I get lots of questions that focus on body fat percentages, body weight, supposed lean body mass measurements etc.

Most of these numbers (besides bodyweight) cannot be measured accurately outside of a body composition laboratory. And even if you do have access to a body comp lab knowing these numbers is likely not going to do much to help you get into better shape.

Do You Really Care What This Thing Says More Than the Image in the Mirror?

The only measurements I think that matter are your circumferences like the Adonis Index and the Venus Index ratios.

The reason I think these are the ones that matter is because they are the closest indication of what you’re really after, and that is a better looking body!

Who cares if your hand held bio-impedance thingamagiggy says your bodyfat is 10% if you don’t like the way you look. It’s all about the look, the specific bodyfat percentages and lean body mass estimates are irrelevant.

It makes more sense to set an ideal body shape and proportion and look as your goal…and then once you achieve the look you are happy with you can measure these other percentages (like bodyfat) and find out what they are when you’ve got the look you want.

This is the only way to know what percentage goes with the look you like.

At the end of the day you and I just want to have a body we like to look at and live with regardless of what some machine tells us about it.

JB

I haven’t told any of you yet, but as of the moment I am writing this I’m in the middle of a 120 hour (5 day) weight loss experiment.

Arnold and the boys were constantly experimenting

I’m documenting it on video and you’ll all get to see it when I’m finished.

I’m just testing a few theories out to see what kind of results I’ll get. The actual methods I’m using aren’t exactly ground breaking…they’re pretty simple…but weight loss itself is pretty simple anyway.

Having a theory is one thing, putting it into practice is another. You and I could read every weight loss book ever written and debate the merits of each for the rest of our lives…but until we try them we’ll never really understand what they’re like.

There is a difference between the knowledge you get from reading about something, and doing something. It’s this second kind of knowledge that I’m interested in. –> Experiential knowledge.

I’ve tried just about every ridiculous diet there is. I’ve tried all kinds of muscle building diets, supplements and drugs.

Sure I read about each things before I tried it…but the key point is that I tried it, I tried them all.

The sum total of my experiences have led me to my conclusions thus far..and that is as follows:

1. To lose weight you must find a way to eat less calories than you burn (and enjoy the process)

2. To gain muscle you must continuously lift more weight (and enjoy the process)

Everything else beyond these rules is minutia.

Your body is your experiment. No matter what diet or workout philosophy you read about you still have to give it an honest try before you know if it will work for you (and work over the long term).

For me, weight loss and weight maintenance is easiest with Eat Stop Eat.

And of course the muscle building program I wrote is what I follow (I would never follow another persons workouts)

So that’s what I do.

What do you do? (and I don’t care about what you READ about, I want to know what you DO)

John