My first bodystats post

I am planning to update some stats at least once a month maybe weekly, but as of right now the data is somewhat lacking. One of the few things I measure now is my weight and usually on Sunday mornings right after I wake up. When I get some more equipment I will get more and better data, but at least this is a start.

Equipment

What equipment I have now:

• A body scale
• A measuring tape

What equipment I need:

• A better kitchen scale
  For now, I just ballpark my food and that’s not good enough for real progress
• A fitness tracker
  For measuring those all important steps, calories burned, resting heart rate etc

When I get the last two pieces of hardware I can get more background info on some vital stats like sleep patterns, amount of sleep, better control over how much I eat etc.

Current status: Obese

Height: 177cm (5’10)
Weight: 104,8kg (231lbs)
BMI: 34
Fat percentage: 33,5%
Waist: 116cm (45.7 inches)

So as you can see I am currently obese, something I’ve been for a long, long time. But my weight has been pretty stable around 102-104 kilos in the last weeks, so I’m happy I’ve managed to stabilize it after my illness. Often you gain the weight, and more, back but I am pretty happy that hasn’t happened yet. And I won’t allow it to happen anyway!

Analysis and goals

My weight has gone up from 104,5kg last week, but I’m not worried about that as it’s more or less inside the natural variations.

My first weight goal is 99kg. That will be me breaking the 100kg barrier for the first time in many, many years. And since it’s now so close I feel it is more in reach than ever before.

BMI is at 34. I won’t really say too much about this as it’s dependant on a lot of stuff that can skew it. I have a goal of getting it below 30 though, so unless I start to gain a lot of muscles that is still a goal.

I don’t really know if I can trust the fat percentage my weight is giving me. Yesterday it was 31.7% at the same weight, so… But as a man, I should be under 25% so my goal is first to stabilize it at under 30% and then move closer to 25% after that. Gaining more muscle should help with this.

My waist is now at 116cm. Quite a bit over the 100cm my doctor wants it to be. So again I don’t go for the end goal at once since that is far away. My goal is first to get it stable under 110cm and then I’ll set a new goal when that is reached.

Final thoughts

I know why I haven’t dropped weight the last week and it simply comes down to two reasons:

• Too little sleep
• The wrong snacks in my cupboard

Sleep

I can’t give you exact numbers but I’m pretty sure that my average this week is less than 7 hours, maybe closer to 6. That is too little when trying to lose weight. One of the reasons I lost weight while I was ill was because I got enough sleep. So need to get that number up again.

Next week will be hell to do that though as I need to get up at around 4am to get to the early shift at work. Problem is that I also have some things I need to do in the evenings next week, so getting to bed at 9pm will be difficult. But I’ll give my best shot. And since the 17th is our national holiday I can regain some lost sleep on Thursday.

The wrong snacks

Last week my cupboard was lacking one food group and had too much of another one. I didn’t have any fruit in there, but I did have loads of candy. That is NOT a good thing when trying to lose the pounds.

But now I’ve bought myself some apples so my “problem” is now solved. I really don’t crave chocolate the same way I did before and I’ve gotten a renewed hunger for fruit, so it shouldn’t be a problem eating more healthy snacks again.

You might now say “Hey Frank, but the fruit is also full of sugars.” And yes, it is, but much less than candy, so you eat less because you get full earlier. And, for me at least, it takes longer to eat. I could finish a HUGE chocolate in not many minutes, but an apple takes me a while longer to eat. Fruit also contains much more fiber, vitamins etc that candy doesn’t. So even if it contains sugar, it’s just so much better for you.

And my “secret” to get an apple to last long is to cut it into pieces before you eat it and not eat it in it’s natural “apple shape.” 🙂 If I have a whole apple and start to eat it, it won’t take long to finish, maybe a couple of minutes, because who wants to walk around with a half-eaten apple for several minutes.

If you cut it into pieces and put it into a bowl it will usually last much longer. I will take a piece now and then and one or two apples could last me an hour. And when I’m done, I’m usually not hungry for anything anymore and the chocolate will safely rest in the cupboard. And if you don’t like that the fruit gets a little brown when lying in the bowl you can just squeeze some lemon juice on it. That prevents the browning.