I'm getting younger!!

Two years younger to be exact! Several months ago I purchased a Tanita Innerscan body composition monitor (click on the link to purchase!). As well as telling me my weight, it also tells me my body fat %, total body water %, visceral fat level, muscle mass, physique rating, bone mass, basal metabolic rate and metabolic age. I've been keeping a vague check on my readings for several months and Ive noticed quite a few slow changes:

1. Body fat %: This started off around 45% but is now 34%. This is just outside of the 'normal' range.


2. Total body water %: This is usually inverse to body fat, so when I started taking readings it was quite low - about 32%. It's now just inside the 'normal' range at 45%.


3. Visceral fat level: This is a measure of how much fat there is internally around the abdominal cavity - and is a good indicator of susceptibility to nasties like heart disease. If you're in the range 1 to 12 then you're OK. Fortunately, I tend to collect fat around my bum and hips rather than around my stomach, so I've always been inside the OK range (well since February when I bought this machine). Recently my level has improved from level 9 to level 6.


4. Muscle mass: This is given as a weight - and mine has actually fallen a little from eight stone something to seven stone something. I presume this is because even though I have increased my proportion of muscle, the actual weight of it has dropped as I've lost weight overall.


5. Physique rating: This is a subjective measure of physique according to the ratio of fat to muscle. There's a complex scale in the manual they provided with the monitor - but basically, my rating has improved from 3 (large frame obese) to 2 (medium frame obese). I long for a rating of 6 (standard muscular) which represents a person with average body fat and a high % muscle!


6. Bone mass: To be honest, I've only really taken notice of whether this has been above 6.5lb or not because below this level there is increased risk of bone diseases like osteoporosis. I've always been above that level.


7. Basal metabolic rate: When I started recording BMR it was about 2200 calories, but as I've lost weight this has fallen steadily to around 1550. This is normal because as we lose weight our body needs less energy to 'keep it going'. The downside of your BMR going down is that it means you can consume less calories to maintain your current weight. However, in the last few days, for the very first time, my BMR has started to increase again - it's now 1590! Given that I am still losing weight, this is a good indication that I am starting to develop more muscle (which needs more energy to keep it going).


8. Metabolic age: The monitor indicates the average age associated with your measured level of metabolism. The maximum reading it gives is 50 years - and I have to confess that I have been 50 years old ever since I started taking readings..... that is, until this morning! Today I'm only 48!!! Yippeee!!! I'm actually only 45 years old so I clearly still have some way to go in losing weight and building up muscle mass before my BMR reflects my actual age - but it's nice to get started along the road to youthfulness!

A ton down!!

Today I did my usual first-thing-in-the-morning thing - and weighed myself. The scales told me I am 12 stone and 12 pounds which is 180 pounds. Since I started this whole journey at 280 pounds - that's one hundred of the little blighters lost!! WHOOPEE!!!

This is my weight loss chart produced by the Ticker Factory. The green line represents my target weight of ten stone and five pounds (BMI 22.4). I extrapolated the chart line until it intersected the green line and the date came out at 15th January 2010. That's 22 weeks away and 35 more pounds to lose - which means I have to sustain a weight loss of 1.6 pounds per week to reach that goal.

Currently I'm still just about managing 2 pounds per week but I know this will slow down as my weight reduces and my basal metabolic rate slows down. So, there's still a chance I could make that target. Only problem is, Christmas comes between now and then, so for the second year running I'll be on starvation rations in the festive season!!

Changing scales

My bathroom scales have been acting up a lot lately. I know that if you weigh yourself daily as I do, you're bound to see quite a bit of 'up and down' from one day to the next. But these scales have been bouncing around more than 6-8 pounds in a day! I also weighed seven pounds less on one day and then it shot back up by the same amount the day after. They are very old......... so, I took the plunge and bought some new scales. I've been weighing myself on both of them for the past few days to see how they compare:

Well, basically, the new scales agree with those at the hospital and have me at seven or eight pounds heavier than the old scales - consistently. This means three things:

1. The scales at the hospital apear to have been correct all along. I assumed that they always weighed me heavier because I was wearing clothes and weighing myself later in the day after I had eaten etc.

2. My starting weight was probably 20 stone instead of 19 and-a-half...... I will never know this for certain but it seems very likely.

3. I will have an additional 7 pounds to lose to reach my ultimate target (I'm not too worried about this at the moment because my target weight is still a long way away!).

For the moment, I am going to continue to weigh myself with both sets of scales until I am absolutely certain that the new scales are correct. However, after that, I intend changing my weight loss ticker, weight loss records and graphs to fit with the new scales.