So what does this all mean and does it really matter? Well, at week 3 weigh in I lost 4 pounds, which I should really be happy about, but I know in the early stages of weight loss, I can lose more. I know I didn't consume more calories during the previous week, as I document every calorie that goes in to my mouth. I'm guessing that because I have lost a fair amount of weight, I'm more active. This will probably have led to either a slight increase in muscle mass, or more likely water retention in sore and inflamed muscles that have been used for the first time in over ten years.
The body analyser scales give me another metric against which I can chart my progress. Each week before I go to the group session and get weighed, I'll jump on my scales and take a reading for the week. That way I'll be able to see the ratio of fat to muscle change over time. I'll be able to track the impact of new exercises that get added to my activity list and the water levels will let me know if I'm retaining water.
I specifically chose the Salter Body Analyser Scale as it also calculates BMR. I've mentioned metabolic rate in previous blog posts, but in a nutshell it is the amount of calories your body burns over 24 hours to keep you alive. As long as I consume less calories than my BMR, I'll lose weight. Adding exercise or more activity into the equation will increase the calorie deficit and boost weight loss. At the moment my average daily calorie consumption is 1500. Over a week my body needs to find 11300 calories just to keep me alive. Each pound of body fat contains 3600 calories, so just existing I should lose about 3.5 lbs per week.
By adding more activity like walking further, more housework and gardening will boost my weight loss and in a couple of weeks when I've shifted a bit more weight, I'll hit the gym.
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