My original plan included a goal of reducing my body fat percentage to less than 10 percent. I have done this before. I got as low as 8 percent a few years back but it took an extreme diet combined with six hours of cardio and weights a week for an entire year. I met with a personal trainer once a month and my body fat was calculated using calipers strategically placed all over my body.
Last night I decided that I had better find simple mathematical way to determine my body fat percentage as I am not going to a gym and I am not using a personal trainer. Not at this point anyway.
Right now it's all me ... in the basement with exercise DVDs, a treadmill, and weights. Oh, and most importantly......... NO EXCUSES!
So after sleuthing the net for an hour and testing out the many online calculators I found that the two main calculators gave two very opposite results. One indicated that my body fat percentage was 29.59 % and the other 35.58.
Okay, okay, now before you break up laughing at me attempting to hit the less than 10% mark let me also add that using the same calculators to achieve my goal I would have to weigh in at 97 and 77 pounds respectively. Hmmm .... I'm 5'4'' and uuuuhhh that's not gonna work. I'm shooting for buff, stealth, strong, and ripped.
So I am still up in the air on this one. Anyone have any ideas? I would really love an easy to calculate, useful formula.
This is a work in process! Keep thinking!!! What do you do to gauge your fitness successes?
Hey Lorii:
ReplyDeleteMaybe a safer and more accurate way to measure yourself would be by body mass index. Using the BMI, you can be within a range of "healthy". There are scales out there that even calculate BMI for you when you weigh yourself. If you got down to 97 lbs or worse 77 lbs! you will look like a skeleton!! Really Lorii, you want to be fit and healthy, not skinny! Careful!!
BTW, I have taken on your challenge myself, and I have set my goals. I'm with you through this, way to go Lorii for putting this challenge out there! My calorie intake is a bit higher than yours, I trust I am as sucessful as you are!
Beth