Challenge Check-In

The 6 week body challenge with my Barbies wrapped up last week, and the results are in. Over the last 6 weeks:

• I only missed class once (and I made up for it with an extra jog)
• I probably ate more fruit than I should have, but the no sugars/refined carbs went better than expected. I improvised on a lot of recipes and cooked at home more than ever. I did let myself "cheat" every so often, but within reason (hey, pizza was going to happen. I just had to be prepared to stop at 2 slices.)
• I dropped 7.4lbs - a little over a pound a week. Not bad.
• My BMI dropped 1.4 points.
• My body fat percentage dropped 1.3%
• My muscle increased by .5%
• My body age is now 56 instead of 58- still dismal, but hey, it's an improvement
• Visceral fat has dropped 1 poin

So, Amy's crazy plan worked. The energy was up- as much as it could be with the sleep apnea issue, the weight was dropping, I was developing more muscle... so I'm soldiering on. I want more/faster progress, but I've been playing the dieting/fitness game for long enough to know that the desired results won't happen overnight. All I can do is keep watching what I'm eating, continue training, and keep checking in on my numbers.

And, it's good to have other numbers to go by besides the weight. That's decreasing, sure, but to get the overall picture is pretty neat and motivating. I mean, I may have only lost 7lbs, but I'm getting some muscles! And it'd be nice to actually have the body age match my *actual* age.

During the challenge, I had to learn a few things to know what the numbers meant. I know about the BMI, and it's nice to see it decreasing. That being said, I'm still "obese." I still have about 5 points on the BMI scale to go before I'm near the next category of "overweight."

Body fat: while everyone needs some percentage of body fat, I'm still a little off. Women have an essential fat percentage ranging from 10-13%. Again, my percentage- even with the decrease- is in the "obese" category. Medical sites suggest increasing weight lifting/strength training, as that will help the percentage of fat drop faster (and the muscle percentage increase)- but your weight loss numbers may stall a little. So again, this just requires patience on my part- continue the cardio, the healthy eating, the trainer/lifting sessions and wait for the results.

Muscle percentage: The average adult female is made up of about 36% muscle mass. I'm short of that- by like 8%. Again, I've made progress and I'm more muscular than I thought I was.

Visceral fat: Most of my research was focused on this topic, as I had never heard of visceral fat before. I've heard of "fat" or "muscle" and that's it. Health Guidance states that visceral fat "... is the fat that is located inside the abdominal cavity – packed between organs – rather than underneath the skin (subcutaneous fat) and this fat will release acids that are metabolized by the liver and which can cause insulin resistance in the liver." This is the fat that surrounds the organs.You can't target the fat loss to just lose fat from around the abdomen (trust me, I've tried), so you have to engage in the general fat burn exercises and hope it falls off in time. I'm still in the "healthy" range, but I'm right at the top of said range. I'd like it to continue the downward trend.

More protein, less carbs, more cardio, add in resistance training and some interval training- sounds easy.