I wussed out and took a cab home tonight after having done 26,000 steps. I was hot, miserable, and dehydrated, having stupidly decided not to bring along any fluids for my long hike. While I was riding back to my place in the cab, it started raining, so I didn't feel so bad about having wimped out: walking in the rain, in wet shoes, is never a good thing for the skin of your feet, especially when you're a heavy guy, and thus prone to blistering.
But that's not why I'm writing this entry. I just weighed myself: 120.4 kg. Just yesterday, I was probably around 123.5 kg. Let that sink in: I weighed myself yesterday, got 123.5; I slept, woke up, pooped out some of that weight, made up for the pooped-out weight by eating lunch and drinking fluids all day... then I went for my sweaty walk and lost about three kilograms.
That's fucking scary. All of that weight loss is, of course, water weight, so it's insignificant in terms of fat loss. What I was doing was inadvertently imitating what American wrestlers do when they need to quick-reduce to reach their weight-class goal.
For those of you living in comfortable spots of the United States, you should know that, when we expats say that Korean summer is jungle-hot and jungle-humid, we mean it. I somehow went from 123.5 kg to 120.4 kg—over 3 kg (7 lbs.) lost. In a matter of hours.
Lesson for Kevin: bring fucking water on these walks during the summer.
I've experienced the same thing, although not to that magnitude. I used to weigh in before walking on Sunday, be disappointed in the result, walk 3 hours, weigh again and be so damned pleased with myself for dropping a couple of pounds.
ReplyDeleteNow I always weigh after my walk...
Yeah, weighing oneself after a sweaty workout does feel good, although it might also constitute cheating since one is equating slight dehydration with substantial weight loss (which ought to be about body fat, not water).
ReplyDeleteI rationalize by telling myself that the important thing is to always weigh myself under the same conditions every time so as to have a consistent reading. If I choose to weigh myself immediately after a workout, then fine, so long as I weigh myself post-workout every time.