I had a body composition test this week with Mark Fleming and I must admit I was dreading it beforehand! Despite giving up booze, takeaways and bacon sarnies I think there is still room for improvement in my diet. It's going to take time but I'm definitely heading in the right direction.
Anyway, imagine my delight when I found out I'd lost 6 pounds of fat this month! That's 12.5 pounds of fat lost since pre-training began in September! I've also gained 1.75 pounds of muscle this month and that's almost 3 pounds gained since September. My metabolic age (in simple terms, that's the age your body thinks it is) was down to 45 from 52! Excellent! I'm getting younger! There were also noticeable improvements in other areas such as total body water and the Visceral Fat Rating (fat around major organs) was down to 9.
According to Wikipedia "Visceral fat, also known as organ fat or intra-abdominal fat, is located inside the peritoneal cavity, packed in between internal organs. An excess of visceral fat leads to the "pot belly" or "beer belly" effect, in which the abdomen protrudes excessively".
Wikipedia also has the following to say about the "Sit Ups Myth" - "There is a common misconception that spot exercise (that is, exercising a specific muscle or location of the body) most effectively burns fat at the desired location, but this is not the case. Spot exercise is beneficial for building specific muscles, but it has little effect on fat in that area of the body, or on the body's distribution of body fat. The same thing applies to sit-ups and belly fat. Sit-ups and other abdominal exercises are useful in building the abdominal muscles, but they have little effect on the adipose tissue located there. In order to burn fat, one must take part in aerobic exercises.". Hmmm.... Very interesting!
All in all it was a pleasing set of stats and proves to me that the first 4 weeks of USA 2011 training have been a success. The real challenge is going to be to follow that up this month, next month and every month for the next 3 years!
