Is That Number Really Me?

When you look at your starting calculations, you may be a little shocked or dejected.
Is this number really me?  The answer is Yes, and No.

One of the key things in transforming your body is to be able  accept the statistics for what they are, a number. Don't deny them what ever the reasons are - catch the excuses, dump "em and move on. Leave them behind.  For good.

But tomorrow is another day - and you need never have the same results again.  Right?

But don't let them define you.  You are who you are.  Despite what we think, no-one actually defines who we are by our weight, that is almost not seen - its who we are and what we say and do.  Don't lose sight of the wonderful creation that you are.

There have been a few questions about measurements - and to clarify - measure your waist around the smallest part you can find, and your hips around the largest part which may be your butt/thighs.  If you measured this incorrectly, send me your new ones and I will recalculate this for you.  If you haven't sent me your measurements yet, don't give up before you have started, still send them in.  The cut-off time is only critical from next week when I need to identify the top three place getters and cant keep waiting for late stats.

What do the stats mean?

The body is composed of different types of tissue, and we can roughly divide them into muscle and fat.  Muscle is dense firm and lean in shape, fat is light and lumpy.  The fat sits between the muscle and the skin and gives that wobbly look.
So Lean Muscle Mass - is how many kgs of your total weight is likely to be muscle.  You want this number to be big and to keep going up each week.
Body Fat is how many kgs of your total body weight is likely to be fat.  You want this number to be small and go down each week.
Body Fat percentage, is Body Fat (kgs) divided by Total Weight (kgs) x 100.
The chart below shows what levels of body fat percentages are healthy.

Also placing you at risk is a waist measurement above 80 cm for women and 94cm for men. Unfortunately not many men and women make this grade.  One of my goals for you - is to get you there.

You can expect to lose 1/2  % body fat per week as an acceptable loss.  This may be a lot more if you have a lot of weight to lose , and it may be less if you have very little to lose.  Don't worry about minor variations in the first few weeks, over the course of the challenge you will be able to see if the trend is going in the right direction and make the appropriate changes.

If you are not happy with your results - always feel free to ask me for advice.  I can't make the changes for you, that's your job, but I'm happy to problem solve with you.
Also - please share on this site.  Use the comments box below.  Sometimes I feel like a priest - everyone confessing their deep dark secrets about their weight, and their challenges, I don't want to break confidences, but little do they know that everyone else has similar struggles!  So share and support each other!