Cut the fat

On last Thursday I found out I am excessively fat. Not exactly what you want to hear.

 Now to be fair I went to the Army Wellness Center to find out this very information. The Army has an Army Wellness program where you can get into their super duper futuristic bod pod that measures your body fat versus everything else in your body, you know bones and muscle and blood and organs and stuff). Clad in spandex shorts, sports bra and a swim cap (guess long flowing locks will mess with things) you are shut in this pod and it somehow measures what is going on inside. And what is going on inside is 37% body fat. Ideally females will be 30% or less to be in the best of health.

Now as someone who has the best cholesterol doctor's have seen in awhile, been told by numerous doctor's I am super healthy, has a very low resting heart rate, and runs a bit....okay a ton....at first I was like

And while I am not a small person by any means, no one is gonna mistake me for an elite athlete, the word fat does not really bring up happy feelings and is not something you necessarily want associated with you. Thanks society for making the word fat a buzz word for anxiety and feeling bad about one's self. But then I started to think about it......

And after the smoke cleared I realized how great knowing this information is and what a different perspective everyone would have if instead of using the scale we used body fat measurements which if you say it another way, is really a strength measurement. The fat free mass you have control over is muscle. Instead of focusing on dropping weight the focus should be on building strength. You can drop weight and increase your body fat percentage pretty easily. It is not about weighing less it is about having muscle. 

I wonder if more people knew their body fat measurement and focused on changing that if their perspective of their body would change. It seems that often times we chase a number on the scale. Whether based on BMI (a total crap measurement in my opinion) or a made up number we think we should be there seems to be a lack of consideration of what our body is actually composed of. And if you are a woman we often think we should be thinner. After all we are bombarded by images of the 'perfect body'. As if that exists. As if we should all be 5' 10' with thighs that don't touch. The fact is that someone who appears thin can be just as 'excessively fat' as someone like me who is curvier. (Just to clarify the term excess is what is used for anyone over 30% I am not just being super dramatic about my fat content).  

So I have given it some consideration and my goal is not focused on losing weight cause that won't necessarily drop my body fat percentage. And I could care less about that. My body is what it is and I am comfortable with what I look like and am very grateful to be as healthy as I am large booty and all. My focus over the next few months is to build muscle. Replace some of the fat mass with fat free mass. If that results in weight loss so be it. If it results in weight gain so be it. Or maybe I will weigh the same. But more importantly I am hoping to be able to distribute tickets to my gun show.

Starting something like this around the holidays when schedules get a little crazy is a bit daunting but then there is always some excuse to not start doing something. So I will start lifting weights three times a week (for real and consistently and heavy, lifting with a purpose) in an effort to increase my fat free mass and decrease my fat mass. In thirty days I can go back and re- pod it to check my measurements again. Hoping for a less excessive rating.

Question for readers: Do you think knowing your body fat measurement would change the way you think about your body?