Week 30

Week 30 - Life without Weekly Meetings

If you are following this blog to read about my progression through the program, then start with the first paragraph.  If you only want to read about results sprinkled with tidbits of lessons learned about healthy living, then skip down to "The Results"

Program changes - Phase II

It's been a month and a half since I went in for my 6 Month Assessment.  After my last post, the program switched gears and starts to only meet in person once a month with a personal consultation call mid-month. I also get some basic text messages about once a week reminding me to go do exercise or consider my food options. Another difference is the reporting method for our diary. Instead of providing a printed food diary each week, I upload calorie and fat intake totals per meal/snack into a website instead.  This is annoying, but an unfortunate necessity to continue participating in the program.

Then the BIG change.... the armband...... the armband I've been psyching myself up to wear.... brainwashing myself into being excited to wear every day for the next 18 months.... THAT armband..... the study had messed up their Ecel spreadsheet tables and accidentally had the groups reversed. I was NOT going to be a member of the enhanced group collecting data from the armband and getting specialized text message.  I was a part of the control group doing only what I described above.  In the first five minutes of learning this, I was really upset.  I spent a lot of time learning about the armband and getting excited about exercise data it generates. I had talked the armband up in my head as being a great way to find out how strenuous some of my hiking trips or runs (or lawn mowing) really were. The next morning. I woke up and put on a shirt. I looked at my nightstand where I was keeping my armband during the assessment. I smiled and realized I was glad I didn't have to wear an armband every single day for 18 months.  I don't even like to wear a watch!So while the website is annoying, I'd rather do that once every few weeks or so than wear an armband every single day.

Life without Weekly Meetings

There were a lot of people who were nervous about not having that level of accountability each week.  I was 50/50 about it.  I've gotten into a pretty good groove so the critiquing dietitian wasn't telling me anything I didn't know (As in, yes I realize that the restaurant meal where I ate 1200 calories was very high). So far, I am still using MyFitnessPal and recording everything and I've stayed at my maintenance weight with little variation.  The biggest two things I noticed were: 1) I miss having access to an elliptical once a week.  I really like that piece of machinery. I'd never really used one before the program.  It's a great low impact workout. 2) I have trouble remembering to actually enter food into MyFitnessPal still.  Without those weekly reports cataloging every bit of food, I get lazy about still logging an average day. So I end up trying to recall on a Tuesday what I had eaten on a Friday.  Sometimes, that's not so successful and I am guessing. I'll be working on that.

The Results

August 14 was our first monthly meeting. The lesson was about finding our calorie intake to meet our Resting Metabolism needs. The "high metabolism" so many people claim to have is not quite so common as one would think. Only a small percentage of people tested actually do have a high metabolism. This was a timely lesson for me because I am still trying to find my target daily caloric intake to minimize weight fluctuation and consistently maintain my weight. This will become more important once Oktoberfest beers start arriving.

We were given the results of the DXA body scanner report. The image on the right is me of course.
I extracted the bone density scan images from the report for side-by-side comparison and a created an image overlap comparison. For me, this report was a great motivator.  It was a visual reminder of the work that has been done so far.  I love finding these reminders as it helps to keep me motivated. Another recent motivating instance was when I got measured for my tux for the wedding. My neck size measurements dropped sizes from a 16 to a 14.5.

Back to the report.... the report had an entire section for body composition. It gives specific data about grams of tissue, fat, muscle, bone density, etc. It also shows total fat and total muscle percentages.  I dropped from a 37% body fat to a little over 26%.  It's a good start, but I was surprised to see my percentage was still so high given that my weight is only 163lbs. Ideally, I want to see this number be between 6%-17%.

So what does this mean?  Well, it means that I got off the Obese category for BMI, but THIS chart is still calling me obese (but in a different way).  At my weight, I am in my range for BMI and plenty of people tell me I'm skinny enough as is so weight is not really what needs to change. Out of curiosity, I Google'd "Normal BMI but high body fat percentage" and learned that there's even a TERM for it.... "normal weight obesity" and the handful of articles I skimmed said that about half of the "normal weight" Americans have a high body fat percentage. Another term that popped up was Skinny Fat. It usually results from a low cal / high cardio regimen without enough muscle building exercise.  Skinny Fat, which is what I apparently am, is ok in the short term, but can cause larger health issues over the long run..

EDIT: A Body Mass Index (BMI) number differs from body fat percentage. Your BMI number is calculated based on height and weight.  My BMI number is close to 23. Body fat percentage is a measure of your body composition.  This number will never be zero because some body fat is essential.

I'm only a few percentage points too high, but I'm no longer accepting the excuses of only being "a little overweight.... a little high cholesterol... a bit too much body fat" as a way to ignore the issue. I shaved off nearly 50 lbs from my "a little overweight... a little high cholesterol" body and my skeleton has been much happier.  My base level fitness is much higher and a previously injured tendon in my left foot gives me much less problems now that it doesn't have to haul around all that extra weight. So I see this high body fat percentage number and see a new challenge. Now I know where I need to go. I have always been trying to set goals to keep the momentum going.  My new goal, in addition to weight maintenance (EDIT: maintain a BMI of approximately 23), is to start adding muscle density through cross training and core workouts. In 6 months, I want to see the DXA body scan report list my body fat percentage in that targeted 6%-17% range. October through December is when I've historically packed on my pounds so I expect fall to be tough, but possible.

So after feeling like I was on a vacation with maintenance, I guess it's back to work! I have about 8 weeks before the wedding day.... Just enough to try for some crazy muscle program. Maybe I'll start one of those crazy 100 push-ups in 6 weeks and/or 200 sit-ups in 6 weeks programs. A more rounded program would probably be better, but I like the idea of trying to do 100 push-ups. (In actuality, that time would be better spent learning how to dance... but that'll never happen)


Current Weight: 163
Target Weight: 163