Allison's Journal

Awesome! 18% BF is in the "Athlete" category You are doing a great job girl, congrats!

18 is low-ish, you'd know if you were 18 or not

Well, Lu, the BMI is still in the 20s...I forgot what it was exactly. But he said the body fat was 18%. I'm just not sure I believe it. I left NC with a 30-something % BMI...he does his calculations slightly differently, so that might account for it. Not that I mind the lower numbers...just don't trust them! hehe

Body fat is pretty hard to calculate. The numbers don't generally translate from one guy to the next, or from one test to the next, but they are consistent within themselves. (If that makes sense?) They are really good for seeing change, if not for giving an actual number. Find one person, and one method, for calculating, and stick to that. The number itself may not be correct, but the change in the number will.

Does that make sense (I hope??) I never have mine done because the people at my gym are morons and I don't trust them to do it right. My sister can do it, but she's too far away for me to have it done regularly, so I just don't bother. (Though I really wish I did!)

Yeah, that makes total sense. That's how I've been looking at it...trying to see how it changes over the months. I would be interested to get it done where I had it the first time in NC and see what it measures there, so I can see my progress from earlier this year.

In any case, the difference is usually about 2-3%, max. So, erring on the far end, you started out around 28, and now you're at about 22-23.

Which is still a drop. (A nice drop, if I do say so).

There's no question, in my mind, that you are seeing a drop. You're not going to get 2 results that vary by over 10%.

Keep it up!!

Fat levels also of course vary on the body.

So a Waist and Quad measurement won't relate as much to a Bicep measurement, you'll just get an average measurement. Female Fat storage obviously more concentrated around the Laegs and lower Core.

BMI is not very accurate either, as it doesn't account for muscle mass. As you're easily going to be lifting, at least probably 2x what you started using by now, I think you could drop roughly a whole 1 off a BMI score you get.

So I put up some new body shots...I think I can definitely tell a slight change around my middle, and I'm loving my shoulder muscles, but the change is not as big as I might have liked. (I made my profile private...feel a bit more comfortable that way...so we might need to be "friends" for you to see the pics.)

I'm still hovering around the 180-183 lb range, which is my lowest adult weight, so that's something. I think I have more muscle now than when I weighed 182 before, so that's something else. I was kind of bad with my diet last week, so I'm reigning that back under control. Portion sizes at dinner are definitely my biggest problem.

Workouts still going well. I'm changing jobs this week, so I'll have to start going in the mornings instead of at lunch, which sucks. I'm very stiff in the morning and never get the same quality of workout. But I know if I wait until after work, I'll talk myself out of going, so such is life. Bonus is daylight savings time...getting up early to workout means getting up at the same time I was last week!

My trainer kicked my ass last Wednesday with a bunch of leg/ab work and my quads have been screaming ever since. Guess I need to do that again....

And PS, back to that Body Fat % thing, I guess when I think of 15% or 18% in my head, I see skinny people. So I'm not ready to believe I'm there yet.

You're looking a lot tighter, so you can be really proud of yourself.

Well done .

I agree.. You're looking GREAT... Keep it up...
P.S. Like the new pix