Saturday, May 16, 2009

How To Get To 11% Body Fat At 47


Today I went to get my body composition tested as well as a metabolic assessment. I was mildly disappointed to come in at 11% body fat. Weight was 181.9, 170 of lean and 19 fatty tissue. Calipers were reading about 8% but those are apparently +/- as much as 8%. 11% ain't bad though.

Resting Metabolic rate (RMR) is 1943 calories and the Total Energy Expediture (TEE) is just over 4000 calories. So to live I need the first amount and to maintian body comp the last one. I weigh about 14 pounds less than I did in October so that would indicate I have lost some fat and gained muscle since I have continued to increase my physical strength. It's all good.

How did I get here? Well I don't count calories at all. I do pay strict attention to my fueling about 85% of the time. What I mean is that I eat a lot of lean protein (fish, lean beef, poultry and lean pork). Very few simple carbohysrates (again 85% of the time)almost no dairy( save for one bowl of ice cream or so a week), tons of fruits and vegetables, raw nuts too. (I mean tons) and plenty of water. I pretty much follow the Paleo Diet For Athletes. Will it work for you? I have no idea but it may be worth shot. The key is to eat only things that you don't need a chemical engineering background to understand the label, I think.

I also exercise at maximal levels. I don't go through the motions and I always have specific workouts that are planned out in advance. None of this "Let me see how I feel" crap! If I don't hit the goal, then I don't hit it. But I don't start without a plan. Pretty simple really.

Also, I don't go from program to program. "Doing Few Things Better" is how Marty Gallagher describes it in his tome the "Purposeful Primitive."

So my focus is on the Press, the pistol and the Tactical Pull Up for raw and sustained strength and then the "Viking Warrior Conditioning" for my conditioning. I also do heavy swings and Turkish Get Ups once a week. Amazingly simple but not easy at all.

Today I did my low volume weighted tactical pull ups. 10 sets of 1 rep. That's it.

Sandy Sommer, RKC

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1 Comments:

At May 16, 2009 at 11:55 AM , Blogger Laura said...

Was this the dunk test? I know that's supposed to be the gold standard, but even that can be off by a bit since it depends on how well you're able to get all the air out of your lungs. The fact is, there's no 100 percent accurate way to determine the body fat percentage of a living human ... and honestly I'm not sure it matters all that much. Or rather, it's not the number in an absolute sense that matters, but how the number is trending. As long as you're leaner than you were last time you checked, you know your program is working.

Anyhoo, great job! 11% is fantastic for a man of any age, and absolutely outstanding for a gentleman who's in his 40s. You're a great role model for your clients.

 

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