Little John's Penultimate Goal

BMI and Body fat percentage are slightly different beasts. Body Mass Index is a comparison of your weight to height and really doesn't factor in anything else.


There are a number of ways to measure body fat percentage and I've been using my scale at home which is similar to the omron you listed above. Overall they are far from perfect and less accurate than a full body scan but I've found that as long as I use it at the same time each day (as soon as I wake up) and make sure my feet are dry it gives a reasonably consistent number but it can vary by 1-2%. Short term it can be frustrating but long term it's nice to watch another number fall.
 
OK, I understand now, I thought you were calculating BMI/BFP from your weight and height. Yeah, I might get a reader - like you said, another data point to watch and enjoy. As an engineer, I enjoy tracking data. Fittingly enough, I weighed myself this morning, and I was down ~3lbs from Monday.


Last night, I made some more of the baked lentils from a few weeks back. I should do that more often, it's so good, and has very low calories. Plus it's filling. I did a more Mexican theme, using cumin and chili powder, as well as black ollives. For the final bake, I dumped some salsa and cheddar on top.


No rowing tonight, and I'm happy for that. I will be mowing the yard, and lifting, but the change is good.


That's all I have for now. Have a good day, everyone!
 
Saturday was a good day. I ate like a pig, but my exercise made up for it: rowing, bicycle ride, and mowed the back yard. Sunday, however... Woke up at the normal time, thanks to my alarm/child, but when my wife woke up to take over, I went to lay down, and slept until noon. Then the afternoon went too quickly, and I didn't have time to row before going out for my mother's birthday (Mexican restaurant). Sigh...


I'm home late tonight, too, maybe I can make up for the lack of yesterday's rowing, or maybe this is my first "miss" on the regime. We'll see.


It's tough to see that scale hover in the same area for the last two weeks. I know it's my doing, and sometimes I'm having a hard time giving a crap. I did have a dream a couple nights ago where I was close to my target weight, and it felt pretty good - hoping that feeling can show up when I don't want to try.
 
I hear ya, when you're looking at an end goal that seems far off one of the best tricks I had pointed out to me was to make a series of goals that you can check off along the way.


Maybe try with a weekly goal for a rowing distance and some weight goals along the way to celebrate. Heard somewhere that it's easier to lose 10 pounds 5 times than to try to lose 50 lbs once. Hope you find that rowing groove again this week and keep the train a rollin'


Now I'm off to go scratch off another goal from my list.
 
I really am just looking at a goal of 2 lbs/wk average, the big one will follow. As you can see below, I made up for last week with a loss of 4.6#, which puts my weekly average back to where it ought to be. I think I definitely need to get that BFP/BMI device, hopefully to see something more consistent.


I made up for Sunday's lapse by rowing last night - didn't want to, but I'm glad I did. Adding America's Got Talent to the Law & Order mix is certainly helping! No, I've never watched one of those shows, and yes, I'm watching cuz of Howard.


As for the boredom, that seems to be the case as I get towards the end of a phase in my regiment. In a couple weeks I'll be working into Anaerobic Threshold (80-85% Max heart rate), with more and shorter bursts. Right now I'm doing longer "Utilization" workouts where I'm going to a HR rate of 127-146 (70-80% Max). I think I'll also drop down to 4 times a week from 5, and substitute that one day with something else (bike or hike with the family, for example).
 
Great work on the weight loss front. The rowing program is really paying off and I hear ya on the boredom front.


I'm not really sure the body fat tracking is going to be any more consistent than the scale and or body measurements but it's one more data point that can be tracked long term. I'd been using it mainly as a way to calculate and track my lean body mass as it lets you calculate how much fat and non-fat related weight you have. The main goal is to ditch the body fat while holding onto lean body mass so having the body fat percentages was quite useful.
 
Monthly pictures. I feel better than I look! I should have used the same shirt as last month (that was a 2XLT, this one's a 3XL). Oh well.





Not sure what my challenges are this weekend. It's Memorial Day, and the only cookout I know of is at my house, so I can control it. We're planning on going to a car race on Saturday for awhile, depending on how the little one does - she does like "KAH", so that's promising. I added a rubber band kit to my lifting routine so I can target little spots (rotator cuff, for example).


Hope everyone has a good week!
 
The good: I was a busy, busy boy. Lots of yard work, lots of rowing.


The bad: Food, food, and more food. Also skipped my lifting last night, cuz I was tired from the hot/humid day and the aforementioned food. I feel like I lost this week, but we shall see tomorrow.
 
Another break-even week. I've started measuring BMI and Fat Percentage this week, so I'll probably get a better picture of what's happening.


Weekends are always such a crap shoot. I can have one weekend of biking, rowing, clearing, mowing, and have nothing but cereal and salad, and be fine with it. Then the next weekend it's steaks, pizza, fries, burgers.


Who's fault is it? Yes, I know. This coming weekend is my birthday, I'm hoping they lean towards chicken over beef! The weekend after that is a boys' weekend in NYC, there are a couple good restaurants in that city, did you know that?


New short term goal for end of July: fit into my new m'cycle riding pants that I bought last year. I have a rally the first weekend in August, I'd like to be able to have them for some fun aggressive riding. They almost fit, probably would with some stretching, but I also will need to get them to attach to my jacket, which requires sewing from someone who knows what to do.


OK, back to work, have fun everyone!
 
I hear ya on the weekends being a big crapshoot. Trick seems to be finding that middle ground between salads and cereal and pizza and fries. For guys our size it's important to make sure we get enough fuel for the exercise we're doing.


If you're ever looking for another topic to geek out over the guys that run the fat2fitradio web site have some nice calculators that let you calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and how many calories you should eat to hit a specific goal weight. I found it surprising to see how many calories were getting burned in an avg day when I started out.
 
So I've decided to take a break this week. No rowing, no calorie counting. I'm going to keep eating the same, and I'll be lifting. This coming weekend I go to NYC with a couple friends for lots of beer and food, plus a lot of walking to get there.


I'll start 'er back up next week with more intense rowing sessions, but it feels like the loss is slowing down. I know I'm to blame, I need a few days away from it to regain the enthusiasm I had.
 
So... one week later, I'm back on track. And half a pound lighter than last Weds. OK, that works. I kept up with my lifting, stopped counting calories, went to NYC and drank a beer or 18. I walked lots, too.


Feeling reinspired, that's a good thing. Look out gut, there you go!
 
Big loss over the last couple days, and I can finally say "I've lost 30 lbs" when someone asks! Took longer than I wanted, but it's there. Yee-haw!


I think one thing I have a tough time with, besides late afternoon hunger, is the mental path that convinces me it's OK to pig out on a day with a lot of exercise. Sure, it's better than without exercise, but there's no need to overdo it. Now I just need to keep that in mind on the weekends!
 
Gotta say, I was a bit worried about taking the week off a couple weeks ago, but the plateau seems to have been defeated, and I'm shrinking again! Hot diggity damn!


With some apprehension, I begin the third phase of my rowing regiment - tonight I'll be rowing at the Anaerobic Threshold - 3 sprints at 6 minutes apiece. Curious to see what distance I can cover in those sprints.


I'm also going to put the calorie-counting on the table for now. My appetite has gotten less gluttonous, and I always come in under the bar when I use LoseIt (at least from a weekly standpoint), so it's just becoming an inconvenience. I'll keep a sharp eye on the scale, though, so if it looks like I need to start again, so be it.


Weighing in tomorrow. Here we go!
 
Best of luck with the new phase to the rowing, 6 minute sprints sound painful but will be good to see how much improvement the first two phases and losing 30 pounds has already brought.


Sounds like a good plan for the calorie counting, I've managed to avoid counting calories so far but I have been using portion control throughout. One trick that helped me was to use a smaller plate for eating, think it tricks the brain into believing there's more food.
 
Yep, Anaerobic Threshold is a new adventure, but not bad. Certainly not as bad as if I were to do it back when I started rowing. Added bonus (for now): I'm done within 45 minutes, vs 1.5 hours.


So my first week or so of not counting went OK, I think. I'm still cheating more than I should, but the scale still says I'm shrinking as of tonight. Weigh-In Wednesday will tell the true story, I reckon.


See ya on Wednesday!
 
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