My Six-Week Cure: Tehnical Notes on Measurements
This page contains the technical notes for my progress chart measurements.
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Age: 47 years
Height in inches
- 63 inches (5 feet 3 inches) = 160 centimeters
centimeters = inches x 2.54
Weight in pounds
- Starting Weight: 260 pounds = 118 kilograms
Ending Weight: 248 pounds = 112 kilograms
kilograms = pounds x 0.453
Pants Size (U.S. Large Women’s sizes)
- Starting Size: 26W
Ending Size: 26W
T-Shirt Size (U.S. generic/men’s sizes)
- Starting Size: 3XL
Ending Size: 2XL
Waist Circumference in inches
Waist Circumference is the circular distance all the way around the body at the natural waist (at the bellybutton)
- Starting Waist: 51 inches = 130 centimeters
Ending Waist: 48.5 inches = 123 centimeters
Hip Circumference in inches
Hip Circumference is the circular distance all the way around the body measured at the widest part of the hip
- Starting Hips: 53 inches = 134 centimeters
Ending Hips: 50.5 inches = 128 centimeters
Waist to Hip Ratio (WHR)
WHR = Waist to Hip Ratio
Waist Circumference divided by Hip Circumference
- Starting WHR: 0.96
Ending WHR: 0.96
- approximate goal = 0.7 for women (0.9 for men)
- A ratio of 0.8 in women is an indicator of increased chance for disease.
Standing Sagittal Abdominal Diameter
Diameter is the distance straight across the center of a circle from one side to the other
- Starting S-SAD: 16 inches = 41 centimeters
Lying Sagittal Abdominal Diameter
- Starting L-SAD: 12.5 inches = 32 centimeters
Standing SAD minus Lying SAD
- Starting S-L: 3.5 inches = 9 centimeters
Fasting Blood Glucose Level in mg/dL
- Starting fBGL: 246 mg/dL = 13.5 mmol/L
Ending fBGL: 128 mg/dL = 7.0 mmol/L
- fBGL normal range:
70-100 mg/dL
3.9-5.5 mmol/L
Conversion Factors
- centimeters = inches x 2.54
kilograms = pounds x 0.453
BGL in mmol/L = BGL in mg/dL x 0.055
The Significance of Sagittal Abdominal Diameter Measurements
- One of the main measures of success in the book, are Sagittal Abdominal Diameter (SAD) measurements. Basically your SAD tells you how thick you are at the middle of your abdomen. It is a straight measurement from front to back, or the diameter of your waist measurement. The circumference of a circle is the round measurement, all the way around the outside of the circle (like we measure our waist or hips). The diameter is the length of the straight line right across the middle, from one edge to the other.SAD measurements are taken in pairs, standing up and lying down (S-SAD and L-SAD). The purpose is to get an idea how much of your abdominal fat is subcutaneous and how much is visceral. Subcutaneous fat sits just under the skin, and while is not good for anything, it poses fewer and less serious health risks than visceral fat. Visceral fat lives in your viscera, in and around the internal organs within your abdominal wall. This type of fat is a precursor to things you really want to avoid: cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, etc. The Six Week Cure is a program designed to significantly reduce visceral fat quickly and healthfully.
The idea in the SAD measurements is that your subcutaneous fat only has your skin to hold it in, and it moves with gravity, so it pools in different locations when you are standing up than it does when you are lying down. If most of your fat was subcutaneous, you would see a big difference in your L-SAD vs. S-SAD measurements. Contrast this with your visceral fat, which is bounded by your ab muscles, and holds its round shape in your belly, regardless of gravity or body position. If most of your fat is visceral, you will see a smaller difference between your L-SAD and S-SAD measurements.
SAD measurements taken at home are done by standing up or lying down with your back flush against the wall or floor, placing a yardstick parallel to the surface on the biggest part of the abdomen between the breastbone and the belly button, and then measuring the perpendicular distance between the surface and the yardsick.
I stopped taking the Sagittal Abdominal Diameter Measurements after two weeks because I realized they were almost meaningless for a person of my size.
- Imagine the difference between two circles, with circumferences of 51 and 48.5 inches. Those are my waist measurements. The diameters of the same two circles are 16.2 and 15.4 inches, respectively. That is a difference of less than one inch. The Sagittal Abdominal Diameter Measurements were somewhat challenging to take, and I didn’t think I would be able to measure them accurately enough to show a change of less than one inch. So, I stopped taking the measurements, and removed them from my progress chart.
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Ramona Denton
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