Body Fat %

Yesterday was my 2nd class of "Compete Like A Competitor" (TLAC). We worked our backs, while last week during the 1st class, we did Legs and Plyometrics. Our trainer, Juliana Uluave-Gould (Juliana's Facebook Page, if you want to stalk her or see AMAZING body building photos, check out the link) is a beautiful woman, inside and out. She originally planned to do  shoulders on the 1st week of class, but when I came to her and told her I needed to modify any shoulder work due to my flare up in my shoulder (shoulder day + shoulder flare up = No, no) she was completely empathetic and switched class from shoulders to legs.


Before the beginning of a kick a** BACK workout, we did a 9 point skin caliper test. This is where the skin folds are measured at 9 different sites on the body. These measurements are put into an equation that gives you your body fat percentage, lean body mass in pounds and your fat mass in pounds from your overall weight.


So, we all weighed ourselves in from of each other. There are 3 gals total in the class, a 45 y/o, another woman in her early 40's, and me: 26 y/o. I didn't mind being weighed in front of everyone, but I can only imagine that this scenario will only get a bit more uncomfortable as I get older.


I weighed in at 117lbs. After the 9 points were measured and entered into the equation I was told I had:

• BF (Body Fat)= 15 %
• FM (Fat Mass)= 17.55 lb
• LBM (Lean Body Mass)= 99.45 lb
• Weight= 117 lb

Kind of fun to know! This helps you keep track of the muscle being acquired and built, versus the weight gain we can experience, even though we are losing inches. Muscle weighs more than fat, yo!

Sometimes, if we can measure our success, we are more likely to succeed. If we have weight loss or muscle gaining goals, or "eating right" types of goals, it can be hard to feel like we are making progress. Unless we measure where our body is starting from and where it is going, it's hard to stay on track. I'd stay away from using a scale as the only source of keeping track of your progress. A scale can be so inaccurate of the true health we may or may not have. You know what I mean? 

Just because you weigh 100 lbs doesn't necessarily mean you're healthy...there are so many other factors that need to be taken into consideration. Just a few of those factors are the lean muscle mass you have versus the fat mass you have.

So just keep that in mind when step onto a scale :)

Here's a great article about the woe's of using the scale as the only source for measuring or keeping track of your progress. The Weighting Game. I found it on Robb Wolf's website, author of "The Paleo Solution".  

Cheers!