Body Composition Analysis (Why I hate this crap!)

I made a post on slowtwitch about this yesterday because there was a thread discussing the validity of a Tanita scale. In respect of time, I decided to just paste what I wrote there. There is a lot that can be said about this topic and my recent hydrostatic weighing results, hopefully we can discuss that through the comments.

It is also interesting that this came up just one day after my post about my soda habit and the amount of calories I consumed last week in sweet yellow liquid (that actually makes Mountain Dew seem like urine - maybe your right Anne).

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I have a Tanita that I use on a regular basis and have always assumed that it is 5 to 8% off. I don't know the error estimate in those things, but BIA is somewhere around there. The one thing that I do like about it is that it seems to give consistent results. It varies based upon my hydration levels, but if my H20 % is similar to the day before - the % body fat is very similar.

I recently had my body fat % taken in an Underwater Tank at the university and just got the results today. The UWW gave me a % body fat of 17.8%. The interesting thing for me is that I used the Tanita on the same day and got 18.3% on it.

Yikes is my first thought. I've never tested above 8% when going underwater, mostly in the 5 to 7 range (from memory anyway). But that was 6 years ago. I am now carrying about 8-10 pounds more than normal?

I realize this is a sample of n=1 , but interesting non-the-less. I guess I can't just dismiss the Tanita all the time now.

I do know that by using the "look in mirror" test, I don't seem like I'm carrying extra fat. In fact, I had assumed that most of the 8 to 10 pounds extra I'm carrying was due to the way above average amount of swimming I have been doing.

The most interesting thing for me was this quote from my results "The reccommended percent of fat for males your age is 15%. Your fat percentage was calculated to be 17.8% which places you above the levels of a healthy individual. To reach your ideal weight 134.2 lbs. will require a loss of 4.6 lbs of fat."

After seeing that statement, I think the message in The Obesity Myth is ringing even more loud in my mind. I may not be the picture of health, but of all the things that are unhealthy in my life (stress, diet, etc.) I've never considered my weight one of the "unhealthy" aspects. At 138 pounds (and 5' 6.5") I'm still not too worried.

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