Weekly Weigh-Ins
Startling Undulations
Over the last two weeks my weight has formed something that looks a bit like a letter “W” written by a dying man.
I can’t really explain the wild dips. It may be that I’m not weighing myself at the same time every day (I’m not), or it may be that sometimes I weigh myself before eating and sometimes after. But you wouldn’t think that these factors would lead to such major differences day to day.
Foolishly I took this photo after today’s weigh in, so Monday the 27th appears on here even though it’s technically in week three. While I’m pleased to see my weight crashing below 170 today, I honestly can’t account for how it got there.
This Week’s Weight:
Monday: 176.6 pounds
Tuesday: 176.1 pounds
Wednesday: 174.4 pounds
Thursday: 173.9 pounds
Friday: 175.3 pounds
Saturday: 176.6 pounds
Sunday: 172.8 pounds
BONUS MONDAY: 169.1
What a puzzling roller coaster.
A more sober assesment
Whereas my weight was blown this way and that by the wiggles and gyrations of the scale, BMI is a stolid Yankee reacting to only the greatest shifts in weight with a gentle downward slope. While there’s no accounting Sunday and Monday’s sharp declines, it is heartening to see the line dropping toward normal as rapidly as a stock market crash.
This Week’s BMI:
Monday: 26.76
Tuesday: 26.70
Wednesday: 26.43
Thursday: 26.36
Friday: 26.56
Saturday: 26.76
Sunday: 26.20
BONUS MONDAY: 25.63
Measurements
This week’s measurements aren’t significantly different from last. It seems that if I’ve lost weight, it’s come off my butt. I’m okay with that, since my butt is extremely efficient at storing fat. My ability to do push ups, crunches, and squats has also improved. With both the crunches and the squats, I wonder if I’m doing them wrong. The number I’m able to do before my form goes to hell seems surprisingly high. My upper body is still too weak to do many push ups or complete a decent chin up. Unfortunately I don’t have a real chin up bar, so I’m using a loft bed which is less than ideal. Maybe that’s contributing to my failure, or maybe that’s just a convenient and ready excuse. Who’s to say?
This Week’s Measurements:
Height: 68″ (=)
Head: 22.5″ (=)
Neck: 15.5″ (=)
Shoulders: 44″ (=)
Chest: 36.5″ (-)
Bicep: 12″ (+)
Elbow: 11″ (+)
Wrist: 7″ (+)
Belly: 35.25″ (-)
Waist: 35.75″ (-)
Butt: 39″ (-)
Thight: 22″ (=)
Knee: 15″ (=)
Calf: 15″ (-)
Body Fat % Measured by Calipers: 22.1% (=)
Resting Heart Rate: 60 (-)
Max Push Ups: 25 (+)
Max Crunches: 110 (+)
Max Squats: 75 (+)
Max Chin Ups: 0 (=)
This Week’s Paunchy Photo!
July 27th 2009 Progress Photo - Slightly less colorful than last week!
Despite the wild ride my weight has been on these past couple of days, there isn’t much in the way of visible progress. I still have the pregnancy bump and need of training bra. When I was gaining weight I became bulbous so gradually that I didn’t notice anything was changing. It makes sense that the rate of change will be similar when losing weight. I probably need to lose a fair amount of fat before anything starts to visibly change. Still, it would have been nice if a couple of hours of waggle had translated into a completely transformed sack of me.
Wii Fit Age
If you’ve ever done one of Wii Fit’s body tests, you know that at the end of the test you are given a Wii Fit Age. The lower the age, the better. If this number was used to track your weight and activity level to form an index of your overall health, it could be very useful. Instead what it does is take your weight and your ability to stand perfectly still, and then adds to that two arbitrary tasks involving shifting your weight or standing perfectly still again.
Theoretically it’s measuring your posture, and this somehow relates to health. Practically, it’s not very useful. Nevertheless I’ve been tracking it. As you can see it is a capricious beast. But the overall trend is downward, which is apparently a good thing.
Numbers with something and nothing to do with overall health.
