My Own Experience

I started doing various measurement of my health indices in April 2008.

I am 40 somethings male with small body frame. My height is 166cm with body weight of 67kg. I looked slim all the time except for my slightly bulging mid section.

• So my BMI was 24.3 which is slightly overweight.
• But my waistline was 38 inches, definitely overweight by that standard.
• My body fat percentage (BF%) was 30%, terrible! In fact, I was obese by BF% standards.

Nobody will believe that I was obese, include myself, except that I have a bulging stomach, the only sign.

My past 20 years of chasing career and starting a small family has finally taken it's toll on my body health indices. I better do something before it's too late.

So from my own experience, I will use these measurement in the following order because BMI can be misleading measure.

1. Waistline measurement
2. Body fat percentage (BF%)
3. Body mass index (BMI)
   

Today (Oct 2008), after several month of Getting Physical and Eating Well, my body weight is 61kg.

1. Waistline is 34.5 inches or 88cm (healthy)
2. BMI is 22.1 (normal)
3. BF% is about 25% (higher end of Normal)

Not bad for 6 months of discipline and hard exercise.

My target for this year end (Dec 2008) is

1. Waistline of 33.5 inches or 85cm (this will be the hardest to achieve!)
2. Body weight of 59-60kg
3. BMI of 21.6
4. BF% of 23-24%

Not bad for a beginner I reckoned.

I used to eat quite little, thinking that I don't need so much food since I lead very inactive lifestyle. How wrong I was! Eating less will only lower my metabolism rate which means I will burn less fat and storing more of them!

Now that I am active, I am actually eating more as I feel hungry more frequently. Still I stick to eating small portion but more regularly. Typically I eat about 5-6 times a day, so that I don't feel hungry and ensuring that everything I eat get disgested - not store as fat!