Posts by killabitz

omg, let's capitalize more laboratory terms in this thread.

I weigh myself everyday on a $50,000 analytical scale. I then weigh a control version of myself, which is a life-size dummy made out of ballistics gelatin, based on the dimensions of my body before I started dieting.

I plot both weights, and publish them in a peer-reviewed weightloss journal, where my results are subjected to the scrutiny of the PhDs all over the world. Later that day, a weight-loss conference is held in either Vienna or Copenhagen, where a panel discusses whether the change in my weight is due to dieting, exercise, or carpet pile depth. Later that night, the panel releases its findings, and I go to bed.

If you don't weigh yourself like I do you will not know if you're making progress. Trust me.

Original Post by reggicat:

for every 5 pounds, buy a bag of 5lb sugar and set it out in a place where you will see it often. This is how much bulk your body has lost

LOL gross. good way to visualize. a pound really is kind of heavy isn't it? yeah when I think about it that way, I can see why it's not really possible to lose 10 pounds per week.

yeah, what keb said. don't get upset when you see your weight go up and down day to day... if you weigh daily your chart will look like zigzag

running hills, pushups

bonus word: soreness

Could be you're body composition is changing--losing fat and gaining muscle. Maybe you should start taking tape measurements of yourself.

Once I added strength training to my regimen of cardio and calorie counting, I noticed that my rate of weight loss began to slow down.  Turns out this is common--especially during the first few weeks of strength training. Muscles retain water as they begin to increase mass, and muscle is denser than fat.

And while adding muscle mass is beneficial to weight loss, as was explined above and elsewhere, it was discouraging to see that my rate of weight loss began to taper off.

When I began my weight loss program, I didn't really define my goal specifically enough. I just said I wanted to lose "x" pounds. What I shoud have said is that I wanted to lose "x" pounds of fat.

What I ended up doing was buying one of those measuring tapes that tailors use, and I started to take measurements of myself. With these measurements, I can do a rough calculation of my body fat percentage*.

Since I started measuring, if the scale tells me that I'm not losing weight as quickly as I had planned (or as quickly as my calorie deficit would predict), I can check out my body fat %.

There's been no surprises- with strength training, I'm cutting my fat and building muscle tissue. My body composition is becoming--slowly--leaner. And if I hadn't started to calculate my body fat % I probably would have continued to get discouraged, completely unaware of the real progress I was making.

*There are many formulas for roughly calculating your body fat percentage based on tape measurements of your body. Google will help you find them. You can pick one that looks good.  I use the method used by the US Navy since it's simple. I take measurements everyday, in order to reduce the effect of measurement errors. Day-to-day I don't see much change, fyi. I log my measurements into an excel spreadsheet that has the Navy formula built in. Keep in mind that this is not a precision method. But I find that even if it's not precise, it's better than having no idea at all. Plus it's dead easy.