Today's weight was 222.6 - down 2.6 pounds from yesterday, 12 pounds since Monday!  Now, do you see how easy it is for some of these diet products to make these outrageous claims?  If I was a shady character, I could easily hype a product to help you lose 12 pounds in 4 days, and have a lot of people jump on board.   But what the smart people know (by smart people I mean the people who are reading this blog and my newsletter) is that I really didn't lose all body fat this week - mostly just water weight.  The numbers will become less gaudy as we go on, but the results will be obvious through the pictures.  I also can't wait for my new ultrasound bodyfat measurement tool - I will hopefully be able to post pictures of my bodyfat layers for you to look at!

If you haven't noticed, my scale is digital, with a 1 decimal place precision.  If you are going to use a scale, I would recommend a similar type.  Why?  Well, you could actually go from 222.8 to 222.0 (almost a full pound lost), but it would show up on a digital scale as 222 for both weigh-ins.  Anything for a psychological edge!

I substituted stiff-leg deadlifts for squats in today's workout, as my gym has only one squat rack and it was being used.  Here's what my workout looked like:

• 3 minute warm-up and dynamic stretching
• 15 minutes of bench press ladders (sets of 1, 2, 3, 4, X then X, 4, 3, 2, 1)
• 5 minutes rest/recovery and breakdown/set-up of equipment
• 15 minutes of stiff-leg deadlifts (sets of 1, 2, 3, 4, X then X, 4, 3, 2, 1)

I set two personal records - 45 reps @ 245 pounds on the deadlifts, 30 reps @ 225 on the bench press.  Now, I'm not the strongest guy in the world, but I'm stronger than the average guy The key here is to find your starting point and take a baseline.  Then, you try to beat your personal best every time out.  For example, on the deadlifts, last week I did 44 reps @ 225 pounds - so not only did I do one more rep, but I also did 20 more pounds on EVERY rep.  Don't worry if all of this terminology doesn't make sense to you - over time I'll explain it all!