Recalibrate my curve(s)

Got my nifty new scale in the mail yesterday. But the recalibration was not kind to me.

The old analog scale said 168 this morning. The new scale? 172.4 - hmph. Still, I've lost the weight I've lost. I just started higher than I knew.

In fact, I may have lost just a teeny smidge more than I thought. Here's my reasoning. The scale was 4.4 pounds low at an "accurate" weight of 172.4 today. But it's always been calibrated to zero, so it is NOT low at all at accurate weight 0.0. Therefore, it must not be a fixed offset, but a percent error. (If it's some higher polynomial or exponential function, then fuck it, I'm taking a linear approximation.) Taken this way, the error is 2.5%. Now, this is also where I get to compensate for my growing unease with 181 as my start weight, since it was not a morning weight. Instead I take 180 as my old-style start weight. To get a result of 180 at 2.5% low, the real weight must be 184.6. So while I will not be adjusting the weights in my record (merely a note about the scale change), the new "start weight" on my ticker is 184.6 and my goal weight is adjusted to 139.6, just to make the loss a whole number of pounds and because it would be nice to see the 130s, wouldn't it?

The body fat analyzer is a little... uh... well it kinda sucks. I played around with the scale yesterday, of course, before the official calibration, and my body fat percentage apparently skyrocketed by 6% after a meal. Haha. Even this morning, taking three consecutive readings in which the weight remained unchanged, the body fat values varied over about a percent. So, I won't report or record body fat readings any more precise than 1%, even though the scale reads 0.1%.

My body fat percentage for today, then, is 38%. 172.4 lbs and 38% fat puts me at about the same place I was during the winter of my junior year of high school. If I reach my goal weight while maintaining the same lean mass, I would be 24% fat, which is pretty perfect. But seriously, I'd settle for anything below 30%. So here we go.

For the sake of intrigue, my 5' 6 1/2" boyfriend stepped on the scale and it read 121.4 pounds and 8% body fat. Skinny bastard. He weighs fifty damn pounds less than me and still has more lean mass!

Yay new toys!

Got my new yoga ball yesterday and I'm sitting on it right now! I can see how these burn energy, it's really easy to just rock back and forth, roll side to side a little CONSTANTLY. And when I get music going (very helpful when your job is computer coding), my instinct is to bounce!

I just ordered a digital scale on Amazon (along with a few other things) that was very well priced and fits all my requirements: it is accurate to 0.2 lb (biggest criterion), measures body fat by bioelectrical impedance (bonus, didn't think I'd find one for a good price that also does that), runs on AA batteries (easier to replace than lithium) and has visible foot-pads (so I don't wonder if I'm messing up the reading by standing on it wrong). Next week when I get it I will RECALIBRATE and see how messed up my analog scale really is.

The shape and feel of my arms keeps changing, and my collarbone, though not easily visible, is getting prominent enough to notice by feel. Also, I wasn't too tired getting up at 5:30 today for my run. If I run every weekday in addition to my strength workouts and weekend exercise, that's 2-3 extra runs a week which should speed this up nicely.