Thursday, September 2, 2010

BMI versus % body fat

In my lab at school we just bought one of the fanciest most high-tech scales I've ever seen before!

You have to use it bare-foot because it sends electric pulses through your body to tell you with great accuracy not just your weight, but the percent of water you have in your body (can tell if you're dehydrated) as well as your percent body fat and your body mass index. Amazing, right?!

You put in some info (your height, age, gender), then take off your shoes, step on, and it does the rest!

After being shocked and slightly saddened by my stats (no specifics, but I'm just "normal", not "fit") - I got over it & decided to use it as motivation to become more "fit." Yes, I've made great progress in the past few months, but there's still plenty of work to be done.

So, I looked up these stats you may find interesting (this is for women only)

Body fat percentage:
10-12% = essential for survival
13 - 20% = athlete range
21 - 24% = fitness range
25 - 31% = acceptable/"normal"
32+% = obese

Body Mass Index:
<18.5 = underweight
18.5 - 24.9 = normal
25 - 29.9 = overweight
30+ = obese

To find out your BMI, check out this site.
And your percent body fat can be found here.

In terms of my own progress: I've been keeping up with the exercise, but I'm still cheating somewhat with my eating. Definitely kicked it up a notch compared to where I was when I first got home from vacation, but I'm still eating more carbs that I should, for sure!

It's 65 days until my wedding & I'm going to allow myself these next 5 days to continue eating as I have been (that is, eating healthy, but also allowing a moderate level of snackage - generally on carb-heavy foods).

Once the countdown hits 60 days, I'm going to put myself on a strict low carb regime until November.

In terms of my workout plan this week - so far, so good. I decided to put off the 6 mile run until Saturday when I have some more time. This week has just been so crazy I needed to come in early to the office & there wasn't going to be time to squeeze it in.

Well thats it for now. Have a good one!

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