Goal Achieved

Blair P. Houghton wrote:
|| Do I continue to cut fat, seeking that elusive six-pack, on
|| my slightly less impressive than expected frame? It'd be
|| a hell of a thing, a washboard on a body that once passed
|| for Santa Claus.

and be a whimp with abs?

||
|| Or do I start to hit the iron hard, jack a few stone onto
|| my rack--along with a little recidivistic padding--and maybe
|| try for a nice rip when I have more meat to help disperse
|| the ergs?

Bingo!

JIMO.

Roger Zoul said:

Blair P. Houghton wrote:
|| Do I continue to cut fat, seeking that elusive six-pack, on
|| my slightly less impressive than expected frame? It'd be
|| a hell of a thing, a washboard on a body that once passed
|| for Santa Claus.

and be a whimp with abs?

Hardly a wimp. I got lats, pecs, and tris; and fuhgedabout
my legs, you could sell them by the ton. Could do with
more in the delts and biceps, no doubt. First thing on
the poundage list.

Besides, I'd be a "wimp" with abs and exactly the same
growth potential, but with abs.

Never underestimate the power of visible aponeuroses.

Quoted message said:

|| Or do I start to hit the iron hard, jack a few stone onto
|| my rack--along with a little recidivistic padding--and maybe
|| try for a nice rip when I have more meat to help disperse
|| the ergs?

Bingo!

We named the DOG 'Bingo'...

--Blair
"This one time, at summer camp..."

Blair P. Houghton wrote:
|| Roger Zoul <[email hidden]> wrote:
||| Blair P. Houghton wrote:
||||| Do I continue to cut fat, seeking that elusive six-pack, on
||||| my slightly less impressive than expected frame? It'd be
||||| a hell of a thing, a washboard on a body that once passed
||||| for Santa Claus.
|||
||| and be a whimp with abs?
||
|| Hardly a wimp. I got lats, pecs, and tris; and fuhgedabout
|| my legs, you could sell them by the ton. Could do with
|| more in the delts and biceps, no doubt. First thing on
|| the poundage list.
||
|| Besides, I'd be a "wimp" with abs and exactly the same
|| growth potential, but with abs.
||
|| Never underestimate the power of visible aponeuroses.

Hmm....sounds like you found your answer! Get abs by summer.

||
||||| Or do I start to hit the iron hard, jack a few stone onto
||||| my rack--along with a little recidivistic padding--and maybe
||||| try for a nice rip when I have more meat to help disperse
||||| the ergs?
|||
||| Bingo!
||
|| We named the DOG 'Bingo'...
||
|| --Blair
|| "This one time, at summer camp..."

Roger Zoul said:

Blair P. Houghton wrote:
|| Roger Zoul <[email hidden]> wrote:
||| Blair P. Houghton wrote:
||||| Do I continue to cut fat, seeking that elusive six-pack, on
||||| my slightly less impressive than expected frame? It'd be
||||| a hell of a thing, a washboard on a body that once passed
||||| for Santa Claus.
|||
||| and be a whimp with abs?
||
|| Hardly a wimp. I got lats, pecs, and tris; and fuhgedabout
|| my legs, you could sell them by the ton. Could do with
|| more in the delts and biceps, no doubt. First thing on
|| the poundage list.
||
|| Besides, I'd be a "wimp" with abs and exactly the same
|| growth potential, but with abs.
||
|| Never underestimate the power of visible aponeuroses.

Hmm....sounds like you found your answer! Get abs by summer.

I was leaning that way pretty hard anyway; as a lifelong
endomorph (I've been showing off how much I can eat since
I was 5, and have never not had some sort of pot-belly
presence, even when cutting weight for wrestling in high
school) I have a major desire to be ripped at least once
before I take the dirt-nap.

But, being an athletic endomorph (exercising so hard I
drive all the intramuscular fat to the one place I don't
want it), I'm guessing I'm going to have to cut to 6% or
less to lean my belly. And I have to hope the lipocytes
haven't piled up so thick that I'll never see a real
abdominal gap.*

currently 9-15% BFP and 185 lbs

so 16.7 to 27.8 lbs fat; 157.2 to 168.3 lbs lean.

6% BFP is 94% LBM

so min 157.2/.94 = 167.2, max 168.3/.94 = 179.0 lbs final bodymass.

Between 6 and 18 lbs to lose.

At -0.92 lbs/week**, that's 7-20 weeks more work.

Which is a pretty wide spread. I tellya, if I hit 8
weeks and it looks too far out, it's going to be a serious
mental wall.

Honestly if I'm right about the 12% (sounds like it's time
to find a dunk tank) I think I'm at, then the goal should
be to keep at my current slopes and pick a spot around 13
weeks out to aim for.

I guess what I'm saying is, SUMMER HELL! ABS BY SPRING, BAYBEE!

--Blair
"It'll be near 100 here in Phoenix, anyway."

* - At my moderate rate of weight loss, I don't seem to be
having a big problem with skin piling up. It seems to be
atrophying rather than sagging excessively. But I do know
that lipocytes do not commonly die or get consumed; they
just shrink the mass of the sac that holds the fat droplet.
I refuse to use surgery or steroids to achieve what should
be a naturally achievable goal.

** - here's my tracking sheet, with the graph slightly cooked
to omit the first couple of weeks where I hadn't clued into the
fact that the caliper is very inaccurate when it's allowed to
decide the compressing force:

http://blair.houghton.net/bodyfat-20041223.xls

In MS Excel, that should display a linear regression
and a 7-day trailing average for each dataset. In OO.o
Spreadsheet, not so much. The slopes are given in L38-L40
in either case.

After all this, my opinion of do-it-yourself calipers
as bodyfat estimators is that they suck for absolute
measurements, but work extremely well for evincing
progress, which is way more important, because the
objective goal keeps your mind from inventing reasons
to quit. The subjective goal will always be visual
appeal of the results, which the caliper can't ever
determine anyway.

Blair P. Houghton said:

read tom venuto's book; switched to 5 meals

Liked his book, and he writes alot of online articles too. If you
havent read his 'The Truth About Stubborn Bodyfat' here's a bit of part
2 that might be of some help: http://skwigg.tripod.com/id46.html

Quoted message said:

Do I continue to cut fat, seeking that elusive six-pack, on
my slightly less impressive than expected frame?

Sometimes you'll find new tips from people who went to very low bodyfat
weight to get the definition they wanted. Check out Bob's
transformation pics and info on each section, especially his "Get Lean
Program' challenge: http://www.bodychangers.com/interviews.shtml
<<joni>>

joni said:

Blair P. Houghton said:

read tom venuto's book; switched to 5 meals

Liked his book, and he writes alot of online articles too. If you
havent read his 'The Truth About Stubborn Bodyfat' here's a bit of part
2 that might be of some help: http://skwigg.tripod.com/id46.html

Scariest part of that article: Frank Zane is in his 60's.

That's ironically making me feel really old, knowing he
was all over the pro circuit when I first started buying
muscle mags in my teens.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Do I continue to cut fat, seeking that elusive six-pack, on
my slightly less impressive than expected frame?

Sometimes you'll find new tips from people who went to very low bodyfat
weight to get the definition they wanted. Check out Bob's
transformation pics and info on each section, especially his "Get Lean
Program' challenge: http://www.bodychangers.com/interviews.shtml

A lot of those people are hitting the "fat-burning" supplements.

The only one I'll go near is caffeine, and that's just because,
you know, it's in coffee and tee and diet coke and that stuff.

I haven't even tried to caffeine-load before doing cardio*,
though I might try it once or twice to see what it feels
like. I'm sure I don't need it, and I'm pretty sure I won't
come to rely on it, I'm just curious to see if it's a drastic
effect.

--Blair
"Who, me? Waiting up to show Santa Claus
the new cuts in my delts."

* - the medical studies on this one look pretty sound,
and caffeine is safe in these doses, while stuff like
ephedra doesn't seem safe in any dose.

"Blair P. Houghton" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Roger Zoul said:

Blair P. Houghton wrote:
|| Roger Zoul <[email hidden]> wrote:
||| Blair P. Houghton wrote:
||||| Do I continue to cut fat, seeking that elusive six-pack, on
||||| my slightly less impressive than expected frame? It'd be
||||| a hell of a thing, a washboard on a body that once passed
||||| for Santa Claus.
|||
||| and be a whimp with abs?
||
|| Hardly a wimp. I got lats, pecs, and tris; and fuhgedabout
|| my legs, you could sell them by the ton. Could do with
|| more in the delts and biceps, no doubt. First thing on
|| the poundage list.
||
|| Besides, I'd be a "wimp" with abs and exactly the same
|| growth potential, but with abs.
||
|| Never underestimate the power of visible aponeuroses.

Hmm....sounds like you found your answer! Get abs by summer.

I was leaning that way pretty hard anyway; as a lifelong
endomorph (I've been showing off how much I can eat since
I was 5, and have never not had some sort of pot-belly
presence, even when cutting weight for wrestling in high
school) I have a major desire to be ripped at least once
before I take the dirt-nap.

But, being an athletic endomorph (exercising so hard I
drive all the intramuscular fat to the one place I don't
want it), I'm guessing I'm going to have to cut to 6% or
less to lean my belly. And I have to hope the lipocytes
haven't piled up so thick that I'll never see a real
abdominal gap.*

currently 9-15% BFP and 185 lbs

so 16.7 to 27.8 lbs fat; 157.2 to 168.3 lbs lean.

6% BFP is 94% LBM

so min 157.2/.94 = 167.2, max 168.3/.94 = 179.0 lbs final bodymass.

Between 6 and 18 lbs to lose.

At -0.92 lbs/week**, that's 7-20 weeks more work.

Which is a pretty wide spread. I tellya, if I hit 8
weeks and it looks too far out, it's going to be a serious
mental wall.

Honestly if I'm right about the 12% (sounds like it's time
to find a dunk tank) I think I'm at, then the goal should
be to keep at my current slopes and pick a spot around 13
weeks out to aim for.

I guess what I'm saying is, SUMMER HELL! ABS BY SPRING, BAYBEE!

--Blair
"It'll be near 100 here in Phoenix, anyway."

* - At my moderate rate of weight loss, I don't seem to be
having a big problem with skin piling up. It seems to be
atrophying rather than sagging excessively. But I do know
that lipocytes do not commonly die or get consumed; they
just shrink the mass of the sac that holds the fat droplet.
I refuse to use surgery or steroids to achieve what should
be a naturally achievable goal.

** - here's my tracking sheet, with the graph slightly cooked
to omit the first couple of weeks where I hadn't clued into the
fact that the caliper is very inaccurate when it's allowed to
decide the compressing force:

http://blair.houghton.net/bodyfat-20041223.xls

In MS Excel, that should display a linear regression
and a 7-day trailing average for each dataset. In OO.o
Spreadsheet, not so much. The slopes are given in L38-L40
in either case.

After all this, my opinion of do-it-yourself calipers
as bodyfat estimators is that they suck for absolute
measurements, but work extremely well for evincing
progress, which is way more important, because the
objective goal keeps your mind from inventing reasons
to quit. The subjective goal will always be visual
appeal of the results, which the caliper can't ever
determine anyway.

Another way of estimating body fat is the "Navy" method. It only involves a
couple of simple body circumference measurements, and the (taxpayer-funded)
research behind it seems reasonably compelling. I find the Navy method to
be easier to self-test too, but YMMV.

I've built this method into my WeightWare program (along with graphing,
etc.), or you can use this website (just ignore their subsequent
recommendations for Zone diet and "ideal" body weight):
http://www.he.net/%7Ezone/prothd2.html

--
GG
http://www.WeightWare.com
Your Weight and Health Diary

Quoted message said:

GOAL ACHIEVED

I stood on my scale this morning and, slightly surprised because
I "felt a little fat" today, I racked up a 184.5-pound reading.

My original, subjective goal - set this summer - of having
a six-pack by Christmas, was unrealistic and based on a
faulty understanding of the real depth of my fat content,
so when I clued-up I set an objective goal according to
how the graphs looked through October.

I've now reached my twin goals of a single-digit
minimum-BFP reading and a sub-185 weight two days before
my target date of Christmas day.

Good job. Losing weight during the holiday season is a difficult thing to do.

Quoted message said:

start end st.-end=lost
date date weight

2001/12 - 2002/02 252-246=6 getting out of a lonely and stressful
situation

2002/02 - 2003/01 246-236=9 generally eating better

2003/01 - 2003/12 236-199=35 one meal a day (occasional evening snack)
alcohol (2-10 drinks) daily; "beer&wings" 1-3
times a week; very light exercise

2003/12 - 2004/04 199-212=-13 in a new lonely and stressful situation

2004/04 - 2004/07 212-202=10 one meal a day; slightly less alcohol

2004/07 - 2004/09 202-197=5 added exercise; went into starvation mode;
refed;
read tom venuto's book; switched to 5 meals a
day; little alcohol, only on cheat days;
intense
daily exercise; appeared to stall

2004/09/29 - 2004/12/23 197-184.5=12.5 started tracking food to the gram,
and
BFP; occasionally appeared to stall, but
graphs
assured that plan was nominally on track

total:

2001/12 - 2004/12 252-184.5=67.5 lbs in 3 years

Or: 237 million calories extracted, countless lipocytes remaindered,
and eight holes retired on my belt (I drilled another today).

Not bad for a guy who turned 40 in the middle of it all.

The "very light exercise" was golf, 4-5 days a week,
either a bucket of balls at the range, or a round, usually
on a par-60 course (saving for bar-stool time), walking with
a pull-cart.

The intense exercise was either cycling or resistance training.

I exercised outside during warmer months (until the morning
was below 50F every day): 17.9 miles cycling 20-21 mph,
2-4 days in a row. Then I did a day of upper-body work
(after a 20-minute warmup on a stationary recumbent) in the
gym to discourage consumption of my shoulders and arms.
I did no weight-training on my lower body and no targeted
exercise on my midsection.

It became a strict schedule of being in the gym every
3rd day. The other two days were spin-class or a solo
spin-room ride. Occasionally (once every 1-3 weeks) I
did a hike or a pure-rest day instead of a bike day.

If a gym day fell on a spin-class day, I did the gym,
but otherwise, I was in the 8 a.m. class whenever it was
scheduled. Spinning with an instructor and other people
is a lot more fun and a lot less easy than it looks.
Eventually, I was doing HIIT on my solo days just to
pretend to get the same value out of it.

My min-BFP reading (i.e., what the caliper will let
me get away with) is now 9.0%. At 9% BFP, my LBM is
168. 252-168=74. 74/252=29% would have been my original
BFP. I may have gone from 29% to 9% bodyfat.

A "legal" reading using my caliper (a FatTrack II)
is observed to be plus-or-minus 3 percentage points,
meaning my minimum reading is probably about 3 points below
nominal. At 12%, my LBM is 162. 252-162=90 and 90/252=36%.
I've probably gone from 36% to 12% bodyfat. Is that a
better difference, 24 points vs. 20, or a lesser result,
12% vs. 9? Right now, I'm too stoked to care. And it's
only if I didn't lose any LBM with my haphazard dieting
before I started tracking BFP and deliberately eating and
exercising to maintain muscle. The mirror claims I didn't,
but then, it used to claim I wasn't a fat guy. I showed it.

So here I stand, upon my goal, looking at a road diverging.

Do I continue to cut fat, seeking that elusive six-pack, on
my slightly less impressive than expected frame? It'd be
a hell of a thing, a washboard on a body that once passed
for Santa Claus.

Or do I start to hit the iron hard, jack a few stone onto
my rack--along with a little recidivistic padding--and maybe
try for a nice rip when I have more meat to help disperse
the ergs?

--Blair
"A problem I'm glad to have."

LeftPinkyToe75 said:

Good job. Losing weight during the holiday season is a difficult thing to do.

Thanks much.

Yes, but I planned for it and decided that the holidays
themselves were days off from training, and within two
days after, I was back in at full speed.

I suppose if I weren't satisfied with a pound a week and
was trying to hug the 2-pound rail, it could have been a
much bigger bump in the curve.

Allowing the detours kept my sanity, and setting a
reachable objective goal kept me coming back to my
long-term focus.

--Blair
"Now all I need is to fend off that
bozo in the aerobics group who insists
I lost muscle..."