Friday, April 1, 2011

Bodyfat% and BMI...oh my!

I thought that title kinda of rhymed, didn't it?  :0

Well, I am still at 150 (so 5 pounds less than when I posted my weight survey). I haven't been doing anything spectacular. Just typical workouts at the gym (which have changed due to new instructors), and my treadmill and/or AMT work every morning. I've been on the 'running' program I told you about earlier where I may not run 5 miles STRAIGHT, but I do cover 5 miles with bursts of running and walking. That being said, I've been doing good... I've been doing between 4-8miles everyday.
The thing I haven't changed much is my eating.
We still have been eating out 4 nights a week (and no matter how much you try to order the best thing on the menu, home cooked food I think is always going to be less calories and fat). So even though our whole family likes eating out, myself included, I don't know that its the best thing for us.
I'm not gorging myself on m&m's or chips, but I'm not eating 100% healthy snacks either. (Side note: I am happy to say I have NOT bought Easter candy, and am planning not to. I already have goodies like t-shirts and books and toys for their baskets, so I'm really hoping not to succumb to the pressure of the Easter candy aisle and buy that stuff. Because if its in our house, I will eat it.)
My plan of attack right now is to begin a more conscious focus on what I'm eating. I KNOW from past experience that this is where my downfall (weight gain) comes from. Now don't forget, I am still HAPPY. But I still want to reach my goals. My goal is to get back to 140 so all my clothes fit baggier (I like baggy clothes). I know I can't do a restrictive 'diet' though to attain this. That always backfires for me. I wind up craving and then go right back up , ever hear the term yo-yo?
So I am trying to just redirect my choices and that even means not ALWAYS having to go out to eat EVERY Thurs, Fri, Sat, and Sunday. In fact, last night was Thursday and I cooked a really healthy 400 calorie meal for me and the girls (Dan would not have liked it-he hates frozen fish, but he was golfing, so instead of taking that as a night to eat pizza or other junky stuff with the girls-like I normally do-I took it as a night to make something healthy that isn't his favorite. Good choice I think). Tonight is Friday, and we should be going out, but I have a pork loin already thawed that we didn't use this week because we ended up eating one night at his parent's house, so we are staying home and having that instead. Now I know we'll go out Saturday and Sunday, but at least every little bit helps and I think it really did. I have been consistently 150 for about a month now, even sometimes hovering above 150, like the needle is on the '0' heading towards 151. But today it was actually hovering in the other direction, so with a few more days of better choices I bet that will start heading towards 149... and that will be really good, because you know any time you see some progress it always motivates you to do more (at least that is how it works with me).

Well, I know you are reading this because of the title, so I will continue. One of the instructors at the gym mentioned that they can do free fat test percentages so I signed right up. I KNOW the number isn't going to be great, but I wanted to get the NUMBER so that I have something to compare to when I reach my goal, then ideally it will be a really cool 'fact' of progress.

So here goes, my BMI (body mass index) is 22.8
My percentage of body fat right now at 150 pounds is 26.9%

18.5-24.9 is normal BMI range, so I am pretty much in the middle, just a tad over. Seems pretty fine.

On http://www.healthchecksystems.com/ it says that athletes are 14-20%, a fitness level for a woman is 21-24%, and  acceptable is 25-31%. So I'm falling into the 'acceptable' range. However, following their little demonstration, it looks like if I lose 10 pounds and get to 140, that I should be at 21.6% which would put me into the 'fitness' level.
My plan is to take this test again when I reach 140 to see what it is for comparison purposes, but I guess I can also see if it will match the results of the formula I just used too.

Either, I need to acheive this goal in one month, or I will have a "where I am now" number as well on May 1st, because my instructor said we are doing it again in one month to track progress. I told I just want the final results, but she was like 'no,no,no, we are going to monitor it!" ha ha. So anyway, I'll either have a final update or a 'on the way there' update to post about on May 1st.
Hopefully it will be good. Really its just one more tool to make sure I'm not getting lazy or getting crazy lol

1 comment:

  1. Wow, I think 22.8 is really good. I hear ya about the eating out. What's bad is that even though we don't eat out much (maybe once or twice a week at most) sometimes I "make up for it" by cooking a "restaurant meal". Like something I don't normally cook but that would be what we'd order if we went out (ie. chicken enchiladas with queso and chips). Ugh. Still not good. Anyway, great job on your 5 pound loss!! Bikini's will be coming out of the drawer in about a month so I gotta get busy. I'm not putting one on unless I'm under 135...closer to 130. :)

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