Hi all,

I'm not sure where to post this, but I figured the exercise forum was as good a place as any.

I had my body fat tested at the Y today (cue dramatic music). It was actually better than I thought it would be--22.2%. That's right in the middle of "Optimal". Hooray! Apparently I have 32.4 pounds of fat on my body and my basal metabolic rate is 1617. I like that that is nice and high. More food!

The bad news is that my actual weight is not 141, as my scale at home, that feckless flatterer, tells me, but rather 146. I knew my scale is off, but still, it hurts my feelings The woman who did my test said that I could lose about 4 pounds to get my body fat to 19%, but I probably won't bother too much with that. I'm busy converting fat to muscle anyway. The upside of weighing 5 more pounds than I think I do is that I'm actually burning *more* calories during my cardio than my HRM tells me I do. And that ain't bad.

I'm glad to have had all this tested, just as I'm beginning to get serious about lifting weights. It'll be nice to have measurable progress in the fat-muscle trade-off when I get it tested again in 12 weeks.

Congratulations! That is an outstanding body fat % and it's only going to get better. I like your strategy of not sweating your weight but focusing on building muscle instead.

Finally found the thread ....

Those are awesome numbers Baffled, keep up the good work

I just wanted to add that at 5'9'', you must look fabulous at 146 and such a low BF% ....

Is that a BMI? How do you calculate that? The Y will do it for you?

Thanks Meg & Ilene. I'm quite pleased myself I'll be even more pleased if it has dropped a couple of points by August.

Tracy, I think I BMI is different from body fat percentage, but I could be wrong. I think BMI is just based on your weight and your height, whereas body fat tests seek to determine exactly how much fat you have on your body. Last week I put my data into a bunch of different online calculators and got such wildly varying responses that I made an appointment at the Y to get the real number. My Y has a fancy polar computer program and a pair of calipers and the woman measured the fat on my tricep, my thigh and my hip to generate my body fat percentage. It was all pretty straightforward and much less random than the numbers I got from the internet. It was supposed to cost $5, but as I was leaving the house, the post came, and in it, quite serendipitously, was a postcard from the Y offering a free test to commemorate 12 weeks of membership. :0

oh thanks! I'll have to check it out.

That's so cool! Looks like all that hard work has paid off for you.

I wish my Y would do that!

Of course, my number wouldn't be as lovely as yours is, for sure. . .