♦ weight
♦ cholesterol
♦ measurements

Matter? Nah! Morning Naked Weight…

I explained Morning Naked Weight in my 2nd blog. In case you missed that one here’s the 411…I get on the scale first thing in the morning in my birthday suit…no shoes, no clothes, right after I use the little girls room, and before I eat breakfast. Why is this important? It really isn’t, it’s just a number and there are more important results to consider in the fitbattle. I check my morning naked weight weekly on Friday morning and post it in my blog.

I’m happy with my current weight. My only weight related goal is to never see a number on the scale over 139 lbs. again. I think I need to get to around 133 to make sure I remain under 140, since weight fluctuations are unavoidable.

Numbers that matter…Cholesterol

During my annual physical, cholesterol is one of the many things my doctor checks. I started my fitbattle in May 2007 and I have my Cholesterol Panel results from June 2007. The numbers below represent my before and current results.

I’m extremely happy with my progress and now I can focus on tweaking my nutrition to achieve even greater results. I don’t want to think about the what the effect of doing nothing could have had on my wellness. Cholesterol is a direct contributor to cardiovascular disease, which can lead to strokes and heart attacks. Here are my numbers:

What does this all mean? My Cholesterol number of 201 is down 19%. My Good Cholesterol is up (yes this is good) and my Bad Cholesterol is down (yay) and now within the acceptable range. I accomplished this through nutrition and exercise. This was an important battle to win in my fitbattle and as a result I have reduced my risk of heart disease.

Other numbers that matter…Measurements

Have you heard of Body Fat Calipers? They are one of the tools that personal trainers use to measure your fat density, yes I said fat or your skin fold, to calculate how much subcutaneous fat (fat under the skin) you have. The measurements are used in a top-secret calculation (never to be shared with laymen like us – not really but you should let the experts handle this) to predict your Body Fat Percentage.

Here’s the deal…this is not a perfect science so the value of exposing my skin (fat) folds in the light of day is that it enables us (me and my trainer) to monitor my progress over time. Since there are so many different approaches to calculating Body Fat % it is important to have the same person do the measurements, otherwise they are not comparable.

Both Kurt (my first trainer) and Chris (my current trainer) measured me using calipers and a tape measure regularly to track my fitness results. Here are the beginning and current numbers for the time I’ve worked out with Chris.

What does this all mean? What numbers really matter? Depending on who you talk to or what website you read a woman my age is considered healthy if I maintain a Body Fat % between 20-25%, give or take a few % points. As of my last measurements I’m now in the healthy range – yay!

Another important number is the waist measurement. WebMD states that men with a waist circumference more than 40 inches and women with a waist circumference more than 35 inches have a greater risk of disease (diabetes and heart related diseases).

In case you care (and keep in mind, as I explained earlier, comparing measurements from two different people make the results even less accurate) my Total Inches when I started working out with Kurt were 154.5 and he calculated my Body Fat % at 37.7. Kurt did not calculate BF% the same way Chris does and I’m sure that he did not measure me at the same place on my arm and thigh as Chris does…hence the reason you really can’t compare the measurements from two different people with complete accuracy.

Want to read more about fat and the benefits of exercising and losing weight? Here are some articles that you might find interesting:

• The Truth About Fat
• Benefits of losing weight
• Benefits to Exercise
• Body Fat %