I am a regular exerciser. I'm not super buff, but I am pretty active. Over the last year I have been working out on weights to try to add weight to my (rather wimpy) upper body.
So when I was told at my gym that I had an opportunity to be analyzed for free by a personal trainer, I thought I would take advantage and see what the measurements were.
I'm not obsessive about things like this, in fact, I had to go back to the locker room to weigh myself because it had been so long since I'd been on a scale I didn't know how much I weighed. But I've been the same size for so long I know I have not been a victim of weight creep.
So when the trainer told me that my body fat percentage was 33%, I was floored. I work out 4 times a week, I run, lift, swim, rollerblade…and my clothes still fit.
What gives?
I had the presence of mind to say to the trainer…"Did I mention to you that I have a master's degree in exercise science and I am a registered dietitian?" I've done lots and lots of body composition measurements on other people and I would like to understand just how you got that reading on a person such as myself when I know how much I exercise and what I eat."
At which point he quickly said,"Well, I was just going to shave a few points off of that number and tell you that you're probably more like 27% fat."
Interesting. According to his machine I was in desperate need of his services until I asked him for some science to back up his claim, at which point I suddenly didn't look so bad.
I left the gym thinking how fortunate I was to (1) have enough knowledge to know when I was being scammed and (2) to have enough self-esteem to not be devastated by this poor attempt at marketing a service to me I didn't really need. But…I continued to think about how many women reading this blog might not have either, and who might be driven into some pretty dysfunctional and dangerous behaviors when delivered this kind of news.
A word of caution: any apparatus that claims to measure your body fat using a technique called"bioelectrical impedance" is likely to be grossly inaccurate. Those are the handy little machines you hold for a few seconds while they estimate your body water and work backwards to figure out how much of what is left, is fat. If you are at all dehydrated…you'll look fatter on those machines than you really are.
If it's really important to you to get a body fat measurement, the most accurate way to get them done is using a very inconvenient, high-maintenance technique called underwater weighing. If you can get this done, go for it! If you can't, make sure you find a trained exercise professional who can do a caliper reading. Good caliper technicians can come pretty close to underwater weighing.
You can also measure inches--waist circumference, hip circumference, thigh, arm, etc. It can be really helpful on those weeks when you may be plateauing on the scales to see that your waist is continuing to shrink.
In my case, it turned out that I'd gained 3 pounds of weight since I'd last weighed, but all my pants and skirts were fitting exactly the same, likely meaning I'd gained some muscle in my upper body. I chose to be excited about that rather than let the used car salesman…er…personal trainer…ruin my day.
Be sure you focus on the right reasons for exercising and do it for the fact that you sleep better, have more energy, and are helping to balance your hormones, not because you're making money for someone else who doesn't deserve to have it.