Kennith Smitherman

So I just had my body fat composition calculated. As you guys may recall I weighed 193lbs and was at 19.3% BF 6 Weeks ago. Well earlier this week I took the test again and lets just say I aced it. 176.45lbs which is a 16.55 lb loss in 6 weeks. Now I am at 13% BF, which is a 30.63% reduction of body fat. I am in a very healthy BMI range. And feel great. At this point my weight loss is strictly for Vanity. I think I am in great physical shape now. Pictures, and a copy of my Bod Pod will come Sunday.

This week was a success. I reached a short term goal. I dropped below 180lbs for the first time since I was about 14 years old. During the week I got down to as low as 177, but after Voodoo Fest in New Orleans, where I actually followed a good diet, with the exception of too much beer, I weighed in at 179.5. That is a 2.5lb loss, and really gives me motivation to drop these last 9-10 lbs. My new short term goal is 175lbs and my long term is still 170. At the rate of 2lbs a week I should be at my goal by November 24. I notice a major improvement on my belly. I swear the difference between 187 and 177 is amazing, but honestly the difference from 179.5 to 177. I think 170 will be an amazing weight for me. I did some math, and my BF% should be about 14%, but I am having a test done as soon as possible next week to give me an exact number.

I also wanted to mention the closer I get to my goal the stronger my cravings get. I seem to be constantly starving no matter how much I eat. Any advice?

Skin Tightening Tips

1. Drink plenty of water. Allowing your skin to become dehydrated once can screw up most of your progress. Keep water handy and drink it when your thirsty. Do not put yourself in situations that keep you from having water handy. Theatre, bring water. Class, Bring water. Gym bring water. Don’t go without drinking water just to manipulate the scale. The more water you drink the less water your body wil try to retain. Water helps move waiste products such as toxins from your body, and helps regulate digestion. Water also helps you stay full. Becoming dehydrated severely damages your skin cells.

2.Know your body fat percent. It has become popular to completely blame that pooch on loose skin. Average body fat for men is around 15-17% (20-25%t for women who need more body fat for maternal, health, and breast purposes). Men shouldn’t appear “ripped” until they are around 8% (12-14% for women). If you do not fall in this range then you shouldn’t expect to be completely flat. Maybe you should lose more weight. Estimates show 90% of men who complain about loose skin have a double digit BF%.

3. Don’t lose weight too quickly. Slow weight loss encourages your skin to tighten. For someone under 250lbs 2lbs per week is considered a healthy rate. Realize as you approach your goal this rate will be more difficult to maintain.

4. Give your skin time. It’s not a rubberband, don’t give up on diet goals, or immediately seek plastic surgery. If you are in the single digit body fat % range, your working on a gody weightlifting program, and you have given it a *Edit* [at least a year not "a couple of months"], then see how you feel about the prospect of surgery.

5. Exercise. Doing a thousand crunches a day is ridiculous, but increasing your lean body mass will significantly reduce excess skin. This will also allow you to appear ripped at a higher body fat percentage. The benefits will be most noticeable around your arms and legs.

6. Maintain a healthy nutrition. You need plenty of protein, vitamin A,E, C, and the mineral zinc (all help collagen production), EFA's (Essential Fatty Acids) fish oil or flax seed oil there is a reason they are called ESSENTIAL Fatty Acids.

7. Know what to avoid.
• Stress – Causes your body to take in excess oxygen and to produce free radicals, which tear down the cells in your skin. This damage is most visibly seen in wrinkles and saggy skin.
• Smoking – Smoking, as with stress, causes your body to produce free radicals, which tear down the cells in your skin.
• Tanning – Developing a tan is your bodys natural defense against over exposure to UV rays. Think of a tan as your body’s homemade sunscreen. Now that you know what a tan is. It hurts your skins ability to repair its self by damageing your direct DNA.
• Try to think of it like this if scabs or scars were sexy would you cut yourself to get them? Then why damage your skin intentionally.

There is only anecdotal evidence behind the following tips
I will try to add more tips to this list, and feel free to comment for or against any of these tips, and include your own.

8. Wear tight fitting material like spandex as workout clothes or under workout clothes. It helps keep skin cells from breaking down as much while you’re exercising.

9. Lightly scrub your skin with a loofah, or another product. Another name for this would be exfoliation. Your body naturally disposes of old skin cells, and produces new one oily skin holds on to the skin, dry skin accumulates dead skin quickly. So by using a loofah or similar product, you encourage cell growth in your skin. I use a towel and scrub back and forth over my abdomen after every shower, I think it helps, but that could just be the weight-loss.

10. Rub coco butter and vitamin E cremes on your skin focusing on your worst areas. Another oil I have been reading a lot about is Bio Oil (From the site you can read reviews, and buy some. You can also purchase it from Walgreens). Bio Oil seems to take a few months, but it is good for blending stretchmarks and scars, or so I have read.

11. Aloe Vera extract and yeast extract hep with the production of collagen.

12.Take a long bath in pure sea salt. I know this used to me done for horses after races, and pro-athletes to help repair damaged muscle tissue. It may be a result of loosing too much sodium. Kinda why Gatorade was invented. Sodium baths also causes your body to absorb magnesium, which is beneficial in the synthesis of Hyaluronic Acid.

13. Hyaluronic Acid, basically helps with cell connectivity. Imagine your moving all your stuff, if you put it in boxes you can stack it neatly into a low mass area. However, if you don't box it up then it will take up more space. Think of Hyaluronic Acid as the tape keeping your boxes closed. You deplete and resynthesize 1/3 of your bodies supply of Hyaluronic Acid every day. You can take a Hyaluronic Acid supplement, or you can take magnesium to help with natural synthesis.

Hey guys it is week 5 and I lost a measly .5 lbs today placing me at 182 pounds. I didn't track my calories for about 4 days. I ate healthy half the day and ate unhealthy the other half. I missed the gym several days. I drove to school twice instead of riding my bike. Throughout the week I was blaming a lot of this on a major midterm I had to take Friday, but then the weekend came. I drank a lot of beer and ate Bratwurst on Saturday while watching football. In general I did what I have done in the past, after about two weeks I would crash. This time it took two months, and I'm not letting it go down like that.

This is how I am going to get back on track.

(1) I will start posting at least twice a week. (you guys can help by leaving me comments with advice and recommendations. Also links to other blogs, recipes, and tips.

(2) I will work on time allocation. I have allowed tests or major job assignments to affect, my routine.

(3) I am going to cut back on weightlifting, I think it is affecting how I feel consequently altering my mental view of going to the gym from a positive to a negative.

(4) I need to work on staying more organized, which plays into time allocation.

(5) Quit making excuses. I need to quit making excuses. Valid or not, I am weeks away from obtaining a life long goal and now is not the time for justification of my mistakes.

I will take a picture today and post it this week so you can see my before and after pictures. I already have some you can see here, but I have not taken one in 5 months so the predominance of my weight loss can not be seen. From here out I will put the link to my weightloss at the end of every post with my food log.

Before and After photos

Food Log

Hey guys week 4 and I definitely overcame my "Plateau" I lost a total of 4 pounds this week bringing my overall total since the blog 12 pounds. My overall weight loss total since new years is now 50.5lbs. I have implemented core training as well as weight lifting into my routine. I am still figuring out which days are best and a complete list of my exercises. As promised for a while here is my Stats since the creation of this blog. I will also start concluding every post with this link. I am feeling and looking thinner, and I am only 12.5 lbs from my goal weight of 170lbs. My BMI is now a 24.1 which is well in the healthy range. I still plan to schedule a body composition test for Next week so I can find out what my body fat percentage is for sure.


http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pGVwowW1tQiFi6EjXjnU3KQ

Hey guys I should have taken the time to post this Sunday, but I was a little pressed for time. I dropped my weight to 186.5 on Sunday. That only represents a 1 pound loss. I definitely feel that I am plateauing and I am not sticking to my diet as well as I should. Keep in mind, when I break my diet it is to eat a fairly small portion of a fairly normal meal, such as eating one taco a little rice and some beans. I am at a point now where I need to boost my metabolism. Reducing calories at this point would be crazy.

Here are a few things I plan to work on to help boost my metabolism.

1. Start weightlifting Tuesday and Friday night.
- I feel part of the reason my weight dropped so quick early on was because I was weightlifting 7 days a week.
- Which reminds me I have also started core training on Monday and Thursday. Now that I have lost a lot of weight I have realized I don't have a V. I really hoped under all that fat there would be one hiding, but no luck. Maybe when the pooch goes I'll see a little more definition.

2. I need to avoid sugar a little more.
- I already do this, but I'm gonna buckle down a little bit.

3. Eat more spicy foods and drink more green tea.
- Spicy foods have been shown to increase calories burned during cardio, and also help me feel fuller. Caffeine has a similar effect on calories burned and raises your resting heart rate a little bit. Green tea also has antioxidants which are always good.

4. Reduce stress and increase sleep.
- With this hectic semester I really should find more time to study and sleep. I have been parting too much on the weekends, and I need to refocus on my goals.

I am setting my week goal for next week A.K.A. Sunday as 185lbs. That would be a great stepping stone for me considering it is the lowest weight I ever remember weighing. I dropped to that weight about three years ago and felt really good about my appearance. Considering I am 6'1" and have a large frame 185 is probably an ideal weight, but I am aiming for less and may build it up with muscle in the months to come. Wish me luck this week.