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Measuring Body Fat…. Eeeeeeewwwwww!!!!!!
Body fat can be measured in several different ways:
Biopsy This is a medical procedure which requires sticking a large needle into your body, kinda like a geologist doing a core sample. The sample of muscle and tissue is analyzed and the percentage of body fat to muscle along with a whole host of other tests can be performed to determine whether you are world athlete potential or not.
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Since I already know I’ll never be in the next Michael Phelps or win the Tour de France, AND I hate large needles, I decided that I wouldn’t pursue this option. Did I mention that it’s very expensive? It is, however, the most exact method.
..- A host of new fangled TECH-KNOWL-E-GEES with jaw breaking names:
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• DEXA (Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry)
• NIR (Near Infrared Interactance)
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
• Total Body Electrical Conductivity (TOBEC)
• Computed Tomography (CT)
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I’ll spare you the gory details about how all these work. If you’re really interested, you can visit this cool page I found at the University of Vermont where they have this interactive tutorial that talks about some of them. Basically when all is said and done, they all have pluses and minuses. And any number you get back is basically an estimate. A very expensive estimate. And since I’m a workin’ man and can’t afford any of these expensive high-tech ways to tell me just how fat I am, we’ll move on to some options that a regular middle class fella can afford.
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2010-03-08, Week 1, Weekly Stats (Start of Week No. 2 on Jenny Craig)
![Animated graph with downward pointing arrow [CC]](https://txcowboydancer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/graph.gif?w=160&h=113 "Animated graph with downward pointing arrow [CC]")
Ok, after one week on Jenny Craig, the numbers are headed in the right direction. Today is the official kick off of “Week Two”
See ya on the dance floor!
Related articles
- My first week back on Jenny Craig (txcowboydancer.wordpress.com)
- Day one on Jenny Craig… …again! (txcowboydancer.wordpress.com)
- Prepping For Week 1 – Again! (txcowboydancer.wordpress.com)
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Update…the first week on Jenny Craig
I went by the Jenny Craig Center and got next weeks food. Tomorrow I’ll go by Whole Foods and get the fruits and veggies for next week. I do need to go and get some Milk and Cottage Cheese today though.
My weigh in at the Jenny Craig Center was good. I started at 270 lbs and in five days I’ve lost 2.4 lbs putting me at 267.6 lbs. Yay me!!! Woo Hoo! Doing a happy dance!
Of course weigh ins at the JC center are with my clothes on so there will be some variance due to that because sometimes I’ll be wearing work clothes and sometimes I’ll be wearing lighter work out clothes.
My weekly weigh in will be on Sunday. I’m optimistic that I will meet my goal of 266 lbs and 41.10% body fat for next week.
At home, my weekly weigh in is without clothes. I weigh in once in the morning and once in the evening and then average the two numbers. For Body Fat, I average four measurements: one am and one pm using the Tanita scale and one am and one pm using the the Omron Fat Loss Monitor.
See ya on the dance floor!
Related articles
- Day one on Jenny Craig… …again! (txcowboydancer.wordpress.com)
- Once more dear poundage, unto the breach… (txcowboydancer.wordpress.com)
Share with folks on the Interwebz :-)
Day Four on Jenny Craig
I’m off today. I was off yesterday as well. I’m running a fever, mild cold bug of some kind but my muscles feel like they’ve been “tenderized” with one of those kitchen hammers. Ugh!
One thing I’ve noticed after three full days on Jenny Craig is that I’m AMAZED by the amount of food! There is so much that on two of the days I’ve not eaten everything on the “menu”. I’ve not eaten the whole menu, not because I’m trying to loose weight faster or because I don’t like the item, but simply because I’m not hungry. Wow.
The other thing I’ve noticed is how many veggies and fruits that I’m eating. I think I’ve eaten more vegetables and fruits in the past three days than I have in the past three months! Mental note to self: there isn’t enough varieties of veggies in the canned food section of the supermarket. I need to check out the Frozen section and I need to check out the sections that have the specialty foods like Chinese and Mexican and Indian foods to see what canned veggies are in those sections.
And to my horror, I learned that corn is not a vegetable!!!!! Eeeek! GASP! FAINT! It is a “cereal” like wheat or barley.
Generations of SUTHERNers have been duped! When I was growing up, it wasn’t a meal if there wasn’t corn on the table: kernel corn, creamed corn, corn on the cob and we mustn’t forget about cornbread or popcorn. Or Stews with corn in them or corn chowder. *sigh* Oh well….
On the bright side… one of my favorite veggies is beets and *that* veggie actually counts as a “free food” on the Jenny Craig plan. So I can have as many beets as I like. 😀
One last thing about being on Jenny Craig. The food actually tastes GOOD, very good! On the boxes, it is called “Jenny Cuisine” and it does indeed live up to the name. Even the photos and the colors of the boxes and packages make it look like an upscale food. Which is a good thing.
For the record, I don’t feel as if I’m on a diet. I feel more as if I now have a personal nutritionist and a personal cook on staff who are going to help me get back down to the size I was when I was at my thinnest and my healthiest weight.
Me at 275 lbs
Me somewhere between 155-165 lbs
Which brings me to the obligatory before and the “way back when” photos. The photo on the left shows how I look now, when I’m not sucking things in and when I’m not wearing clothes designed to make me look thinner than I really am. The photo was actually taken in July of 2008, but I look the same now as I did then. I’m going to do an “official” before photo soon.
The photo on the right is what I looked like when I was at my fittest and what I will look like again, only with less hair. 😉 And yes, I like the color red. What a fluke that the two photos both have me wearing a red shirt with black pants. The “skinny photo” was taken at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, May 31, 1990 when I went out there to meet a friend of mine from school who was flying through town. This photo was when I was at my fittest, around 155-160 lbs. Of course, at that time, my hobby was cycling and I routinely rode my bike over a hundred miles each week.
My current goal is 190lbs with a 12% body fat. When I get to that goal, I’ll do an assessment to see how I look. A body fat percentage of 12% will put me into the top of the “Athlete’s”body fat range which will be awesome. If I feel and look like I need to either bulk up with some muscle mass or or loose a couple more body fat percentage points, then I’ll set up the appropriate exercise program then.
My goal of 190 lbs and a BF of 12% will give me a BMI of 28.26. According to the CDC, A BMI of 28.26 will still put me in the “overweight” category. According to the CDC, I should have a BMI of between 18.5 – 24.9 which means I should weigh between 126.5 – 166.5 lbs. And that does indeed match up with what I weighed when I was my fittest as shown in my “skinny” photo above. However, the CDC also says that BMI is to be used as only as one of several indicators of health and fitness. Also I’ve found several articles that discuss the ineffectiveness of BMI when applied to athletes. So for now, I’ll shoot for the 190 / 12% BF and then I’ll do the assessment when I get to 190. After all I am now 20 years older than I was in that “skinny” photo!
Well I’ve spent enough time blogging so I’m now going to go have lunch and nurse my fever…. Ugh I hate feeling under the weather. Bleech!
- A historical yo-yo of skinny and not so skinny photos… (txcowboydancer.wordpress.com)
5-6-7-8 Dancing My Way to a Healthy Me! 