NSV: Body measurements

Since last month I have lost:

2 inches from hips

2 inches from waist

1 inch from thigh

1 inch from bust

1 inch from upper arm

I'm trying not to think about the scale not moving in three weeks; I was up a pound this morning 

You strike me as a tracker. If you track things closely, especially food, you'll do great.

Do you have a fitbit? There is a great website called Trendweight. It graphs your weight, and evens out the small bumps to reveal  the bigger, long-term picture. It also extrapolates to show you a future graph, and when you can expect to reach your goal weight. The more data points it has, the more accurate it can be. I found it great, and very accurate. But the only way Trendweight can import weights is from Fitbit. And Fitbit got mine from MyFitnessPal. Everything gets connected.

I should start tracking things in My Fitness Pal or Fitbit again. I write everything down in a notebook but not calorie counts, just protein and ounces of fluid. I didn't know if calories meant that much this soon after surgery (5 weeks)

I do have a Fitbit and I like it a lot. I will have to try it and link everything up.

But I don't have a WiFi scale.

You don't need a wifi scale. Just a fitbit account. You can enter weights directly into fitbit, manually. Or if you enter weights in MyFitnessPal, link that account with Fitbit, which will import the weights.

I highly recommend weighing your food and tracking closely. It has really kept me on track. And if you hit a stall, you'll have the facts with which you can reassure yourself. If you are just guessing at portions and calories, you just won't know.

Thanks, Grim. Do you know how to link up the accounts? My tech brain hasn't been working lately.

It's been a while. In MyFitnessPal, try Apps, and Fitbit, and I think you can link yhem there. In Fitbit, click the gear icon in yhe upper right, than go yo Applications and linkkyo MyFitnessPal. I think.

It's well worth doing.

It worked :) fitbit and MFP are linked. I'll try the Trendweight thing.

Great way to keep focus during a stall!

I also calculate % Body Fat

You take 3 readings - Abdomen (at belly button), then put your right leg on a chair (knee at right angle) and measure your right thigh and right calf, all in inches:

%BF=AB*1.1876 + Thigh*1.22366 - Calf*1.4461 - 21.4

I lost the book where I got this equation - it is for women who exercise to calculate % body fat.  Over many years and many different diets, I have found the equation to give a good appox of the change in body fat.  So if this equation tells you that you went from 48.4% to 46.1%, you prob did lose 1.7% BF, but I can;t guarentee that you are at 46.1%. 

I have found this to be true of the fancy scales that calc BF - they track the change accurately, but the exact number may not be correct. (for any engineer/science type - I find the results precise, but not accurate, so the change is a good number). I only do this once a month, because it takes awhile for measurements to change.

FYI - Here's a link for the US Navy's Body Fat calcualtor

https://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/body-fat-calculator-n avy

The Navy?!

I didn't follow the link... my husband was in the Navy for 14 years. The way they track body fat is waist measurement minus neck measurement. So, if you have a 40" waist and a 19" neck, you have 21% body fat - even though you're 5'7, and pass your fitness test. If you are 6'3, have a 41" waist and a 17" neck - you have 24% body fat and you fail. You then take a class where the 5'7 guy eats donuts on the bleachers while telling you that you are lazy and eat too much while forcing you to run 1.5 mi and do 100 sit ups and 50 pushups each morning for 6 weeks.