You can't judge the results if you don't know where you start. This weekend was all about the starting point. As part of the program I enrolled in at the Y, I was able to do body composition testing in the Bod Pod. This was at least half the reason I signed up for the program. The Bod Pod is the gold standard for body composition testing. It uses air displacement and measures body fat percentage and resting metabolic rate (RMR). It was awesome! Well, truthfully, the entire experience was...weird. I had to get down to a sports bra and compression shorts in front of a stranger, which isn't where you want to be when you have body image issues. Then the guy operating it handed me a swim cap. I'm hoping that it was cleaned in between. I mean, really, really hoping. Then you get in the Bod Pod, which is just an egg shaped thing in the trailer. Did I mention this is all happening in a trailer in a parking lot? Totally weird.
But, at the end of this 10 minutes of weirdness, you walk out with a sheet of info that's really freaking cool. It includes % fat, fat mass, fat free mass, body fat rating, and RMR. It also includes body volume, body density, and thoracic gas volume. I don't have a clue what to do with that info, but do you know your thoracic gas volume? I didn't think so!
In addition to the Bod Pod, I also broke out the tape measure and wrote down all my starting point measurements - waist, hips, arms, thighs, calves. The waist measurement is the most important of these as this is an indicator of higher risk of Type 2 Diabetes and heart disease when over 35" for women and 40" for men. I'm in that high risk category and that's highly motivating to me.
Finally, the program has you establish your fitness starting point by doing wall sits, 1 mile run, and push ups.
Nowhere to go now but up! Or down depending on which starting point you're judging.
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