I’ve been cross training (jogging, upper body weight lifting and core strength work) at Lifetime Fitness. It has been a wonderful experience but today I decided I needed to bite the bullet and see just how much extra weight…FAT I’m carrying around. Although I knew I wasn’t going to like what I was told, data truly is my friend and in order for me to track and see positive or negative movement with my body composition, I needed to hear it. 

I debated briefly with myself as to whether or not I would put my personal data out here for all the world to see, but what the heck, it is what it is and if I put it out there, I think I’ll be more motivated to improve on it so I can report back with better numbers! 

Using the 3 site skin fold measurement technique (done with calipers) a body fat percentage of 34.6% and a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 27.2 were estimated. Both of these say that I need to get leaner. The desirable range for me would be between 25% and 31%. I would agree — and knew this before the caliper ever touched my skin. The good news is that gives me 105 lbs of lean mass.  That represents a fair amount of muscle which I plan to keep and build upon.

After the computer did its thing, the fellow who did the measurements looked at me, then looked at the computer read-out, then back to me and very kindly offered, “Hmm, maybe this estimate is a little high for you.”  It would be great if he is right, but, again, it really doesn’t matter that much. This number represents a baseline for me. Now I need to see if I can improve on it over the next few months. I plan to get measured monthly, so I should have 4 or 5 data points before I leave on the tour.