Is This Possible?

For the last couple of days, my electronic scale's been telling me I have 15% body fat.

15% of 140.8 pounds, that's 21.1 pounds of fat. (Strange to think of it--as if it's all collected in a vat somewhere.)

Today, the scale claims I have 13.8% body fat. Same weight. But now only 19.4 pounds of fat.

Is it possible that I've 1.7 pounds of fat in a day?

I doubt it very much.

The electronic scales 'measure' by passing electricity through you--completely painless, I assure you--and then figuring out how much of you is water and how much fat and how much bone by some kind of formula (based on height and age, in this scale's case).

This scale has two different settings, one for 'normal' and the other for 'athlete.' Which am I? I don't consider exercising three or four times a week for a couple of months to make me an 'athlete'?

Nevertheless, after two rounds of exercise at high heart rate for a short duration--25 to 30 minutes--let me tell you: my tummy looks smaller, flatter. I'm actually beginning to see the ab muscles underneath.

Now I'm someone who weighs about 140 pounds and is only 5' 7". So at this point I'm not what you'd consider overweight. It's not as if two days transformed me utterly.

But high intensity and shorter duration does seem to do something good.

I'll have to try a week at the other end of the spectrum--low intensity and longer duration.

But at this point, the key thing is probably: something is better than nothing.

--E. R. O'Neill