[Editor's note, sorry for the inconsistent math before correction. I wrote this before my morning Muscle Milk.]
Not quite a pound less than I was 9 days ago. Hummmm... kinda scarry eh? Nah, not really. I've been completely focused on lean weight this time.
- Nautilus-style workouts with free weights and machines.
- The ROM.
- The shake weight.
- Core training.
- Push-ups.
Everything is focused on muscle strength and tone. I do believe this is producing tangible results. All my resistance levels are rising. My muscle tone has improved dramatically in just 4 workouts. My muscularity seems to be rising. Muscle memory is a wonderful thing.
I've been aggressive about raising the resistance on the Elliptical Cross Trainer also. I am now working exclusively at level 16, which is very, very intense. At level 16, I burn 365 kcal in just 22 minutes. This is 16.59 kcal beyond RMR/BMR every single minute. That's pretty brutal baby. Most people burn 8-10 kcal above RMR on the bike or the treadmill. A woman performing 1 hour of aerobic dance will burn approximately 7.5 kcal about RMR for the duration. We're talking about a cool 221.2% increase in intensity over that.
Everything is getting easier, and my capacity to do work continues to grow. I can't help but think that my lean/fat ratio is improving.
Provided that my fat loss has been strictly average, I should have lost 0.5 pounds per day on each of the past 9 days. This means 4.5 pounds of fat loss. Knowing that I am scarcely 1 pound lower in terms of absolute weight, the indication is that I have regained 3.5 pounds of lean.
Is this possible? Yeah sure, given muscle memory, it is possible. Remember, I lost 2.556 of pure lean on the last test. That weight might have snapped back as a result of re-hydration. I might have added a new pound in the past 9 days.
If all this is true, my fat weight should now be approximately 57.5 pounds and my lean should be equal to (207.05 - 57.5 = 149.55). My BFP should then be equal to 27.77% this morning. This is progress folks; -2.03% of progress, to be precise.
Since I have been averaging 1% of fat loss per week for the duration of my testing, -2.03% in just 9 days is very fast-paced progress indeed. It is disappointing that such rapid progress still leaves me with 27.77% body fat, which is still considered obese and high risk. I still have a considerable distance to travel.
Is it legit to consider people with 27.77% body fat obese? Consider the following facts. When you go to the butcher's counter, lean ground beef contains around 10% fat. Not so lean beef contains 15% fat. Fatty pork contains about 20% fat. I contain 27.77% fat. I contain more fat than the ground pork on at the butcher's counter. I still contain my bones and my vital organs... at the present moment. If you made a fillet of Dave, that fillet would certainly contain more than 27.77% fat.
Now, isn't the fatter meat the tastier meat? Don't all the super-star chefs on the Food Network say "Zero percent fat, zero percent flavor"? Doesn't Michael Symon say that the most tragic term in the English language is "Lean Beef"? Of course they do.
But with that said, I still have rendering-out to do. I think it is fair to say a man should meet the standards of not so lean beef before we can call him healthy.
