{"id":194,"date":"2011-05-12T11:17:55","date_gmt":"2011-05-12T11:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cheezepie.com\/stream\/?p=194"},"modified":"2011-05-12T11:17:55","modified_gmt":"2011-05-12T11:17:55","slug":"how-i-plan-on-getting-my-body-fat-percentage-to-under-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.cheezepie.com\/stream\/how-i-plan-on-getting-my-body-fat-percentage-to-under-10\/","title":{"rendered":"How I plan on getting my body fat percentage to under 10%"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of last week I posted My 4 things to achieve before I’m 30 bucket list<\/a> in which I set challenge number 1 to be getting my body fat percentage under 10% by the time I’m 30 (May next year).<\/p>\n

I thought I’d share how I plan on doing it.<\/p>\n

Step 1 – measure, measure, measure.<\/h3>\n

Before I do anything else I should explain that I’ve been measuring and recording my body fat percentage almost daily for over 12 months. Last year I wanted to loose some weight and get fitter, so in order to track my progress I bought a Hanson HFA Cellis Body Fat Analyser Monitor White<\/a> (Amazon link)<\/em> that can measure both my weight and my body fat percentage, used it every morning and recorded the results on my iPhone (See How my iPhone helped me loose 10kgs<\/a> for more details)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Over the course of last year I lost about 10kg and got my body fat percentage down from over 25% to under 20% with 17.5% being the lowest I’ve hit so far.<\/p>\n

I’m fully aware that the scales are not the most accurate way of taking these measurements, but I’m working on the basis that its better to have some readings than none and as long as I continue to use the same method of measurement at least it will be consistently less than accurate.<\/p>\n

So, step 1 in the plan is to continue measuring and recording (daily) my weight and body fat percentage so I can track my progress and see where \/ if I slip up on the way.<\/p>\n

Step 2 – diet.<\/h3>\n

Last year’s weight loss was down to three things; more exercise, better diet and the determination to stick to both of those things. For the better diet element of that trio I simply focused on two things:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. recording everything I ate and drank Monday – Friday<\/li>\n
  2. eating more fruit, veg and less fat on those days<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It worked. By recording what I was eating \/ drinking and<\/em> my weight \/ body fat percentage at the same time I started to see patterns and correlations between my diet and my body’s reactions. If I had a bad day and ate something fatty I could see the results of my actions over the course of the following day’s readings.<\/p>\n

    But it only worked for so long. Over time as the weight dropped off and my body fat percentage came down with it, I started to plateau. Short of not eating or exercising for every waking moment (more on that in a bit) I couldn’t make any more gains. So I started to look at possible diets that could help.<\/p>\n

    Enter The Slow Carb diet<\/a>. You can read all about it on Tim Ferriss’ blog<\/a> or in his book The 4-Hour Body: An uncommon guide to rapid fat-loss, incredible sex and becoming superhuman: The Secrets and Science of Rapid Body Transformation<\/a>. But it basically boils down to eating:<\/p>\n