Measuring Progress

July 24, 2008

  • Fat Loss Challenge: Day 67 - He Quit, Right?

    Well, my last entry was June 30th, and since then my life has been turned upside down with the birth of my second son Cooper.  Babies are challenging enough - but putting that on top of a jealous 2-year old and a dog who is more needy than all of them has made the past few weeks hectic.  Sounds like I'm building up my excuse bank, right? (…)

June 26, 2008

  • Fat Loss Challenge: Day 39 - Still Going Strong

    The updates aren't as frequent, but progress is inevitable!  Last night, the scale weight was 223, but the body fat percentage was down to 14.1%, a drop of 2.3% from two weeks ago!  For the mathematically challenged, that breaks down to 191.56 pounds of lean body mass (a gain of 5.13 pounds) and 31.44 pounds of fat (a loss of 5.13).  So, without changing the scale a single bit, I dramatically changed my body composition - the most convincing reason yet to throw away your scale!  Even if you aren't measuring your body fat as frequently as I am, using your clothing or measuring tape provides enough evidence of your progress.  Even the visual evidence like seeing muscles you couldn't previously see, or vascularity (ability to see veins in your arms, for instance) is better than using your scale.  As you can see, I've never really broken below the 220 pound mark for an extended period of time since I started this, but my body composition has changed drastically.  I promise I will post pictures soon - side-by-side with the starting photos so you can see the difference.

June 12, 2008

  • Fat Loss Challenge: Day 25 - What Happened?

    Sometimes family and work come before blogging But that does not mean that I have gone off the program.  In fact, something interesting happened on the way to a sub-10% body fat measurement…I gained lean body mass!  The last time I measured, I was 17.4% body fat at 225 pounds, which works out to 185.15 pounds of lean body mass, and 39.15 pounds of fat (yuck!)
    Last night, I measured my body fat again - this time at a scale weight of 223.  The body fat measurement came in at 16.4%, which works out to be 186.43 pounds of lean body mass and 36.57 pounds of fat (still yuck, but better!).  So for those keeping track at home, that is 1.28 pounds of lean body mass added and 3 pounds of fat lost over the course of a week, even though there was only a 2 pound movement on the scale weight.  This is why I do not advocate using a scale to measure your fat loss progress as it doesn't account for important body composition changes such as this one. (…)

June 6, 2008

  • Fat Loss Challenge: Day 19 - Pushing through Plateaus

    Today's scale weight is 221.8, which is up from our lowest reading of 219.2 - and again, that is ok.  We're looking bigger picture here.  Remember, 19 days ago we were over 234.  The question is, can we consistently come in under the 220 mark and push downward?  Remember, I put some carbs back into my diet to help counteract the sluggishness and soreness I was feeling, but they are all within 3 hours of my workout.  So, immediately after my workout I'm consuming a protein and Gatorade combo in a 1:2 ratio, followed up by a meal that is within 3 hours of the end of my workout that also contains carbs - quinoa, oatmeal, even a bagel.  However, after that, it is protein/vegetables and naturally occurring carbs in nuts, dairy, etc.  I will take another body fat measurement and see if we're making progress there.  Again, I'll try to take some pictures this weekend. (…)

June 4, 2008

  • Fat Loss Challenge: Day 17 - Baseline Body Fat Measurement

    Ok, so I finally got the hang of the Bodymetrix BX 2000 machine, and I did a Jackson and Pollock 3-site measurement on myself (it's not as accurate as the 7-site method, but I can at least do this one on myself) and it read 17%, so I've got about 8 points to knock off to get back to where I started before this experiment. (…)

  • Weight Loss Challenge: Day 17 - Back in the Flow

    This morning's scale weight was 221.8, lower than expected despite the increased carb intake.  Also, the Bodymetrix BX 2000 arrived last night, so I'm still learning how to use it.  Once I've got it figured out, I'll post the body fat measurement as well as some pictures that show the cross-sections of fat, muscle and bone - pretty cool stuff! (…)

June 3, 2008

  • Weight Loss Challenge: Day 16 - Tweaking, tweaking

    The most important thing to understand during any weight loss effort is that you have to continue to make small changes to what you do to continue to see positive progress.  For me, the intensity of my recent workouts have left me abnormally fatigued and more sore than usual.  When this happens, I tweak my mid-workout and post-workout routine to include a fast-absorbing protein and carb shake.  There are plenty of pre-mixed shakes available out there, but I prefer to "roll my own" using Gatorade and vanilla whey protein powder.  I've done this the past two days post-workout, so we'll see if it helps. (…)

May 31, 2008

May 30, 2008

May 29, 2008

May 28, 2008

  • Weight Loss Challenge: Day 10 Nutrition Summary

    Here's what my intake looked like today:

    Calories - 2,550
    Protein - 236 grams
    Carbs - 36 grams
    Fat - 165 grams

    As I suspected, I got a different bodyfat reading on the Tanita - this time it was 15.2%, which is still below last week.  I'll continue to monitor it until my Bodymetrix BX 2000 arrives on June 3rd! 

  • Weight Loss Challenge: Day 10 - Time to Panic?

    This morning I weighed in at 224.8, which is 5.6 pounds up from last week's lowest reading.  Should I switch into panic mode?  Absolutely not!  For one, we're not 100% sure if it's fat or water weight - my guess is the latter, and I will retake the bodyfat measurement again this evening to confirm.  Last night's bodyfat measurement was 14.2%, which is down almost 2% from last week, but we have to take that with a grain of salt.  I just can't wait until my Bodymetrix BX 2000 gets here! (…)

May 27, 2008

  • Weight Loss Challenge: Day 9 - Back on the Plan

    Ok, I got my eating straightened out today. (…)

  • Weight Loss Challenge: Day 9 - Have I Lost My Way?

    Sometimes life gets in the way.  For example, I played golf early Sunday morning, then spent quality time with the family Sunday afternoon.  I already knew that the gym was not an option, so that freed up some time for some other activities.  I strayed from my nutrition program a bit, but nothing drastic.  Never set foot on the scale, or thought about my workout. (…)

May 24, 2008

  • Weight Loss Challenge: Day 6 - When will the weight loss end?

    Isn't that something that you should be hearing on a daily basis from your friends and family?  Well, that is what I said to myself when I stepped off the scale this morning after it read 219.2 - down another 1.4 pounds since yesterday and 15.4 pounds since Monday!  I have to remember to take my bodyfat measurement in the late afternoon to make sure that we continue to burn fat, but I'm pretty confident that it will be a good reading. (…)

May 23, 2008

  • Weight Loss Challenge: Day 5 - Nutrition Summary

    Ok, not too much to say tonight, so I'll just give you the numbers:

    Calories - 2,163
    Protein - 242 grams
    Carbs - 94 grams
    Fat - 91 grams

    Will be interesting to see what the scale says tomorrow morning.  Forgot to do the bodyfat measurement today so I'll have to wait until tomorrow afternoon.  Most of today's carbs came from Skim Plus skim milk. (…)

  • Weight Loss Challenge: Day 5 - 2 more pounds gone

    This morning's weigh-in revealed another 2 pounds gone since yesterday - 220.6 for a total loss of 14 pounds since Monday.  We're also in fat burning mode now as all of the water weight is gone by this point. (…)

May 22, 2008

  • Weight Loss Challenge: Day 4 - Nutrition Summary

    Here's the damage for the day - I actually need to eat more! (…)

  • Weight Loss Challenge: Day 4 - Another 2.6 pounds gone

    Today's weight was 222.6 - down 2.6 pounds from yesterday, 12 pounds since Monday!  Now, do you see how easy it is for some of these diet products to make these outrageous claims?  If I was a shady character, I could easily hype a product to help you lose 12 pounds in 4 days, and have a lot of people jump on board.   But what the smart people know (by smart people I mean the people who are reading this blog and my newsletter) is that I really didn't lose all body fat this week - mostly just water weight.  The numbers will become less gaudy as we go on, but the results will be obvious through the pictures.  I also can't wait for my new ultrasound bodyfat measurement tool - I will hopefully be able to post pictures of my bodyfat layers for you to look at! (…)

May 21, 2008

  • Weight Loss Challenge: Day 3 Nutrition Info

    Wow - I thought I had eaten more than I really had.  Here's my tally for today:

    Calories - 1,894
    Protein - 218 g
    Carbohydrates - 60 g
    Fat - 87 g

    I'll take pictures again this weekend so you can see what progress I've made.  Tomorrow I'll also talk about the concepts of cycling and resetting, and how you can trick your body into thinking that conditions are different than they really are. (…)

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