|
Jun
22
|
If you haven’t had a fitness evaluation lately, now would be a good time to do so. I recently purchased a body fat scale by Tanita and this thing does everything except clean the dishes. The problem is however, that the scale is a little too accurate and it will tell you one thing in particular you may or may not want to know….your “Metabolic age.”
Tanita Body Composition Monitor
For example, Real Results trainer Nancy Dickinson (who is a competitive triathlete) has the metabolic age of a 12 year old! Conversely, I have tested some people recently who may only chronologically be in their twenties yet they had the metabolism of an 80 year old!
This may seem like bad news but it can also explain why some people have a battle with body fat and others don’t. But the good news is now you have a starting point of measurement. Additionally, no matter what your metabolic age is now, you can do something about it by getting in better cardiovascular condition and by building muscle. Then when you test again later you will be proud of the results you’ve attained.
How the scale works…
Tanita uses a state of the art method of body composition assessment called “Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA). Body impedance is measured when a safe, low electrical signal is passed through the body, carried by water and fluids. Your fat tissue does not contain much water and thus creates resistance or impedance to the signal. (Fat is approximately 10-15% water, whereas muscle is normally 50-70 %.) This impedance information is then used by the scale to estimate the amount of lean and fat tissue within the body.
Desirable body fat ranges:
Females Males
Age 18-39 / 20 % 18-39 / 8-15 %
Age 40-59 / 20-24% 40-59 / 12-20%
Age 60-69 / 25-30% 60-69 / 15-25%
Different methods to test body fat:
DEXA: Which is a very accurate but expensive.
Hydrostatic Weighing: Very accurate but quite expensive
Conventional BIA: Like the Tanita. Very accurate and inexpensive
Skinfold Caliper: Accuracy dependant on ability and skill of tester.
Previously, I used “Lange” skinfold calipers during fitness evaluations but now I am exclusively using the Tanita BIA scale. I switched because of the number of features the machine delivers and quite honestly, many people found the skinfold caliper to be embarrassing.
Here are all the readouts you get by standing on the scale for about 5 seconds.
- Body Water % (The total amount of fluid in the body)
- Body Fat % (The amount of body fat as a proportion of your body weight)
- Scale weight
- Muscle Mass (The weight of muscle in the body)
- Bone Mass (The weight of bone in the body)
- Basal Metabolic Rate “BMR” (How many calories the body requires to maintain its weight)
- Daily Caloric Intake (How many calories can be consumed in the next 24 hrs to maintain weight)
- Metabolic Age (Compares BMR to the average age associated with that level of metabolism)
- Visceral Fat (Fat in the abdominal cavity (stomach) surrounding the vital organs)
I would encourage you to come for a test. At the very least, do the Tanita scale test. This can really motivate you to make improvements.