Statistical Data

Sounds boring, I know. But fun for me. Thanks for trying to help me to post a table ladies (woohoo for TJ and Hadley!) but I will do this the lazy way I guess. Which is crappy because I like seeing things in chart and table form.

As of my fattiversary - July 15, 2009 (one year into the journey) - here are some numbers for you:

1. Clothing size decreased 5 (or is it 10?) sizes. I went from a size 24 to a size 14.
2. I lost 82 pounds total - I went from 288.5 pounds to 206.5 pounds.

Now I have some more numbers from the past six months. My trainer took measurements my first day but they have vanished. We did not realize this until we took measurements in January. I wish I had the original numbers because I am sure they would be far more impressive. If you haven't taken measurements (including body fat) you should. It is fun to watch the numbers. So from January 11, 2009 to July 15, 2009 (the bolded ones are the ones I am most proud of):

1. My weight went down exactly 40 pounds (a lot slower than the first 40 pounds).
2. Neck - down 1 inch
3. Chest - down 4.5 inches
4. Upper Arms - down 1 inch
5. Forearms - no change
6. Waist - down 7 inches (thank you zumba)
7. Hips - down 6 inches (thank you again zumba)
8. Upper thigh - down 4.25 inches (thank you turbo kick boxing and running)
9. Calf - down 1 inch

I do not discount all the weight training but there are certain aerobic activities that really help tone. I am a true believer of that now.

One last number to share. This one is body fat. My trainer never took it until June 4, 2009. I am not sure why. Perhaps he thought I would cry if he did it sooner and I came up over 50% fat (which I probably was). He has since learned, nothing about this makes me cry. It is what it is. This measurement was taken at the start of fat camp.

Fat camp side note for those new to my blog - you are probably thinking what the hell is she talking about? Well last summer (before I started this journey), I looked into sending myself to a fat camp for adults. I found them. They do exist. They are not close to home and they are very expensive. It would have cost me $4000 to $6000 for 1 or 2 weeks. Not really in my budget. I was very sad because it sounded awesome. So I looked at their programs and determined that they ate restricted calories and exercised for about 3 or 4 one hour periods per day. Last summer I was lazy and thought it was too much. During the school year there is no way I could dedicate that much time to exercise. So when this summer began (and I mean the day school got out) I started my own fat camp program (minus the going away to camp). I walk the dogs every morning, run and do personal training four times per week and fill the rest of my time with group classes from the lady gym. I try to get about 3 hours of exercise per day. This week I have been working on a pool workout as well. I also eat my 1600 calories per day that I have been doing since April.

So a few numbers from fat camp:

1. Weight - down 11.5 pounds (I know this does not sound like a lot for all my effort and I agree, however there are huge changes in my body)
2. Body fat - down 10.05% (yes you read that right, in 40 days I decreased my body fat by 10% - my trainer nearly shit his pants)

My body is officially less than one third fat (28.65% to be exact). I just looked it up and the average woman should have a body fat in the range of 22% to 25%. Watch out world, I am getting close to average!

Random thought on body fat percentages - they say our body is 70% water. If I am almost 29% fat too, then my bones and tissue only account for 1%? What about when I was 50% body fat? My percentages equaled over 100%? Or is there water in our fat? I teach 1st grade and the numbers need to add up correctly in my mind. So I try to push these random thoughts aside and try to enjoy being less fat.

Lesson learned from all this? Don't be afraid of numbers. Today they are what they are, but you can change them. And like many people say - if I can do it, you can do it!