I went to the gym the other day for the first time in a long time, and I got to thinking "I wonder what my body fat % is?" So I had it checked. They told me that I have 33% body fat. That is a third of my body.... ok so if a third of my body is fat that doesn't leave much left for my bones, muscles, organs, blood, lymph, waste, etc. Soooooo, I wonder if this reading is super accurate. The way they test is by squeezing certain portions of your body (all my sad spots, unfortunately) with these calipers, then compare the measurements to a chart. Apparantly I am in the VERY UNHEALTHY category. When I questioned him about the accuracy he said that it is the 2nd most accurate way of testing for subcutaneous fat, and that the reason why I could have such a high % is because my body has been burning the lean body mass, instead of fat. Blah blah blah, jargon, jargon, jargon.
Either way, I was pretty upset as you could imagine. Granted I knew that the guy who was measuring me (by the way... not an attractive procedure) was a personal trainer and this was obviously a gimic to get people to sign up and pay a ka-jillion dollars for a personal trainer I agreed to meet with him to find a "plan" to lose some body fat this summer.
It ended up being just that, a sales pitch ....he showed me how bad I am and how I have no plan to lose body fat correctly and that the only way this was going to happen was to hire him. That got me to thinking....I have taken human anatomy, physiology, nutrition, microbiology, chemistry, etc. I have plenty of schooling about how the human body works, the only thing that this guy has over me is that he knows how to properly exercise and I don't. Therefore, I have decided to educate myself and learn how to be my own personal trainer. If I have to spend money on anything, I should be training myself so that I can have a lifelong personal trainer, ME! So, here is to losing about 20 lbs of body fat...not body mass and to education! Let me know if you have any advise!
6 years ago
6 comments:
If it makes you feel any better, we have a scale that determines your body fat percentage. The instruction manual came with a warning to women that their body fat % will be higher than men and not to worry because it is normal and healthy to have a higher body fat %. That's always made me feel a little better.
I think you may wither away by losing 20 lbs!!!! Either way, it's never a bad idea to be health conscious!
My advice is to be realistic. If you start on something you can't realistically maintain or WON'T realistically maintian, it's not worth it (like if I started running at 5 am, it would last like 3 days because I HATE mornings and I HATE running! ha!)
Good luck!
Jamie
LOL, no way will I try to lose 20 lbs, but if I can convert some of my weight to muscle that would be ideal. I am going to just try to eat healthy...less empty calories, and work out right.
Katie I've gone through that test at the gym too and I'm glad to see you have a healthy attitude about it. It is initially shocking though. Did they bring out a plastic meat weighted to the appx amount of extra body fat you had? At 24hr Fitness the trainer did that to me and I was so grossed out - considering I was a vegetarian at the time! Good luck with your fitness goals. Maybe look into some excersice classes through the city of community college because they're fun, only a few days a week, and you can get quick results from the cardio...
What a frustrating experience! Dang trainer! One thing that I HAVE to do is to switch up my activities. Do things you like to do that are also good for you. If I had to do the same routine every day, I would probably only last about a week. So, switch it up and have fun! And tell Mr. Trainer to stick that calliber on his big toe!
LOL, thanks for the advice everyone.
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