Thanks to all the wonderful support I've gotten here, I am getting close to my goal. I want to shift focus from boy weight to composition. I still have plenty of excess body fat and need to work on toning. Anyone else focusing more on body fat than body weight?
Me! Well, I'm looking at overall weight, too, but right now I'm at 27.4% body fat (which falls into the "acceptable" range) and I know that I want to be at least somewhere in the "fitness" range (21-24%) before I'll be satisfied. I was at about 31% body fat, though, so I know I'm making progress. I really think that body fat % is more important a number than overall weight!
I don't know if you're looking for ways to tone up, but I might as well mention that I do a set of workout DVDs called Chalean Extreme, and I've found them to be really fun (and I finally have toned arms for the first time in my life, yay!). Feel free to ask me questions about it if you want, or there's a thread about Chalean Extreme in the Fitness Videos section of this forum too.
I have very similar numbers, started around 31%, down to 28%. I'm training for a triathlon so I lost 40 lbs over the past year but didn't build much muscle. I'm doing a personal trainer session about once a week and doing my own more informal version of p90x. It'll probably wind up being 3-4 strength sessions per week for the next few weeks, then drop down to once or twice when my tri training picks up in a few weeks. Do you think that either short sessions, like 20 minutes, a few times a week, or one or two longer sessions a week would work better? My work schedule sucks! ~6 days a week, 80 hours average
I've heard you're not supposed to do weight-training two days in a row, but I think as long as you're giving yourself time to rest in between, it doesn't matter whether it's short or long sessions, just how much time you do total? I'm honestly not sure, since I'm not a fitness trainer or anything like that. All I know is I'm doing 30-40 minute weight-lifting sessions 3 times a week and that's working for me.
me.
My weight hasn't changed much since then but my inches as well as %fat has droped quite nice (from 27% => 23.7%). I'm still aiming for 20-21% before i'm happy ^_^
I do pushup and cardio most of the time. I hate strength training so it'll take me longer time than people who do lots of strength training (weight lifting etc).
I do short session, only 20-40 minutes per other day (sometimes per 2 days). As long as it's regularly schedule i think it's fine. (I prefer short sessions more than longer one though).
Hmm....I've often thought about this. I'm planning on doing a body comp once I hit my goal weight and seeing where I can go from there. I strength train as part of the rowing regimen on a fairly regular basis. The team used to have ordered body comp tests; however, they stopped doing this for some reason. A part of me wishes they didn't so I could know, but another is afraid...lol...hence the checking at goal. Oh well, soon enough I'll be at goal and I'll see then.
What do you guys use to measure body fat? Any scale recommendations? As I'm nearing my weight goal I definitely want to focus more on toning/reducing body fat although I've tried to incorporate strength training since the beginning....I've been thinking about doing the 30 day shred once I hit goal and see if that makes any kind of difference.
I've heard the Omron body fat calculators aren't bad (the ones where you hold onto the two handles), but the only time I ever used one it had me at something like 12% BF, when I was around 21% BF at the time, so I don't know.
If you belong to a gym, I'm pretty sure they always have body fat testing available where they pinch your fat (yeah it's kind of awkward) at different places with calipers and calculate your BF% that way. I had mine done in September (118 pounds, 27% body fat) and then again in December (101 pounds, 21.5% body fat). I'm planning to get it measured again next month, so that'll be every 3 months. It is pretty encouraging, but I would wait long enough that you're sure you'll see a decrease. Especially for those like me who have to pay $5 a test... ^_^
I'm trying to. And by that I mean, as I get closer to goal, I'm focusing much more on body fat % than pounds. However, I just don't have a good method of telling what my body fat % is. I'd estimate that I started around 31-32%, and now I'm probably around a 29-28. But that's purely guess with the help of some online body fat calculators (which I know aren't very accurate.
I know I plan on using the bodpod in the athletic training room. I'd suggest that or just calipers. Alot of university gyms offer this service for like 5 bucks and its pretty accurate if done correctly.
following body fat percentage?
