Measuring Body Fat

I finally made it to the gym for another body composition test yesterday morning. The last one I had was on 1 December so it was definitely time.

As I’ve explained before, I normally use a bathroom scale that measures body fat by running a very weak electric current through the body. These are notoriously inaccurate since they are dependent on hydration levels and the current tends to just run up one leg and down the other, so if you carry your weight on the hips and thighs, they give a much higher reading. However, the gym uses a much more accurate machine, where sensors are attached to one hand and one foot while you lay on your back, so the current runs through your whole body.

Using this method, on December first I had a body fat reading of 24.4% (instead of the 28% on the bathroom scale). Yesterday, I had a body fat reading of only 20.3%, despite my scale telling me I’m just over 25% fat in the morning! Clearly I am very much a pear shape, carrying my weight in the lower half of my body and very little in my upper body. Although, my husband suggested that the problem might be it was time to switch the scale to “Athlete Mode” instead of the normal person setting. So last night I did; on normal person settings I was 23.3% fat, but in athlete mode I was 17% fat!

Conclusions: I’m doing much better than I thought and it’s time for a new scale.

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2009.38	122.33g	272.61g	51.11g	0	42.29g
	24%	54%	23%
Calories burned through exercise:		215

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:45	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Mattesson's Turkey rashers	3 rashers
	Nature's Path Gluten Free O's	60g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	200mL
08:30	Black Tea	500mL
09:45	Resistance workout
	Strawberry lemonade Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
11:45	Sponser Chocolate Recovery Shake	30g
	in Hot skim milk	225mL
12:15	Whole Scrambled egg with 2 egg whites	3 eggs
	Heinz Beanz, reduced sugar and salt	175g
	Mushrooms	100g
	in butter	5g
	Raw tomato	105g
	Genius brown bread toast	1 slice
	with Flora Light	4g
	and St Dalfour blackcurrant jam	20g
14:15	Green Tea	250mL
15:45	Honeydew melon	150g
	Fresh blueberries	60g
	Brazil nuts	6g
	Cashews	17g
	Irish Yoghurts Diet Apricot and Nectarine	125g
	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
19:00	Caffeine free Black tea with milk and sugar	500mL
20:30	Sainsbury's Pork loin steaks	81g
	Merchant Gourmet tinned puy lentils	100g
	Steamed carrots	104g
	Steamed parsnips	99g
	Sainsbury's Bramley apple sauce	30g
	Bisto Best pork gravy	about 5g
21:15	Lindt Excellence 70% cocoa dark chocolate	20g
22:00	Ellactiva Chocolate Calcium Chew	1 chew
	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill

Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.