2020 Weight Loss Challenge Thread

[Chance]

They are, over time, consistent with themselves as long as your legs aren't changing at a different rate than the rest of your body. The machines have no way of knowing if you packed muscle on to your chest and arms or lost more belly fat than hip fat.

A scale that measures from hand to foot can help mitigate that issue to some extent. They're still only a ballpark estimate though.

[jeep45238]

I'm less concerned about accuracy and more concerned with whether the device is precise relative to itself. That way you can still track changes. The article you linked to mentions the consistency of measurements:

It's far from clinically accurate. If you want really accurate body fat % numbers you'll need to go to a bod-pod.

The scales are relatively accurate for trends when compared to the same scale, and measured at about the same time of your day. They do have a switch button to change your generic composition from average to athlete, etc.. The biggest factor in these things is your hydration level, so if you develop the habit of weighing in first thing when you wake up you'll have a repeatable trend over the long term.

Ignore the features that state your bone density and stuff, they can't measure that.




Treat the body fat % on home devices the same way you should look at weight itself - a trend, versus what the number itself is saying at the moment.

[jeep45238]

12JAN2020
194.8lbs
22.3% body fat

05JAN2020
200.0 lbs - 23.1% bf

Did decent on the calorie counting, threw it in the towel Saturday knowingly by working the mini-fridge empty. Work resumes tomorrow.
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01JAN2020
201.2lb
23.3% body fat

[Trukinjp13]

1-12-20

263lbs. Managed to gain 25lbs in 2019, broken bones and laziness equals failure. Have been working out quite a bit and gaining lost strength back. But diet has been terrible up til now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[0ddl0t]

200 -> 198

Formerly bland & boring fruits almost taste like candy 12 days after giving up everything artificially sweetened.

[luckyman]

Weighed in at 191.2; down 1.8 lbs for the week. Been fighting off a bad bug I picked up during the Christmas holidays, so not much activity this past week.

This week is 189.6, down 1.6 lbs for the week. Pretty pleased since I went out to eat twice this week.

Next 10 days will be tough. First my daughter is visiting, and historically we've bonded a lot by going out to eat. Then I go on a business trip to Nashville, to a conference where all food and drink is paid for; I don't even have to do an expense report for most of it.

For both cases I'll need to be pretty careful about what I'm ordering, and limit myself to a max of 1 alcoholic drink a day. I find when I have 2 drinks, my self-control goes out the window on food and I end up eating way too much. I'll figure out some good dinner I can cook for my daughter one night that is super-healthy. And in general I'll probably need to go really minimal on the calories before dinner, just to give myself some wiggle-room on the dinners.

[GyroF-16]

This week is 189.6, down 1.6 lbs for the week. Pretty pleased since I went out to eat twice this week.

Next 10 days will be tough. First my daughter is visiting, and historically we've bonded a lot by going out to eat. Then I go on a business trip to Nashville, to a conference where all food and drink is paid for; I don't even have to do an expense report for most of it.

For both cases I'll need to be pretty careful about what I'm ordering, and limit myself to a max of 1 alcoholic drink a day. I find when I have 2 drinks, my self-control goes out the window on food and I end up eating way too much. I'll figure out some good dinner I can cook for my daughter one night that is super-healthy. And in general I'll probably need to go really minimal on the calories before dinner, just to give myself some wiggle-room on the dinners.

Sounds like you’re making good progress.

I eat dinner out 2-3 nights a week due to work schedule. I was able to consistently keep my weight loss goals with either a 5-mi run (or walk) or an hour on the treadmill before dinner. Then ordering a high-protein (often Cobb) salad with grilled chicken or salmon on it, and some form of vinaigrette dressing. I consumed over half my calories for the day at dinner (roughly 1000), and was able to go to bed with a full belly (salads are filling).

[luckyman]

Sounds like you’re making good progress.

I eat dinner out 2-3 nights a week due to work schedule. I was able to consistently keep my weight loss goals with either a 5-mi run (or walk) or an hour on the treadmill before dinner. Then ordering a high-protein (often Cobb) salad with grilled chicken or salmon on it, and some form of vinaigrette dressing. I consumed over half my calories for the day at dinner (roughly 1000), and was able to go to bed with a full belly (salads are filling).

I've got the exercise part of things pretty well down. Doing salads for dinner especially on business trips is a great idea. My wife fixes me a big salad with grilled chicken for lunch every day when we are both at home, but that tends to go out the window when I am travelling. And its pretty easy for me to behave at lunch when I'm travelling, moving the salad to dinner should help more.

[spinmove_]

1/1/2020: 241.8lbs.

Today: 234.4lbs.

[pangloss]

Something happened to me post holidays that I can't put my finger on. I shot up to 242 and my notes, confirmed with the wife, say I didn't consume any extra calories beyond my BMR on any day from Dec 25 to Jan 5. It has been extremely cold, -30F, for the last week and I'm wondering if my metabolism is doing something funky. I've been pounding the water due to the dryness, but I can't see gaining almost 10 pounds in just water. The human machine is a weird deal. Anyhow, it's seem to have arrested and I'm sitting at 234 this morning. My official weigh in is on Sundays, so we'll see what Sunday brings me.

I'll admit that a gain like that is demoralizing when you think you've been doing a good job. I keep telling myself that it's o.k. and I'll get back on top of it. I really haven't seen much of a loss since August, so I'm going to have to really start fine tuning things. I've been resistant to paying attention to micro nutrients, protein intake, etc., but maybe I've reached a point that cutting calories isn't enough.

Off to do more research.

Did your sodium intake increase just before you got those surprise 10 lbs? Every time I go to the Mexican restaurant it results in a weight gain well beyond the number of calories I consume there. It's the salt in the salsa (and probably everything else) that causes fluid retention. (I love salsa to the extent that I would live off of it if that was possible.) Usually the weight goes away by itself after a couple or three days days. At home sometimes I have meals that are considerably higher in sodium relative to what we normally eat and those seem to correlate with weight gain also. A couple of days ago I was up 4 lbs from two days previously, and there's simply no way I could have gained that through calories. Hitting the treadmill hard enough to break into a heavy sweat seems to help get get back on track, I presume through losing salt via sweating more than through burning calories.