IHSAN KHAIRIR

Last Tuesday I revisited the Ergonomics Lab to continue with my weekly body mass analysis to monitor my progress. As it turns out, I actually have lost some weight (which is what I would like to have happen) but alas, not everything is good news.

Basically, over the last week, I lost 1 kg (2.2 lbs). My weight has dropped from 81.5 kg (179.7 lbs) at the beginning of September to 80.5 kg (177.5 lbs) at the beginning of the second week of September.

Here is the body composition chart from 1 September:

And here is the chart from 8 September:

As you can see, my losing weight, although in itself may be a good news, is only a blessing in disguise.

Fact of the matter is, the weight I lost is due to loss of muscle mass instead of fat. This confirms most of the stuff I know about losing weight through reducing food consumption. The body will use up your muscle tissue for energy instead of using the fat storage under the skin (or surrounding the muscles and organs). The way to counter this effect is by physical exercise i.e. workout or sports activities; since physical activities help build up and tone your muscle, the fat storage will be used instead for energy.

The numbers don’t lie. I confess that even though I have been reducing my food consumption over the last week, I haven’t been doing any serious physical activities. And thus the consequence of that is reflected in the numbers (and admittedly, I can feel my overall strength reduced).

From this session of my body mass analysis, I can see what I need to do now. In addition to eating less, I have to engage in physical activities. Since I am fasting for the next few weeks, I can’t go to the gym to work out or play outdoor sports since these will cause me to sweat a lot and I will lose to much water and probably cause dehydration. I think simple indoor exercises would possibly help.

What kind of indoor exercises should I do for the next one week or so? Suggestions are welcome and are truly appreciated.

The Ergonomics Lab next door has this machine and software that not only weighs you but also do several analyses on your body so that you know how your body’s mass is distributed and how much weight you have to gain or lose. I went over today and had an analysis done so that I know where I’m at right now and where I should go next.

Here are the results:

This tells me that I have normal lean mass distribution and basically I don’t need to change anything to improve my lean mass distribution. However, fat mass is another case. In all body segments I seem to have a little bit too much fat mass so this means I have to work out all parts of my body (both lower and upper) more and consume less fatty food, generally speaking.

Me being overweight is no surprise. And so is the body fat mass content, although I didn’t expect it to be that high. Also, if didn’t have any fat, I’d weigh 56.6 kg (124.8 lbs). That’s around the lower spectrum of the normal range for my height.

I’m a bit delighted that I have a more-than-normal skeletal muscle mass. This confirms my theory that a lot of my mass is made of muscle and bones instead of just mostly fat. I don’t really look that fat for my weight (81.5 kg / 179.7 lbs). You can look at some of my recent photos in this entry (scroll down to see pics of yours truly) and tell me if I look my weight. In fact, I weighed even more back then.

I guess the numbers above are appropriate. They mostly reflect my current physical attributes. However I find the basal metabolic ratio a bit unsatisfactory. It seems like I have a lower-than-normal BMR. So I need to have this number raised. Any suggestions how?

This suggests that I don’t have to gain or lose any more muscle mass, but I do have to lose fat mass by 15 kg.

I guess that’s a viable target then. To lose 15 kg. Maybe not by end of this year, but eventually. Actually, make that two and a half years. Two and a half years to weigh 15 kg less.

…

We’ll see how this goes.