Evaluate my progress please!

M

MarkMyWords

2
Hi everyone, hope you are having a good day. I'm in the process of cutting right now, and I believe it has been going quite well. My starting weight in early January was 208 pounds. I have been doing full body workouts 3 times a week, all major compounds included. Also been doing a couple HIIT sessions and a couple SS runs every week. Skip to now, where my weight is 191 pounds. I have not suffered strength in ANY lifts, heck, my deadlift even went up 10 pounds. Pullups and dips have gotten easier, obviously, with the loss of 17 pounds, so I really don't think I've compromised any muscle at all.

Even still, I'm just a little concerned. Before any of this, my bodyfat was 20.3%. The last time I checked my body fat %, I came up at 18.3%, and was weighing 200 pounds. Now I am 191, but I am not sure of my BF% yet, really not too concerned...

What I am more concerned with is that after 17 pounds, I definitely feel better, and look better, I've had people tell me my face has thinned out some, and it's great. But it just seems like something is off. Maybe I'm relying too much on calculations...

20% BF of 208 pounds = 41.6 pounds. So say I wanted to get to 12%. Thats a reduction of 8% bodyfat, which actually would reduce my total poundage of body fat by 40%. 40% of 41.6 pounds is 16.64 pounds, very near to 17 pounds, which is my loss to date. But, I can promise you, I am not at 12% bodyfat.

I'd be glad to post pictures and whatnot, maybe I'm just overreacting and should keep going until the mirror tells me that I've done well. I am 6'4'' afterall, and my "healthy range" according to a site I saw is 181-203. I'm right about in the middle, yet I still have plenty of fat to lose, and I'm just afraid I could drop another 10 pounds and still not be happy. Maybe the dozen pounds or so were just so much extra that losing it didn't make visible change, and these last few will be much more visible...

Sorry for the ridiculously long post, hope you made it to these words. I have just worked very very hard at this, keeping my diet in check better than ever in my life, and I WILL see the results I dream of...
 
OK, that's what I really wanted to hear. It just kind of shocked me that after 17 pounds, I still have a little ways to go. Then again, 20% bodyfat on a big guy like myself is a lot of blubber to burn through. Almost there...just wanna get as far down as possible so I can start to bulk!!!

Thanks for the kind words, friend!
 
I just wanted to throw in that your progress seems pretty spot on. I wouldn't worry about the numbers, especially if seeing a strength increase in certain movements. You fat loss seems to be at a healthy rate.

Out of curiously what method are you using to test body fat?
 
Thanks Mayhem...

theleip - Thanks for your input, I appreciate it! The body fat tester is another number that I also don't really know if I can trust. It is a digital one at my gym, with metal pads on the handles. You just hold it out in front of you and get a reading. I read somewhere that it shoots little electrons through one arm and out the other, getting readings based on the fact that fat has very little water, and muscle is something like 70% water. Anyways, I have heard they can be as off as 4%, but tend to at least be good at tracking change...

I also just got a cheap little Accu-measure caliper, but I am doubtful that I would even be able to do it right...
 
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Yeah see I knew something was off. Those things can be off by 10%, not only that for tracking change it can even be a problem because your level of hydration plays a HUGE role in its readings. In one day you can change by 5-8% just because you did or didn't drink a lot of water.

The accu-measure is much better for accuracy, but more difficult to use of course. This is a good site to write in your results and not have to bother with to much calculation on your own. Also gives some easy to understand instruction and different measuring spot formulas.



I think you might find you are lower number wise then you think, not though that it matters as long as your strength and body comp are on point and what you want, but just for the sake of tracking.
 
theleip said:
Yeah see I knew something was off. Those things can be off by 10%, not only that for tracking change it can even be a problem because your level of hydration plays a HUGE role in its readings. In one day you can change by 5-8% just because you did or didn't drink a lot of water.

The accu-measure is much better for accuracy, but more difficult to use of course. This is a good site to write in your results and not have to bother with to much calculation on your own. Also gives some easy to understand instruction and different measuring spot formulas.



I think you might find you are lower number wise then you think, not though that it matters as long as your strength and body comp are on point and what you want, but just for the sake of tracking.
Click to expand...

Oh wow, I didn't know how innaccurate those things were. I think I recall reading what you said about hydration being a huge factor in the readings. I pretty much am just going to ignore those numbers then...

Thanks for the link, that site is great. I was tinkering around with my accu-measure, trying to get the proper technique down, came up with some numbers that seem reasonable.

Thanks again for all your input and help!!!
 
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