Jul 20 2008
Day 29
This morning when I woke up at about 8:00 am I took my weekly measurements. I am pleased that I am still making progress. This morning I didn’t do my 15 minutes exercise as this is the first of my two rest days to give my legs a chance to recover after 4 weeks of daily exercise.
This week my key statistics are:
- Weight: 13 st. 4 lbs. (186 lbs.) - 1 lb. loss in the last week
- Small reduction in waist measurements
- Body fat abdomen pinch reduction of 6mm (52mm down to 46mm)
- Increase in chest measurement from 43″ to 44″ – increase of 1″
My first observation of this week is that I only lost 1 lb. of weight. At first I was a little disappointed but when I took a look at my body fat composition it appears that I have put on 1.5 lbs. of lean mass in the last week so, in theory, I have lost 2.5 lbs. of fat and gained 1.5 lbs. of muscle giving a net weight loss of 1.5 lbs. I think that my muscle gain may have been mainly in the chest and back giving me a slightly larger chest measurement today.
The big thing I wanted to do today is take a look at my photographic progress and see what changes I can observe during these first 4 weeks. I thought it would take about 4 weeks to see any significant change so today I expect to see some. Here are my photos.
The past few weeks I have been a little disappointed with my front and back shot comparisons as the changes seemed subtle. I had never done a side shot comparison. So today for the first time I am taking a look at my body from side.
There is a big reduction in the swelling in my torso. The depth of my torso seems reduced and the overhang at the front of my shorts doesn’t appear as pronounced. The depth of my upper body from chest to back appears to be narrower, when in fact the measurement has increased. This must be due to the increase of muscle in this area with the reduction of body fat.
Looking at the front shot I can see that the overhang at the sides of my waist appear different. There appears to be a defined area at the sides. The bulge on my left hand side (right in the picture) also appears to have reduced in size overall, although it looks worse as it is now protruding.
Looking at the back the bulge on the right hand side of my waist appears to have reduced in size. The bulge on my left hand side has reduced at the bottom leaving an odd shaped protrusion higher up. My waist now has an asymmetrical look. It may just be wishful thinking but the crease on the right hand side of my back appears to be slightly lighter than on the day 1 photo. I would love those creases, and the bulges, to be gone by the end of phase 1 (8 weeks to go).
