Deployment goals

A lot of Joes deploy, become gym rats and put on a lot of muscle. 

I want to lose some weight.  Now I am not "fat" just that I've bulked up over the years and now look back fondly on being a tall skinny beanpole.  So I've been doing my normal deployment routine, alternating days of cardio and strength building.  But this time my cardio focus is longer, 45 minutes instead of 30.  In 45 minutes I can burn 530 calories.   The first fifteen minutes of cardio burns calories 50/50 between glycogen and fat, but after fifteen minutes it is over 98% fat burning, so 45 minutes gives me 20% (roughly) glycogen calories verses fat.  So each cardio session I burn right around 400 calories of fat.

9 cal/gram of fat = 9000 cal/kg.  2.2 lbs/kg = 4090 cal/lbs of fat.  So each workout can burn up to 1.6 ounces of fat.  Or, every twenty days I'll burn a pound off.  Over 180 days that equals nine pounds, over a year that is 18 pounds.  None of this counts a metabolic increase, just weight lost due to the cardio (assuming I don't consume more to replace what I've burned).  Since I want to lose just about 20 pounds to get back under 200, I think I'm on a pretty sustainable track.

Anyways, one of the reasons I'm heavy is that muscle does weigh more than fat.  But I want to give my wife a set of six pack abs to run her hands over when I get home.  And while I like being a big, intimidating, masculine man, I don't like all the pounding my knees take carrying around the extra muscle.  So it is "slim down" time, and focusing on cardio endurance instead of muscle bulk. 

And doing cardio at 7,600 feet?  I'm making this altitude my bitch.