[kaw]

My goal, when I first started this jaunt, was to get to 16% BF by the time I turned 40. (Hence the name for my blog, linked below). For a variety of boring reasons, I don't have a measurement from when I started, but an educated guess would be about 20-22%. I weighed around 155, at a shade under 5'9".

I had my body fat tested this morning, via skinfold test.

(drumroll please...)

14.24%. As in, fourteen. As in, nearly two percentage points below goal.



I weigh 140 pounds now, almost on the nose. So, I'm still carrying about 20 pounds of fat.

Assuming this measurement is reasonably accurate, my ticker goal weight of 130 is completely unrealistic. If I were to lose 10 more pounds, I'd be well below a healthy body fat% *unless* all the loss is in muscle, which seems completely counterproductive. I care far more about keeping the muscle than a number on the scale!

Even if those 10 pounds were distributed equally across fat and muscle (i.e., 5 pounds of each), my body fat percentage would drop below 12%. Around that range, many women start to lose their periods, etc.; although the long term effects of this aren't yet known, it's not a risk I want to take.

So, it's time for me to reassess my goals, and maybe shift over to maintenance mode. I'll be thinking about this over the next couple of days.

In the mean time, it's good to know that I can, at age 39 and 1 pregnancy later, still get myself to the "athletic" range of body fat percentage. It took a lot of work, but it can be done!

I'm going to celebrate by... getting some work done.

Kim

PS. I do still intend to post pics, but DH has the camera and won't be back for another week.

[Meg]

Congratulations and welcome to the wonderful world of maintenance, Kim! That is an awesome body fat percentage!

I absolutely agree that going any lower would be counterproductive and extremely hard to sustain for the long term. And we're in this forever, not just leaning down for a comp, right?

Please stop by and check out the Maintainers Forum -- we have lots of wonderful members who have successfully transitioned from losing to maintenance. We'd love to have you join us.

And ... congratulations again on the BF%. That really is impressive.

[srmb60]

Fabulous work. I'm proud of you!
And thanks too, for another peek into goal setting. There are just so many targets we can shoot for ... other than scale weight. We can be small and fabulous looking and fit ... just like you!

[hikerchick]

Woo Hoo!!!!



That is fantastic. OK I want to hear all. What workouts have you been doing? Very nice. I am so happy for your success.

[alinnell]

Kim~that is so wonderful! WTG!!!!!

I'm sure that if I were doing as much as you, my BF% would be lower--I'm practically the same height/weight as you, but I don't lift and don't get in as much exercise as I would like. But you are an inspiration for me to get going!!!

[kaw]

Hiker chick (and anyone else who's interested)

Workouts:
- 4-5 days a week: weight training, with Krista's intermediate 3-day split (under "iron/training/workouts" on stumptuous.com -- I can find a link if you want it). I lift as heavy as I can and still keep reps in the 5-10 range.
- 2 days a week: cardio, usually including some sort of interval training
- 1 day a week: active rest: going for walks, playing baseball with The Boy, yard work, etc.

Nutrition:
- average 1200 calories/day
- appx. 33% cals from fat, carbs, protein
- at least 100 g. protein / day
- no refined carbs (although I went off plan occasionally w/ beer)

FWIW, I started with a reasonably solid foundation. I've been lifting on and off for about 10 years now. I took a break (or fell off the wagon, depending on how you look at it) for about 6 months prior to getting serious again about 7 weeks ago. Also, I had a pretty active lifestyle before recommitting to weight training. This all helped, because I didn't have to start from scratch or completely alter my lifestyle.

Thanks for the well wishes, everyone. It means a lot to me to be able to share and get feedback. It's odd -- I don't talk much about fitness (or fatness) levels with my "in person" friends, or even with DH.

Kim