The Four Week Body Project

My fiance, Lach and I recently acquired the book titled 'The Four Week Body' by Timothy Ferris. As a result of reading it, we decided to follow the exercise and eating plans, as well as get DXA scans done to measure our fat mass, muscle mass and bone mass accurately. At the end of our experiment, we will get the scans redone to compare, as well as before and after photos.

Here are my before photos, completely untouched and taken with my iPhone, you can even see the big dent and scar on the side of my leg from when I broke it:

The following three images are the results of my DXA scan on the 15th February, 2012, my weight was 53.2kg at 157.5cm tall, age 26 years old:

Above is the bone scan, normal mineral levels (bone density) are between -1 and +1, my levels are at +1.5 which is extremely good.

The yellow area in the above image represents fat, red is muscle and blue is bone, as you can see, I store the majority of my body fat on my bum and thighs. My BMI (Body Mass Index) is 21.4, well inside the normal range and my total body fat percentage is also 21.4%, 21-33% is recommended for women between the age of 20-39 years old. However, my FMI (Fat Mass Index) is 4.57 which is a mild fat deficit, normal is 5-9. Unlike the BMI, FMI is not affected by lean tissue and measures fat/height alone.


                                              

This last image shows a summary of the scan, it also shows the percentage of fat that accumulates on the sub-region (stomach), the fat that accumulates in this area is normally the more dangerous type, as it surrounds the vital organs. My sub-region fat percentage is 9.6%, which is slightly below normal, but not dangerously low.

Because I don't have a lot of fat that I want to lose, I am only following the fat loss diet fairly loosely, Lach on the other hand, is following it very strictly so as to become as toned and lean as possible in as short a time as possible. Here are his before photos, sexy socks and all:

The following three images are Lach's results from the DXA scan on the 15th February, 2012, his weight was 70.1kg at 167 cm tall, age 26 years old:

Above, the result of Lach's scan shows that his bone density is at -0.9 which is only just in the safe range, a good way to improve this is healthy diet as well as weight resistance training.

Lach also stores the majority of his body fat on his bum. His BMI is 25.1, just over the normal range, but his total body fat percentage is 16.4%, 8-20% is recommended for men between the age of 20-39 years old. While his FMI is 4.1, the normal range for men being 3 to 6. Due to child bearing and other functions related to hormones, women require three times as much essential fat as men.

                                              

The sub-region fat on Lach at the time of this scan was 13%, which is normal.

When we can see strong visible results, we will head back for another scan and post the final results. Until then, I hope that you have found this interesting and informative.