Shrinking Dude

.. and changing the site a bit.

BMI, or Body Mass Index is a measurement of body fat based on height and weight. To figure out your BMI, use this simple formula:

BMI = 703 x (Weight in lbs / Height in inches²)

So, if you weigh 150 pounds, and you are 5′10″ with the numbers plugged in the formula would look like:

703 x (150 / 60²)

Which makes your BMI equal to 21.5

• Underweight = <18.5
• Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
• Overweight = 25-29.9
• Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

BMI alone should not be used to evaluate one’s health. It’s important to understand that since BMI is calculated from basic information such as height and weight, it can greatly differ from person to person. There is no way to account for bone density or muscle mass, which varies per person and greatly affects your BMI.

For example, a body builder that is in great shape which might be six feet tall and weight 235 pounds will have a high BMI, and according to the BMI chart that would put him or her in the overweight category.

A better and much more accurate way to evaluate your health, or track any weight loss or gain goals which you may have is to measure your body fat percentage… and that post is coming soon.

I have been using Fitday.com to track my calories on and off for three years now. Fitday is a great free site, and works really well for what it is. However in all this time the service has not seen any major overhauls, and aside from mostly visual changes it has remained the the same.

A few days ago I ran into a similar site. Figwee.com. Figwee stands out from other nutritional tracking services by making it easier to track you caloric intake more accurately.

Figwee believes: “People Have a Visual Relationship with Food. When we think about the food we eat, we fundamentally think in pictures. So, the simplest way to measure and track what we eat is to do so visually.”

It is very easy to track what you eat when you are at home and you have packaged food with nutritional information on the back. You just plug in the info, and you’re done. How about when you go out to dinner, and lets say you order Chicken Caesar Salad? This is where Figwee can really win big. You can search their food database and find the salad, and once you add it to your foods, you can use a slider to estimate the portion size. While this obviously isn’t going to be 100% accurate, we can probably say that it’s more accurate that guessing the numbers completely. If Figwee can manage to have a large enough food database (that the community can contribute to), it will become much more accurate.

Figwee also has some other pretty neat features. Based on your weight, height and weight goals it can figure out approximately how many calories you should be taking in each day, in order to meet your goals. So when you add a food eaten to your diary, you can see how many calories you have left for the day. You can also choose to restrict your diet based on grams of carbs, or use your own calorie restrictions.

Figwee is currently running an open beta. It’s still a little rough around the edges, and unfortunately as of this moment the ability to add a new food seems to be not working properly. However, this is still one of the best nutrition tracking sites I’ve seen, and it’s definitely worth a try. It’s looks like it going to be a paid service once it’s fully launched, so if you want to give a spin for free now is your chance.

It’s been a long time since I’ve updated. This year I will work on this blog a lot more, posting information and personal updates more frequently.

Wishing you all a healthy and happy new year,

- j

Weight: 275.4

So it’s been about a week since I finished my 8 weeks. What have I been doing since then? Well I didn’t stop, in case you were worried. In fact I have been working out harder than ever.

I have also started personal training sessions. I found a place right by my house that does exactly what I have been looking for. High Intensity Training, or HiT. I am going about once every 4 days, and the entire workout takes under 30 minutes. Right now, each workout consists of 6 lifting exercises on MedEx and Nautilus machines. Each exercises is a single set of slow precise full-range-of-motion movements. Form is very important, and so is th negative movement of each exercise. Instead of counting reps I lift for about 3 minutes per exercise, or until failure.

After I am finished with all six set, which change from workout to workout, it’s on to 4 minutes of High Intensity Interval Cardio, or HiiT. 20 seconds ON, 10 seconds off, and repeat. I have not been able to do the full four minutes yet. I can usually get up to 3 minutes (or 6 sets) before stopping.

When I am finished with everything I feel like I have been hit by a train. All my muscles feel numb and shaky. The next few days I feel sore, but never in pain. When I used to lift at the gym and get sore the next day I would sometimes also have a little pain. I believe this was due to the fact that I was probably over training and/or doing something wrong. Using these specially designed machines, having someone help with the form, and 4 days in between workouts helps not over train and I don’t have anymore pain when I am sore.

For anyone who is interested in HiT they should read should read “The New High Intensity Training: The Best Muscle-Building System You’ve Never Tried” by Dr. Ellington Darden, and should also look up Arthur Jones