Holy smokes!

[LRB]

(Okay, "smokes" isn't really the word that comes to mind, but I wasn't sure epithets in thread titles would be such a good idea).

I just ran my weight and body-fat percentage numbers from last week, compared to the previous one. I weigh myself every morning, and then walk over to my little electronic body-fat monitor (which I know is not terribly accurate, but I'm willing to go with it) and use it. At the end of each week, I average out the daily weights and daily body-fat percentage, and call those my results for the week. I was a little disheartened when I did this today, because . . . well, here are my numbers:

Week before last: 143.36 lbs, 25.43% bodyfat

Last week: 143.07 lbs, 25.24% bodyfat

So, disheartening. I worked hard. Yes, I ate quite a bit, but I felt like I was being really careful over the course of the week, and I was upset that my weight had come down less than a third of a pound, and my bodyfat had decreased by less than a fifth of a percentage point.

Then I did some more math, multiplying to figure out how many pounds of fat I was carrying each week. And some more math, subtracting to see how much I lost over the one-week period. And I know it's not much, but I lost ONE POINT TWO-FIVE (1.25) pounds of fat over the week.

Ignore the previous paragraph -- my google spreadsheet was being wonky. I didn't lose that much fat after all; I lost about a third of a pound -- oh well . . .

So, maybe not a full-on woot after all. But I'll get there; mark my words.

[bigm141414]

That's awesome LRB! And yes, challenge goals can definitely be amended in light of this awesomeness.

[MintyFresh]

I'm sure you can change your goals. I'm impressed with your body fat/weight loss calculations! Good job on working hard.

[ETFnerd]

congrats on the loss LRB!

however i calculated 0.35lbs or 5.53oz... seems like that would be well within the error tolerance of you BF measurement...

it's a process and it looks like you're headed in the right direction...

[LRB]

congrats on the loss LRB!

however i calculated 0.35lbs or 5.53oz... seems like that would be well within the error tolerance of you BF measurement...

it's a process and it looks like you're headed in the right direction...

Thanks!

Perhaps you can tell me where I went wrong . . .

Week before last: 143.36 lbs, 25.43% bodyfat -- so, 143.36 * 25.43 / 100, which = 36.45 lbs of fat

Last week: 143.07 lbs, 25.24% bodyfat -- so, 143.07 * 25.24 / 100, which = 35.2 lbs of fat

Am I right so far? Or am I using the wrong equation? I'm trying to calculate pounds of fat based on total weight and what percent of that weight is said to be bodyfat (and trying to even out the margins of error by averaging all the readings over the course of a week).

Then I take the 36.45 lbs from the week before last, and subtract the 35.2 lbs from last week, and get 1.25 lbs difference.

It is entirely possible that I'm approaching this the wrong way. If so, I'd love to be corrected so that going forward I actually know what's going on in my body.

Thanks!

[Waldo]

Your math looks good. Congrats.

I find keeping track of fat mass to be more accurate than weight when syncing with calories in/out.

[ETFnerd]

Last week: 143.07 lbs, 25.24% bodyfat -- so, 143.07 * 25.24 / 100, which = 35.2 lbs of fat

I'm getting: 143.07 * 25.24 / 100, which = 36.11 lbs of fat...

36.46 - 36.11 = 0.35lbs

0.35lbs x 16 oz = 5.53 oz

unless excel is caculating wrong...

eyeballing it, 1.25lbs would signify you lost close to 1% BF, but you said BF only dropped by 1/5th of 1% so the numbers didn't look right and i went through the calc...

[LRB]

You were right, I was wrong -- for some reason, my google spreadsheet was lining numbers up in new and interesting ways. It wound up multiplying my average weight for the week by my bodyfat percentage on Sunday (in the same row, but different column from the average bodyfat percentage).

Thanks for the reality check!

[ETFnerd]

it's one measure that is estimating reality subject to a wide margin of error... reality is that you're awesome...