OK. Tim, how about do a very accurate means of body fat testing? You'll have to figure out what equivalent percentage of body fat you'll need to lose to lose ten pounds (or whatever your goal is). That way, you can change your composition without necesarily changing weight.I'm actually lifting for strength (low reps high weight), so I'll probably lose a lot more than I gain with all of the cardio and dieting.
Jan sounds great. Glad you're in.
The misery of not being able to eat does fade a bit. I allow myself a cup of hot chocolate in the mornings, but the rest involves small portions of controlled foods. I boiled 4 eggs for example, doffed 3 yolks, sliced and added to 1 half wheat english muffin and gave it a good soaking with that fake spray butter, and added salt and pepper. It was a tasty and filling alternative to fried eggs in the morning. I was down to 177 this morning from 182 at the beginning of this. I'm sure I'll see a plateau soon, but the drop in weight has brought hope when I needed it most. Pick up a bottle of that spray butter. Yellow with a blue cap. It's a godsend. I spray it on popcorn, eggs, oatmeal, bagels, toast. Pretty much everything I eat now. Oh yeah it's pretty good on broccoli too. I've been doing a lot of DDR dancing (xbox) for excercise. It's a lot of fun, and you really lose track of time. It's a nice indoor alternative while the weather is still trying to tear the roof off of our house.
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I looked into the whole body fat percentage issue for myself. And what I came up with is that there isn't any converting fat to muscle. They are two related but seperate issues.
So for me, I want to lose 7 pounds of fat and gain 3 pounds of muscle. I see that as similar to 10 pounds of strictly fat loss. The problem comes with how do you measure that. So the trick is to incorporate the body fat(BF) percent from my scale. So here is what I came up with for me:
I weigh 156lbs now with a BF% of 24% or 37.44lbs of fat. I want to lose 7lbs of fat (down to 30.44 lbs of fat and a total weight of 149lbs) and gain 3lbs of muscle; that leaves me with a final weight of 152lbs. You take the final fat amount and divide by the final weight and you get the goal BF%in my case 30.44lbs/152lbs=20%
So for me losing 7 pounds of fat and gaining 3 pounds of muscle will take me from: 24%BF at 156lbs to 20%BF at 152lbs.
This would actually be quite a feat for me as I haven't had that low of bodyfat since I was 20. You can also do this calculation backward if you have a goal BF% and weight and want to know what percent of fat loss and muscle gain you are going for. Tim, what do you think? Does my math look logical to you? So this begs another question; do you think it is easier to lose more weight if you have more to lose?
I actually made a spreadsheet that I will send to you if you would like to participate. Or I could gather everyone’s info and make a comparison chart.
No-the fatter you are, the harder it is to lose weight because I wouldn't be so overweight to begin with if I had any self control or didn't love to eat, etc., etc. Sheeesh! That's like saying it is easier to stop smoking if you are a 3-pack-a-day person instead of a 3-cigarette a day person. Also, there should be some kind of handicap for those people in the contest who are postmenopausal because, well, just because.
I like it Mel. I could go for this. If you already have the spreadsheet done go ahead and email it to me and I will plug my numbers in. At this moment I don't actually know what my %BF is but I will get it soon so that we can have a good contest. Janice, I am sure we could have some postmenopausal clause in the contest and maybe we should base it on percentage of weight lost or change in %BF or something of the sort. Truth be told I don't really care since it is simply a motivator for me to turn this belly into a six-pack:)
Tim
I agree. I don't really care about how much as long as people involved are challenging themselves enough that they don't just need a dehydration session on the day of final weigh-in. I've done this and it's not as rewarding and oh so temporary. Tim, you will not have that luxury with BF%. Good luck my brother.
Jan. I hear you. So here is some more ra ra ra for everybody. Hopefully, I'm not sounding like a broken record. I saw pics of myself before my first contest, and the chins are still a reminder of how much these contests work.
I remember quitting chewing (after chewing an insane amount each day) 1) Cold turkey is the only way to do it. Anything less, and you are still doing it. (2) I had to recognize that I would be a mental mess for a time, and be aware that it's just withdrawal-getting less painful in a very short time. It was in recognizing the edginess, irritation, and depression as it occurred and that it was related to not indulging in nicotine, not (hopefully) a permanent facet of my personality.
Even a few days ago when evil Traci mentioned her wonderful ice cream, I had some terrible reservations about my program. Already, things are different. We now have pop undrunk all in the garage, lasagna going bad in the fridge, and iced valentine cookies going nearly (I savored 1 quarter of 1 cookie over the course of a few minutes-40 calories/day for two days) untouched.
A similar approach to dieting works. Try going absolutely hardcore just for a couple of days, counting calories to give yourself a benchmark for quantity. Undershoot the recommended daily amount for a week, a fast of sorts, but still eating as much as you can of veggies and salads with one meal including a palm sized piece of meat (maybe a curried chicken breast etc, 1 can tuna, non-fat or 1% cottage cheese) and a small source of complex carbs. During this 1 week, you will know that it's not a permanent thing, and again recognize the cravings etc. as only temporary. You end up adding things back in after you get used to having less. The reduced calories changes your perspective as you add small indiscretions back to your diet. This is coupled with the impressive number of pounds missing from your frame in only a week. Give the drill sgt. approach a week, and you'll be in control. Then tell me that it's tougher to lose weight if you're heavier.
Alright. Enough. Sorry. Game on. Check back in. You guys keep me posted, and I'll do the same. That's what this competition is all about. It wouldn't be nearly as easy without the rest of you on board.
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