Or lack thereof. I was just going through my archive and came across this post. I couldn’t find any stats posted since October 2010, but I had them saved on my computer for January 2012. Obviously I’ve gained some weight and that’s probably why I wasn’t posting it on here!

Between October 2010 and January 2012, hmmm… what happened? Well, I moved home. That right there is an instant five pounds, if you ask me. But I spent that first winter training for a marathon which I ran in May 2011. So while I may have gained a little weight from living at home with my family, I was running a lot more and kept it in check. Hah, and then after the marathon? Well I started working ungodly hours for the duration of the summer, stopped posting in here, stopped running at all, and stopped holding myself accountable. Then I moved to a new city, spent six months without a job, became severely depressed, suffered a knee “injury” and spent the winter cooped up in my basement apartment without a gym membership. So there’s that.

I’m about three and half weeks into training for another marathon, and I weighed/measured myself at Week One. Next weigh-in comes at Week Nine and then again in the final week.

I’m putting this out there for the world to see. My goal is to get my body fat percentage back down to… 20%. Losing five percent body fat is a lofty goal to set, but I do believe it’s possible. That being said, let’s do this! I’m ready!

goodhappyfit:

September 2009:

• 5’4
• 130 lbs.
• 28% body fat

April 2010:

• 5’4
• 123 lbs.
• 24% body fat

October 2010:

• 5’4
• 119 lbs
• 20% body fat

January 2012:

• 5’4
• 124 lbs
• 25% body fat

June 2012:

• 5’4
• 125 lbs
• 25% body fat

For the past month or so, I’ve been telling myself, “tomorrow I’m going to get up early and run first thing!” because we all know that the longer you wait to run, the less likely it is that you will actually run. For the past month or so, I’ve been sucking at getting my runs in. Yesterday I put it off all day long until I was forced to go in the rain (and only because I had skipped them all week prior)!

Today, I got up when my boyfriend got up for work, put on some warm workout clothes (it’s freezing here in Grand Rapids, today), threw some mini-wheats in a plastic baggy and got in the car. I knew that if I stayed home and told myself, “I’ll go as soon as I’m finished with my coffee,” that would soon turn into, “I’ll run as soon as my food digests,” which would then turn into, “I’ll go as soon as I *insert random Internet action here*.” <—procrastination, you are a tricky little bitch.

So I came to campus with my boyfriend and boom. 5 miles, done and done.

Despite the freeeeeeeeeezing temperature and winds that almost knocked me over on several occasions, I kicked that run’s ass!

We then returned to the fancy human performance lab, where I let my boyfriend once again torture me. I swear he loves it. Today we did hydrostatic weighing. The idea is this: you sit in this chair in a tank full of water, and let all of the air out of your lungs, so you sink, pulling down on the scale, to see how much you weigh under water, which is used to calculate your body fat percentage.

This sucked for two reasons: a) the water was freezing, and b) I HATE holding my breath. HATE IT! So it was pretty hard to not only let all the air out of my lungs, but then stay underwater for a couple seconds without breathing. ugh.

Anyway, I did it, and I’m going to tell you all the results. But first, let me tell you that hydrostatic weighing is usually the most accurate way of measuring body fat percentage, as long as it is done properly. I’ve had mine measured before via skinfold measurements, and depending on the person taking them, this is pretty accurate as well. The last way to measure how much of your body is actually made up of fat tissue is a BIA machine, which sends an electrical signal through your body, and estimates your body fat percentage based on how long it takes the signal to travel from either one foot or one hand to the other. This method can be very accurate, as long as the subject is well hydrated. Below are my results based on all three methods, which were taken today:

Hydrostatic (underwater) weighing: 28.5%
Skinfold measurements: 23.9% - 25.2%
BIA: 38%

As you can see, the BIA estimate was very off, and that’s probably because I had just run five miles and hadn’t really had much water today. For the skinfolds, the first number is based on a 3-site test and the second is a 7-site test. For the most part, it’s pretty accurate. The hydrostatic weighing method got me a slightly higher percentage, but since this was my first time doing it, that could also affect the results.

I’m gonna go ahead and just let myself believe that the skinfolds are the most accurate and that I didn’t exhale all of my air during the hydrostatic weighing test. Sounds about right, right?

Either way, my body fat has increased by at least a few percentage points (let’s say 5%?) since my lowest point, so I’ve definitely got some room for improvement. I’m going to be focusing a lot on really taking my training seriously (for the half marathon), adjusting my diet, and (most importantly) re-incorporating strength training back into my routine. From past experience, I’ve seen tremendous results by doing a combination of running/cardio AND resistance training. Even when I was running 40+ miles per week while training for my marathon, I gained weight.

So, I’m putting this out there, in the open, on the Internet, for everyone to read (and hold me accountable).

Name: Erica Piper
Age: 23
Height: 5’4
Weight: 125 lbs.
BF%: ~26-28%

My goal is to weigh around 120 lbs. (my “normal” weight, before I quit running this summer) and to decrease my body fat percentage to around 23% (again, where it was before). I will do this by being more conscientous of what food I’m giving my body, pushing myself to work out even when I “don’t really feel like it,” and re-introducing strength training into my workouts.

What are your goals? How are you going to reach them? And most importantly, are you in?