Ive decided to get rid of my weight.

But instead of using a scale to measure I thought I would use measurements to show progress. I hate scales as they seem to vary so much in what they show.

So is measurement a valid way of doing it?

yes, measuring rather than weighing is a really good way to track your progress. I'm in the middle of losing fat atm and if I was weighing myself, I would think I wasnt getting anywhere because my weight is exactly the same due to the training and weights I'm doing. Measuring shows me that I'm making good progress
good luck for your weight loss!

Cheers, I guess I should call it size loss......

fat% is the best. If you are building muscle and dropping fat, your size and weight may remain constant, but the fat% should be a damn good indication of 'excess'. There are several sets of scales that measure these for you, mine depress me every time I get on board...

I use my weight (same time each day), water %, Fat %, BMI, and have a list of measurements that I take monthly (chest, ribs, stomach, waist, around the butt). At one stage I was measuring my thighs too, but this seemed pointless.

Being a nearly 40 year old predictably my problem area was the central spare tire.

The more I read up about diet and stuff, the less I found I needed to know. There are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of places and web sites that will gladly take money off you to help you lose weight. Billy Connoly summed it up as "Less of this (pointing to his mouth) and more of this (running / exercise). That is it in a nutshell.

the reason I have taken so many measurements is that getting fit will not necessarily aide with losing weight. Sure you lose fat, but muscle is 3x more dense than fat, so building muscle means weight loss is very slow. Of course once you have built the muscles they burn a whole lot more energy, so the weight loss starts getting faster.

I hope this helps a little. Good luck with it, and it is worth it, I know!!! I have been there, and still am....just check the avatar....which reminds me, I must take another pic and update it, it has dropped a bit since then.

Yeah 12 kg down since October. It's a battle juggling eating well and exercising with work and other things. But I think making a commitment to doing a certain amount of exercise (for me 4-5 rides a week), being more active (biking to Tech, using the stairs, walking places) and taking care not to overeat is playing a role in nice steady safe fat loss. Still a way to go but 6 years of poor living isn't going to change overnight.

Good stuff nzmatto - haven't been in double digits since I was mid 20's but am planning to head that way once more. Was 118 at christmas and now down to 109-110.

nzmatto wrote:I use my weight (same time each day), water %, Fat %, BMI, and have a list of measurements that I take monthly (chest, ribs, stomach, waist, around the butt). At one stage I was measuring my thighs too, but this seemed pointless.

How accurate do find those sort of scales (non commercial ones)? I had one once that measured composition % but it gave some pretty whack, nonsensical readings. Can you recommend a good brand?

lol spokes is fat

No, you are.

this is true.

Its ok, we all still think you're beautiful

Roma wrote:

nzmatto wrote:I use my weight (same time each day), water %, Fat %, BMI, and have a list of measurements that I take monthly (chest, ribs, stomach, waist, around the butt). At one stage I was measuring my thighs too, but this seemed pointless.

How accurate do find those sort of scales (non commercial ones)? I had one once that measured composition % but it gave some pretty whack, nonsensical readings. Can you recommend a good brand?

I believe that you can get to into it and mess your head up if you have a bad day/week. Im thinking measure every week or two.

I used a palm program to track weight loss.
Weighted average over a few weeks, so last nights KFC wont make a huge dent in your progress but two extra timtams for lunch will show up on the charts, as will an extra 10ks every other day.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html

Spokes wrote:I believe that you can get to into it and mess your head up if you have a bad day/week. Im thinking measure every week or two.

quite a simple formula, more calories out than in. www.fitday.com track what u eat, will be very suprising, no flash diets etc. eat what you want, but keep track of it and in moderation.