Weight loss and perseverance

Well, this was an interesting day. I am all about data in my program of weight loss and challenging all my assumptions in new ways.

Today I had a BOD POD measurement done. A BOD POD is the gold-standard body composition tracking system, which uses air displacement plethysmography and whole-body densitometry to determine your body composition. The BOD POD measures total weight, body fat percentage and fat free mass. It also measures thoracic gas volume, resting metabolic rate and total energy expenditure to find your daily estimated calorie need.

My working assumptions in my weight loss program are that my ideal weight target is 185 lbs. with having 20% body fat at my current fitness level.

My metabolic calculations said my current burn rate is 2600 calories per day if I haven’t disturbed my metabolism with weight loss.

Based on that, my current body fat mass should be around 72 lbs which is 35 lbs over what it should be at 185 lbs. It also means my current body fat is about 32%.

After the BOD POD test, here is what I found...

Current body fat is 71.9 lbs
Current body fat percent is 32.7%
Current metabolic caloric burn rate is estimated at 2550-2650 calories per day
Target weight at 20% body fat is 185 lbs.

I love it when the data matches!

I also brought my Omron electrical impedance body fat meter to compare to the BOD POD in real time and got almost exactly the same numbers. Now I know that I can trust my assumptions and use the Omron meter to verify along the way.

Woohoo!

BTW, BOD POD testing isn’t very expensive. It cost me $40 and the test only takes about 10 minutes with results and discussion taking about another half hour. I was in and out in just about an hour including waiting to start.