Troy Hyde: Part 2: The 100-pound Milestone

Jan. 24—Editor's Note: This will be part of a series.

In the first installment of the 100-pound milestone column, I broke down cardio workouts and showed how much improvement can happen over a year when the weight comes off and you work hard enough.

But one question I got a lot of over the course of the year was, "are you just running a lot or what else are you doing?"

The short answer is no. The long answer will be talked about in the next 700 words or so.

There is no way anyone can lose weight just by running a lot. That would help you maintain the weight for sure.

But unless the calories in are less than the calories out, I do not think weight loss happens.There has to be some kind of dedication to what goes in your mouth. I have talked about a few things in previous columns that I made adjustments to when it comes to the food and drinks I consumed.

I cut out all pop that wasn't diet. I drink around 150-200 ounces of water each day. And I switched to only drinking sugar-free energy drinks. There are a few of them out there from Rockstar and Bang that I enjoyed and none of them have calories.

DO NOT DRINK YOUR CALORIES if you want to lose weight.

Following the Weights Watchers program and using their digital app was so easy. You start the process by filling out a short survey and that determines what "color" program you get and how many points you start with.

Then, scan the items you want to eat and drink and stay within the points the app gives you.

The number of points you get each day goes down as you lose weight, too. I started at around 42 points, I think, and sit currently at 28 daily points.

I weighed 294 pounds on January 10, 2021. I was down five pounds after the first week and lost 11.2 pounds the second week.

The third and fourth weeks were 5.6 and 4.6 but after that there were a lot of 1-3 pound weight-loss weeks.

I only had eight weeks of weight gain for the week and most of those were less than a pound gained.

I hit the 20-pound barrier in four weeks, reached -30 pounds in the sixth week and got to -50 pounds in Week 14. I weighed 243.6 pounds on April 18, 2021.

The final 50 pounds took much longer and the final 15 pounds felt like it took forever.

Working out has never been an issue for me. I love attending gyms and getting a good sweat going. But there are a few things I did throughout the year that were above and beyond what I normally do.

In years past, I needed just one workout a day. For this challenge, I made sure to up the intensity.

I made a goal to do push-ups each day in 2021. I started at 25 per day and upped the number by five each month. By about the middle of the year, I started doing four sets of 25 each for squats, push-ups and sit-ups.

This started the strength training portion of my workouts when I was at the gym but also was something I made sure to do at home on the weekends when I didn't get a full workout in.

By the end of the year, and to get me through the challenge of losing the final 15 pounds, I added 100 more push-ups and 100 more sit-ups right before bed.

To lose weight, one key in the gym is to do more reps and less weights. I wasn't trying to lift a bunch of weight, I just wanted to get a lot of reps in — sets of 20 mostly.

My strength training at the gym lasted about 50 minutes on average. Some days were longer. Some days were shorter. That's about the time I needed to get in two exercises per body part during the workout.

I made sure one day during the week was for legs and used the jump rope once a week.

For the final installment of this series, I will try to break down some key things I did with my diet and a few tricks anyone can add to their day to help them get to 10K steps without even going to the gym.

Contact Troy Hyde at thyde@shawmedia.com