[shepherdgirl]

Reposting this from the 100 lb forum:

Hi! I'm still just getting started on here, so you probably haven't seen me around. Not sure where to post this question, so am starting here.

Anyways, I'm currently morbidly obese and as of this week's WI, need to lose exactly 100 lbs. to be at a healthy BMI (135 lbs.). If my body will allow it, I'd like to get down to 126 so I can say I lost half my weight, but I'll be happy with just being at a normal weight. My goodness, that seems like a pie in the sky right now, but just one week at a time, right?

I also thought that I'd use my body fat % as another way to track my progress. So first question:

How accurate is the tape measure method of assessing body fat?

I googled several calculators and picked this one **(see end of post)
My stats:
57.5% bf
135 lbs. bf
100 lbs. lean weight

That sounds about right, considering I'm 100 lbs. overweight--almost double the size I should be. I don't have a body fat scale, but may eventually invest in one--I'm just using my cheap scales for now. I hoping this method can at least track a trend, even if it's not very accurate.

My goal weight is 126 lbs. and 28% body fat; which means I would have 35 lbs. of body fat and 91 lbs of lean weight. So I need to lose exactly 100 lbs. of body fat--which leads to my other two questions:

How much lean weight do you usually lose during weight loss? And what are specific things that I can do to make sure most of it is fat and not lean weight that I am losing?

Thanks in advance! Let me know if there are other threads that might have some ideas also.

**darn, can't include a link: google "Body Fat Calculator 6 Formulas to Calculate Body Fat Percentage" It's the linear software one.