Instead of resolutions each year, I set out on a 100 Day Challenge that starts 100 days before my birthday, April 18. I’ll turn 54 that day, and I always want it to be a day I’m proud of instead of sad about.

For my health goals, I’ve set myself up well for the past year, and I’m starting 6 pounds lighter than I did for this challenge last year. But the bigger achievement last year is that I finally figured out how to do resistance training while still maintaining and even losing weight. I was able to put on more lean mass and lose fat at the same time.

For this, my goal is less weight-based this time than in the past. Instead, I’m going for a sub-15% fat mass level. I did a DEXA scan in late August, and it showed I weighed 188 with an 18% body fat mass. I’d estimate I’m a little over that after some holiday gluttony. Let’s call it 19-20%.

So I need to lose approximately 8-10 pounds of fat in 100 days while still maintaining my lean body mass. I saw glimpses of being able to do this in October, when I was able to lose a little over a pound before I started on vacations on holiday eating.

A Breakthrough – More Resistance Without More Fat

Here’s how it went down in the correlation of resistance minutes I did (blue line) compared to the pounds of fat (orange line) I had. In general, as soon as picked up a dumbbell and did some pushups, I’d start gaining fat back. The fat would lag the resistance by about a month.

In 2022, I put on 8 pounds of fat without doing much more resistance. In 2023, it was down to 4 pounds with more resistance. In 2024, I actually maintained the same amount of fat while doing a lot more resistance training.

The key was very simple. I started tracking my macros and calories every day, and I made sure to consume an average of 180-190 grams of protein per day.

The main difficulty I’ll need to overcome is that I was consuming over 3000 calories per day to achieve that level. I’m figuring I’ll need to consume the same 180 grams of protein while only taking in 2800 calories per day.

In October, I was only at 5-8% carbs per day, so I won’t be able to go lower than that. The sacrifice will be on the fat side, and that’s usually not what one wants to do on keto. For me, besides the mental health benefits, the main thing that makes keto easy has been that I’m just not that hungry.

Keto Macro Goals

My macros will have to run at:

1. Protein: 700 – 750 calories per day. (25-27%.)
2. Carbs: 150 – 200 calories per day. (5-7%.)
3. Fat: 1900 calories per day. (66-70%.)

It might be tricky to maintain that. If I get hungry, I’ll have to extend the amount of time I give myself to achieve the 8-10 pound fat loss from 100 days to perhaps 200 days.

What I’ll be trying is to have a little less butter each day. That may sound easy, but I honestly just love it. I’ve averaged somewhere around 1.5 – 1.75 ounces per day. I’ll cut that down to under 1 per day and see how it goes. Cutting down on cashews should help, too. Instead of 1 ounce, I’ll go down to less than 0.5 ounces. Overall, that’s over 200 calories less per day, and it should do the trick if I can maintain it.

Alcohol

The other 100ish calories will come from consuming less alcohol. We’re on the heels of a very strong statement by the surgeon general that any amount of alcohol increases our chances of various cancers. I do enjoy alcohol, but I’m finding it much less appealing overall, and definitely don’t want to increase my chances of cancer.

In 2010, at the age of 70, my mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I wouldn’t consider her a heavy drinker, but she would have 2-3 drinks every Friday and Saturday. My dad made her 1-2 very large martinis or Manhattans those nights. Was it the cause of her cancer? That’s completely unclear. Did it contribute to her cancer? I think we could say “yes” to that.

She died just 4 months later.

2025 is the year I cut down from an average of 1 drink per day to less than half a drink per day. I started tracking it in 2017, when I was drinking at least 2 per day. When I look at pictures of those “2” drinks, it was likely closer to 3 or 4, as the wine glasses were very big and they were filled with far more than 5 ounces.

Last year was definitely my best year at 0.87 drinks per day (with a much more honest accounting of what a drink consists of). Still, let’s be even more honest and call it 1 per day like I said above. I consume mostly tequila and a little beer now. Beer is easy to count. My shots of tequila, however, are probably a skosh more than the recommended 1.5 ounces.

As usual, that was a pretty long accounting of how I’ll go about my food in particular in this new year.

Exercise in 2025

My exercise will remain about the same. I’ll try to maintain an average of over 20 minutes per day of resistance exercise. That breaks down to doing resistance every other day for me. I do a push day of around 50-60 minutes, a pull day of 50-60 minutes, a core day of 40-50 minutes, and a leg day of just around 15-20 minutes.

I could use a better leg day routine, but I really struggle with hamstring cramping. I think some Bulgarian split squats, some weighted lunges, and maybe even some RDLs will be helpful. (My form needs a lot of work on the RDLs!)

For the past year, I’ve been doing 3 sets of each exercise, and almost always 10 reps per set. This year, I’ll do something like 10-7-4 and use heavier weights to see if I can break past a plateau in muscle growth. Hitting my protein goals will obviously be key to this as well.

I’ll keep doing my walking, treadmill walking, and once a week or so I’ll do treadmill running. My goal before had been to run a 6-minute mile. Now, I’d be happy to do a 7-minute mile. That will require more sprint work, and that requires me to trust the treadmills not to go from 10 mph to 0 mph within one second, which happens more than it should. It’s a bit scary. I haven’t tried it on the new treadmills at the gym yet.

Conclusion

I’ve been excited to start this new 100 Day Challenge since mid-November, so I’m glad the day is finally here. 2025 will present a ton of external challenges, so I’m hoping my health goals can stay on track and help offset those.

More about this soon…