My monthly fatloss progress report....

Today's Post:  Monday, 9-23-2013

Almost a carbon copy of last month; but I gained less and the news on future progress is better too!

This is another of my not so great but mixed review reports. (That report is in Part I.)

But the likely results soon are GREAT!  (Why is listed below in Part II.)

Part I:

Bad news first: 

I gained back two more pounds.

Never happy with that; but I’m now back at my goal weight. 

So as long as I am careful enough to not gain back more, I’m still OK so far.

I did gain back a bit on my waist however.  THAT is FAR less OK!

In addition, I had my waist measure at The Perfect Workout and had it as 40 inches exactly.  Yikes!  My measurements aren’t that inaccurate; however, that’s a minimum of 2 inches too big for good health and still 5 to 6 inches larger than my goal.

OK  news:

I did gain an inch on my chest and about half an inch on my hips; and THAT may have included some muscle. 

I will fight to avoid gaining back any more weight; but at this point my main focus will be to add muscle.

(I think when I cut back even with the two a day partial fasting, I was doing enough already that I got a bit of famine response on appetite.  So as long as I don’t gain back more, I think it may pay me to focus most on adding muscle at this point.

I also need to boost my metabolism to the extent I can do so.  Adding muscle and the exercises I’m doing do help with that already.)

Part II.  The good news!:  Why the likely results soon are GREAT!

Next I list why I’ve NOT been able to add quite a bit more muscle as I need to do to force the loss of my remaining belly fat.

So, why is the future looking so great all of a sudden?  It’s because just last month, I tried something that solved both of those two problems!  And, I can keep doing it!

1.  The two reasons why I’ve NOT been able to add quite a bit more muscle despite knowing the effective way to do so:

In my at home super slow strength training, I’ve been held back by struggling with some issues from a left shoulder injury. 

This injury has prevented me from getting stronger on the exercises that use my left shoulder.  Worse, it has kept me from making further progress on several of the exercises where I DID get stronger.

Unlike my right shoulder which healed, my left shoulder seems to keep getting re-injured.

THAT is now coming to a screeching halt!!

I asked my doctor about it and she referred me for physical therapy.

My previous experience with trying Physical Therapy was simply  dreadful.  But in hopes I might learn something this time to stop re-injuring my shoulder and get corrective exercises I went just in case to the first appointment.

MUCH BETTER!  The woman Physical Therapist immediately found out the two things I’d been doing that kept injuring my left shoulder and bothering my right shoulder a bit too.

a)  I was throwing my whole arms through the motion on my jump rope sessions on every repetition.  You have to do that a bit to start the jump rope at first each time.  BUT, you can minimize it a bit and then use a wrist snap to keep it going mostly after that.  THAT removes 90% or more from the high impact forces on my shoulders!

The bad news is that I’m still relearning this new form and am terrible at it.  So my amount of exercise is down from what I want.

But the good news is MUCH better.  I AM getting better at it!  And the best news is that doing my jump rope sessions no longer re-injures my shoulder.

b)  I’d been doing all my exercises for which I use my shoulders with a shoulders hunched bad posture.  That was causing them to work twice as hard at an angle they were not designed to do well.

So, she said to make a special effort to lift my chest as I did these exercises.  AND, she gave me two corrective exercises to increase my strength and control over how well I can hold my shoulders in the OK position.

That is still a work in progress.  And it will take some time to get better at it.

BUT, the exercises ARE less hard on my shoulders.

Now that they no longer re-injure me when I do them, my muscles now WILL heal and gradually allow me to get my strength back, get stronger, and add more muscle mass!

2.   Secondly, most of the muscle I lost since I was younger I lost in my legs and buttocks and lower back. 

But to add that muscle I’d need more space and MUCH more weight to do the needed exercises at home. 

I’d also need a leg press machine or a rack with a setting to keep the weight from going down to the floor. And, when I’m working to the level where I can’t do a complete last repetition, one of those two ways of making that safe are critical.

So I’ve been making no or very limited progress on the exercises I do for my upper body at home and making too little for my legs and buttocks and lower back to add the muscle I need.

So, despite my willingness to work hard and the potential I can tell is really there to add the muscle I need, it had NOT been happening.

However, I AM now doing just that set of exercises at The Perfect Workout once a week; and I’m making steady progress at adding weight each week!

In addition, I’ve gotten a good bit stronger on the calf exercises I’ve been doing at home.

And, there’s more!

Even before my recent progress with my shoulder, I found that I WAS able to do their chest press on their machine without my shoulder holding me back!

Now that I also can hold my shoulders in a better position and they will get stronger, I will now gain the chest muscle mass and arm muscle mass I’ve wanted.

And, they also have machines to exercise the big muscles in my upper back.  And I’m getting stronger and adding weight on those exercises too.

So, I now have a real shot at adding enough muscle to force fat loss from my waist!  Finally!

3.  The other interesting news is that their scale measured me as having 8% body fat and having about 40 pounds of muscle.

So if I can add 20 pounds more, my calorie burn from my muscles has the potential to go up by 50%!!

THAT will keep me lean for sure!

Since my arms and shoulders and legs look like I have 11 to 17 % fat; and my belly looks as if I am at least 20% fat, their body fat percentage is WAY low!

But to the extent I am a bit more lean than I thought, it may mean that I’ll have to try something like liposuction to cut enough more from my belly.

However, I think it’s just off in my case.  Based on comparing my appearance with people who DO have 8% body fat; I think my overall fat is still closer to 20% at best.

So for now, working very hard to get fifty percent stronger or more and adding that 20 pounds of muscle is my goal.

AFTER I do that and get my body fat measured by a more accurate device; then I’ll think again about adding laser liposuction or something similar if I still need to do so.

But based on the experience of other people and how they look after adding the muscle, I think that may not be needed.