I weighed in this morning. Up 4.2 pounds from two weeks ago, so I’m now 171.2. Not happy that I’m back in the 170’s.
However, I’m trying to keep in mind how far I’ve come. Today is another day, and I’m starting again.
One of the features of new my Tanita BC554 is measuring body fat %. It has two modes: Athlete and Couch Potato. It measures about 13-16% using athlete, and 23-26% using couch potato mode. Like the man with two clocks who never knows what time it is, I’ve been unsure which mode to use.
The instructions say to use Athlete mode if your resting heart rate is less than 60 (45) and you are working out more than 10 hours per week (12-15). But it also warns that athlete mode will be inaccurate for “enthusiastic beginners”.
I decided I needed another clock. I bought Accu-Measure 3000 skinfold calipers to check which mode I should be using. With them, I measure a 10-11mm suprailiac skinfold, which according to their chart is about 14.8%. I guess I’m an athlete after all.
With an “accurate” estimate of my current fat %, I can now set a weight loss goal (until now it’s just been lower is better). I’d like to be about 8-10%, which for me is somewhere between 193 and 197 pounds (coincidently, about 100 pounds less them my start weight of 295).
Since that’s still considered overweight by BMI, I decided to see what fat % would bring me into the normal zone. That turned out be about 4.5%, which is very low, maybe even dangerously low. I’d rather be considered overweight than push myself to meet some unreachable standard.
That’s very sensible of you, John. Don’t be unhealthy just to ‘look good’. That’s crazy.
Another technique is to use the Hacker’s Diet method of weighing every day, but tracking the exponentially weighted moving average rather than the actual scale measurements. During a period of weight loss, the drop in your moving average will lag your direct measurements by a few days, but it will smooth out the random ups and downs and give you a better idea of where you actually stand. (An ‘increase’ that is still below your current moving average is still dragging the average down, so it ‘counts’ as a loss on this method; only if your weight goes up so much that it raises the average, or goes up a little bit for several days in a row and does the same, will you feel like you’re losing ground …)
My tracking program does just that. It’s shareware called Weight Commander. I like it enough that I actually paid for it.
Bad weekend for food here, but Jayjay and I did better than we thought and didn’t overindulge too much, like we have done in the past.
Weigh-in was way too early Saturday morning. But we were both pleasantly surprised. I lost another pound and Jim lost three.
:).
Good for you guys! What are your total losses now, if you don’t mind me asking? I know I could do some detective work with the old threads and such, and figure it out myself, but I’m saving my energy for the gym. 
I’ve lost about 33 pounds, and supervenusfreak has lost about 55.
Good work, boys!
I’m at 176 this morning. That’s only .5 up from my lowest ever (which happens, I’ll dip down *one day * and that’ll be it for a month).
Wow. That’s great!
Yay! I knew it wasn’t going to be as bad as you were thinking it would.
I have a question about the scales that measure body fat, water weight and predict the sex of your first born child:
How does it know? I’ve had my body fat % tested (long ago), and they used a caliper type instrument and pinched some of my arm fat, IIRC. How accurate are these scales? I’m thinking of getting one. My current scales is this cheapy digital scale. It’s accurate (I weigh my hand weights on it every now and then to check), but only weighs in 1/2 lb increments.
I have also wondered how accurate the body fat % on those scales is.
John T. Conklin TheNIH web site here says that BMI “overestimates BMI for athletes and those with a muscular build”. Sounds like you might fit into that category.
I’m happy that you’re so close to your all time low Ginger onward and downward.
Today I’m 174 so thats:
179.5/174/140
I’m still walking like a maniac and thinking about adding strength training of some sort. Just need to find the time.
OH OH OH!
I don’t know how I forgot to mention this.
I’m in a size 14 on the bottom now - at least in a few things. So I’m counting it.
Just wanted to report in and say that I’m on my 4th week of eDiets and I have not strayed one bit! Yesterday I went to my folks’ house and they had 2 huge pizzas sitting there and one of those multi-flavored cheesecake samplers and I didn’t have any. Yay! (my folks don’t eat like that all the time - they had guests)
I gave up drinking alcohol for Lent…which just happened to coincide with my new diet plan. I don’t drink much but it has definitely been a bit of a struggle. It’s a nice excuse to not have a few drinks, though.
I’ve lost 11 lbs in 4 weeks. I’ve been working on ways to step up my exercise regimen without having to pay for a gym renewal. I happened upon a free weight bench in my cousin’s basement and wasted no time installing it in my own basement.
Sunday I went to a new karate class (as an offshoot of my regular class). They kicked my ass from here to there. It was super fun! I hope this little bit of extra work I am putting in really pays off.
Congratulations to SCSimmons on getting past that huge “mile marker” of 300! Woohoo!
3 years ago I weighed 180-185. Right now I weigh around 220ish. I think it’s time for me to get off my ass and start working out again.
I don’t really have a bad diet, I just haven’t had a workout routine like I did years ago. Gotta get myself back into it!
My goal this month isn’t necessarily to lose weight, just get back into a fitness routine so I can start swapping fat for muscle.
I’ve lost 29.1, 29. 3, or 29.9, depending on who you ask. I feel that if I step up my exercise and eat nothing but celery, within 2 years I’ll have lost 29.9999999999.
Brick walls suck.
Ditto.
Okay, screw my plans to fit into a size 4. I was losing steadily and then got lazy for the last couple of weeks so I’ve stalled at a pudgey 6.
Today I did 60 pushups. SIXTY. Not girlie pussy pushups. Manly pushups. 3 sets of 20 each. I looked at my trainer and was like “Oh my god, you are SO worth it.” He brought me from 20 (total, like 3 sets of 6, while struggling) to SIXTY. SIXTY boy pushups.
It totally put the fire back in me.
ZipperJJ, I gave up drinking entirely too (not for Lent, but for mostly forever aside from my wedding if I ever get married) and it’s amazing how many calories you save. Plus, I feel amazing.
Occasionally I’ll get a pang for a glass of wine but it goes away.
Finally got my butt in gear, and went to the fieldhouse after work to walk on the track. I walked three kilometres in 30 minutes, earning myself two points in the process.
My plan is to go to the fieldhouse at least three times per week until it dries up and gets light enough in the morning to walk around the lake.
I’m very happy to say I’ve managed to widen the variety of foods (i.e., “cheating” a bit more frequently) while staying with the workout regimen and watching my total calories, and have not only kept the weight I’ve lost off but have continued to lose weight (albeit at a slower pace).
I haven’t lost a whole lot in the past four weeks, only about 2 lbs., but it’s come off as an inch from my “love handles” which is very gratifying. You often read about how this is the “last part” of the fat to come off (for men at least), and apparently it’s true. If I can keep my lean mass (muscle weight) the same, i.e., if I can lose purely fat, then I’m only 3, maybe 4 lbs. away from my target body composition of 15% body fat, and can then try to gain muscle for the first time. If it takes me another 2 months to do that while maintaining an enjoyable (but reasonable) diet then coo-coo-ca-choo.
I also got, for the first time in my life since I was 15 years old, the offhand comment (from a co-worker I just met for the first time) that “he must be one of those lucky people who can eat whatever they want and stay thin” (this said while I helped myself to a cannole from a box of Italian pastries that someone brought in).
I don’t generally toot my own horn about my weight loss from last year (though I admit to preening and basking in the compliments when they come), but this was just too much for me after 9 months of hard work (no pregnancy jokes please). I blurted out, “No, it’s because I’ve been hitting the treadmill for 2-1/2 hours a week and lifting weights!”