This whole me waiting a week to post is bugging me. But with work and everything, sometimes we gotta deal with it, haha. I had a fun weekend. I've been hanging with my best friend for the past two weeks. Super, duper fun. But that isn't the only thing I've done. For the past 4 or 5 days (I don't remember), I've been on a VLC diet. What is "VLC" you ask? It stands for "very low calorie." So for the past few days, I've been eating 1200 calories or less. Why? I have a tendency to binge late at night and feel guilty about it so setting my calories to a lower target is helping me cope with that. This is not I will do long term but for now, it's helping. My weight shot up from 182 to 186 in the course of 3 days (because I didn't track my food well and also because of salt) so I dropped my calories down. I'm feeling a lot better about my decision right now and it's being reflected on the scale. I get to start lifting again tomorrow since I ended my internship last week which I'm extremely excited about and I'll let you all know how that goes, assuming I can move afterwards.
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I surprisingly waited an actual week before blogging. I don't like that. Let's never part again, okay? Okay. I love you. Now that we got that out the way, let's get to today's topic at hand: Weighing daily vs weekly. As of late, I've become what I call a "serial weigher." Why? Because when I see a scale, I need to step on it to get consensus that my efforts are working. I found that when I get like this, the best approach for me is to just stop weighing all together for a week or 2 to get my mind back into a healthy state (I get discouraged when I see my weight go up and then I try to rationalize why I gained x number of pounds or tenth of pounds). However, some people thrive off of daily weigh ins. Lettuce break it down, shall we? Haha, lettuce. It's a food joke that's, you know, healthy? No. Okay moving on:
Pros:
Cons: Weight fluctuates daily: A person can gain between 2 to 10lbs in a day from water retention, hence why it's recommended to weigh first thing in the morning BUTT ASS NEKID after you use the bathroom to get the most optimal and accurate result. Weight loss is never linear, keep that in mind. I'm sitting at 182 right now and I was 185 last Sunday. Does it make sense to me? Hell no. But hey? That's what happens. Keep your head up whether you weigh daily or weekly or monthly. You got this! It is a well known that fat muscle is denser than fat (notice, I said DENSE. A pound of muscle and a pound of fat still weigh a pound. Fat has more volume than muscle therefore you look larger than someone of the same weight as you if you have a higher body fat). Now, when I first set out to lose weight, I had a preferred weight and clothing size I wanted to get to. Now, 2 years later, my views have changed. I'm more focused on a body fat percentage now. In basic terms, body fat is defined as the fat in your body as compared to everything else (NerdFitness.com). This is subtracting the other things that contribute to your weight. There is a difference between "weight loss" and "fat loss." Weight loss encompasses muscle and fat while fat is well just, fat! While I call this a "weight loss" journey, my desire to to lose fat and maintain as much muscle as I can. I currently weigh 185 and my body fat is 34.8%. According to the chart, I'm in the "at risk" category (though when I first started losing weight I was at 50+ body fat) and my ideal body fat is between 15-18%. The question is, what is the weight I have to be to achieve this goal, assuming I maintain the lean body mass I have. I'm going to use myself as an example and calculate how much I have to lose:
First, we must calculate how much LBM I have: My current weight - (my current weight x my current body fat) 185 - (185 x .348)= 120.62 pounds. I have 120 pounds of LBM right now My ideal body fat would be calculated by dividing my LBM by my desired body fat: My current LBM/(1 - desired fat) 120.62/(1 - .17)= 145 To be at 17% body fat, I'd have to lose an additional 40lbs **This is all ASSUMING I KEEP MY MUSCLE.** I know I keep reiterating it this but it is important because more often than not, there will be muscle loss while losing weight. However, if you make your weight loss slow, it is likely for it to be minimal muscle loss. Below this is a general idea of what the body fat percentages look like but keep in mind that you may not look like the pictures. I'm 34% but I carry all my fat in my torso (and I'm short) so I don't look like the picture but it's a good general base to go off of. Today I weighed in at 187. It isn't my official weigh in day so hopefully I'll see a better So I average around 1-2lbs lost a week and honestly at first I was bummed but the way I look at it, even if I lose 1lbs a week (though I'd rather lose more a week, lol) for the rest of the year, I'd be down 25 more pounds by the end of the year. I started focusing on weekly loss instead of the big picture. It makes everything seem more attainable that way.
Below is the one month comparison The picture below is a week apart. Now, I lost .5" off my waist and 1" off my hips in the week which is awesome, but my back looks completely transformed in a week which I find exciting but confusing, haha. I'm not sure if I changed my posture or anything. I dunno. But here ya' go!
As you all know, I completed the weight loss challenge last week. I'll post the "proper" pictures for my progress sometime today or tomorrow but for now I'm going to give you my stats, In the past month, I've gone from 201 to 188. That's a total loss of 13 pounds in a month and a collective 19 pound loss since school ended. Now I don't have measurements from when I first started but I do have the ones I took a month ago. Let us compare:My measurements from 6/10/14:
Neck: 15.5 Shoulders: 45 Chest: 42.25 Waist: 40 Hips: 45.5 Upper Arm (R): 15 Upper Arm (L): 16 Thigh (R): 24 Thigh (L): 24 Calf (R): 16 Calf (L): 16 Wrist: 6.25 Forearm: 9.75 Today (7/6/14): Neck: 14.5 Shoulders: 44.5 Chest: 38 Waist: 37 Hips: 42 Upper Arm (R): 14 Upper Arm (L): 14 Thigh (R): 23 Thigh (L): 24 Calf (R): 15 Calf (L): 15 Wrist: 6 Forearm: 9.75 All in all this was a pretty successful month. Hopefully I can get the weight to follow suit, haha. But either way I'm happy. I'll add the progress pictures soon but until then, have a great day. Stay motivated ♥ Well, Monday officially ended my 6 week challenge and honestly I'm not so happy with the results. Don't get me wrong, I AM happy, I just feel like I could have made a bigger difference. It's perfectly fine though. I lost a total of 8.5 inches off my body in the last 20 days and my weight is currently at 188.4 I think the most important thing I've learned from this challenge is perseverance and breaking past barriers. This is the first time I've ever been in the 180s and that came out of this challenge. When you put your heart and mind into something, you can seriously achieve anything. I'm going to post my results from the challenge but they aren't the "official" progress pictures. Those will be posted next week. For shits and giggles, this is me in a crop top because now I can kind of wear one (:
Yesterday, I finally rewarded myself for my 80 pound loss. I set this goal for a while now and I was determined to reward myself with a tattoo and I did. The tattoo I got is not just about losing 80 pounds. It symbolizes quite a few things: the memory of my deceased friend. I've know her for 7 years and she passed away last summer. She loved wolves an dream catchers so what better way to honor her memory? The wolf represents perseverance, strength, and success. The dream catcher represents achieving my dreams and maintaining a positive attitude. This was a weight loss goal from me and I'm not stopping any time soon. And when I get some more muscle in my leg, it's gonna look even better. Best part? It was only 80 dollars.
This will probably be a short post but I need to get this out. Today I weighed myself this morning. I gained .6lbs since Sunday putting me at 190.4 pounds. Now I know this isn't a major deal or anything but when you taste the sweet, sweet taste of getting out of a place you were stuck in for over a year, it's sad. There are many factors as to why, though, which is why I won't let it get me too upset. In times likes these, you have to keep your head up and your mind focused. I know this is only a temporary wall in my way and sometimes you just have to wait until it's time to tear it down.
Well I just broke a major milestone today. In my "Plateau" blog, I was explaining how I didn't lose anything. Today, I did. I FINALLY broke out of the 190s. After a year and a half, I hit 189. I'm likely to gain some this upcoming week due to water retention but this is just the beginning for me. I was overzealous and weighed myself last night. I'll admit I went in expecting the worst. I was expecting to be at 195 which is usually how it goes. I sucked in my breath, bit my lip and looked down and saw 190. I was overjoyed! However, I went into the mindset of "well, people weigh less in the morning" and went to bed. Hopped on the scale this morning and BAM 189. I'm so, so proud. From here on out, it will (hopefully) be even lower. Just taking it day by day. Below is a collage documenting parts of my journey. Also just a fun fact, the jeans I'm wearing in the second and third picture are the same O: They aren't so "skinny" anymore but I definitely am getting there!
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