An interesting way to check your weight loss

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shaunshaikh
shaunshaikh Posts: 616 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Since I have been tracking my weight loss, I have been measuring my weight, body fat, and several other body measurements. Recently, I got the urge to graph my weight and my body fat to see how I was doing. I pulled the data from MFP by going to "Edit Previous Entries" and copying and pasting out all the numbers. This is what i ended up with:

weightlossprogress.png

But, that didn't REALLY tell me what I wanted to know. I wanted to know if I was losing too much lean versus fat mass. So, I calculated my lean and fat mass over time and graphed THOSE comparisons. This is what I ended up with then:

leanmassprogress.png

I thought that was really great to see. I can see now that my strength training regimen and diet have helped me to maintain my lean mass while I have been losing weight. I also can see that my lean mass trended down when I didn't lift enough weights and did too much cardio and that my lean mass trended up when I lifted weights more.

Very cool stuff!

Replies

  • hroush
    hroush Posts: 2,073 Member
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    very nicely done.
  • mcqlove87
    mcqlove87 Posts: 59
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    Wow, nice! :)
  • kim824
    kim824 Posts: 68 Member
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    Looks really cool. Maybe this is a really dumb question but- How do you measure your lean and fat body mass?
  • princesslmc2
    princesslmc2 Posts: 264 Member
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    This is fantastic (and I'm such a graph nerd!)... Would you be willing to share your spreadsheet? :)
  • shaunshaikh
    shaunshaikh Posts: 616 Member
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    Well, if you know your weight and body fat percentage, it is a simple calculation:

    Fat Mass = Total Weight * Body Fat Percentage
    For Example, a person who weighs 200 pounds and has 20% body fat would be...
    Fat Mass = 200 * 20% = 40 pounds of Fat Mass

    Lean Mass = Total Weight - Fat Mass (or Total Weight * (1 - Body Fat %)
    For Example, a person who weighs 200 pounds and has 20% body fat would be...
    Lean Mass = 200 -40 = 160 pounds of Lean Mass
  • bertie36
    bertie36 Posts: 8
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    way to go mate, i love visual aids!

    what have you been doing to increase the mass but keep the fat down? i have lost 3st but now want to bulk a bit more but keep the fat down. i run x3 a week a do home gym (body weight, dumbells and gym ball) and seem to run steady at 155lbs. i measure my body fat with scales and am generally around 18%. any tips would be greatly appreciated!!!
  • shaunshaikh
    shaunshaikh Posts: 616 Member
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    I incorporate a mix of heavy weight lifting (ideally 3x per week), moderate cardio, and intervals (basketball and ultimate frisbee, to be honest) into my weekly workouts. For my diet, I try my best to eat foods from whole sources, get 1g of protein for every pound of lean body mass, eat 5-6 servings of veggies a day, get enough fiber, drink enough water, and stay away from saturated fats (although I do not shy away from healthy fats like unsalted nuts). Honestly, I am more off-the-mark than on and my results have definitely slowed. I expected them to slow at this point, though. Going from 20% body fat to 18% was exponentially easier than going from 18% to 16%.
  • DebiP10
    DebiP10 Posts: 275 Member
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    Oooooh i like the look of this, i want one :laugh: shame im a thicko when it comes to graphy things :blushing: maybe im a secret blonde :wink:
  • bertie36
    bertie36 Posts: 8
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    nice one, sounds like i am on the right track i just need to tighten up my diet a bit!

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