Weekly weigh in - Fridays

LaoDan said:

Not Friday, but kind of a milestone 100kg. My scale actually showed 99 then, nah just kidding lol. So down from the mid 130s since January , I think the muscle number is off since I’ve been weightlifting
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How do you measure your metrics Dan? How much more do you want to trim up?

LaoDan said:

That’s a great question! So the goal until this point was pure weight loss, while not sacrificing lean muscle. The end goal being around 15% - 20% body fat, with as much muscle as possible. It turns out my loose skin may not be as bad as I thought, and I think I can fill the volume.

To date, I’ve been measuring by mirror lol. Not accurate, but I can definitely see my delts, traps, lats, triceps, quads and calves getting bigger, biceps and forearm are actually vascular. Unfortunately I still have belly and butt fat. But from here, I do want to more accurately measure, I’m thinking of using calipers and waistline and hip measurements. Not sure what’s the best way.

I’m on the fence whether I should drop more weight, then build. Or just train hard maintaining my current weight. Keto is super easy, but once I start eating high protein my weight loss stalls. I still have some months on my gym membership, so I’ll continue training for now.

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I can "do" questions.

So, measuring by mirror gave you 30% fat, or did that come from an app or something?

To be honest, unless you are going to have a body composition DEXA scan, it's probably hard to get anything too, too, absolutely accurate.

Calipers and tapes are the age-old methods and can work, but that's all about consistency of technique really. Similarly with body composition scales, which still can and do vary a bit, but either way it's consistent. Doing things "by eye" can be so misleading. We all have feeling fat days, and sometimes lighting can be a friend or foe.

I wasn't weighed at diagnosis, and then didn't set foot on a scale for about 3 months. The first scale I stepped on was in a hardware store in St John's, Antigua, as I was curious what I weighed, because my clothing was pretty loose. Iy just happened to be a in a cellophane wrapper on the bottom shelf.

I hadn't weighed beforehand, as being someone recovered from a serious eating disorder, I was terrified of re-awakening my demons, and finding myself on a harmful path, but that's another tale, for another day - if you're really unlucky!

When I popped back to the UK for a review (long story, I'll spare you), I bought these scales, as I had reconciled I should monitor a bit, to ensure I was staying somewhere in decent parameters.

The proportions can vary a bit, but like most things, once you've used (almost anything consistent), you'll understand your direction of travel. On these Omrons, I found the visceral fat score to be the one I keep an eagle eye on, looking for it to be, now, unchanged, whereas I have an acceptable variance on the other markers, to allow for day-to-day, real-life living purposes.

These are the model I bought. https://www.omron-healthcare.co.uk/digital-scales/BF511_Blue.html That was over 6 years ago, and there are more like them these days - some with bluetooth apps etc., but for me the hand grasps were important for additional readings.

These days I have a step-on/step-off routine for the scales every day, with a full scan weekly or fortnightly, depending on what the quick peep tells me. It's not the way forward for everyone - nothing is, but it works for me.