What did you get for Mother’s Day? Flowers? Breakfast in bed? At least a nice card, I hope. Unless you’re a dude. If you got something for Mother’s Day you’d better have at least birthed a kidney stone.
I got my present early. As in o-dark thirty on Saturday morning. It involved a cold, dark pool, a cadaverous professor and a metal chair suspended from a crane-like arm in the water. Sound fun yet? After donning my new cherry-red retro suit (so cute!), I jumped in the water, perched on the chair and proceeded to submerge, exhaling every last bit of air from my lungs and then trying to hold myself perfectly still in a modified crunch while I watched black spots dance on my eyelids. Have I ever mentioned that my worst fear is to get stuck in a cave underwater? You wouldn’t think that unless you are a scuba diver that this would be a fear you would have to confront in your daily life.
Okay, so a 40’s era college pool isn’t exactly a cave and I only had to be underwater for about 5 seconds at a time but still – that was 5 seconds of I-can’t-breathe panic! Plus, every time I surfaced, I got to hear Gym Buddy Allison laughing at me.
The Dunk Test
What did we get for Mother’s Day? Every woman’s dream: a hydrostatic body composition test! Hydrostatic weighing is the gold standard in body fat testing – the only way to get a more accurate reading is to get cut open on the autopsy table. Hydrostatic weighing means getting weighed underwater. It works this way: fat is buoyant so it makes you float, while lean tissue (muscle, skeleton & water) are dense so they make you sink. Air also makes you float which is why you have to get every last bit that you can out of your lungs. So, the MORE you weigh under water, the LESS body fat you have. It’s the only time in my life when I was actually hoping to put up big numbers on the scale!
Once you get over the initial medieval weirdness of the whole contraption, it’s actually kind of entertaining. Which was good since I had to dunk at least ten times. See, you have to exhale AND hold still and due to the aforementioned panic issue that was tough for me. Most people nail the test in 4 tries or less. I stopped counting after eight, much to Allison’s amusement.
But it worked and I was pleasantly surprised by my numbers and the Professor gave me tons of good information so all in all it was a fabulous M-Day gift.
Why Test Fat?
Occasionally people ask why I am so interested in knowing my body fat percentage. *cough*allthetrainersatmygym*cough* The answer is that besides my unholy obsession with all things numerical, it is one of the better ways to assess your level of health. A lot of people focus on weight but the problem is that muscle is more dense than fat so a “skinny fat” person would appear to be more healthy than a very muscular person. This is the primary downfall of the BMI. In addition, the number on the scale is affected by a myriad of factors such as the time of the month (for women), how much salt you’ve eaten recently and how irritating your significant other is being. Side note: Please never ever say “a pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat.” They are both a pound thereby making them equivalent. I know what you mean when you say that but it still bugs me. And since I know you all live with the express purpose of not irritating me, I thank you.
It is generally accepted that looking at the percentage of your bodyweight made up of fat is a more meaningful number than just scale weight. Of course if you want a picture of your overall health, body fat percentage is just one of many important numbers.
How To Measure?
If you watch The Biggest Loser or Dr. Phil (Dr. Phil on the Biggest Loser? A product-placement gold mine!) then you are probably familiar with the Tanita scale. Scales that measure body fat percentage range from the cheap & low-tech variety (which I have) to the crazy-tricked-out-make-your-low-riding-neighbor’s-rims-jealous variety. Despite the hoopla, these are the least accurate way to measure your body fat.
The next best way to get your number is by doing the “pinch test” also known as every 8th grader’s nightmare: Caliper Hell. I’m sure you remember the drill – the gym teacher, Satan himself if you had the misfortune of going to my middle school, grabs big hunks of skin and pinches them with a metal tool called the calipers. The caliper measures your subcutaneous fat by the millimeters of skin it can pinch. The lower the numbers, the lower your body fat.
But the best way to check your fat is either with a Bod Pod (not widely available plus it takes 45 minutes, is crazy expensive and is not for claustrophobics) or hydrostatic weighing.
But What Does It All Mean?
So now you have your number, what do you do with it? According to most charts, the normal range for women is 25-31% (18-25% for men). Fit chicas check in around 21-24% (14-17% for men). Athletes are 14-20% (6-13%). Don’t forget that your body requires a certain amount of “essential fat” to pad your organs and run your brain which is 10-12% for women and 2-4% for men.
Generally, lower is better. It means more of your body weight is comprised of lean tissue and less is made up of fat. But I must point out that, like weight, a “zero” means dead. If you’ve forgotten what a woman looks like at a very low body fat percentage, let me refresh your memory. Plus women need estrogen to maintain our bone density and estrogen needs fat. Dropping below the “essential” level can permanently damage your bones, stop your period, and possibly cause malabsorption of vitamins. So, duh, you would never tell your wife that she needs to be 5% (jerk!!).
My Numbers
In a nod to my mostly formerly disordered eating mindset, I don’t think that I look at all what my body fat percentage would indicate. But the professor warned me that to go any lower would be very unhealthy. So as far as my experiments go, my goals are all now strictly performance goals.
On a slightly unrelated note, both my sister and I have noticed since doing the Fox morning show (both of us) and 20/20 (for me) that the ED thoughts have gotten louder. So perhaps this is one instance where I should put more credence on the numbers than on my gut feeling.
Your Turn
If you are interested in getting dunked, I’d suggest starting by calling around to your local universities and colleges. Often they are much cheaper than doing it at a gym. I think it is definitely worth doing if body fat percentage is something that you measure. Have any of you tried this? Please tell me it took you at least 8 dunks too:) Or at least that you too are terrified of getting trapped in an underwater cave!
PS> In case you missed it as a pre-teen, here’s Weird Al in his hysterically funny “I’m Fat” video.
definitely trust the numbers and not your uberleanandtaut gut.
xo xo,
M.
I used to have a Tanita scale when I was in weight loss mode, and it’s hilariously inaccurate. Whether you’re well-hydrated or not makes a huge difference, and the numbers would fluctuate wildly day to day. It was helpful to see the general drift downward, but there was so much noise in the data it was close to worthless.
(And I’m with you on the “pound of fat” thing–I always cringe when people say that!)
I would love to have my body fat tested. The last time (and only time) I’ve had it done was a caliper test in college fitness, about 6 or 7 years ago. I can’t even remember what it was.
I did try this tape measure method a few weeks ago. I think just guessing may be more accurate, because every website I typed my measurements into gave me a wildly different %, ranging from 12 (yeah, right!) to about 40 (another yeah, right!).
I want to do this so bad. I’ve tried the caliper method (single-site) and I get readings all over the map, user error, I’m assuming. I’d really like to know what my BF% is, instead of guesstimating.
So are you trying to tell me that the pound of feathers doesn’t actually weigh less than the pound of bricks?
(kidding.)
Sheesh, all I got for mothers day was a dwarf citrus tree. 🙂
A few years ago I had the caliper thing done at a gym I was going to with my mom. I don’t think it was terribly accurate, although when I work out regularly I HAVE to eat lots of ice cream to keep my weight up. 🙂
ha- i hate that, too. Its like the riddle “if you drop a 5 pound bowling ball and a 5 pound bag of feathers out of plane, which will hit the ground first?”
Where did you get this done? I have yet to hear a of a place that does this except exclusive athletic training centers.
Im a big numbers person, too, but only ones that are concret. Weight and such doesnt concern me because it fluctuates so much, but my pedometer is my best friend. I just think its interesting to know exactly how mnay steps i have taken, and how active i am doing every day things like work. People make fun of me but when I am the female jack lelane and they are dead at 40 who will be laughing then? WHO?
I’m a huge numbers gal myself so I have body fat tests done regularly and I’ve gotten a V02 Max and RMR test as well. I live in Atlanta so we have a bunch of options at a reasonable price. I beg to differ about BodPod though. I get mine done that way now and it takes about 10 minutes and costs $35. We have a franchise center here called that has a bunch of high techie stuff – The HIT Center http://www.hitcentersinc.com/find.htm – they are located in several other random cities as well. You can also get a hyrdrostatic test done for about $35 if the mobile truck at http://www.bodyfattest.com happens to have a franchise in your city. Do you know anything about the accuracy of a DEXA scan compared to BodPod or hyrdrostatic? I hear differing opinions?
You can also buy electric calipers – maybe not new news, but hey.
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/acc/fattrack.html
Anyway, they same reasonably accurate, in my experience – if you make sure that you are measuring in the same spot each time. If you can get an expensive reading, I would reccomend using something like this to see the correlating readings and then going forward with the electronic version since it’s cheaper.
My nutritionist teacher talked about this! I really want to try it. But haven’t yet found a place that does it. Body fat is definitely a measurement that I’m more interested in rather than the scale.
i think it’s interesting what you said about the ED-ish thoughts coming on stronger after being interviewed. I found that, when doing my college tour, it was often hard on my emtional well-being to recount the story over and over and over again. Then, I’d go out for dinner with a group of students and would feel pressured about eating (ie are they watching me…do I have to eat a certain something to prove I’m OK now?) The shows prolly brought up old latent memories. I think it’s normal and will help you decide how public you want to be in the future. Just my two cents. PS LOVE your blog on HuffPO today – made me laugh out loud!
Wwaaahhhh!!! I am very jealous of your hydrostatic weigh gift. My sis got to do this and I had the same reaction…I wanna know what I am!! I am a bit of a numbers girl too – though trying to be less of one about weight as, duh, it fluctuates so much on a daily basis.
So in leiu of not having a hydrostatic weighing facility near me, I am getting the ol’ skin caliper test done at the end of the month by one of the trainers at my gym….I know it isn’t as accurate, but I want to have at least a bit of a baseline of which to benchmark against, especially because I think that I am healthy and fit right now…
The water part sounds fun. I used to love having breath holding contests with my siblings in our pool.
First, Happy Mother’s Day! What a unique gift. I’ve always wanted to do the water test too. I’ve done the calipers.
Ya know, one of the other reasons I don’t blog that often about my ED issues is that after I do one of those posts ED likes to get the mega phone out, stand on the soapbox, and scream at my psyche. Over time, I’ve learned that it’s just one of his tactics to keep me in the distorted comfort zone. I let ED do his thing. I don’t fight him anymore. I listen, I acknowledge that he and I are afraid yes. If he keeps screaming and I start feeling worse, I go to my doc or therapist, my partners in prosperity, and I have them help me get through the tyraid. The process is much better now than before, but it’s a process and understanding that process makes it more workable.
It could be that being in the spotlight on TV (a very impressive accomplishment I may add) might have triggered some fear of success issues so ED voices are kicking in to keep you feeling unworthy or “small.” You’re expanding and growing and that can be threatening to the ED who likes life the old way.
Happy Mothers Day!! What a fun gift to “have your husband give you” I bought myself a massage which was great and I got to try out those fun pregnancy tables.
Being hydrostatically weighed was so great for me. As you and Allison know, I fail the BMI scales miserably- they always tell me I’m obese. And the calipers seem innacurate because depending which of my muscles you pinch,(and who does the pinching) you can get totally different readings. My hydrostatic measurements were my best ever and as a teenage athlete, that gave me the confidence I needed to be able to say, “It doesn’t matter what the scale numbers are, I am in shape and not obese.”
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