BMI/ Fat Loss

Question
Hi!  I'm on a health kick now.  Or I should say I'm really trying to change the way I eat and make a more healthy me.  I've gone a week without eating any of the things I normally eat.  I love fried foods, Chinese, pizza...pretty much everything that's bad for you, and I've had none of that for a week.  I don't count calories but if I were I'd say over this past week, I've been doing about 1400 a day, if that.  That's fantastic for me! I've been eating vegetables and snacking on healthy things often to keep from starving and making a bad choice.  Anyway, I own a fat loss monitor, and before my "diet" started, I calculated BMI and body fat.  A week later (today), I did it again.  My BMI has dropped a total of 1.1 which is great but my fat percentage actually went up .1%.  I'm not expecting miracles.  I'm fully prepared to work and eat right and exercise.  I'm not looking for fast results, and it would have been fine if it'd stayed the same or went DOWN .1% but UP bothers me a little.  Should I be worried?  Is BMI more important?

Answer
Sandy-

Man I had along answer and erased it by accident I hate that :)

Number I wanted to congrats you on the new you. Your doing it smart dont track calories and over complicate this, Just switch to eating real foods 95% of the time and youll make great progress to a healthy you. Make sure you eat enough and if its good food youll be great. Lots of meats, fish, eggs, dairy, veggies and fruit. Limit the processed carbs and grains etc and sugars.

BMI? NO BMI is worthless and need to be throw out with he trash. It was never a good and never will be a good method. I know a LOT of athletes my self included walking around carrying a LOT of muscle and low body fat and we come in on BMI standards as obese. Heck I am stage 3 obesity by BMI and should be dead yet Im a nation all record holder and carry 238+ lbs of lean mass. You want o track BF% and how much muscle you have and how many inches you lose. The good thing is likely that device you used was wrong Those bioimpedance devices are about as accurate as shaking a magic 8 ball and asking it what BF% you are. If you want an accurate reading go to someone qualified and get a caliper reading done or better yet ultra sound like we use or hydrostatic testing done

What I suggest is you throw the scale and that device out in the trash as both are worthless and start tracking your progress by simply your measurements. How many inches you lose, how your clothes fit, and how you feel and perform. Those are the true indicators. If you are being active like you should be to preserve or evn gain muscle while your dieting and for general health its likely you could even gain weight some weeks and still lose inches as muscle is much more dense then fat. Muscle is also your metabolism its your furnace and make you feel good, makes life easy and lifts all those place you want lifted,

get plenty of good food, track your progress maybe weekly or bi weekly and enjoy the life style have fun and dont even think about body weight or BMI


For more info you should join our free discussion forum, you will get lots of great advice and discussion there www.teamstaley.com start a training log. We can help with training, diet and then give advice on supplementation

Phil
www.staleytraining.com

I also ask you to take a look at my charity strength event with proceeds going to support Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Look at the online raffle make a donation no matter how small they all help the cause and give you a chance of winning some great prizes at the same time
http://www.lift4hope.org

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