Survey on clothing sizes

by | Feb 5, 2013 | How Your Body Works, Low carb diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Another comment I made on a forum post regarding clothing sizes

 

Hi Ann,

You’re right it does have many variables. The clothing industry basically abandoned the standard cloth-sizing agreement in the 1980s. What used to be for instance, a size 10 became a size 4, size 14 became an 8, size 18 became a 14 and so on.

How much weight you lose to drop a dress size however depends on how big you are to start with. It’s probably easier to understand if we start from the smallest size. Imagine a stick-thin model putting on a few pounds, she would probably shoot up one or maybe even two dress sizes through only gaining, say 3 or 4 inches around the waist and bust combined. At the other end of the scale dress size could be hardly affected at all even with a loss of 20 or 30 lbs, that’s for someone over 250 to 300 lbs of course.

If you look at the official figures on the old standard, dropping from a size 12 to a 10 which is a modern 6 to a 4 would have meant a combined loss of 3 inches in total from the bust, waist and hips equating to a loss of 10 lbs. Remember back then of course it was considered that shorter people were going to be generally smaller. I think that was based on the average woman’s height at the time being 5’4″. At the other end of the scale someone who was a size 50 would have according to the clothing manufacturer’s standard of the day, being around 5’6″ and in order to drop 2 dress sizes, they would have lost 15 lbs and 6 inches around the bust, waist and hips combined.

The thing is as much as for the ladies and the men, those sizes have changed so much over the last 30 or so years that they don’t mean a lot at all anymore. I shop between four different countries, the sizes the manufacturers chose relate very much to the demographics of the population they serve. For instance a large T shirt bought in the UK would be an XL T shirt for the same size in France and an XXL for the same size bought in Italy.

So the bottom line is really, it’s not what size clothes you’re buying that matter so much, its how looser the clothes that you bought last time that’s what gives me the thrill.

Hope that helps,

Mark

 

Taking measurements

by | Feb 5, 2013 | How Your Body Works, Low carb diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

A copy of another comment on a forum post regarding body measurements

 

Hi Mark,

I would actually use three lots of measuring methods to gauge how well my body shape is changing, obviously the scales although they are known for not telling the truth all the time, and then measuring.

This is how I advice people to measure:

 

Let’s start with the men first:

– Around you neck where the shirt collar would go.

– Around your chest, just under your armpits more or less at nipple level.

– Around you stomach at the largest part.

– Around your upper arm at the largest part but without flexing your muscles and keeping your arm straight.

– Forearm at the largest part with your arms straight and again without flexing muscles.

– Your thighs at the largest part and do take time to measure each leg separately and also around the calves because some men do put fat on around the calves.

 

Now the ladies: They have a little bit more to measure. Ladies measurements are:

– Again, around the neck where the shirt collar would go.

– Around the chest or bust and it’s important to keep the measuring tape parallel with the ground. Probably the best way of doing it is measure around just under the bra and exhale; you want this measurement to be as smallest possible in order to retain the accuracy. Measure your bust as well by standing straight with your arms at your side and measure the fullest part of your bust preferably while wearing a bra and again make sure the tape is parallel to the ground.

– Then the upper arm at the largest part of the arm without flexing the muscles and the arm is straight.

– The forearm, the largest part of the forearm with straight arms and without flexing muscles.

– Then the waist ideally at the smallest part but you need to be the judge of that. The secret is to keep the same place each week.

– The stomach which is normally a little bit lower than the waist, again at the largest part.

– Hips, at the level of the hip joint or the largest circumference of your hips.

– Thighs, at the largest part of each leg again measured separately.

– Calves, at the largest part of each of your calves.

 

Those are the areas of the body both for men and women that will show the greatest change due to fat loss and a change of muscle tone.

The bottom line is the more places you measure the more indicators you’ve got of a change of body shape. Different areas of your body will change size at different times depending on the quality of the underlying fat but also the type of exercise that you’re getting as well.

One last thing that I always recommend people do is when they first start on an effective diet like low carb is to put on the snuggest outfit they’ve got and on the same day they measure, get it out and see how loose it’s starting to get.

So there are three ways that you can see how well you’re doing and encourage yourself from week to week. Oh yes, only do this once a week by the way, any more than that is just a waste of effort.

Hope that helps,

Mark

Low Carbs and Post Workout Muscle Fatigue/Soreness

by | Feb 5, 2013 | Exercise, Low carb diet, Questions about low carb, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Below is a copy of the comment I did on a forum post about a low carb question

 

Hi Siltz,

I switched to low carb during my time as a body builder and I actually found that after I’ve got into ketosis I actually had more energy and less fatigue such that I cut my session time down from just under an hour and a half to between 25 and 30 minutes doing the same number of reps with the same weight and in fact the gym instructor used to follow me around because he couldn’t believe what I was doing in the time I was doing it in.  I think if he would’ve had his way, he would’ve had me dope tested.

The only thing I would say the quality of protein that you are taking if you’re doing any form of serious exercise has to be high. I know a lot of people resort to whey protein shakes but I would tend to steer away from those because of the other ingredients they contain, things like soy and various artificial sweeteners.

Honestly the best protein you can take if you’re exercising to that sort of degree is good old fashioned grass- reared beef. I also agree with Doug wholeheartedly, you should give your body time to rest and also make sure that you’re not just drinking water but remember to make up the salts, literally with salt but don’t forget to dose up with potassium as well.

Hope that helps,

Mark

What do you eat for a quick , and tasty fat fix?

by | Feb 4, 2013 | Low carb diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Below is a copy of another post I made at lowcarber forum about high-fat snacks

 

Hi aramaya,

Small high fat snacks say? Well, here’s two coming up!

The first is…. a ripe avocado cut in two, take out the pit, fill the hole with mayonnaise and dust to taste with cayenne pepper. Absolutely delicious and the cayenne pepper does wonders for your health.

Staying on the avocado theme, dice up the flesh of an avocado into about quarter of an inch cubes, finely chop half a small onion and an optional clove of garlic. Mix the avocado, the onion and the garlic together. Sprinkle over a little bit of olive oil and lemon juice, mix, salt and pepper to taste.

I would normally have that with cottage cheese but as cheese isn’t something that likes you very much, the alternative is two chopped up hard boiled eggs with half-and-half mayonnaise and thick cream, salt and pepper to taste. Delicious!!!!

Cheers,

Mark

New starter

by | Feb 4, 2013 | Low carb diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

This is a copy of the comment I made on a post at lowcarber forum about low carb diet

 

Hi Cazzabella and a very warm welcome to you and well done for wanting to start a low carb diet.

You can be sure it will be something your body will thank you for but do please keep the advice of Mondaygirl for two reasons: One, its easier as all the work has been done for you and two, it’s been tried and tested.

Hundreds and thousands of people have followed these diets and seen their health improving enormously and actually it will be a huge time saver for you because you can just slip yourself into whichever plan appeals to you knowing you’re virtually guaranteed success and you won’t waste any time trying things your own way that may actually not work and let’s face it we’re all after results as quickly and as safely as possible and the best way to get results is find a plan and stick with it.

As for your feeling about asking questions, well, that’s what we’re here for.

Once again well done for starting. Keep up the good work.

Mark

 

When to repeat induction phase?

by | Feb 1, 2013 | Low carb diet, Weight Loss | 0 comments

This is a copy of a recent post that I made at About forums regarding induction

 

Hi yogi,

Well firstly don’t beat yourself up. This is a sort of thing that happens to everybody from time to time. The crucial thing is that you got back on track despite the hiccup.

Yes you could go back into induction but if you’re still seeing the  weight go down, then you’ll probably just as well continuing where you left off.

Hope that helps,

Mark