Urban-- I found this article for you: http://www.femalemuscle.com/q_a/question30.htm
The guy who wrote it is a body builder, nutritional specialist and personal trainer.

Here's what I thought you'd like to read:

"Why is BMI a poor measure of health and fitness? It's simply because BMI does NOT take into account body fat vs. lean tissue. Body builders and other athletes carry more lean body mass than the average person and will therefore be classified as overweight if BMI is used as the criteria for measurement. Conversely, someone could have a "healthy" BMI of 19 to 22 and yet have a dangerously high level of body fat (a "skinny fat person").

The solution of course, is to differentiate between your lean body weight and your fat weight. This can be done with body composition testing. There are many ways to test body fat, but the method I recommend is skinfold testing (the "pinch" test). You'll get the most accurate reading if you have an experienced tester measure you at three or four skinfold sites, but if you don't have access to an experienced professional, you can test your own body fat with a home testing kit called the Accu-Measure. The Accu measure tests total body fat with a single skinfold pinch on your iliac crest (hip bone). I bought a set for myself (very inexpensive) and I found that the measurements were fairly close to the measurements I got from the $450.00 computerized "Skyndex" calipers we use at our health clubs. You can order the Accu Measure caliper at: http://www.bodytrends.com/acm.htm

In conclusion, body fat percentage is the only way to go. BMI is a poor indicator of your health, fitness or ideal weight. Forget about BMI - and while you're at it, forget about those Metropolitan height and weight tables too. According to the ideal weight tables, a man 5' 8" tall with a medium frame should have an ideal weight of 138 - 152. That means I need to lose at least 49 pounds!"

Urban-- I found this site by googling for it-- maybe you could find some other articles online to help you out!

Thanks PB Girl! Now I just need to figure out what BF % to shoot for.

I lost weight the whole week before tom this month. That has pretty much NEVER happened before. And I'm losing nicely after as well. Maybe I've gotten to the point where I'm not retaining water like crazy. Have to see what happens next month. Another .4 gone today, putting me at 267.2. Oh and I forgot.... passing up 268 put me at -60 since starting low carb back in 11/03!! Finally!! I never thought I'd get past -58

Wow! Awesome job Cindy!

Urban-- you're welcome. I just hope that you figure things out.

I got the ultimate diet 2.0 and I think that is more suitable for what I am looking for than PSMF. I am looking more for maintenance then quick loss. I am going to change my stats to UD 2.0 but still gonna post in here!

Good UZ! Tell us what that diet is like. We'll all be watching you.

I know it's bad but if any one wants it email me and I will send it to you. capyle at gmail dot com

Hi all,
I have been reading with great interest your posts. It seems as though you have all been experiencing great success with this diet.
I am really not keen on losing more weight. After approx. 2yrs of Atkins, I am at my goal weight but still not happy with the way I look (how vain this sounds!!!) I am interested in replacing my fat with some lean muscle(less jiggling would be nice) Do you think that PSMF will help achieve this?
I noticed that there are several books by Lyle McDonald. Can someone advise me on which one will give me the best basics of the diet and step by step "how to" info?
Thank you in advance.

You and Urbanzero should discuss UD2.0. Sounds like you guys might be in the same boat.

Poirot, the book by Lyle McDonald called Ultimate Diet 2.0 is more about that. Although, it still is about cutting fat, so maybe you just need to do your current maintenance and just add weight training.

Hey all! This week end, my free meal turned into a free day and boy did I have fun! I am too scared to look at the scale but I am certainly happy I did it! Ive been dieting for a year and lately with decreasing my calories SOO much, Ive been feeling extremely deprived. I decided to take a pyschological break more than anything and I got to have all my favorite foods which ive been craving for a few months now. I wont be checking the scale for a week or so to give myself some time to loose the water weight without totally freaking out. Hopefully this might even help get the weight moving quickly again. This morning, Im back on track and hopefully by the end of the week, Ill be where I left off on Friday.

Nancy, while I was browsing the BodyRecomp. site, they said that another one of the benefits of doing a free meal/refeed is that not only does it put all your numbers back into back, it slowly adjusts your metabolism in the sense that it becomes harder for your body to gain the weight once to eat "normally". The more cycles you do, the less your body/metabolism holds on to, until eventually, it doesnt gain back the weight as quickly as it did before. It sounds like you're doing extremely well.

I havent been keeping track of the pounds Ive lost in total, but I have been watching my clothing sizes. I started off at 14/16, and now Im down to 12/14.

Good job everyone!

Who is the "they" in "they said"? Lyle or random people on the web site?

I'm still pretty skeptical about free meals doing anything for your metabolism, otherwise, why would category 1 people not do them? I think its purely psychological. Like you've demonstrated, sometimes dieting gets to be a real chore and you need a break!

I'm finding that my pattern now is to do slightly free days. (on the weekend) Where what I do is let myself have a little more food, and maybe 3 meals where I can have something carby. Its working out well from the standpoint of I don't gorge myself at all. But I do gain a lot of water from the carbs and I am hungry the day after.

But I really like the fact I'm not eating myself into illness any longer for free meals!

The "they" is a combination of Lyle and random people. I cant find it now, but I remember reading a posting where Lyle commented that after every refeed (not too sure abt the free meals- but I dont see why it wouldnt apply, esp. in your case where you only add a moderate amt of carbs) your metabolism adjusts by not gaining as much as before -I think that's even the premise behind carb cycling.

In terms of why Category 1 isnt required, is bc their metabolisms arent as slow as those in Cat2 or 3.

Until I decrease my bf to metanence levels, I dont think I have the self control to have responsible free days on the week end. Its either all or nothing, and at this point my main goal is to loose the bf. With that in mind (before my gorge week end), I have to keep my calories at around 600 or less AND workout with weights and cardio for the scales to budge. This week Im trying to bump up my excerise by adding a workout tape 3 days while doing my own little weight lifting routine twice a week. Today will be my first day, so hopefully I really get this water weight (and fat--Im convinced I ate that much) off.

The UD2 is pretty much carb-cycling and it goes into exhaustive detail about why the "carb-up". Basically lots of bad stff happens in your body that tries to keep you from losing weight, systems shut down. It's not just your metabolism that slows, there are numerous functions that slow. Refeeds turn those mechanisms back on so as to trick the system back and forth in order to lose the most fat and not muscle.

I have been very hungry lately. This weekend I ended up eating more than I usually do (still below 1000 cals though). I wonder why I am hungry all of a sudden. I didn't eat any trigger foods or anything like that. Maybe I just FEEL like eating. I get like that the 2 days before TOM. Right now I could go and eat something, but my tummy is not empty (like is was before dinner tonight!). What is my problem? I don't feel stressed or anything like that either. Hmm, maybe this is good and it means I will lose some more weight???

Have you guys been working out at all? Since starting PSMF I haven't worked out because I was afraid that my body would go into a type of shock from the reduction in cals and lifting/doing cardio. I think I am going to start again this week (it was only a 2 week workout break). What do you guys think? It would probably be good to lift weights to further spare my muscles, but I am kinda worried about it too. Hmmm...