The Dr Is Out

8 Feb

I’ve switched to Monday morning weigh-ins for at least the duration of my unofficial Tiny Glow Fat Loss Challenge. Today I weighed in at 164.5 lbs—a loss of 2 lbs for the past week. Hooray! Boot camp is working!

In the last two weeks I’ve lost more weight than I did in all of January. I’m down 38.5 lbs total as of today, which means I’m only half a pound away from being halfway to my goal weight, and less than 2 lbs away from my next mini-milestone. I’m especially looking forward to hitting that reward, because I’ll get to book a massage.

One important aspect of my personal fat-loss challenge is improving my nutrition. My goal for this week is to be entirely soda free! I rarely drink regular soda, but I have been a diet soda junkie ever since my first diet at age 14. In recent years, Diet Dr Pepper has been my drink of choice, and an important part of my work days. But not today! I am swigging water, and I had a cup of green tea, and then there will be more water-swigging and maybe even fancy-water-guzzling (Perrier!). My head feels a bit off, but I’m hanging in there.

My fitness goals for the week include: attending boot camp today, Wednesday, and Thursday; putting in 30 minutes on the elliptical on Tuesday and Friday; and coming up with a creative workout to do on my own in the gym on Saturday. Sunday, I rest!

Increasing the intensity of my workouts several times per week thanks to boot camp seems to have knocked my body out of complacency and back into weight loss mode. I’m looking forward to charting my progress as I continue with the program!

DEXA Scan Body Comp Analysis Results (Tiny Glow Fat Loss Challenge Starting Numbers)

7 Feb

My body composition analysis on Friday was performed using incredibly accurate technology known as DEXA (dual energy x-ray absorptiometry). I had this done back in August 2009 as well, so I got to see the effect my behaviors of the last five months had on my body composition. Going beyond the basic number on the scale to find out what’s really happening inside the body is fascinating and, on another level, sobering. I’ll share my results later in this post, but first I wanted to describe the experience of being scanned.

The DEXA Scan Experience

When you get a DEXA scan, it is important not to be wearing any metal, as this can cause errors with your readings—that means no metal underwire, jewelry, zippers, etc. I dressed accordingly. My instructions also warned me not to eat or exercise vigorously in the two hours prior to my appointment.

The actual scan only took about 5 minutes to complete. All I had to do was lay there on a narrow table while the machine slowly scanned the length of my body. When it was finished, I got to look at the images produced by the scan. One showed my skeleton (bone mass), and the other showed the rest of me (fat mass and lean/muscle mass). A number of calculations were also tabulated.

In addition to being an accurate and helpful tool for those of us working to lose weight in a healthy way, DEXA technology can be very helpful for athletes and others looking to build muscle and/or lose fat in specific body areas, because it can further break down body comp percentages by trunk (roughly, your torso), legs, and arms. My legs are very lean compared to the legs of other women of my age and weight. My trunk is the fattiest part of me. Unfortunately, the trunk is probably the most dangerous part of the body to have extra fat stored. I have my work cut out for me!

In addition to telling me about my fat mass, the DEXA also reported my “fat-free mass” (muscles and bones). It is really helpful to know this number, because during my challenge I will be focusing on decreasing my fat mass while either keeping the fat-free mass stable or building it up.

Results: What Effect Has My Weight-Loss Plan Had on My Body Comp?

The good news: My body fat percentage is down 5.6% from where it was last August. I have shed 24.5 lbs of pure fat since then! Additionally, I’ve lost 4.6 inches off of my waist.

The not-so-great news: I have also lost 8.6 lbs of lean mass during the past five to six months. Lean mass is vital for strength and plays a part in a robust metabolism—I do not want to be sacrificing any more of it!

My Fat Loss Challenge Benchmark Numbers and Goals

  • My body fat currently stands at 41%.
  • I am carrying around 68.5 lbs of fat and approximately 98.5 lbs of fat-free mass (bone mass plus lean mass).
  • My waist  measures 39.6 inches around.

The first part of my goal for the Tiny Glow Fat Loss Challenge is to lose fat (obviously). I am setting a goal of 12 lbs of fat loss during the next 12 weeks. The second part of my goal is to maintain my current fat-free mass; that is, hold on to all my bone and lean mass. I would love to increase my lean (muscle) mass, but would be satisfied with simply holding steady while I chip away at my fat mass.

Although I will be weighing in on my home scale as usual (although changing my weigh-in day to Mondays), I will not be getting another DEXA scan until the end of the 12 weeks, so that’s when my true results will be unveiled.

Interested in Getting a DEXA Scan?

My local university owns DEXA scan equipment as part of their kinesiology and health education program, so I signed up through that office to have my body composition analysis performed. Costs may differ depending on your location and where you have the procedure done, but for reference, university affiliates (students and staff) in Austin pay $75 for a scan, and non-university folks pay $90.

I don’t know of any gyms that offer this service, most likely because the technology is quite expensive. My recommendation would be to search online for nearby universities or medical complexes that offer DEXA scans (term also appears as “DXA scans”).

Last Thoughts: The Power of Trustworthy Body Composition Numbers

At the start of my program, I just wanted to see the number on my bathroom scale go down each week. I focused on my total caloric intake and getting in some regular cardio, and turned a blind eye toward possible muscle loss that I now know was occurring alongside my fat loss. At the time, this made psychological sense for me; having failed many times before at weight loss, I needed every scrap of encouragement and validation I could find just to keep going day after day in the beginning. The scale provided that to some extent.

My confidence in my ability to follow through on a plan has increased gradually throughout the last few months, and I am ready to face some of the complexities of weight loss now. I am willing to take my current, nutritionally sub-par food plan and my old exercise routine and make changes to them in order to optimize fat loss and minimize lean-mass loss.

A February Bike Ride

6 Feb

I knew I needed to get in a workout today, but I wasn’t sure how until M suggested riding our bikes down to the central branch of the town library (he had ulterior book-related motives, but never mind that)! It was 4.6 miles each way, and we had a few minor adventures getting there and back. At one point, we had to dodge a fallen tree on the bike path; later, my little 3-speed balked at going up a steep hill downtown and I had to walk it for a bit.

Ready for a bike ride (Feb. 2010, 166 lbs)

I found an older photo of me with my bike from fall 2008, when I was near my highest weight. It’s a helpful reference point for me and a reminder that while my body fat may still be too high, I’ve made some great progress in the past few months.

Me on my bike (Fall 2008, near 200 lbs)

For those of you who had questions about my DEXA scan (body comp analysis) from yesterday, I just wanted to add that I will definitely be going into more detail about that in the next few days.

Challenge Prep Work

5 Feb

Over the past few days, I’ve directed many of my non-working hours toward preparing for my upcoming challenge, which begins on Monday! Part of this includes keeping up with my current calorie-counting and fitness routine, as well as making forays into areas I’ll be exploring more as part of my challenge.

I ordered my copy of The Paleo Diet a few days ago and have already received some awesome preliminary nutrition tips courtesy of local CrossFit rockstar Melissa “Melicious” Joulwan. This weekend’s homework: to make a sizable dent in reading the Paleo book and to plan out most of the next 12 weeks’ dietary challenges. Which I will then map out in my nerdalicious monthly planner, using my geektastic colored pens!

This morning, I got my initial body composition analysis taken care of (using super-accurate DEXA technology), and I’ll be sharing those numbers with you on Monday! I’m looking forward to challenging myself and seeing what the next three months bring.

Is Boot Camp Like Childbirth?

4 Feb

As I was driving to boot camp last night, I experienced an unspecified feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. I kept flashing back to my Challenge manifesto-of-sorts and thinking “Was I on crack at the time I posted that?” (Answer, for those interested: No.) My brain started doing the frantic cat-in-a-bag clawing that I am all too familiar with at this point in my life.

There MUST be a way out.

*claw, claw*

No one will care if I come back with a post tomorrow about what a demented idea it was.

*scratch, scratch*

You are going to lose your mind if you haven’t already. Seriously. Go home to M and the Bean. Continue with the old way of doing things, and accept the likelihood of mediocre progress. It is your birthright!

*yowl*

At this point I had reached boot camp and it was really too late to turn around. Sometimes this will happen.

Throughout boot camp, I was in considerable gastrointestinal distress. I swear it was the Lean Pocket I ate for lunch. (When I mentioned this to M, he wasn’t surprised. “No one really knows what’s in those things.” It is true that the “chicken” in the pocket resembles meat plywood more than anything else.)

The upshot is that I had a bad stomach cramp and felt like puking off and on throughout the workout—especially after the sprints! Still, I did my best to keep up with the exercises and avoid Coach’s evil eye.

As I limply dragged myself back to my car afterward, I reflected that boot camp must have something in common with childbirth. They say that the only reason women have more than one child is because they are blessed with forgetting the excruciating pain of labor, remembering only the joy of holding their new infant. Driving home, I knew I’d be heading back to boot camp for my Thursday night session, despite the fact that I had spent much of the last hour on the verge of vomiting over the edge of a parking garage. It’s all very strange.

In short: I am still committed to my 12-Week Tiny Glow Fat Loss Challenge. In fact, I am getting my initial body comp analysis done tomorrow at 8 AM!