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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Weigh In: Fat vs. Muscle Edition

Another week gone. I love that the scale is out of sight and reach during the week. It forces me to focus on doing well, that day, because I can’t know if the scale is reflecting it.

This week’s numbers:

Starting6/88/199/3010/2911/1912/311/71/141/211/28
Weight200191.2182.6181181.4177.6177.2176.6175.8174.8174.6
Lbs. Fat82.772.570.370.868.167.166.967.666.565.3
Lbs. Muscle 67.366.865.267.363.363.963.96565.164.4


Well, look at that fat number back down! I’m so, so close to having more muscle weight than fat weight. That feels like a huge milestone. Net weight is about the same, but (as should be obvious from my previous post) that’s not shocking. Another funny thing is that my fat loss is higher than the total loss on the scale!




Now that it's just three weeks till my 26th birthday, I think my goal of getting to the 160s might not be in reach. I'm going to keep trying, of course, but my second goal/deadline is to get there by the end of February.

This has been a good week overall, despite the PMSing (see previous post for how that was). I worked out five times, with some strength training, brought my lunch in every day, and have been a faithful food tracker since June. 


However, I repeated my tired pattern of going overboard on Friday and Saturday and having to reel it in the rest of the week. Because it’s been a while, here is the calorie breakdown for this week (first number is gross calories, second number is net calories, so if there’s one number it means I didn’t work out):

Wednesday: 1530, 1100
Thursday: 1625, 1245
Friday: 2520, 2175
Saturday: 2200
Sunday: 1600, 940
Monday: 1585
Tuesday: 1350, 1100


So four low calorie days, two high calorie days, and one in the middle, for a net deficit about about 2260, or a little over half a pound. Obviously not ideal, since I’m aiming for a pound a week, but honestly? I’m okay with it. I really think that what I’m doing now, how I’m doing this, is a way that will stick. .6 pounds a week adds up to 30 pounds in a year. That means that if I do all the weeks exactly as I did this one, I would be at 145 next year - a weight I’ve NEVER been at as an adult.




Does it sound like I’m rationalizing a not-great week? Maybe I am, but I’m okay with that. So every week, I’m going to aim for a pound deficit - a great, sometimes lofty goal. But I’ll know that even if I can do half that, I’ll make incredible progress.

Do you have trouble going overboard on weekends?

How do you make the best of it?

4 comments:

  1. I think you're right; the pseudo-calorie cycling you're doing is how it's going to stick. No two weeks are going to be the same, and you want to live a little, right? That doesn't mean you can treat weekends like a free for all, but if you're aware of what you're doing and get in to the groove of balancing it out, it will help with the maintenance mentality once you hit your goal weight.

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    1. Absolutely! Weekend haven't been a complete free for all, but I definitely need to work on reeling it in.
      Stagnating is just maintenance practice, right?
      *She said as she torched her scale*

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  2. I firmly believe that if we are eating predominantly healthy, non processed foods (fresh veggies, good protein, healthy fats and nuts, a little dairy and fruit)...the calories won't matter so much. You are doing well. Not every week is going to be home run numbers; some times our bodies just need to catch up. :)

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    1. I would love to be able to live like that someday, focusing on a good diet and not calories! Right now my food intuition is nada, but I'm working on it.

      Yes, I often feel like the scale/my body are two weeks behind what's actually going in my mouth or how much I'm moving.

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