Peter Beck Kim's Other Blog

for more than Tweets, less and less formal than www.MedicalRecordShow.com
 

4HB Slow-Carb Day 8: down 6 pounds and 2 inches, BP dropped 16 points

Data mining is a tough but rewarding thing.

Today is my Cheat Day for diet: anything goes. Looking forward to rice, pasta, and other noodle goodness, which is a big deal if you're of the Asian persuasion. Oddly enough, the cravings I was expecting just haven't materialized -- I'm having to make myself eat some of my son's pumpkin bread and my daughter's buttermilk donut. Quotes from Ferriss' book, The 4-Hour Body (affiliate link, yes, I believe in this) mention similar reluctance.

Whatevs. Will do what one must do.

My primary goal is actually blood pressure reduction, using weight and fat loss as a means. It's not entirely clear that one leads to the other, but the connection, the correlation, is pretty strong across the board: medical studies, orthodox medical advice, and my own logs. About a 10 point drop in the systolic, or upper of the 2 BP numbers, once my AM bladder-emptied weight drops below 205.

Stats:
  • Last wk: 208.2 lbs, blood pressure 142/90, Total Inches 147.5 (both biceps, thighs, waist, hips)
  • Today: 202.2 lbs, blood pressure 126/82, Total Inches 145.75

More details to follow.

Filed under  //   4-Hour Body   Total Inches   blood pressure   cheat day  
Posted January 8, 2011
 

Body fat % testing, for the 4-Hour Body program. Oy!

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Not a portable sauna, this is me in a BodPod, about to get my % body fat measured. A little quick research led to this as the modality of choice: it's what the NFL uses, it uses no radiation (unlike the DEXA method), and it's pretty inexpensive ($20-35 a pop). A pair of close fitting bike shorts and a swimming cap (provided, to negate any air pockets that might stilt the results), and I was good to go.

This is a unit in the Kinesiology Department at Vanguard University -- courtesy of the find-a-unit-near-you section of BodPod's website.

 

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Looks like something out of 2001...or Sleeper.


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Special thanks to department head Diana Avans, who kept me in stitches while running the test. It takes about 5-10 minutes if you're not laughing your head off.

Results: 23.8% body fat, with a very accurate weight of 203.445 lbs.

That's 48.447 lbs of fat. A lot of room for improvement, but that's the whole point: establishing a reliable baseline, so significant progress can be tracked.

Even if you have the most accurate bathroom scale, your readings will go up and down with water, poop in your gut, state of bladder emptying, and fat and muscle. With refined methods like the BodPod, you can reliably track when your fat weight goes down, and your muscle mass (hopefully) goes up. 

 

Filed under  //   4-Hour Body   BodPod   bodyfat %  
Posted January 6, 2011
 

Timothy Ferriss' 4-Hour Body has inspired me (TMI to follow)

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This is one serious book. Just under 2 inches thick: it's a veritable medical textbook. Though a whole lot more fun to read.

Timothy Ferriss is one of the folks I follow most consistently and closely from a thought leader standpoint. He's personable, relevant, and thorough as hell when it comes to getting it done -- hacking life to make the out of reach doable, like creating a financially enviable lifestyle, getting 5 times more done in half the time, and doubling your income in a year.

The 4-Hour Body is his magnum opus on hacking your body. And it couldn't have come at a better time.

TMI to follow...

Read the rest of this post »

Filed under  //   4-Hour Body   Tim Ferriss   before and after pics   bodyfat %  
Posted December 31, 2010