MarkusDarwath Member

What's your average body temperature? That can play a role in the 'fast metabolism' thing. In my youth, I was one of the skinny guys who couldn't gain weight seemingly for trying. My normal temperature was 99.1F, half a degree higher than average. I'm not sure I could even begin to figure out the energy expenditure per…

They have Smith machines, which some people insist are dangerous because the strictly linear movement produces bad form, which can lead to injury. I haven't tried them, so don't know on that one. I will say that their other chest press machine has a rather unnatural feeling movement to it as well. The third bench press…

The biggest flaw with the navy formula is the neck measurement. It uses the assumption that the neck is one of the leanest parts of the body, so the thicker your neck is in comparison with your other measurements the more it will reduce your body fat calculation. Those with fat or unusually muscular necks will thus have…

"Overweight" would be a subjective visual assessment. Statistically significant increases to health risk begin at 25% (for men). Below that there simply is no verifiable and repeatable difference in health markers to assess a 'less healthy' category. There's just "underweight," "normal," "obese," and "morbidly obese."

Actually, there is no "overweight" category with body fat measurements. You are either obese (which simply means over-fat and at increased health risk) or not. OP: I would guesstimate your BF% at 20 or a bit under based on that pic. Mind you, visual guesstimates are the least accurate, especially from untrained random…

My weight is pretty close to OP's. Started 285 at the beginning of Jan. Down to just under 270... but I'm a 6'1" guy. My short term goal is to hit 265 by the end of March. Long term goal is 220 before Thanksgiving.

They can take my diet Pepsi when they pry it from my cold dead fingers. And even then I'll put up enough fight to not be the only corpse involved. :D

Actually, 10% BF at my current lean mass would put me (just) -within- BMI. I have no need or desire to get that lean. I'm actually shooting for 15%, which would put me at 203# at my current LBM... overweight by BMI. And no, I would not look like a "lifting bro" at those stats. The last time my weight was that low was a few…

Just curious, you're around 20% as measured by....? I find it interesting that people who support using BMI vs BF% don't wring their hands over their bathroom scale possibly being 3 to 5 pounds off, yet if one suggests tracking body fat then suddenly a similar margin of error is unacceptable.

I'm 6'1" and broad shouldered/large frame (my fingers don't meet when wrapped around the opposite wrist). If I weren't fat I'd be built like a viking. I'm definitely above average for overall size, but my musculature in comparison to my build is nothing extraordinary. Usually, when someone suggests that only 'outliers'…

True, though BMI doesn't even tell you if it's fat at all. Visceral fat does have some pretty specific indicators, like a large, round, yet taught belly. (I have much visceral fat. I need to lose probably another 10 pounds to get my blood sugar and cholesterol in line, then quite a lot after that to get into an actual…

The issue with that approach is, how do you define "close"? According to the BMI charts, I hit 25 at 189 pounds (I'm presently obese by any measure, no arguing against that). But according to my BIA scale and the Navy formula, which both also happen to line up well with BMI at my current size, my Lean Body Mass is around…

Good quality BIA devices are accurate enough to at least place most people in the right general range. So can calipers and the Navy calculation, but those take longer than "seconds" due to the need to take multiple measurements. Pretty much any means to analyze actual fat composition is going to be a better health measure…

This is the common assertion, but it is simply not true. BMI does not scale accurately with height, such that tall people, particularly those with large frames, are more likely to be above BMI 25 at a healthy body fat percentage, and they absolutely do not have to be very muscular or athletic for this to be the case. On…

The 25 came about when WHO got access to the numbers from several nations that they didn't previously have. Several of those, most notably Japan, were primarily genetically homogeneous cultures that tend toward slighter builds. Those averages really should not have been combined. For the Japanese, BMI 25 is already in the…

First, insert standard questions... how are you measuring your food; are you using a food scale; recording everything, etc? Also what is your height and weight, body fat percentage if you know it, what type of exercise are you doing and how intensely? There will be quite a bit of skepticism that one can actually eat under…

+1 to this. For those of us with insulin resistant diabetes, the glycemic index of a food is less important than it's glycemic load, ie. how many grams of carbs it contains in a serving. If you eat some watermelon, for example, it is a high GI food, so its carbs are processed and enter the blood very quickly..but.. we're…

Or if you are tall or short. The squared mathematical relationship in the BMI formula doesn't actually scale correctly with height. But for population studies, tall and short people balance each other out so that everything really applies to 'average'.

It's based on health risk. Up to the "obese" percentage there is no statistically significant increase in risk for cardio-vascular and metabolic diseases. The BMI categories, on the other hand, don't even correspond to the actual study numbers. Increased health risk actually begins at the top couple points of "overweight"…

BMI is proxy data for large population studies. It's use as an assessment tool for individuals is hugely flawed. Regarding obese BF%, welcome to the club. But that's why we're here, eh?

Regardless what method you use to determine BFP, be consistent in using that method. Pick a target somewhere in one of the ranges on the chart posted above, according to what you want to look like, and see if that number is what you were after when you get there. It's kinda like weighing on a scale, it doesn't matter if…

I'm confused by all these descriptions of carob. I always thought so-called "white chocolate" is carob. It too is a not-chocolate abomination.

I'm a huge fan of the fatty ends on bacon. I wish there was a product that is opposite to Sizzlean... Bacon with 50% more fat :)

Rule number one of the Zombie Apocalypse: CARDIO :)

I have a quibble on this point. In the case of protein, there is a huge difference between 'essential' and 'healthy'. Yes, we can live on essential levels of protein and fat and get the rest of our energy from carbohydrates, but to truly thrive requires significantly more than essential levels of protein in order to…

I'm not vilifying carbs. I never claimed that 'not necessary' equals 'bad'. These associations some of you are leaping to are coming from someplace other than my actual words. My position is and has been, for some people it makes sense to limit the grams of carbohydrate they consume per day, for others (likely including…

We're talking from different definitions here. I was referring to the actual carbohydrate content, not to foods with carbohydrates as a primary macro. There are no micro-nutrients in a gram of fructose, or of mono-unsaturated fat, or of any specific protein molecule. Protein molecules are broken down into amino acids which…

At the risk of prolonging having people argue with me when I was actually agreeing with all of you, I will especially second this point... in that fats and protein both serve multiple functions within the body, whereas carbohydrates (exclusive of fiber) are pretty much calories only. That's not a bad thing, but it does…

Again, that was not advice. I was actually saying the opposite, that she is -not- one of the people who should limit carbs (unless she's diabetic and didn't share that info) because she is not maxing out her calories on them to the exclusion of other nutrients.

I agree, but in the overall context of the thread it is true that some people will be more inclined to load up on the pasta and crowd out the other stuff, especially when eating at a designed calorie deficit. For those people, it is best to keep a tight reign on the amount of grain foods they choose to consume.