My Bod Pod Results

Was that a RMR test or estimated based on BF%? The RMR test, they have you lay down or recline (but not sleep) and measure your breath to see how much you burn. They usually have you chill for about 15 mins, then hook you up and chill for another 15, hard test :)

Several college fitness/training centers do this test for a reasonable fee- I thnk around $80 is what I read for the one by me. I know losing weight brings it down, and strenous lifting (not doing yet) over time can bring it up.. cardio has no effect on your RMR.

TEE is total energy expenditure.. or what your baseline is plus what you burn on a normal days activities.. it's a calculation based on RMR and your lifestyle, height, weight etc. I am curious to see if my estimated is anywhere close to my real metabolic rate.. Just a curiosity question, what is your maintence level of calories now? Are you consuming anywhere near 3000 and maintaining a steady weight?

The test was estimated on the BF% determined on the Bod Pod. I got them to export the data out in Excel format.

I haven't tracked my food in a while. But I'm no where near 3,000 calories. If I had to guess I'd say I'm about 1,500.

I'm maintaining pretty steadily. I bounce between 193 and 197 most of the time.

I am still loosing inches though.

 
I'm all down with the Bod Pod dunk tank % thing as it seems to be the best instrument of measure.....cool...!!!!

But, here is my reality......I don't agree with the trainer 100%.....  

It may be more of an age thing.....and I know everyone will not agree......

I've been that gym rat, strength training for Football, Judo, Wrestling, Kart Racing, weight loss, recreation.......

Building muscle mass is great and everything.....yah yah.....it does fill out some loose skin....and it does require your body to burn more calories and overall fitness is improved !!!! Yippee !!!!

It's all *****in.......... till you stop!!! When you stop......guess what.... it shrinks back unless you maintain it and your only going to preserve what you maintain......

When I did this WLS surgery and I thought of the kind of exercise I can do for the long hall......and the gym was never a choice. History tells me I go gung ho for a few months.....than one day the wind blows and I haven't been to the gym for months.

Again.... this is my reality.....

I choose low impact activities that don't require to much structure.....

- Walking
- Bicycle
- Treadmill
- Stair Stepper
- Dumb Bells at my work station
- Mall walking-Winter
- Costco Shopping Cart Ironman Training (load up a flat cart with drinks.....pu**** around Costco for 30 minutes..... stopping on occasion for a free sample food....... unload..... buy Vitamins)

Not gonna do the build muscle, stop and lose it again roller coaster......

frisco

Frisco, I like your Ironman training plan! Unfortunately those samples do me in every time!

Here's my take on the Bod Pod. It may be one of the most accurate tests out there, but it's still an estimate. It measures your weight and it measures the volume of space you occupy and they use a fancy formula to calculate your body fat% based on those two figures. It assumes you have an average size frame. I know I have a very small bone structure, so the Bod Pod underestimates my body fat percent.

I also have a WW scale and it measures my body fat between 25 and 26%, the bod pod told me I have 23%. I was obsessed with these types of numbers for a long time. What I've finally come to realize is that is doesn't matter what my actual percent is as long as I'm moving in the right direction and I'm healthy.

As long as your home scale is CONSISTANT, you can get a good read as to whether your body fat% is moving in the right direction.

Jen

My experience with the bod pod was bad. It gave a clearly ridiculous number. It claimed I had 10 pounds less of muscle mass than the hydrostatic weighing test said even though I'd just come through a serious round of strength training and had added an inch of visible muscle to my arms and torso.

So I went out and did some research on it and found out that while their average measurement has a wiggle room of 3% (slightly less accurate that hydrostatic weighing) that they can be inaccurate for an individual by as much as 11%!

But they are still way more accurate than the scales that use bio-imedience.

The most accurate measurement is a DEXA scan but they are expensive. Bod Pod is cheap and plentiful. Dunk tank is cheap and less plentiful plus you have to get wet (which bugs some people, not me though).

This is a classic case of how our world can give us very accurate measurements of things we don't (or shouldn't) really care about, like scale weight, while not giving us the accuracy in things we do care about - like our body comp.

I've used the scales for several years and they can give you reasonable indications of what's happening within the limits of their technology - they measure your body impedance which is dependent upon your hydration which can change quite a bit during the day or with changes in medication - I typically see about a 5% BF variation from dehyrated early mornings to fully hydrated late afternoons (typically the best or most accurate time to take a reading.) The scale can also be off some based upon where one keeps their fat - since the scales are reading between the feet, they are primarily reading the lower body comp, so if one is pear shaped with fat hips and thighs then the scale will read higher BF% than if one is apple shaped with more fat in the abdomen. With variations in hydration day-to-day as well as interday, it is best to use an average rather than depending upon any one reading.

When I had a dunking done several years ago, it correlated well with the scale, though it didn't correlate as well with my wife who had already lost around 200lb after WLS and had a substantial amount of excess skin, so I am somewhat skeptical about their claims that the excess skin is read accurately. The dunkings and bodpods are, like the scales, dependent upon algorithms based on population averages, so how well any of them handle our unique demographic is somewhat speculative.  The algorithms are adjusted periodically as problems are found - I have seen references to differences that have been found with hydrostatic testing of African descended people versus caucasians, so different algorithms have been devised to account for those differences.

So, take them all with a grain of salt, but the body comp readings still give us a better idea of where we should be than just simple BMI charts.