how did last year go?

what's the move for 2026?

new goals?

new ways to control intake?

new fitness activities?



in 2024, I started mountain biking. I've always been a biker during the summer, but off-road up/down a mountain is..........humbling. it was great though. I'll be back this summer.

this past year, I learned how to swim. it's been great. had the bonus of my daughter being my teacher since she works at the Y.

still working on form and new strokes. backstroke is in the works. my goal is to master the freestyle and backstroke. then work on flip turns.

probably won't be doing much running, if any. sucks because that been my go to cardio in the winter when biking it over.

decided not to think too much about my weight. I tend to be between 210-220. I wanted to get down to 200, but that's too much work.

so rather than focusin on losing anything, it makes more sense to just reconstitute how the weight looks on me. so I'll be working on strength and power rather than dropping pounds.

lastly, also going to add more flexibility.

I've used the treadmill in the past for interval workouts.

Various parts in both feet are tender and sore after a session I did yesterday. I imagine this is only going to get worse over time as I'm no spring chicken (I'm 45).

Fortunately for me, the gym I use has a ski erg and an airdyne bike. I'm going to do my research online in terms of coming up with interval sessions for both devices.

mainly because if I'm running, I'd rather be outside.

what kind of shoes are you running in? that may be something to consider also.

I don't think it's the sneakers and moreso to do with that I'm getting old (I'm in my mid 40s).

I used to be able to do treadmill sprints routinely with ease without my feet getting sore days after; now that isn't the case.

I'll miss doing the treadmill sprints, but it only makes sense for me to switch things up. I'm literally hurting myself trying to force myself the do sprints which counters the entire reason for me to go to the gym.

In the positive, doing intervals on the ski erg has been a challenge. The machine looks simple, but it is quite a brutal. I'm quite fortunate that I'm seemingly the only person that uses the machine during the hours I'm at the gym; I'm completely free to do my intervals without interuption.

Ready to go back, started back last week after being sick for last three weeks. Im typically a 3 x week guy or maybe squeeze another day in there. Being off was weird but I think needed some time off for muscles to really get some rest and do what hey need to do is needed i guess.

Went back and hot legs and upper hard. I didnt lost any strength but maybe gained some from the rest. I did drink a lil pre workout but still.

summer hit. Got busy with life and work and then in August was in a car accident and was out of commission for the rest of the year.

I just finished all my physical therapies last week, and ready to start 2026 with a bang. Its just im SO out of shape now. :-(

hopefully you can get back on it soon.

how tough was the therapy?

I tore my acl and some other parts years ago. the rehab was brutal.

I thought I was in pretty good health running 3 times a week before that.

Major setback but rehab has been going well.

My goal is to be back to 3 mile runs by March, a 5k by May, and then maybe a half-marathon by end of year.

Starting off the year trying to live a little more cleanly. Less booze and more home cooking.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

One of my fears. I only run 1-2x per week now (and at a mild pace), but I worry about injuries as a get older.

Jumping and landing funny. The doctor confirmed it would be rare to happen from straight up running. It was a motion I didn't do often that got me.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

I'm trying to add more mobility exercises to my routine. ligaments and tendons tend to be forgotten when working on fitness.

how long is rehab for that?

when I was in therapy for my acl, takeo spikes was at the same place. he'd torn his achilles. this is also when he was dating t-boz, who went to my high school. she'd show there to support him.

I remember his asking the doc which was worse, acl or achilles. doc said they were about the same level of severity.

Pain out of nowhere at that. Just woke up one day and one joint or another hurts. Slowly getting back into running, but not lifting yet. I need to get back into stretching & calisthenics also.

Been working on overhauling my diet. Trying to eliminate most processed food, and unnecessary salt & sugar. Been cooking more at home, so it's been going well so far.

that's the hardest part for me?

the physical stuff is easy because I enjoy it. it becomes tricky when dealing with an injury because I'm impatient with the resting.

The problem I'm having isn't with what I'm eating, but how much and when. Too many days where I eat really well all day, then 9pm comes around and I get really hungry and start eating whatever I have around the house that I can make quickly and easily.

Up until I was ~40yo or so, I ate as much as I could because I was ran/biked/lifted most days of the week, and had a faster metabolism so I ate to gain muscle. Now that I'm slowing down a bit, I've found it hard to change 30 years of eating habits. Cooking more often, buying fresh fruit several times a week and keeping salad ingredients around has been helping recently, I just have to keep up with it and not go back to buying pre-made stuff from the freezer section.

I lost some more weight this year - a lot of it muscle.

But I did increase (at 55) my VO2 max from 46.5 to 52.8.

What I can't get my head around is that I hiked over 1,000 miles last year and consistently lifted weights with a trainer two hours a week and pretty much stalled my weight loss while losing muscle.

What everyone is telling me is that it happened because I ate on average around 1,700 calories a day and that my metabolism got resistant to losing weight and when it I did it didn't prioritize fat - it took more muscle.

So I'm on a strict plan to eat at least 2,200 calories a day - and sometimes more on heavy workout days with these goals:

1)2,220 calories a day + more on exercise days (NEVER be in more than 600 a deficit a day - try for 300 max.)
2)160g OR MORE of protein
3)130g OR MORE of carbs
4)27g OR MORE of fiber

So I am tracking *everything* I eat and am eating to meet those goals.

Goal for this year:
Lose 10 pounds of fat.
Keep muscle stable or gain.

Stretch goal: Lose 15 pounds total.

does that mean adding more protein?

>does that mean adding more protein?

I'm on the weight loss drugs and I've been keeping my calories LOW and my activity HIGH thinking that was the formula for weight loss - that's what I've been told to do my entire life - people are still telling people to do that.

Turns out it works for a while - then it stops working, especially after being in a calorie deficit for over a year.

I lift weights with a trainer twice a week - and I hike an average of 20 miles a week (with a lot of elevation gain) and coupled with low calories I'm being told now that I have to eat more or my metabolism will lower the amount of calories I need - and when it needs more calories it'll burn muscle as much (or more) as it burns fat. And the only way to reverse that is to eat more calories.

Sounds INSANE to me, but I've tried everything else.

So I'm on day 12 of trying to eat enough to have a deficit or no more than 500 calories a day.

On no exercise days I'm supposed to eat at least 2,100 a day.

And on exercise days I need to eat MORE so the deficit stays less than 500 - so on days with a hike I need to eat most of those calories. Yesterday that means I should have eaten like 3,100 calories - I ended up only eating 2,800 and I had to eat until like 11pm before I gave up. (I could of had a ice cream milk shake I guess but you're not supposed to eat a bunch of crap.)

I'm going to try it for 3 months and re-evaluate then.

2025 was hit or miss. Had some great stretches, was hampered by foot/heel pain for awhile and some worsening low back/hip pain that had been bothering me for years.

Got a few deep tissue massages in recent months that have helped somewhat, and been feeling pretty good lately.

Went to the gym and lifted a few days ago for the first time since probably late summer. Going to try to get in the habit of doing that, and doing pushups/pull-ups and some yoga stuff at home these next couple months. Once the weather warms up, will add in some walking and running.

Diet is mostly good except I drink too much beer - going to try to keep that to special occasions. The “couple beers to unwind while watching a game at night” gotta go.

working through that too.

have you talked to a doc about any of it? I'll usually go if something doesn't ease with rest/time. they'll tell me what it is and I'll try figuring out the fix.

hopefully the beer won't be too hard to reduce.

>working through that too.
>
>have you talked to a doc about any of it? I'll usually go if
>something doesn't ease with rest/time. they'll tell me what it
>is and I'll try figuring out the fix.

I brought it up at a yearly check up years ago and told him I felt like I was out of balance and questioned if maybe one of my legs was longer than the other or something. He basically blew it off, chalked it up to getting older(I was only like 37, smh) but still exercising a lot, and told me to take some ibuprofen, smh. I have a different doctor now, but haven’t brought it up with her.

Massage therapist said on one side of my back the muscles were a lot tighter than the other, and the painful hip on the opposite side seemed more forward than the other. Got massages every month for a while but am now pushing more to like every 2 months - they’re expensive and I’m feeling better. Been trying to stretch and foam roll and maintain good posture.

>hopefully the beer won't be too hard to reduce.

I generally have found over the years that the more motivated I am in my exercising, the less I want to drink. It’s when I’m out of shape, that I’ll be like “fuck it, let’s have a few beers.” Never been a “problem drinker” as far as having way too many or getting into trouble or even having hangovers, but having a few beers a few times a week is 1)a lot of extra empty calories 2) Often leads to poor food choices to go with it and 3)it definitely has a negative effect on my sleep, which makes me less motivated to workout the next day. So it’s really not serving me any good purpose.

I just got done drinking some bone broth as my evening nightcap so I’m good so far, lol.

some of these docs are terrible. when I tore my knee up, doc didn't even do an mri. he as basically a take 2 of deez and call me in the morning type. next doc did a few manual test and said the acl was torn. then dd the mri to confirm.

I might need to get on the massage bandwagon and see what my insurance can help with.

bone broth nightcap lol. I can dig it.

worked on the back stroke. had a break through and was actually able to do the movements.

it'll take some time to get all the strokes completely right, but I'm confident in the water. no issues with being in deep end whether face up or down.

proud of myself for doing making this happen. now I need to figure out time to go more than once a week so I can get the cardio benefits while getting better overall.

congrats on learning it, definitely a great workout.

You’ve got me thinking now - might be a great way to beat the winter blues and be a different type of workout. I get bored with the same old things. I might look for a pool with open swim times and start doing this.

my goal has been to replace the running since it makes my knee angry. so far, so good.

It’s a nice, and a fairly big gym for a hotel - but still small compared to normal gyms.

But there’s enough there to get a good workout and it’s quiet and hasn’t been busy at all.

So I lift some weights and then swim some laps in the pool. And then when I get too tired to swim, I walk some laps - pool is 4 to 4 1/2 feet deep the whole way, so it’s perfect for resistance walking. I’m loving it as a change up to my normal routine.

>how did last year go?

Went from 307 on Feb 1 to 275 on Dec 31 (lowest I got was 268). i ate BAD the during the holidays. before christmas week i was 271 and got up to close to 277 during those last 2 weeks.

added a bunch of muscle (not sure how much i really need to get a scan), improved my cardio and overall energy by a ton, knees feel better.

only bad thing is, in early Nov, i hurt my knee lifting. tried to treat it on my own. finally went to the doc in Dec. he thinks it's a torn meniscus. gonna have an MRI soon to confirm. first course of action if it's that is PT and meds (the meds i already take). only bad thing is, we live in america, and MRIs and PT is fucking expensive. the knee is not giving me much issue w/ just the meds (which is a prescription anti-inflammatory) so...i dunno...we'll see. i have insurance but it's kinda trash for stuff like this. i had a misdiagnosed traumatic knee injury at 18 and it "healed" on it's own evenutally, but i'm also not 18 anymore. it's kind of awful that i have to even have this take on an INJURY but i mean, this is our conditions.

FWIW, i'm back down to 273 today.


>
>what's the move for 2026?

keep grinding.

>
>new goals?

trying to hit 250,

>
>new ways to control intake?

just gotta be more disciplined where eating is involved - portion control is a big spot where i could do better cuz sometimes i take what is what seems like a normal portion (i'm not really a "weigh your food" person) and i'll eat it all and feel like i over ate, which means i probably could have done with less. thus, going to start taking smaller portions, eat it and chill for 15-20 mins and if i actually still feel hungry, go get a little more. something like that.

>
>new fitness activities?

nah, i'm a creature of habit. but once it warms up i do plan to do more active dad shit w/ my kid.

>nah, i'm a creature of habit. but once it warms up i do plan
>to do more active dad shit w/ my kid.

one of the incentives for me taking lessons was my daughter being the instructor at the Y. any additional time is a win.

yeah, the american way insurance is terrible. all the stuff we're supposed to do quickly becomes unaffordable. and then they just want us to get on their drugs.

sounds like you made some good progress. definitely keep grinding.

Badly enough to the point I needed muscle relaxers to function properly. The back injury came from sloppy form on some Zercher squats.

Took two weeks off from the gym just to ensure I recovered decently.

Went back to the gym this week and more importantly, overcame the mental hurdle of doing Zercher squats this morning.

Felt good to get over that mental hurdle of doing the squats.

Learned the important lesson of staying focused while working out and ensure I use proper form on all the exercises done in the gym.


Also feel quite fortunate that my back is all good since I am fairly old and washed. Aging really does a great job of keeping you humble, especially when it comes to recovery, but that for another post altogether.

it was a struggle to stand in an upright positing after sitting down or laying in bed. The amount of pain in my back was other worldly.

Given that I'm in my 40's, I'm grateful the injury didn't last much longer and even more grateful I can get back to the gym.

back stuff is not only painful, but scary. can make it hard to trust your body. you realize quickly how many other everyday movements are affected

I'm dealing with a shoulder issue. same idea. not as painful, but can't really bench or do push ups. have to adjust how I do things in and out of the gym. annoying.

glad you're better and hopefully you'll be good going forward.

tbh, still probably messed up but i'm working through it.

sucks because it seems like you're more likely to get injured doing "regular shit" in the gym the older you get (definitely in my case).

i've just been plateau'd at around 275 for like 5 or 6 months.

i guess i just can't get in a calorie deficit? i am trying to be, and i THOUGHT i was...but...5 or 6 months of no progress...i guess not.

i recently cut down my cardio intensity last week to see if maybe the cause isn't the calorie deficit but that i'm surpassing a fat burning heart rate.

my intensity usually had it in the low to mid 130s, so i cut the intensity down so that i'm around 115-120 (my fat burning HR based on age is supposed to be 105-120). i dunno if it's working yet or not.

i've definitely added muscle, but, and i think i've said this before, but i don't think i've added so much muscle that i'm not seeing gains on the scale...plus aren't i burning more calories/fat with more muscle?

i dunno. funny this post got upped cuz last night i was telling my wife that i'm not feeling it right now. i feel like i'm busting my ass for no gains. it's definitely frustrating. not giving up plus i know the exercise is good for my health whether the scale is going down or not, but there are times i WANNA give up and just start eating everything i'm not eating again.

anyways, any tips or ideas anyone has will be considered.

Basically giving yourself a "window" of time that you can eat during the day. I do 8 hours of eating time, 12pm to 8pm. The rest of the day, only fluids like water or unsweetened tea (no juice, coffee or anything else with sugar). Don't eat anything at least a few hours before bedtime. You should *feel* hungry at times for the first few weeks if you're doing it right.

I've been doing this for the past three weeks (with some stops and starts). It is difficult at first, but gets easier the more it becomes a habit and you can plan your meals during your eating time. I started because of some stubborn visceral and subcutaneous fat in my midesction (a growing "spare tire") that just wasn't changing no matter whow much I ran, lifted or cut calories. After 10 days or so, I started seeing and feeling results.

Cutting out processed foods is another thing to try (I'm working on this too). Eating fruit and salad *before* your main meal is another thing I've started doing, and it really helps with portion control.

Edit: I plan on incorporating intermittent fasting as the new normal for myself, so it's not just to lose some weight, but also for maintaining weight and health as I get older.

now that you're talking about it, i'm wondering if maybe i should go back to it vs. trying to eat healthy from like 7am to 8pm, because i'm usually not "hungry" in the mornings and i'm more hungry in the afternoon/evenings, so maybe jamming all my eating into those hours would prevent me from looking for snacks during that time and maybe fucking up the program.

it's a good thought.

As simple as it sounds, upping your water intake could help with a couple of issue you're dealing with, especially your bouts of wanting to eat junk/unhealthy foods if I'm reading the second paragraph right.

I'd suggest cutting sugary drinks out completely if you can, but I don't know if that's an issue for you or not.

only thing i drink is water and protein shakes (usually one per day).

so, i don't think it's that, but i appreciate the consideration.

I'm kind of in a similar situation - I've been between 211 and 216 (with a month up near 222, then came back down) for over a year and I kept lowering my calories and increasing my exercise and I basically lost lean muscle mass and not much else.

>i've definitely added muscle, but, and i think i've said this before, but i don't think i've added so much muscle that i'm not seeing gains on the scale...plus aren't i burning more calories/fat with more muscle?

The extra calories burnt by new muscle is really low - I heard it's like 6-50 calories PER POUND of muscle - even at 50 calories that's like eating 1/2 stick of string cheese. Let's say it's 25 calories, so if you gained 5-10 pounds of muscle you might be burning 125-250 calories more a day.

So since Jan 1st I've been trying to increase my calories, my protein, and my fiber and I am slowly - and boy do I mean slowly - losing weight again.

Idea: You might want to increase your calories while focusing on getting good macronutrient and keeping activities up and see if your metabolism adapts.

My goals are:
160g of protein a day
27g of fiber a day
(I take multivitamins + B12 + D3 + Iron and those have worked according to my blood work, so I'm not trying to hit vitamin/mineral goals)
And 2,200 calories a day regardless of exercise - I often go over to get my protein.

I took a DEXA scan on December 30th - I'm going to take one this Sunday to see if I am losing weight and gaining muscle - or if I'm still stalled.

But right now I feel like I have the least amount of fat in my stomach that I've had in nearly 20 years - but my weight is pretty static.

I was *super* depressed about it all in December - but I feel better now.

The good things I've experienced in the past 12 months:
Bone density T-score improved from 0.8 to 1.1 (normal range)
Bone density Z-score moved from below average to above average vs age-matched peers

Cardiorespiratory fitness really got better

VO₂max: 46.5 → 52.8 mL/kg/min (+6.3 units, +13.5% in 12 months)
Percentile ranking: 90th → 99th for age and sex
VT2 (lactate threshold) heart rate dropped from 149 to 140 bpm — more efficient at the same effort
Max heart rate at exhaustion: 167 → 162 bpm (cardiac efficiency improving)
Aerobic training zone now covers a much wider speed range vs 12 months ago
My average heart rate hiking up hill can be as high as 160 for over an hour - I've nailed my cardio fitness goal.


Nutrition & training (Jan–Mar 2026, fully logged)
Average daily food intake: 2,538 calories
Average daily protein: 182g (vegetarian diet)
Average daily fiber: 31.6g
Exercise output trending up month-over-month — March 2026 averaging ~975 cal/day burned
Weekly weight variability narrowing over time, indicating more consistent habits
Net calorie average: ~1,775 cal/day (But think it's close to 2,200 a day because exercised calories are almost always estimated too high.))

I've also clocked my fastest times while hiking this year - a year ago a hike I take a lot (3.3 miles with 1900 feet elevation gain) that took 62 minutes can now be done in 57 minutes. And going back a few years it would take me 70+ minutes.

>i feel like i'm busting my ass for no gains.

I really have felt like that a lot when I focus on my weight only - especially from October-December of last year - I was pretty depressed about it. For me it's going to be a struggle for the rest of my life - but I feel pretty good right now.

I hope you can feel better about it - if you aren't GAINING then your doing really good.

No, I've been doing *a lot.*

The Dexa tracks bone density, lean muscle and fat percentages.

The calorie tracking for food I do using an application called Lose It! and I track *every single thing* I eat - well I have for the past 3 months. It calculates calories, proten, and fiber for me.

I track my daily weight on my scale and it syncs to Loseit.

I track my hiking times using Nike+ Running - been using it for 16 years - and those exercise calories sync into Lose It!

I track my weight lifting routines using an app called Hevy - and those exercise calories sync into Lose It!

I've been tracking my lab test results just using the Epic EHR my hospital uses.

The VO2 max testing was done on a treadmill at the same place that does my Dexa scans and cost like $125. Dexas cost like $50.


I really want to get to 199 - it's an artificial number - but man do I want to hit it!

I am spending a lot of time doing this - and a lot of effort and attention and that's why I got so depressed in December about it. All of this effort and almost no weight loss in a year.

So I'm trying to focus more on my health gains than my weight loss.

And I'm almost able to get back into my Okayplayer Tour 2000 shirt without it looking too tight!

150-185 is my best