Angela, your numbers look good and your goals better - you'll probably exceed them.

How much muscle you 'grow' just as how much fat you burn are going to be variables in any equation. There's no absolute that every 2 weeks you'll burn x amount of fat and gain x amount of muscle.

How much rest you get, the quality of the food you eat and the intensity of the workouts all play big parts in the outcome. It is not unreasonable to gain a few lbs of muscle and to lose fat at the same time when you're new to this type of training. You'll find that as your body gets used to lifting and you have leaned out gaining muscle is something you have to fight tooth and nail for.

2 lbs of muscle vs. 11 lbs of fat is, IMHO, doable.

BTW, congrats on understanding how this works - a lot of people don't really get it and come up with a scale weight as goal that involves losing lean mass, just because they want to see 'that number'

Nat

Wow... look at how quickly the lovely Nat responded!

Nat, you're one of the main reasons I'm pumped to really get this body fat in check. It would be AWESOME to exceed that goal. And you're right, I'm glad I don't care too much about "that number." Who sees it anyway? I care more about "those jeans" and "that great body".

I'm really digging the workouts and even though I don't think I can commit to a BFL challenge, I'm going to definitely work out at least 4-5 days a week, which is a good start!

Thanks for the advice. Nice to know that my lean body ideal is possible!

Angela

I have taken the BFL Challenge, this is day 4.....and I already do notice minor changes in my body....
About the BF%...I have been using the formulas from the Protein Power Book. Has anyone else? I guess the point is, using the same technique for calculations consistenly, therefore having comparision from one to the next. With this formula, I have explained to myself a gain of 10 lbs in the past 8 months (on the scale, that is, which was driving me crazy!!!) According to the numbers, I actually gained 11 lbs of muscle and lost 1 lb of fat. That explains why my clothes size hasn't changed. My LBM went from 114lbs to 125 lbs, BF% from 20% to 17%....And looking at my records, that was a slow, month-by-month downward trend. I am very pleased and now hope to get some sense of sanity back when it comes to eating habits. Thus far, I really love BFL....

Hi Josie--I noticed that you started in the exact same place as me (130 lbs) and accomplished the exact same goal I'm aiming for--115 lbs. Do youhave a journal here? I'd love to see what you did to make such a great accomplishment--how long it took, etc. Thanks! --Rhys

I just came across this free on-line BF calculator site that uses thorough tape measurements from the neck down to the ankle. Then it calculates body fat and even provides a somatogram chart, showing the distribution of your fat and muscle. It's at www.mybodycomp.com

It would be interesting to see how this compares to someone who's had caliper testing done. Anyone game? It measured my body fat to be pretty high (30%) compared to my unreliable Tanita scale (24%). I should just get caliper testing done. Maybe for C2.

Wanda

Thanks for the link Wanda,

I just tried it and I got 20.9% bodyfat. Then I tried the calipers that I bought ages ago and got 22.4%. So the two readings were pretty close together.

Arnie

Hi Arnie:

Wow, thanks for the quick reply. Not good news for me, though. I always thought the other methods I'd tried (body fat scale, waist-hip ratio) underestimated my body fat. I guess I was right.

Wanda

I wouldn't jump to any conclusions just yet Wanda. I'd like to see what results other people get. I don't have a lot of confidence in my ability to take consistent measurements. This stuff is usually so inaccurate.

And really, I just don't care all that much what the numbers say. I can understand competitive bodybuilders needing to know if their methods are giving them minor advantages of maintaining muscle while loosing fat. But for someone like me who just follows a simple plan like BFL anyways, it's really doesn't do much more than satisfy the curiosity factor.

Maybe I should care more about the numbers, measurements, etc and maybe I will care more as I progress. But I just don't get nearly as excited about that stuff as when, someone sees me and says, "Hey Arnie, you've lost a lot of weight." That keeps me motivated!

Although, if we are going to use numbers to measure, than I can understand why it is better for us to measure bf% than just go by what the scale says.

Arnie