Bod Pod

What's a Bod Pod?

It's that thing!  LOL.  You sit inside after getting weighed by its associated scale.   Then it does something three times. . . at least the dude opens and close the door three times.  I read air pressure changes to measure you but I don't honestly know.  I didn't feel anything but I heard a few pops and hisses.  The whole thing takes maybe 2 mins.  You sit very still and breathe normally.

I did this Friday afternoon at my gym.  Cost me $60 but apparently it measures your body composition more accurately than anything else (like the hand held fat monitor I use).  And I believe the dude said it was FDA approved.  And since the FDA is so damn smart this thing must be the way to go eh?  Ha!  Oh and the guy in the photo - same dude that did my analysis. LOL.  They haul the thing around in this truck, so you do everything in the truck.

My results?

I weighed 184.7 on the scale at 4PM Friday.  Probably about right as I gain a couple lbs as the day goes on. But I was wearing almost nothing.  Tiny compression shorts that make me look FAT and a sports bra.  I'm 29.8% fat.  Which is interesting. . . I haven't used my handheld monitor in a while but that's about where it was the last time. (so much for being more accurate and he warned me that it would probably read higher since it can detect the deep down fat around your organs)  Now at 4PM if I use the same hand held monitor at the gym I will get a reading in the 30's but they are most accurate when you haven't moved much I think. So I do mine in the AM.   I was hoping that mine was reading high and I'd be much lower in the Bod Pod.  Darn it!   I have 55 lbs of fat on my body!

Now the kicker is that I'm considered "moderately lean".

I fall just below 30%.  Thank god!   LOL.  But I would not use the word "lean" to describe myself in any way, shape or form. No way!   My first goal is 25% fat and then I'll reassess from there.

The most interesting part of this study was that it tells me what my RMR is.  RMR = Resting Metabolic Rate.  I'm not sure how that's different from BMR, or Basal Metabolic Rate.  But I just assume they are similar.    The RMR is the amount of energy expended at rest.   Basically how many cals my body uses at rest for a day.

(Info sheet? What info sheet? I got one piece of paper)  My RMR is 1620 cals.  I have mixed feelings on this. My Dr told me I may be able to maintain weight on 1500 cals.  I scoffed at her cause I've read about BMR and there are calculators to figure out what yours is.  Mine was always higher than 1500.  So I assume that I should eat my BMR every day.   (RMR - whatever, again not sure what the diff is).   So I've never quite understood this.  This is basically an answer I was expecting. I couldn't remember what I'd figured in the past, but I didn't expect some stupid low number like 1200.  I think eating 1200 cals a day equates to starving. :)  I hate trying to do it and I'm a Bitch if I try.   The right side of this chart shows me my max cals based on my activity level.  Because I sit at a stupid desk all day I'm "Sedentary".   Therefore my max cals are 2009.  The guy said "so if you want lean out,, you need to eat in between this range".   Well nice Mr Bod Pod Guy but I figure that I basically do and I'm not leaning out.   So. . . I guess I gotta figure this out.

*pause in the programming*  

I just went to http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ and my BMR = 1632.345
How similar!!!   So. . . what did I pay $60 for?  I'm still trying to figure that out.

*resume programming*

There are a multitude of other tests that they can do.  Including some weird oxygen test where they hook up to a mask and you exercise until . . . well I don't know, until they tell you to stop.  I saw a girl doing it in the gym a month or so ago.  I wouldn't know what to do with those results and I didn't want to spend the money.

So here I am with my 55lbs of fat and my daily allowed number of cals in black and white.  And of course I've gained some weight this weekend even with that 8 mile run!  Go figure. What I couldn't figure out was how to eat after that run.  I burned about 1550 cals.  So should I have added that to my 1620 and ate that much?  Some research tells me yes.  Or to eat at least half of what I burned.  Others say eat it all.  I don't know.   You certainly don't want your cals at the end of the day to be too low after putting your body through that.  I basically ate very little till dinner than we went out and I had a salad, BBQ chicken breast, a few french fries and apple pie and ice cream for dessert. I've been CRAVING apple pie out of this world. . . for weeks.  I finally thought the right day to eat it was the day I burned so many cals.   I felt less guilty and I was down 0.2 lbs the next day.  Then yesterday. .. well yesterday happened. HA!  More on that later.   For now I go back to pondering the Bod Pod results and what to do with them.  They advise a reassessment in 3 months and oh they have a deal for me!  All further reassessments are only $45.  Yippee!  Not sure if I will do it again.