Tuesday, February 12, 2013

A Goal Setting Dilemma - Lean Body Mass vs. Body Fat Percentage

table showing Body Weight by Lean Body Mass & Body Fat %age

A peek inside my brain. Lean Body Mass on the left axis. Body Fat %age on the Top Axis. The 2 Red squares represent my starting point and Yesterday's point. The colored bars represent a range of Body Weight Targets. 

Here's what I find so interesting. If your sole goal is a body weight in lbs, how does that break down into lean muscle and body fat %age? If I continue adding muscle like I have been...I'll have to cut my body fat %age to 21% to reach my "goal weight". 

If I continue the same rate of both body fat reduction AND lean body mass (muscle) building over the next 5 weeks, I'll still be 7 lbs over my goal weight. 

Unless I had a chart like this, it would be easy to get frustrated with slow weight loss. Thank goodness I'm not single minded like that. :)


Frrthermore...if I STOP exercising...and keep working with my diet, I'll reach my goal weight much sooner...but I don't want to stop exercising, lol.  I'll take the yellow or even red band for weight target if my lean body mass increases another 6 lbs, over the other combination (same lean mass, lower BF %age)

Just thought I'd share!

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