Results: Week Six

Well this week was certainly different in a number of ways...

- I picked up a sinus infection that laid me out for about three days.

- Although I was only able to work out 3 days this week, the amount of time I spent working out still far surpassed the previous week (74 minutes total this week vs 45 minutes the prior week).

- Finally, it turns out I have been overestimating my body fat level... what I saw in the mirror was right and the caliper reading was inaccurate!

It turns out that in an effort to be as conservative and honest as possible regarding my body fat loss, I was conducting the skin fold measurement in the worst possible (and wrong) location. With the calipers I'm using, the measurement is supposed to be taken at the suprailiac, which is about one inch above the pelvis and on the abdominal wall towards the outside. I was taking measurements at the correct height, but directly on the side, right where the "love handle" area is. On a man, that's usually the last place to go as far as fat loss, and is not an accurate place to measure ongoing progress.

To be really sure where I stood I decided to use the "7 location" method and plugged it into the appropriate formula.

The short version is that I've attained my goal and I didn't even realize it. :-) I'm currently at about 9.4% body fat and not the 11% that I thought I was!

Of course one consequence of this is that my progress chart is now out the window since all previous measurements do not reflect my real progress, and I don't have an accurate method of adjusting the previous caliper measurements to bring them in line with where they should be.

In any case, here are the running numbers. Keep in mind that this past week I only documented my food three days.

week-6-details.gif

I've been tracking my food intake 6 days a week for 6 weeks now and considering I've achieved sub-10% body fat, I'm going to make this the final week of my food journaling. To be honest it's been a lot of work, but also after six weeks I feel I have a handle on how much I can eat in a day without having to total up calories. I'll be able to concentrate more on diet and fitness tips starting next week.

When I post my results next week I'll include a photo to reflect my numbers. Unfortunately I didn't take a "before" photo, but I looked pretty much the way I do in this image.

I don't think you should have to track what you eat forever... just until you either reach your goal or until you feel that you instinctively know how much and what to eat.

To learn how you can use these techniques for fat loss, read "The Last 10 Pounds" eBook.

Posted by Vic on June 13, 2005 11:47 AM