting - 310 calories 

If I swim every day for at least 30-45 minutes, that’ll meet my fitness requirement; however, I’m not sure if that’s the wisest thing to do because my shoulders tend to get tired and probably need a day off.   Next on the list for my favorite things to do is Cycling, and at 731 calories burned an hour for moderate activity, I’m actually better off than swimming in the calories burned department.

My ultimate favorite thing to do though is hiking, and when I can find the time for a good hike, this is truly the calorie burner extraordinaire.  Most hikes are about 6 hours long, and so the average hike is going to burn somewhere around 5900 calories.

Lately, I’ve been trying to go swimming as many times per week before work as I can.  This hasn’t worked out as well as I’d like because when I go to bed too late, I feel that sleep is more important.  Usually, when I’m up late, it’s because I’m working on one the various 100 or so other projects that I have going on right now.

Next week’s goal:  To get to the gym at 5am each morning. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I’ll swim for an hour, and bike for 30 minutes for about 850 calories burned.  Tuesday and Thursday, I’ll bike for 30 minutes, and lift weights for an hour, which will burn about 600 calories.  Saturday, I’ll swim an hour in the morning and walk for 60 minutes in the afternoon, which will burn about 900 calories for the day.  Sunday will be a day off.

If that all works out, it’ll equal 4650 calories burned.  3500 calories equals a pound of fat, so that’ll burn off a little more than a pound, and hopefully I’ll be able to watch what I eat enough to lose another pound from eating better.

So far I’ve lost a pound a week for the past two weeks.  Hopefully at the same time next year, I can say that I’ve lost 50 pounds.