Fighting fat: Week five

Starting weight: 176 lbs. (BMI: 26.4 – overweight)
Oct. 2 weigh-in: 167 lbs. (BMI: 25 – overweight)
Days worked out during week four: five

This was an interesting week. There's been things that have gone well and things that have not.

Let's start with the good: We had a family gather on Saturday and there's always way too much food at these functions. But I was able to limit myself to one plate and a beer.

The bad: My brother invited me up to Central City for a buffet on Friday. Buffets aren't good for diets and I had seven plates.

The confusing: I still lost weight – I was expecting to gain a pound or two after the buffet visit. It wasn't the three pounds I planned on losing last week, but it still came off.

My metabolism must be on high gear.

Right now my body mass index is at 25 – the absolute bottom of overweight. If I drop half a pound, I become normal weight.

But the more important number I found was my body fat percent, which dropped from 21.5 percent to 18.2 percent in three weeks. The acceptable range is 18-25 percent, which is where I am at, but it means I am on the verge of reaching the fitness level (14-17 percent).

I'm loving the fact that my clothes fit much better now and the sixth notch on the belt is normal.

My plan for this week is to continue my workout routine, but increase my warm-up cardio to 45 minutes and add more exercises to my weight training. I should reach my goal of 166 by next week as long as I don't deviate from my diet – meaning no buffets. But my side goal is to drop to 17 percent body fat. I don't know if that's feasible because I don't know how quickly my body fat level is supposed to drop, but it's worth a shot.