Measuring Body Fat

I finally made it to the gym for another body composition test yesterday morning. The last one I had was on 1 December so it was definitely time.

As I’ve explained before, I normally use a bathroom scale that measures body fat by running a very weak electric current through the body. These are notoriously inaccurate since they are dependent on hydration levels and the current tends to just run up one leg and down the other, so if you carry your weight on the hips and thighs, they give a much higher reading. However, the gym uses a much more accurate machine, where sensors are attached to one hand and one foot while you lay on your back, so the current runs through your whole body.

Using this method, on December first I had a body fat reading of 24.4% (instead of the 28% on the bathroom scale). Yesterday, I had a body fat reading of only 20.3%, despite my scale telling me I’m just over 25% fat in the morning! Clearly I am very much a pear shape, carrying my weight in the lower half of my body and very little in my upper body. Although, my husband suggested that the problem might be it was time to switch the scale to “Athlete Mode” instead of the normal person setting. So last night I did; on normal person settings I was 23.3% fat, but in athlete mode I was 17% fat!

Conclusions: I’m doing much better than I thought and it’s time for a new scale.

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2009.38	122.33g	272.61g	51.11g	0	42.29g
	24%	54%	23%
Calories burned through exercise:		215

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:45	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Mattesson's Turkey rashers	3 rashers
	Nature's Path Gluten Free O's	60g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	200mL
08:30	Black Tea	500mL
09:45	Resistance workout
	Strawberry lemonade Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
11:45	Sponser Chocolate Recovery Shake	30g
	in Hot skim milk	225mL
12:15	Whole Scrambled egg with 2 egg whites	3 eggs
	Heinz Beanz, reduced sugar and salt	175g
	Mushrooms	100g
	in butter	5g
	Raw tomato	105g
	Genius brown bread toast	1 slice
	with Flora Light	4g
	and St Dalfour blackcurrant jam	20g
14:15	Green Tea	250mL
15:45	Honeydew melon	150g
	Fresh blueberries	60g
	Brazil nuts	6g
	Cashews	17g
	Irish Yoghurts Diet Apricot and Nectarine	125g
	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
19:00	Caffeine free Black tea with milk and sugar	500mL
20:30	Sainsbury's Pork loin steaks	81g
	Merchant Gourmet tinned puy lentils	100g
	Steamed carrots	104g
	Steamed parsnips	99g
	Sainsbury's Bramley apple sauce	30g
	Bisto Best pork gravy	about 5g
21:15	Lindt Excellence 70% cocoa dark chocolate	20g
22:00	Ellactiva Chocolate Calcium Chew	1 chew
	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill

Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.

When No Change is Good News

	3 Oct.	1 Nov.	1 Dec.	1 Jan.	1 Feb.	1 Mar.
Morning Weight:	63.0 kg	61.4 kg	60.6 kg	60.7 kg	59.2kg	58.7kg
Evening Weight:	63.9 kg	63.2 kg	61.3 kg	61.7 kg	60.4kg	60.3kg
Morning Body Fat:	30.7%	29.6%	28.2%	27.7%	26.9%	26.2%
Evening Body Fat:	28.8%	28.1%	26.1%	25.8%	25.2%	24.7%
Measurements:
Bust:	33”	33”	32”	32”	32”	32”
Waist:	28”	27”	27”	27”	26.5”	26.5”
Hips:	40”	39.5”	39”	39”	38.5”	38.5”
Thigh:	23.5”	23”	22.5”	22.5”	22”	22”

Yesterday was a bit of a struggle. I woke up feeling really tired, despite a good night’s sleep, and somewhat depressed, despite the bright sunny day. I struggled to get any work done in the morning before I gave up and had a nap after lunch. That did make me feel better, so I decided to go for a run to blow the cobwebs out – which it did. But afterwards my muscles were really sore, my knees were acting up and I was starving all evening. Fortunately, doing my weight and measurements did provide some good news.

February was not the best month for me both in terms of stress and fitness. There was a lot going on and I had a couple of weeks in the middle where I was averaging only 2 short workouts per week but over 2200 calories per day. Not to mention I was getting a lot of those extra calories from junk food. So I am well happy just to have maintained my weight. My measurements have stayed exactly the same and all my clothes still fit, so that’s a win right there.

However, it also looks like I might have dropped a bit of body fat as well. While my evening weight on both 1 Feb and 1 Mar is the same, my body fat is half a percent lower both in the morning and in the evening. So while I might not have lost weight, I have probably dropped a bit of body fat and put on muscle. In an odd sense, having two very (physically) easy recovery weeks may have done me good, by allowing my body enough time to fully recover and rebuild my muscles after the last few months of training.

Let’s hope it shows up in more endurance and faster run times!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2245.35	112.00g	285.63g	73.65g	0	33.89g
	20%	51%	29%
Calories burned through exercise:		340

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:45	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Mattesson's Turkey rashers	3 rashers
	Sainsbury's Freefrom oats	50g
	with Sultanas	20g
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	200mL
09:00	Black Tea	500mL
10:45	Brazil nuts	6g
	Cashews	17g
	Plum	83g
11:30	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
12:45	New Covent Garden Pea and Ham soup	300g
	Genius brown bread toast	2 slices
	with Flora Light	4g
	and honey on one slice	8g
	Raw tomato	90g
	Alpro soya original	200mL
14:30	Green Tea	250mL
15:30	Muller rice pudding original	190g
15:45	Green Tea	250mL
16:45	Interval Run
17:30	Citrus Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
18:00	Sponser Chocolate Recovery Shake	30g
	in Skim milk	225mL
	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill
20:00	Homemade chilli	400g
	Doritos Hint of Lime tortilla chips	30g
21:30	Doritos Hint of Lime tortilla chips	30g
	dipped in Philadelphia light cream cheese with chives	42g
23:00	Ellactiva Chocolate Calcium Chew	1 chew
	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill

Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.

Measurements Moving in the Right Direction!

	3 Oct.	1 Nov.	1 Dec.	1 Jan.	1 Feb.
Morning Weight:	63.0 kg	61.4 kg	60.6 kg	60.7 kg	59.2kg
Evening Weight:	63.9 kg	63.2 kg	61.3 kg	61.7 kg	60.4kg
Morning Body Fat:	30.7%	29.6%	28.2%	27.7%	26.9%
Evening Body Fat:	28.8%	28.1%	26.1%	25.8%	25.2%
Measurements:
Bust:	33”	33”	32”	32”	32”
Waist:	28”	27”	27”	27”	26.5”
Hips:	40”	39.5”	39”	39”	38.5”
Thigh:	23.5”	23”	22.5”	22.5”	22”

I’m very happy to see that all my hard work over the past month has paid off. I really went to town on the treats over Christmas, and was a bit concerned with how I would get back to eating healthily. However, over the past couple of weeks I have got back into the routine of my normal diet, with far fewer calories and treats, (despite the occasional binge day). I’ve also got back into my exercise routine, working out five days a week and rotating between running and gym sessions.

And it has certainly shown up in my measurements for this month! I’ve lost a kilo and a half of body weight and just over half a percent of body fat since January first. More importantly, I’ve lost half an inch each from my waist, hips and thighs, which means I can now fit into all my old clothes.  I had given myself until April to get down to 59Kg and measurements of 32-26-38, but if February continues as well as January, I should make that goal a month early.

The only metric not moving as fast as I would like is body fat, which I hoped would be down below 25% by now, and well on its way to 23% by April. However, as I’ve discussed before my bathroom scale with its body fat analyser is not the most accurate of instruments, so I will be going for at body fat test at my gym next week. The last time I had my body fat measured at the gym, the result was a good 3% lower than what my home scale says, so I may already be below my 23% target.

Definitely on track to meet all my goals!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
1932.66	99.93g	225.89g	69.35g	0	27.68g
	21%	47%	32%
Calories burned through exercise:		399

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:45	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Mattesson's Turkey rashers	3 rashers
	Gluten Free fruit muesli	70g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	200mL
09:30	Black Tea	500mL
10:45	Brazil nuts	6g
	Cashews	17g
	Plum	90g
11:15	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
13:00	New Covent Garden Moroccan Tagine soup	300g
	Genius brown bread toast	1 Slice
	Brussels Mini Pâté Packs	25g
	Raw tomato	120g
	Sainsbury's Be good to Yourself chocolate mousse	62.5g
14:00	Resistance workout + 30 min bike
	Orange Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
16:00	Sponser Protein Snack bar	1 bar
19:00	Twinings Camomile, honey and vanilla tea	250mL
19:30	Steak	86g
	Mashed potatoes	173g
	with butter	9g
	Stir fried Kale	45g
	in Olive oil	7.5mL
	with Pine nuts	4g
	Bisto Best beef gravy	about 5g
20:15	Muller Rice original	190g
21:00	Ellactiva Chocolate Calcium Chew	1 chew
	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill

Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.