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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Fat Percent

One of the things I monitor in my weight loss journey is fat %. It's one the measurements taken at the gym. I decided a few months back that I wanted to own the same monitor so I could use it at the same time of day a few times a week to monitor my loss. Apparently fat % monitors are sensitive little things. You shouldn't take your measurement within so many hours of eating, working out or showering. So I take mine in the morning right after getting off the scale and before I shower. I don't do it every morning. I don't even write it down every time I do use it. It does go up and down just like the lbs on the scale. But usually only within the same % - so up or down a few tenths of a percent. What I do pay attention to is that I'm basically the same. If my scale jumps up several lbs (like over the holidays) I don't want my fat % to increase too much. Or if I my scale goes up and the fat % goes down then I'm gaining muscle.

I don't know where my fat % was when I first started with my trainer in 2010. It was in probably in the mid-30's. But of course that's taken in the afternoon when I meet with her and likely not long after I've eaten a snack. My personal goal is 25% on my monitor at home in the morning. I recently made a good bit of progress on my most recent diet in regards to the fat%. But since I've owned the monitor I've been as high as 29.0% and as a low as 28.3%. I generally stay around 28.5-28.7%.

Today:


So 28.0%. Yay! I decided to start posting a photo like this. Hopefully once a week as my way of recording my progress. Cause I track my weight through my SparkPeople app on my phone. But there's no easy way for me to track this. I have a spreadsheet of my weight with lots of data on it and if I remember I have a column for fat % that I fill in when I remember the number. But this seems a bit more. . . well accountable maybe? :) We'll see. The BMI - you can see it's high. However, everyone tells me that these monitors don't do BMI well and to not go by that. But I hope that if I ever reach that magical 25% that maybe. . . just maybe. . . I'll be in a normal BMI on this monitor. But I don't really pay attention to that number and I never track it. The input to the monitor is normal/athlete, height and weight. . . I can't remember if sex is in there or not. I'll have to look. And yes my scale does calculate fat % as well but it seems way off. It puts me in the mid-30's and even my Dr said no way. So since we use this thing at the gym that's what I decided to use as my reference.

So I think. . . I "think". . . I'm not going to pack my scale when we go to Cancun. It's going to kill me! There is going to be a big old gap in my spreadsheet. Not sure my anal mathematical self can handle that. Yikes! Maybe I should take the fat % monitor? But I'm not sure that will help much on a daily basis anyways. Plus the heat and humidity might skew the results. . . at least the first day. You know what I mean? So I may panic when there is no reason to panic. I don't know. I think since I'm generally more active on vacation than I am sitting at my desk during my 40 hour work week that I should be ok. I have been previously when we've traveled this fall. And yes I packed my scale then. LOL! But . . . those weren't all inclusive vacation with yummy alcoholic drinks! If it was just the food I have total confidence in myself. But it's not. . . it's purple rain, electric lemonade, Caribbean punch. . . maybe a dirty monkey . . . or not since that has coconut. But you get my drift. . . wow.

So I've been having some issues with giving myself a day off from the gym. I can't do it. I feel guilt. Yesterday I know I ate too much. I went to the barn to ride Eli. But I knew I had to stop at the mall after. Why? Because my dumb self mailed my Maurice's payment without the check. And I sent the check a few days later. But it hasn't arrived. So my options are pay by phone and pay a $15 fee, wait it out and hope I don't get the late fee ($20-30) or go to the mall and pay in store. It's due tomorrow. As it is paying last night will post on Friday but they told me on the phone they have a one day grace period. They freaking better! So I went to the barn. I got my horse from the pasture. I was feeling all fat from eating crap during the day. I put him in his stall and changed clothes for the gym. Popped into Maurice's to make the payment and hit the gym. I'm a mess! I needed to ride cause Eli will have a week off while I'm in Cancun! But I couldn't. . . I wanted to run on the treadmill. Like I really really *wanted* to. So I did. And I ran 2 miles without stopping! First time I've ever done that. It felt fantastic. It wasn't fast. My pace is 4.8 or 5.0. Last night I stuck with 4.8 since that is comfortable I knew I could do it. Then I did 30 mins on the treadmill. I'm SUPER sore today. I think my body needs a day off. My hubby said I work out too much. *shrug* Maybe. But I think there are other issues with that comment. So I let it slide. I have a session with my trainer tonight. Then tomorrow I have a massage and I promise that I will NOT work out. I probably can't even walk a mile during my lunch break cause the high will be like 29 and we are expecting a teeny tiny bit of SNOW!!!! YAY!!!!

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