Week 1 Recap - My 40-Day Epic Water Fast

Hey Epic Fans! It's time to recap week 1 and look at the data.

This is the week that separates the wheat from the chaff. I really really encourage everyone to understand going into this that week 1 is the biggest challenge, but you can power through it. Your own results will reinforce you and encourage you to keep on. But for now, here's a look at my data to see if it helps you

Week 1 By The Numbers

My core info:

37 yr old male

6'5"

Start Weight (SW): 244.7lbs

Current Weight (CW): 228.1lbs

Weight Lost: 16.6lbs

Goal: break below 10% body fat percentage

Current Body Fat %: 18.61%

Est Goal Weight (after re-feeding): 205-206lbs

Est Goal Weight (empty stomach): 195-198lbs

On my week 1 of my 30-day fast, I lost 13.5lbs, so my thought is that I had an inflated starting weight by 3.1'ish lbs.

Here's a link to my Google Sheet that I'm using to track my progress.

I think due to the rushed nature of starting this process, I didn't take all my week 1 measurements correctly, but that's okay. I have data to true the process and get a more refined initial estimate as I go.

What do I look for in data?

On a daily basis, I just do weight (and my blood pressure, but that's unique to me).

On a weekly basis, I do 3 different body fat % tests, as well as measure a number of dimensions.

How I Measure Body Fat Percentage

For body fat percentage, I take an average of 3 readings, so that I get the least biased idea of where I am along my progression.

First Fat % Test: Omron Body Fat Analyzer

Good Lord I'm not even going to link to the Amazon listing for this thing, because it's like $250. Maybe it's out of production. Anyways, find an electronic fat analyzer. I'm not a fan of the scale analyzers (yesterday my bluetooth scale told me I was 25% body fat ... wrong).

My meter told me I'm 17.6% body fat, which seems a bit low. Hence we average the 3.

Second Fat % Test -AccuMeasure Suprailiac Skin Fold 1-Point Test

I use an AccuMeasure Body Fat Caliper ($8.10 on Amazon)

How to use it to get your AccuMeasure body fat percentage estimate: find your iliac crest with one hand, and you're going to want to go just outside that on a diagonal to get the suprailiac skin fold (here's an example of a guy doing it with the AccuMeasure caliper).

Next, you take the caliper, slide the moving scale marker to the outside, and slowly compress the caliper until the resistance tester breaks. Once it does, the sliding marker should be in place right on your millimeter measurement. I take enough to get 3 consistent readings or I record the average of 3 readings. Don't rely on one single test. Consistency with this is important. DON'T CHEAT YOURSELF.

You then take that millimeter reading, and then compare that with your age and biological sex against AccuMeasure's chart here:

I'm a 37 yr old male, and I measured 15mm, so I'm in the 18.6% body fat area in this one test.

Third Fat % Test: 3-Point Jackson/Pollack Method

I use the Body Tracker iOS App to help me calculate this one.

We're going to use our AccuMeasure calipers to measure three skin fold points:

Chest

Abdomen

Thighs

Not only does the app make calculating it a cinch, it also gives you visual cues as to where to take the skin fold pinches.

Just like you did in the suprailiac skin fold test, measure those three dimensions.

In the app, hit Menu > Body Fat > Jackson/Pollock 3 to pull up the app's prompt screen, and enter your weight and skin fold readings.

Voila, it gives you your resutls.

My measurements:

Chest: 18

Stomach: 28

Thigh: 18

Calculated Body Fat %: 19.63%

Average the Three

So for my final body fat%, I averaged my Omron reading (17.6%), AccuMeasure 1-Point Test (18.6%), and the Jackson/Pollock 3-point test (19.63%) to get an average 18.61%. This is not much less than my starting 18.84%, but based on some calculations, I believe my starting fat % was more in the range of 20-23%.

Tape Measurements

As if just getting those fat measurements wasn't nerdy enough, we'll pump those rookie numbers up with the tape measurements half of my weekly measurement.

I use the MyoTape body tape measure ($5.99 on Amazon).

It's easy for a one-man job, as it dispenses the tape out of the handle, allows you to loop it around and secure the other end in the handle. Once you do, press the button, and it tightens the tape.

It is designed so that once you have a taught tape secured into a full loop in the device, just look at the tape reading marked at the dispensing end of the device, and that's your dimension.

I use it to measure the following dimensions (and I'm including my starting readings with this week's readings in parenthesis):

Neck (Starting: 15.5 | Current: 15 | Loss: 0.5inches)

Arm - Right [I measure at the valley between shoulders and bicep] (14; 13.675; -0.225in)

Arm - Left (13.75; 13.5; -0.24in)

Chest [tip: if the tape sags in the back, you'll get a bad reading] (44.5;42.675;-1.825in)

Waist [above navel, where hips curve into torso] (40.75; 38.5; -2.25in)*

Abdomen [around belly button/widest point] (43.625; 39.5 -1.125in)*

Belt (40.625; 39.5; -1.125)

Hip [centered where femur enters hip socket] (42; 41.125; -0.875in)

Thigh - Right [widest part] (25;24.25;-0.75in)

Thigh - Left (25; 24.125; -0.875 in)

Calf - Right [widest part] (16.25; 15.625; -0.625in)

Calf - Left (15.75; 15; -0.75in)

*Note: The drastic drop in waist and abdomen is partially due to a lack of food inside my digestive tract.

Chart Time! Visualizing and Understanding Your Data

Okay, so what's the goal? Shred fat like it's nobody's business, right?

We've measured in 3 ways: scales, body fat % and tape measurements. Scales can lie, body fat tests can be inaccurately administered, and you can cheat on tape measurements. HOWEVER, all in all, the data should be pointing towards progress.

Here are 3 things I like to look at by the end of the week:

1 - Weight Loss Progression

Gotta love gainz! I mean losses. This plots my daily losses, as well as a regression line. Note: the first days are the most lost, so that regression line is best begun on like day 5. I'm not going to weigh 190 on Day 24.

2 - Day to Day Losses

As I just alluded to, the early days are noisy. You want to get to where you're seeing consistent daily numbers, because you can use THAT to estimate your end weight (or at least what weight you can get to in X number of days).

I'm getting closer to the 0.93'ish pounds I lost per day on my previous 30-day fast.

Rolling 3-Day Average

To get the BEST sense of what your daily burn is, I like to use a rolling 3-day average. In my opinion, this is the best thing to do in terms of A) creating future projections and B) assessing if you're really slowing down on your daily burn rate.

Wrapping Up

So that's a long and comprehensive look at how I measure things weekly, and how I assess a week's performance.

If you have any questions or comments, hit me up on my YouTube Channel.