My weight has bounced around a lot this week. I was moving from one side of town to another and had a tremendous amount of physical workouts each day. I stayed on the diet with only a few unavoidable meals that had some carbs. I am also testing a fiber cleanser for intestinal health which may be throwing the other parts of the diet off. Once again, my theory of diet and exercise has been proven! That theory: if you just want to loose weight then diet only. You will not loose as fast if you add exercise too soon.

Its better of course to diet and add exercise but I feel it is more goal oriented to drop the pounds first then go work out. Each week I have had physical workouts; I’ve either gained or lost very little weight.

OK now for the numbers, which are not all bad…My weight this week is 165 up two pounds form the week before. This is truly my plateau for weight loss, I’ve been floating around this number for weeks! That said, I checked my measurements and my stomach shrank a half inch, I am now at 16% body fat. Big improvement over 22% where I started.

It’s the difference in having 26 pounds of fat (still need to loose more of that) vs. almost 39 pounds when I started. This reaffirms that the weight I am loosing is fat and not muscle, so it’s all good.

Here is the rest of the measures, which are up and down like crazy from last week.

Measurements for Week 8 Feb 19 2006

Height 5-8
Weight 165.00 up two (sigh)
Stomach 33.5 down .25
Thigh 21 up .50
Chest 40.50 up .50
Bicep 12.50 same
Waist 32.00 down .50
Wrist 7 up .5
Ankle 8.5 up .25
Neck 15.5 down .25
Body Fat .16% down 1%

With all the lifting and walking I did while moving, I think many of these numbers may shift over the next week. We will see…

I have to say I was threatening my body to get back on the weight loss track, because gaining a pound the week before was unforgiveable! I’m joking of course, I lost inches even with the fluctuation in pounds so it’s all good. Happily, my weight this week is much more agreeable, I weighed in at 163, with some nice losses in my target areas as well.

Here are the measurements for Week 7 Feb 12 2006

Height 5-8
Weight 163.00
Stomach 34 down .75 (yes!)
Thigh 20.50 down .50
Chest 40.00 down 1
Bicep 12.50 down .25
Waist 32.5 same
Wrist 6.50 down .25 (which explains why my watch keeps slipping)
Ankle 8.25 same
Neck 15.75 up .25
Body Fat .17% down 2%

Aside from dropping a few inches overall, I was glad to see my body fat percentage come down-as this indicates the loss of fat rather than muscle (very important factor to monitor on low carb diets).

For example my weight last week was 166 and my body fat was .19-this resulted in 31.54 pounds of fat in my overall body composition. Can you imagine so much in one place? Actually it’s spread out all over and you need some of that to live, so it’s not bad when the number is in balance with the rest of your body.

Scientists recommend you get closer to 15% or even 10% if you are athletic. With the changes in weight and measurements this week I dropped 2% or almost 4 pounds of fat. -Nice!

I’ll be adding more physical activity to my diet in the next week so it will be interesting to see how things shift. I also changed the kind of diet bar I have been eating for breakfast, which may be helping pounds melt off. I was eating the Atkins Advantage bar, but they are so darn expensive, that I switched to the Carb Wise brand. Carb Wise has this “s’mores” flavor that makes a great snack as well.