Resting Heart Rate: 53 to 70
September 2018 — thirty days off, and the plan to come back
Before my sister's wedding, I knew I'd be taking a break from MMA. They wanted my face pretty for the photos, so the instructions were: don't get swung on. Fair. So I took a couple of weeks off (live TYFB1957).
Then I had a car accident. I spent the next week running around trying to get my car back. I was also helping a friend with a business venture, which meant a lot of hours in a kitchen. Between all of it, I missed basically all of my cardio classes (live TYFB1957).
And then I went to visit some people in New York. No car, shopping was a pain, and I made a choice to stay off plan for that too. I allowed myself that time. I want to be clear about the word choice there, because I always tell people to make decisions, not mistakes (live QPOU6932). These were decisions. They still cost something (live OXFK1077).
What two weeks looks like on a Fitbit
I'd been wearing a Fitbit that tracks heart rate, and this is where it earned its keep. I didn't feel like I'd lost much fitness in two weeks out of the gym. But the numbers said my resting heart rate had gone from about 53 back up to 70 in roughly two weeks. My nighttime resting rate was up almost 20 beats a minute. From around 50, that's about a 40% increase in how many times my heart has to beat while I'm asleep. That's real math (live TYFB1957).
That's the thing about how you feel versus what's true. I felt fine. My heart was working a lot harder. I didn't want to turn it into an obsession, but I did want to use it as a useful biomarker, the same way I use the string test instead of panicking at the scale (live TYFB1957).
The plan, with numbers
So at the end of that September 8th live, I set goals out loud. I wanted my resting heart rate back down in the 50s. I wanted to get to about 13% body fat; I said 12 to 14 because for some reason I couldn't just say 13. I wanted my lean body mass back around 168 pounds, which at 13% body fat would put me somewhere around 185 on the scale. I was specific, I said, because I was setting specific goals, not because I was going to be neurotic about them (live TYFB1957).
The reason the weight mattered at all: I wanted to take a kickboxing fight, and when you fight, you have to make a specific weight. I'd probably be fighting somebody around 20, maybe a state-champion wrestler coming over to MMA, and I'd be 35 and someone who never did combat sports as a kid. If it's going to come down to skill, I can't walk into the ring weaker, over-fat and with bad cardio (live TYFB1957).
How was I getting there? Back to stall breaker. No more eating at maintenance. Low calories, prioritize protein, cook it. And I said that to everyone who finds that phase bland and struggles with it: I'm going to join you. I invited the whole group to do the next phase with me (live TYFB1957).
Four days later, on another live, I owned the whole thirty days: off diet for the wedding, the accident, off diet in New York. I said I was going back to it because I had goals. I wanted to get back into fighting shape and take that fight within the year. And I said I was being more accountable to the group because they were being more accountable to me (live OXFK1077).
The lesson
Two weeks off shows up fast. Not always on the scale, and not in how you feel, but in the numbers that measure what your body is actually doing. And the way back isn't guilt. It's a plan with numbers in it, said out loud to people who'll ask you about it.
What I'd tell you now
I still like resting heart rate as a check that has nothing to do with the mirror. It's one of the measures in non-scale victories, and do you need to exercise on keto? covers why training matters beyond weight (also exercise benefits beyond weight loss). If you're training for a sport, I wrote up keto for MMA and combat sports. On going back to a low-calorie phase, how to break a stall without crash dieting is the gentler version of what I did. A wearable's heart-rate number is a trend, not a diagnosis: if your resting heart rate jumps and you didn't just take two weeks off, or you get palpitations, chest pain or dizziness, that's one for your doctor, not for the group.
Watch the originals: the September 8 live and the September 12 live.
Earlier: The Wedding, and 9.2 Pounds in a Day · Later: Two Mantras and Three Songs