The vital statistics

So before I begin I need to figure out how I'm going to measure my success (If I have any) I am going to purchase some fancy weighing scales this week which should hopefully provide me with information about how succesful my training is going but until then we'll have to stick with these stats.

Weight - This is the obvious one, so I'm 190 pounds at the moment, just over 13 and a half stone. Golden rules about weighing yourself that I have picked up:

1. Always weigh yourself on the same set of weighing scales (I'm technicall breaking this rule already but that because I don't have any weighing scales at the moment)
2. Always weigh yourself at the same time of day, this is because your weight changes a lot throughout the day, first thing in the morning is usually a good time. Unless you have been out drinking all night and you have only got back home at 7am (For the record I have never ever done this!!)
3. Also MOST IMPORTANTLY your weight is not directly linked to how succesful your diet is going. So if you go to the gym 4 times a week, and start eating healthy foods but your weight goes up this does not mean your are getting fatter. You are more than likely gaining muscle which is making you weigh more, and the more muscle you have means the more calories you burn off.

BMI - So the BMI is a fancy calculation that tells you how fat you are, as I'm 5' 10'' and using my above weight my BMI is 27.3 which puts me in the overweight category. If I wanted to sit in the normal weight category I need to weigh 174 pounds (about 12.5 stone). Unfortunately the BMI is only a rough calculation if you did the same calculation on a rugby player they'd probably be 30 but thats because all the weight is muscle.

% Body fat & muscle - This is probably the best way to show how succesful things are, unfortunately until I buy my fancy weighing scales these stats are going to have to wait.