Amazing News

So first of all we took Lisa over to Iowa City last night to have her feet re-examined at Running wild.  They moved her from a moderate support shoe to a neutral support shoe, hoping that her left foot would still not go numb, but that the pain she was experiencing in her right foot would also go away.  The extra support on the arch was causing her to run on the outside of her right foot.  She's at the gym trying them out right now!  Hopefully she comes home with Amazing News!

For me the amazing news happened at the YMCA shortly after 10am.  I made arrangements to take a long lunch today because the Y was offering free Body Fat testing with calipers, circumference measurements, and blood pressure readings.  Now I've been doing circumference measurements since December I've gone from a 39" chest to a 37.5" chest, measured under the pecs.  I've gone from a 41.75" hips to a 39" hips measured around the widest part of the hips.  I've gone from a 16.25" neck to a 15.25" neck, and from a 39.75" waist to a 35.25" waist measured 1 inch above the belly button(more of a belly measurement than a waist measurement).  I've also never had a problem with my blood pressure, today it was 120/68.  Usually its around 110/70.

What I was really excited for was the caliper testing of the body fat.  I've been using a floor scale at home that reads body fat % and hydration %, I've also been using the scale at the gym that uses electric current to measure body fat %.  I've heard and read that these scales are very sensitive to how hydrated you are and I've seen first hand that the scale can give me a 6-10% swing depending on what side of a workout I'm on. 

I've done some research on caliper testing and while it is more accurate than these scales there is human error involved and each person may test each subject a little bit differently.  I still was anxious to see how the calipers stacked up to the scales.  The scales have shown me anywhere from 12.7% to 24.5% over the last 2 weeks.  Usually my reading is between 16% and 22%.  I expected the calipers to come in around 15% body fat, but they shocked me by coming in at.... boy did I bury this lead or what....  10.9%  That's right I'm under 11% body fat, now accounting for error I could be as high as 15% but I'm much lower than I expected to be.

What this means most of all is that my weight loss goal of 165 seems to be unhealthy.  I had made that goal based on a body fat % in the mid to upper teens.  I have reset my weight loss goal to 170, and I've dialed back my daily plate goal to 1 pound per week.  And since I weighed out at 175.7# tonight I have 6 weeks until I hit my final number.