Losing weight isn’t easy.

Losing weight isn’t easy.
Nobody ever said it was, of course.
I managed to lose a stone last year, which I think was much more down to the jogging and not really down to the diet. I think this because I lost all the weight between March and September which is the period during which I was actually running. I did manage to keep the stone off (bar one pound which I put on over Christmas – that doesn’t count towards the weight I’ve lost this year, so I’ve lost a pound on top of getting rid of the Christmas pound.) I only count weight as having been lost when I consistently measure that weight in a morning before breakfast for at least three days.
Anyway, I thought (silly me) that starting up exercising again, the weight would just drop off, and so I’ve been disappointed every time I’ve got on the scales. I am trying to bear in mind that muscle weighs more than fat, but as my fat percentage measures the same too I think I need to do more.
Of course, a big driver behind this, as I have mentioned before, is that we’re going to Florida in August. Although I accept that I will not be the size 8 waif that I was then, I would like to be slimmer.
My BMI is 24.25 according to the BBC which is within the healthy bracket (18.5 – 25) but only just! And considering that I can’t use my actual height, if I use the one that’s below my height (I’m five feet, five and a half inches tall, but I usually round up to five feet six inches) it gives me 25 on the nose. Lovely. It does say “A BMI measurement is not as accurate if you're an athlete or very muscular (muscle weighs more than fat) as this can push you into a higher BMI category even if you have a healthy level of body fat. It's also not accurate for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, or people who are frail.” and while I am not pregnant or breastfeeding, I am also not very athletic or muscular (though I’d like to be a little bit of both).
Apparantly, for a woman, one should have at least 11-14% fat, this is essential fat. Athletes tend to have between 12-22% fat. A “fit” level of fat is 16-25% fat, and while up to 31% is only “at risk”, 32% and higher is obese. (the rates are much lower for men, I got them from this site.)
My fat percentage is above 25% at the moment (As I recall it was 27.4% this morning, sadly) which is in the at risk category.
I am already doing something towards reducing this number though, with my workouts at the gym. I managed to do all of the exercise on my plan except the rowing and the chest press (which was busy the whole time). In case you’re interested (why else would you have read this far) here is the exercise plan I’m on at the moment:

• 5 minutes warm-up on the cross trainer, level 5, 2.5 mins at 50-60 rpm, the rest at 70rpm.
• 15 minutes on the bike, level 8 on random, 80rpm.
• 15 minutes on the treadmill, no incline, 8.0kmph plus a 3 minute cool-down.
• 2x12 reps of 5kg on the chest press.
• 2x12 reps of 12.5kg on the lateral pull down.
• 2x20 reps of 10kg on the seated leg press (I’ll be putting that up soon).
• 2x12 reps of bicep curls using a 3kg weight in each hand.
• 2x12 reps of tricep kickbacks using a 2kg weight.
• 2x20 reps of sit-ups.
• 2x20 reps of raised leg sit-ups.
• 10 reps of ball-bridge (using the ball under your heels, lift up your whole body on your shoulders).
• one of: 10 reps ‘slow’ sit-ups, 10 reps ‘V-sits’, 2x20 reps Swiss-ball sit-ups

I hope to up the running somewhat as I’m back in training for the Race for Life again. (sponsorship page coming soon)

I hope that I can motivate myself to go while L is incapacitated.