One of your goals is to lose 10 pounds over the next 12 weeks. One pound a week is a healthy and attainable goal. A pound of fat consists of 3,500 calories. So to lose 1 pound a week, you will need to burn (3,500 calories divided by 7 days) 500 calories a day. If you were to make up for this caloric deficit by drastic dieting you would be doing more harm than good by lowering your metabolism, or the rate at which your body burns calories as fuel and possibly missing key nutrients your body needs to function at an optimal level. Instead, I would suggest cutting 250 calories a day from your food intake by eating healthier food options and appropriate food portions and burning 250 calories a day through your exercise program.

Throughout the next few weeks, we will be introducing you to different strength training or weight training exercises with the purpose of adding lean muscle mass. Building lean muscle counteracts the metabolic slowdown associated with aging which makes muscle a big piece of the weight management equation. Regular aerobic exercise, such as walking daily for 30 minutes or more, is also an excellent way to burn calories.

I wonder how many other people are just a little pudgy and don’t think about the impact on their health. I guess this challenge is coming just at the right time, just before I go over the deep end!

I wonder how we could add our locally-owned restaurants to this kind of list. A friend of mine recently asked if Harrisonburg’s downtown restaurants could have their calorie counts on the menu. Maybe we could have an analysis of locally-owned restaurant foods.

I’ll need to start a different thread to talk about heathy food choices.

Body Mass Index, or BMI, is the standard tool doctors use to identify potential weight problems in patients. It is a measurement based on your height and weight, and so it’s an easy screening tool. Although it is an indirect measurement, it has been shown to correlate closely in most cases to more direct measurements of body fat.

To calculate your BMI, go to http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bmicalc.htm

This figure is the BMI and it falls within one of four categories: underweight, normal range, overweight or obese. Underweight is 18.5 and below, 18.5 to 24.9 is normal, 25.0 and 29.9 is overweight and 30 and over is obese.

The main issue for using BMI is that regardless of gender and age, the same criteria is used to determine whether one is normal, overweight or obese. The downside to BMI is that it does not accurately tell how much fat a person really has; this is due to the nature that it cannot really differentiate between body fat and muscle mass. This is especially true when BMI is used to measure athletes or body builders, a large percentage of them are often considered to be obese in a BMI reading, even though they are not. Many athletes tend to have high BMI due to more muscle mass and not due to body fat. Muscle mass is denser and weighs more than an equal amount of fat mass.

Taking for instance, two people with the same height and same weight, where one is an elite athlete with a large amount of muscle mass and the other who hardly exercises and has very little muscle mass but has more fat mass. Both will have the same BMI, based on the equation alone and both will be considered as falling into the same category, but we know that the elite athlete is not obese.

If BMI cannot accurately differentiate between muscle and fat, then how do we know whether one has too much body fat or muscle mass? A more accurate measurement is to look at body composition via a body fat reading. Your body composition is made up of total body water percentage, body fat, bone mass and muscle.

There are many different ways to assess percentage of body fat. In the screening with Kai, we used a bioelectrical impedance body fat monitor which is a fairly accurate tool to assess body fat percentage.

For females, 15 to 25 percent of body fat is considered optimal, 25 to 30 percent is considered fair and 30 percent and above is considered obese. For male, 10 to 20 percent body fat is considered optimal, 20 to 25 percent is considered fair and 25 percent and above is considered obese.

Remember, BMI can be used as a quick reference or guideline to identify a potential weight problem, but take into consideration your physical activity level as well as your body type. A more true measurement of you body composition can be achieved through a body fat reading. Monitoring body fat, can serve as a motivational tool for monitoring progress with your goals. By adjusting your diet, training intensity and frequency you will see changes in your Body Composition by increasing lean muscle mass and decreasing fat mass.

More of Kai’s questions answered tomorrow!