July 2007 Check-In

This is the first of my monthly check-in posts where I'll report on my progress over the month and no doubt make excuses for my poor performance :-)

Weight: 10st 12 lbs
Weight Change: -2 lbs
Body Fat: 31.2%
Body Fat: -0.6%

The 'change' figures above are the change in the whole month since 1st July. If you look at my last weekly check-in (I didn't do one last Saturday as I had no internet connection and the stats are virtually the same as they are today) you'll see that I've put ON fat in the last week or two but I've lost fat over the month.

Last year I only tracked my progress on a monthly basis and I figured that weekly blips were just blips. The problem is when the blips come week after week after week. With this blog I can write down the kinds of things that have got in my way so if I have had a very bad month I can look back and see if I had genuine reasons for poor performance or I was just slacking.

The results this month are fairly typical for me as I lost 2lbs overall with a small drop in bodyfat. Over the first year I lost 23lbs which is an average of 2lbs a month. However for this year I would like to do better so I'm not that happy with it.

This really is not a good time for me right now however (excuse alert!!) as it was my partner's birthday on the Monday just gone and we celebrate our 10 year anniversary on Thursday and we'll be extending those celebrations into the weekend. Diet will not be a concern this weekend.

Still here is where I have been stalling for quite some time. I cannot seem to get below 30% body fat. Once this week is over I don't think I have anything coming up so I would really like to see 3lbs lost in August.

No Weight Loss - Is It Muscle Gain?

Once I had settled into my fat loss plan I estimated that if I followed my plan carefully, I should be able to lose 1lb a week. In my first year on the plan I lost a total of 23lbs. Well, I lost a little more than that but I put a few back on too! It’s evident that I most certainly did not lose 1lb a week. I averaged 1lb every other week.

There were some weeks where I blatantly did not follow the plan; I had takeaway pizzas and curry, I ate out at restaurants and didn’t hold back, I skipped workouts and so on. On those weeks when I did my stats at the end of the week I was just glad if I hadn’t put any weight back on. But there were some weeks, quite a lot in fact, where I followed my plan pretty well and yet at the end of the week there was no change, or very little.

A “No Change” Week – So Common and so Demoralising

I know I am not alone in this situation. A few years ago I spent several months as a consultant for Slimming World and week after week I would have several members who would adamantly state how they had followed the plan to the letter and had not lost any weight. As a member this is terribly demoralising. You go along to some club who sells you a plan that promises to allow you to lose weight. You follow the plan and nothing happens. As a consultant I found this very hard to deal with as I just didn’t know what to say to these people.

The story is the same with slimmers all over the world on all sorts of fat loss plans. When one of these “No Change” weeks crops up, (or worse, weight is actually put on) most people will try to rationalise the results and come up with a comforting fact that could explain the results. The most common one I hear is this:

“I must have put on muscle which is cancelling out the fat loss on the scale” ... (or something to that effect)

Digging Into the Logic

Let’s take that statement and examine it for a while. On what logic is it based? Muscle is a much denser matter than fat. If you take a chunk of muscle and a chunk of body fat of the same size and weighed them you would find that the muscle weighs much more than the fat. This is the reason why two people can be exactly the same height, exactly the same weight but look completely different where one appears much fatter than the other. The slimmer person holds more muscle and less fat on their body but the muscle weighs more than the fat causing the person to weigh the same as the larger person who holds more fat.

These days it is widely accepted that building muscle is beneficial for fat loss so many slimmers will sensibly combine a healthy diet with exercise that includes some kind of strength training. Putting these two things together then and you can see where the conclusion comes from. If in any given week I am burning off fat and building muscle at the same time then won’t they cancel each other out on the scale?

Simultaneous Fat Loss and Muscle Gain

This is a topic that I am going to cover in it’s own post so I will keep it brief here. We all know that in order to lose fat, we must create a calorie deficit in our bodies. That means that the number of calories we supply in terms of the food and drink that we consume is less than the energy used up by our bodies. The extra energy required is then taken from our fat reserves (hopefully!) We also know that muscle is build through resistance training, not on cardio machines. But what many people don’t realise is that to gain significant amounts of muscle, a calorie surplus is required. Obviously the two goals are in conflict with one another.

Now there are some exceptions to this rule and there are some people who swear that it is all rubbish and that you can quite happily build muscle whilst losing fat. However, to do so would require extremely strict training and a very clean diet and I doubt that somebody who is being that strict with themselves would get on the scale at the end of the week, see no change and just rationalise about why.

So let’s move on...

Crunching the Numbers

Now for arguments sake, let’s assume that it is quite normal to lose fat and to build muscle at the same time. What kind of numbers are we talking about here? Well in my case I was planning to lose 1lb a week. I am quite a small person so my calorie allowance isn’t all that high and I simply hate dieting so I don’t have a very low deficit but many other people are more aggressive and are aiming for a loss of around 2lbs a week. So if we get on the scale at the end of the week, see that there is no change and then assume that we must have put on muscle instead, we are implicitly making the assumption that we did indeed lose that 1 or 2lbs of fat and that we also gained that same amount of weight in muscle.

There are 52 weeks in a year. 52 x 2 = 104. For us folk in the UK we need to think in stones, and there are 14lbs in one stone. 104 lbs is over 7stones! Wow that’s a lot. I don’t know many people who have lost 7 stones in one year. Taking my own example of a loss of 1lb a week, with a maximum of 52 lbs in the year that would equate to a total possible fat loss of 3st 10.

I know many people who have lost 3 stones in a year. I’m sure you do too even if not personally. There are many success stories to draw from. But let’s look at the other side. How many people do you know have put on 3 stones of pure lean muscle in a year? Hmmm not as many I would suspect. By saying that your lack of movement on the scale is down to muscle gain you are making the assumption that you can put on muscle just as fast as you can lose fat.

It is Simply HARD to Gain Muscle

Ask any body builder how fast the average person can put on muscle and they won’t tell you 1lb a week, maybe 1lb a month would be closer. The situation is worse for women; we simply lack the testosterone required to build muscle so it is much, much more difficult for us to increase our muscle mass.

Those bodybuilders that do put on large amounts of muscle in a short space of time work incredibly hard. My gym is a bit of a ‘muscle gym’ and there are at least two professional bodybuilders who workout there and let me tell you – they do not do gentle recreational lifting! The average member here comes in and works very seriously, squeezing out that last rep with every iota of energy in his body. This is in stark contrast to my previous gym that was a hotel guest gym also open to the public. Most of the members there were women and hardly any used weights at all. Those that did tended to have the same routine – they would move from machine to machine doing 10 reps of this, 10 reps of that and barely breaking a sweat. Which one are you?

If this post is making you feel a little uncomfortable, perhaps a bit defensive then I hope that you’ll also have realised that the reason you feel this way is because you have been kidding yourself all this time. You haven’t been secretly putting on muscle, perhaps you’ve just not been working hard enough or perhaps you’re suffering from a fluctuation, or any number of other reasons why the fat has not come off. Fluctuation is another subject that is to be covered in a future post but if your weight is fluctuating upwards then it must come down as well so that excuse will only work for so long.

Give the Excuse the Boot

There are two things that we must understand. Firstly we must know the difference between weight loss and fat loss. Our bodies are made of water, bones, muscle tissue, organs, blood, skin, fat and probably a whole host of other things that I don’t know about. When we lose ‘weight’ it can be coming from any number of areas. I’m sure many of us have suffered with ‘water weight’ at some time or other. What we really want is to lose fat, not just weight so that means that using the scale alone is not a sufficient stick to measure by.

We need something else. We need a way of measuring how much fat we have and that is what body fat testing is all about. In my post about the Different Types of Body Fat I talk about some different methods of measuring body fat and the ups and downs of those. Whichever method you use, although it may not be totally accurate it will give you a much better idea of how your body is composed. You will know how much is lean body mass and how much is fat. If you track these numbers from week to week then you don’t have to wonder whether or not you have gained muscle because your measurements will tell you.

So stop kidding yourself, get rid of the excuses, measure properly and if you don’t get the results you want take a close look at your behaviour and see if you can spot the real reasons for it.

As a final note on this topic, I am not suggesting that in all cases, the lack of fat loss is simply due to not trying hard enough. There are other isues such as food intolerances, water retention especially for women around menstruation etc, but in many cases we are just making excuses for ourselves. And if there is a proper medical condition underlying our symptoms then we should get them checked out by our doctor.

Internet Issues :-(

Just a quick note to say that I have had no internet connection at home for a week now which is a real nuisance as it means I cannot post at the weekend. On Saturday I did my weight and measurements but I use a website to do the calculations so I couldn't do those and couldn't post. As it is the end of the month in a couple of days I wont bother trying to do a belated weekly check-in.

Until I have internet back on at home all I can do is post from work during the week :-(

Training the Legs, Sampling the Squat

I don't really post much about my weight training but I probably should because its an integral part of my fat loss plan. Generally speaking, when I find something that works and I like it, I tend to stick to it. This is the case in exercise, diet, well anything really.

When it comes to weight training I've always done my own thing, and designed my own workouts. However when I joined my new gym a few months back I let one of the trainers design a routine for me and I decided to give it a good go. The one thing I didn't like too much was the leg workout. I had two major leg exercises - step ups and lunges. I hated them both :-)

The Big Three of Weight Training

I got rid of the step ups a few weeks back and replaced them with deadlifts and I felt okay about that as the deadlift is generally accepted as one of the big three of weight training. The big three are bench presses for the chest, squats for the leg and deadlifts for the back and legs. Even though the deadlift is more of a back exercise, as I use fairly light weight at the moment I feel it on my legs more than my back. If that changes I would move it to back day and try something else for legs. Being a rather short woman, I do the sumo style of deadlift which is described very well by Mistress Krista here.

I still had the lunges. I spoke to my trainer about them last week and she urged me to continue with them saying "but they're so good!" Yeah they are but I hate them, they hurt my ankles. Over the last two weeks I've been trying really hard and I've upped the weights but yesterday morning I found myself almost falling over; I was wobbling all over the place. Enough! They had to go!

Introducing the Squat

I had a chat with one of the other trainers, Peter, who used to be a power lifting champion (I must grab his surname so I can Google him!) and he pointed me at the Hack Squat. There's a lot one can say about the squat. In bodybuilding circles it is known as probably the best exercise you can do for the legs, and maybe even the whole body. However, in casual gyms almost nobody squats. It is difficult to squat correctly and it can be very dangerous if done incorrectly and there is always the danger of getting stuck if not performed inside of a rack.

However there are many versions of the squat and nowadays many can be performed inside machines that take away some of the danger. The Hack Squat is one such exercise. It is performed leaning slightly back, your lower back is fully protected and the machine provides brakes so you can stop and escape if you cannot push yourself back up. This is one of the advantages of belonging to a good gym; you just can't do these kinds of exercises at home unless you have some serious cash to spend on equipment.

I quite liked this machine as it protects the lower back and you are relatively safe because you can put the brakes on at any time. I just had a play with it to start with without using any weight and Peter suggested to get used to it for a while before piling on the weight. I've added that one to my routine.

Smith Squat

He also showed me a squat using a Smith's Machine. I didn't really want to try that as I've had horror stories about Smith's Machine but I had a quick go anyway. Hmm that was a mistake. I felt a twinge in my knee and it was playing me up all day until about 5pm. It hurt every time I went up or down the stairs at work. I wont be trying that again.

Holding onto the Treadmill for Dear Life!

In the gyms that I frequent I often see the following phenomenon… Somebody starts working on the treadmill and begins to jack up the incline but they put the incline so high that they can’t actually work at that level so they have to cling onto the bar just to stay on the treadmill.

Last week I saw a really extreme example of this behaviour. A man who often seems to do things very strangely in the gym set the incline level at what I can only assume to be the maximum. In order just to keep himself from flying off the thing, not only did he have to hold on tightly but he also leaned back so that the angle between his body and the base of the treadmill was the same as if he was standing normally with the incline flat.

I couldn’t find any pictures of anybody doing this so let me try to illustrate with some silly diagrams!

Diagram 1 - Running on flat treadmill

Ok diagram 1 here is pretty standard – the treadmill is flat and somebody is running (or walking) without holding onto the bar. Look at the dotted red line. This serves the highlight the angle between the runner and the running surface. Here it is clearly a right angle: 90 degrees.

[Edit] Oh bugger, there's no dotted red line in that picture! Well I could recreate the picture but it would be easier to ask you to scroll down at look at diagram 3 which has the red line in the same place! Oooopsie! :-)

Diagram 2 - Running on a high incline

Now in diagram two the runner has increased the incline of the treadmill but he is still running and not holding on. Because of gravity, humans need to be positioned at a right angle to the core of the earth. The treadmill provides an artificial ground for the runner and in order to stay on the treadmill and not fall off, the runner has to effectively learn forward to keep the centre of gravity positioned correctly through his body.

What the incline of the treadmill does here is increase the angle between the runner and the artificial surface beneath him. Notice how that angle is larger (or smaller depending on which of the two angles you are looking at! I’m looking at the one to the left of the red line.) That’s what gives him the extra resistance and thus makes the run harder. Basic principles at work here.

Diagram 3- Holding on to a treadmill on a high incline

So far so good but look what happens when the runner decides that he can’t actually run at the incline he has set so instead decides to hold on. What usually happens is that as he holds onto the bar he effectively hangs his bodyweight off it which changes the angle of his body – he is now positioned once again at a right angle to his artificial ground. This means that the resistance that he tried to increase by increasing the incline is effectively cancelled out by his need to hold on.

Now this diagram is an extreme example but this was exactly what I saw in my gym last week. The angle was so high that I couldn’t see how anyone could get up a hill like that without holding onto something. This man was literally holding on for dear life and as I watched him I could see the angle of his body positioned just like the one in my diagram above.

So What? What Does it Matter Anyway?

This guy is kidding himself. He thinks he is pushing himself to the max by setting the incline so high and yet he is defeating his own efforts by having to hold on. Of course I also see many people holding onto the bar even when the treadmill is flat. This carries health problems of its own and a quick Google search will reveal lots of informative pages about that. However what I would really like to get across is not so much the health problems of holding on exactly, but the fact that this man is sabotaging his own efforts and tricking himself into thinking that he is working much harder than he is.

This is a recurring theme in the fat loss and fitness arena. I have been guilty of kidding myself in so many ways over the years and it is only now that I am starting to see where many of us are going wrong. I think it’s important to highlight the ways in which we do this to ourselves because there is nothing worse than coming to the end of the week where you think you have eaten well and exercised well and you do your weighing and measuring and do not get the results you expect. You wonder why your plan doesn’t seem to be working when you are obviously doing everything right.

I’m going to start a new category for this post and I’ll be putting in quite a few more articles in it in the coming weeks.

Year 2, Week 2 Check-In

After my small weight gain at my last check in I made more of a concerted effort to work a little harder in the week gone past. I did still indudge more than I should have (especially at the weekend) but I much preferred my new exercise routine and the results have come out quite well:

Weight: 10st 10.75 lbs
Weight Change: -1.75lbs
Body Fat: 30.5%
Body Fat Change: -0.7

One thing that strikes me immediately is that a loss of 1.75 lbs is a lot for me in one week. I did not follow my plan perfectly and I highly doubt I actually burned that much fat. What I suspect is that the previous week on weigh day I was experiencing some fluctuation and I was just having a heavy day. It then dropped off and has showed up on the scales this week instead. I get a lot of fluctuation and it is something I am going to post about in more detail in the near future.

I seem to be back on track but I have still had some issues. I didn't go running this morning and I don't think I will tomorrow morning either. I really don't look forward to it; I dread it and that's not how I want exercise to be. This last week I replaced two of my runs with cardio sessions down the gym and I really enjoyed them and when I enjoy it I work hard and it pays off. I'm changing my routine again slightly to get rid of the running entirely. I still want to exercise daily so if I don't run the only proper exercise I have available to me at the weekends is weight training so that's what I'll do.

This is my new routine for next week:

Monday: Weights (morning), Karate (evening)
Tuesday: Cardio (morning)
Wednesday: Weights (morning), Karate (evening)
Thursday: Cardio (morning)
Friday: Cardio (morning)
Saturday: Weights (anytime)
Sunday: Weights (anytime)

One thing I was unable to do all last year is to break the 30% body fat barrier. I would really like to do that soon but I have to stop pigging out at weekends! Right now I am posting this from my friends house (my broadband box got fried yesterday when our house got hit by lightning!) and we've been pigging out on crisps, dips, donuts... yum :-)

The Different Types of Body Fat

I've recently been learning a little bit about the various different types of body fat and thinking about how that affects my health and my fat loss. There are three primary types of body fat:

• Subcutaneous - sits underneath the skin
• Visceral - deposits around the internal organs
• Intramuscular - is weaved throughout our muscle tissue

The subcutaneous fat is the stuff we see on the surface, it's what's makes us flabby and wobbly. Got bingo arms? That's the subcutaneous stuff! This is the kind of fat that I suspect most women are thinking about when they want to lose fat. Losing this kind of fat will make you look leaner.

The visceral fat is hidden away but this is what gives people that pot bellied look. Beware, this is the dangerous fat and makes you susceptible to obesity-related diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. Those of you who are more apple shaped than pear shaped have a tendency to store visceral fat.

The intramuscular fat is also hidden away. If you look at a cut of beef that has fat marbled through it - that's the intramuscular fat. I couldn't find very much information about this fat in relation to humans.

Measuring Body Fat

This new found knowledge has now given me a greater understanding of why different methods of body fat measurement can give such different results. When I first started out I used skin fold calipers. As these literally measure the size of a fold of skin they can only measure subcutaneous fat and so visceral fat is ignored.

When I started on my current plan I tried using a tape measure to estimate body fat and measurements were taken from the waist and the hips. I was shocked to find a difference of 8% in the two readings! My tape measurement put me at 40% body fat and the calipers at 32%. What does this tell me? That I carry more visceral fat than subcutaneous fat and the mirror tells the same story - my belly pokes out like a football. A year ago I could make myself look six months pregnant by pushing out my belly!

My recent results are also correlating the conclusions that I have reached about my body fat. About a month ago I lamented the fact that I had not yet seen any grand transformations; that I seemed to be just a smaller version of my former self. This is also indicative of the loss of visceral fat - my belly has got smaller but I have not lost much of the outer fat. I've lost some of course but not as much as I would have hoped for.

What Does This Mean?

First of all everybody is different. Two people who weigh the same and have the same levels of body fat can still look quite different if their fat is made up differently. The person with high visceral and low subcutaneous may look quite lean but still have a sticky-outy-belly. A person with the opposite ratio can have a slim figure but still look flabby and soft.

Armed with this knowledge I can see an obvious question - how do I lose a particular type of fat? Answer: you don't get to choose the type of fat you lose any more than you can choose where you lose it from, so you can banish those illusions of losing the subcutaneous fat from your right kneecap on Saturday's workout! Fat is lost all over the body and of course Sod's law says that the fat you most want to lose will come off last.

We need to lose the visceral fat for health reasons and we want to lose the subcutaneous fat for vanity but we have no control over the precise mechanics of it. The advice then is simple - no matter how your body is composed, if you want to be healthy and look good then you just need to keep working at lowering your body fat until you have achieved both of those aims.