Body Fat: 25.91%

Yesterday I measured my body fat (using calipers) at 25.91%. I thought this morning: Well, maybe I mis-measured (otherwise, it means my body fat has gone the wrong direction from 24.5% to ~25.9%).

I remeasured today. Ironically, I came up with the exact same number: 25.91% body fat. It's hard to do statistically, because I take a measurement from pecs, stomach and thigh, I take 5 measurements at each location and then throw out the high and low number and the remaining three numbers are averaged. Furthermore, when you run the calipers on your skin, you don't know what the number will be until you've already placed the caliper. So it's unlikely that I contributed to a false reading. I'm taking the readings as I've always taken them, and any random factor to the reading, should be smoothed out by the 5x reading.

COUPLE OF OTHER THOUGHTS

I looked it up and I was at a higher number earlier this week (26.41% on 05.13.2005). Then I thought, well, perhaps the body fat calculators jump in increments of 0.50% and that would explain the jerkiness of it. However, the formula is much more precise than that. In fact, when I changed one of my thigh numbers from 18 to 17, the body fat dropped 0.083%. So the formula is actually quite precise. Good to know.

I suppose I just need to have faith.

WHY REVIEWING SCALE NUMBERS CAN BE GOOD IN THE MEANWHILE

I must say I don't know that I agree that one should not review/retain daily scale numbers. Because without consistent feedback it's hard to know whether you are headed in the right direction. It's just there's so much noise in the day-to-day scale readings (meaning you don't actually gain/lose 5 pounds overnight. . . you do it over a multi-day period).

If I only had the bodyfat numbers to review from calipers I'd be frustrated right now. But I have a plethora of numbers. They mostly show a slight reversal in direction, which makes sense given the lack of as robust activity during finals and poor eating habits. Nonetheless, I'm confident I can reverse those minor setbacks in short order in the next week or two and then keep marching downward.

While I've set body fat goals, I have not, as yet, set specific weight targets -- at least not recently.

I still think 200 pounds is a good number, as is 205. I like the way 195 sounds; 185 is better. 175 is magical. And 160-165 is beyond the pale.

The question is whether I can set 200 as a number and make it by the time I see C in New York. I probably can. It's roughly 105 days from today, which is 15 weeks. Two pounds per week is 30 pounds, which would actually put me at 195.

So, the loose goal for 09-01-2005, is:

good goal: 195;
median goal: 200;
low goal: 205.

But the truth is I'm not nearly as concerned with weight as I am with body fat percentages.

k

0.083%