Now I have to be honest, this project was supposed to kick off January 1st. It’s now the 19th and I have yet to divulge my initial log-in. Reason being, after giving myself a week to acclimate to working post-holiday-season and some time to overcome the classic “Oh hey, I’m your body and I know you are on vacation so WHAM, here’s a head cold. Happy relaxing, jerkface,” I am finally back in the game, and running full speed ahead.
This can only mean that the time is nigh to fess up and disclose my battle plan to cut the crap fat. I will warn you, THERE WILL BE BLOODDATA! And now, on with the strategery.
The evening of my last post, I tortured myself bit the bullet got started by logging in my starting total body fat percentage, and other data. You may remember reading last week that body fat %, muscle mass%, total body water %, and bone mass results for BIA scales are more accurate when taken in the evening, before your meal. So I wasn’t procrastinating…really…I was playing by the book…
And the results are in.
As of 1/11/13:
Percent body fat: 29.0%
Total percent body water: 50.2%
Percent muscle mass: 35.2%
Bone mass: 4.4lbs
Phew, I am still alive and haven’t died of over-sharing embarrassment.
And so the question begs—for what percentage of body fat am I aiming (like that fancy English, Mom?) ?
Well, I wanted to be careful about that. I know I want my goal to be both realistic and attainable. I also want it to fall within a healthy range of total body fat for both my age and gender. So I decided to do a little research to figure out what all that might mean before setting a goal.
According to the American Council on Exercise, “normal” body fat percentages for men and women are broken down into smaller categories, as follows:
Percent Body Fat Norms for Men and Women
Description: | Women | Men |
Essential Fat | 10-13% | 2-5% |
Athletes | 14-20% | 6-13% |
Fitness | 21-24% | 14-17% |
Acceptable | 25-31% | 18-24% |
Obesity | >32% | >25% |
Ha HA! According to this thing, I’m not so as into the abyss as I expected with my 29% reading! But I’ve never been one for just “acceptable,” damnit. I demand pain, sweat, vomit, and whimpering in the corner for mercyexcellence!
I also need to consider the following, but I will have to flashback to my first post for a minute. I would consider myself to be in overall “good” shape—at least I was before my daily run-ins with Nana’s sticky buns over the holidays. Working with a trainer to vary my workouts, we have been able to push my body to develop both a high level of cardiac endurance and some pretty decent muscle power over the past 15 months. Despite that, my aesthetic physical composition didn’t budge much. My trainer would take my measurements monthly, and the lowest percentage of body fat I logged was 25.6%.
I want to beat that. And just because I know my potential in the gym, I also would ideally like to be in the “fitness” range. So, by my powers of reading, that would put me in the 21-24% body fat range. I would have been inclined to shoot for the middle—23% body fat—until…
I got totally annihilated a good workout with my trainer today. In between gasping for air, I asked him what he thought an appropriate goal for this project might be. His thoughts: 18% body fat. I would have laughed and cried at the same time if I wasn’t already struggling just to stay upright. His logic was that my athletic frame would make this number attainable. As I pack muscle onto my frame, it will take the place of my fat cells. When I said, “that means losing 10% of my body fat as I am now,” he just nodded.
I’m not sure how to take that. But hey, he’s been a pretty solid resource thus far, so I’ll have to take his word for it. I have to admit, I am a little skeptical that I could get my body to that point—but those of you who have spent an hour playing anything with me know about my competitive issuesspirit. Needless to say, I go into a feeding frenzy find it exciting to have a challenge, and instinctively wanted to shoot for this.
But after thinking about it today, I have decided that a range is probably more attainable and mentally healthier than a specific number. Let’s say it is biochemically or genetically impossible for me to reach 18%. I would feel defeated if I maxed out at a higher number, and I wouldn’t want that to shortchange my success.
AND SO THE GOAL!
Attain 18-23% total body fat.
The Battle Plan:
- Continue working with trainer to vary workouts—each one of which I call a “Card.” This will help me increase my cardiac endurance, maximize my muscular strength, and avoid the potential for plateauing.
- Engage in cardio activities varying in intensity on “off” days (non-Card days). This will keep my blood pumping and calories burning whilst my muscles rebuild.
- Take some classes. I have tried Zumba and Kickboxing before, and they were really good ways to get cardio in while
fooling me into thinking I’m having funshaking up my routine. I would like to keep trying these two classes, and add in Spinning, Power Yoga, or an Extreme Sports class here and there.
Tools:
- Heartrate monitor—I have used this guy for the past three years, and it is essential for my workouts. I feel naked without it when I’m in the gym. It’s a great way for me to say focused during my workouts, ensuring that I stay within my desired “zone” for optimal results. It also logs my workout time, calories burned, and generates the type of workout I just had (maximum performance, fitness improving, or fat burning)
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| My Polar FT-60 Heartrate Monitor |
- Livestrong.com—For those of you who don’t know about this site, it’s amazing. It’s “MyPlate” feature allows users to track food using an extensive nutrition database, and then breaks down your daily consumption into nutritive specifics (calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, protein, etc.). It also allows the use to log water consumption, fitness activities, and weight trends in order to reach a desired goal. The website also features various fitness articles for the user to gain information on basically anything health, food, or fitness-related, and several forums in which to discuss with other members. The best part is that all of those features are FREE! Woot! I will be using Livestrong primarily to log my food consumption, assessing my diet not only for calories, but also for any holes or excessiveness in my nutrient breakdowns. I will also log in my fitness and weight daily to assess my overall trend in the coming months.
- BIA Scale—I’ll use this puppy to generate my data: % Body Fat, % Total Body Water, % Muscle Mass, Bone Mass, and weight. I’ll weigh myself daily, but only take the other readings weekly so I don’t drive myself crazy from day to day if I’m not seeing the downward movement I want.
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| Handy-Dandy Scale |
- Excel spreadsheet—this will serve as a way for me to log all the specific data from my scale readings. I want to track not only my body fat percentage, but also keep an eye on my total body water for hydration purposes, and my percent muscle mass to see how much fat I am converting into Grade A beefiness. (Also, all you women out there, it’s important to know your bone mass over time, as dipping numbers can point toward osteoporosis. )
- Photos—My lovely
assistantboyfriend will be snapping pictures of me monthly for visual representation of my progress. I will NOT be posting these. I don’t want to blind you. - TONS of Support—I am lucky enough to have debatably masochistic people around me who want to join in on the fun. They drag my butt to the gym and partner with me on my Cards, keep me motivated to stay on track, and sometimes rub my poor feeties after a tough workout (or at least listen to me moan on about it).
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| Here's where I got that...Credit where credit is due: Me! |
And there we have it, a plan! Naturally, this will be tinkered over time, as I get into the swing of things and find what is working for me, and what needs alteration. But I’ll be talking about all that later.
Last, but not least, an update! I’ve put the pedal to the metal this week, and it’s time to punch in my second reading:
As of 1/18/13:
Percent body fat: 28.1%
Total percent body water: 50.7%
Percent muscle mass: 36.4%
Bone mass: 4.4lbs
So, down 0.9% body fat—cool beans—but what I’m really happy about is my percent muscle mass went up by 1.2%. You know what that means…OLGE AND INGA ARE MAKING A COMEBACK!!! (that’s what I named my biceps in high school. It stuck.)
Happy weekend-ing, everyone!
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