Hell yeah it does.
Speaking of body fat %, I’ve been using my Skulpt Chisel device to track my progress. It’s a pretty cool device, I’m definitely glad I got one.
May 21 - 14.3%
June 12 - 11.8%
June 24 - 11.2%
July 8 - 10.4%
I knew today’s measurement would be lower than the previous, just from some of the details emerging in the mirror and from the way the device felt when I pressed it against my abs.
From a local reading standpoint, it seems like my ab area is leaning out the fastest. That reading for that area went from 18.3% to 9.4%.
Quads and glutes seem to be the most resistant areas. Those started out pretty high and are still pretty high.
From a LBM standpoint, my body weight is at 190, which puts me at about 171 lbs LBM. That number has actually increased slightly since late May.
Do I really think I’m at 10.4% right now? Probably not. These devices are probably skewed towards the low end so people will feel good about them and give them good reviews. Doesn’t matter, I just use it for directional guidance.
Anyway, if I can drop another few percentage points without losing any LBM, I’d actually only need to get down to 187 or so to hit that 9% level.
I love all these calculations. I can’t believe I still enjoy re-working my macro numbers and re-calculating my LBM on such a regular basis. Been doing it for over 20 years now. I’m not even sure my propensity to engage in this type of behavior has anything at all to do with fitness. When I was into tennis, I’d find myself getting all caught up in racquet string tensions. Something about analyzing numbers seems to make my brain happy.
Speaking of numbers…
I use the Lose It! App to track my intake and exercise.
I have about five years of data now. Plenty of stretches where I went dark and stopped logging, but for the most part, I have continuous curves and trends that I can look at.
One thing I’ve concluded is that the output side of the energy equation does not really seem to correlate with anything. In other words, “It’s your diet, stupid.”
That’s why I don’t pay any attention to the “NET” calories (food calories minus calories burned through exercise). Intake is all that matters.
This mentality also helps offset the tendency to overeat on days when I’ve played two hours of tennis or gone on a 50-mile bike ride. If the extra energy output in a day exceeds about 1,000 calories, then I might make up half the difference by eating an extra 500, but I actually prefer not to adjust calorie intake based on calorie burn.
When I look at body weight trends and body fat trends, improvements correlate strongly with intake and not at all with NET calories.
Right now, I’m focused more on macros, meal timing, and keeping fat intake as low as possible throughout most of the day before dinner. I feel like all these arguments about how fats, carbs, and proteins effect satiety are missing one bigger point: HABITUATION should trump all of those factors when it comes to constructing a diet that lends itself to great long-term adherence.
My pre-11AM intake has decreased, and that has made the rest of the day easier to manage. I’m not that hungry in the morning, so I take advantage of that. I used to have the mindset that each window should be 500 calories:
Wake - 11AM = 500
11-4 (500x2) meals = 1000
4- sleep (bigger dinner plus snack) = 1000
But now, I’ve made a gradual shift and look to keep total calories under 1,000 by 4:00.
That usually has me pretty hungry right at 4, so I’ve been having a light meal/snack right at 4:00. Esentially, I’ve shifted the calories from the few beers/cocktails I was having on a nightly basis to a healthy snack at 4:00. Dinner is whatever the family is having. It helps that we are generally a health-conscious family.
These minor tweaks have been putting me in a place where by after dinner, I’m usually only at 1800 - 2000 calories. At that point, I have the option of a post-dinner dark chocolate and “nuts 'n more” peanut butter snack, or just banking those calories in the overall weekly deficit.
