Since Joseph Asked...
Joseph inquired into more details re. my weigh-in last week. So I did it again and wrote down the numbers. This all comes from a bells-and-whistles scale that a colleague of mine has in her office, and I compare it to a reading I did at the end of July. I do this in part out of self-absorption, but also in that in doing so I'll have a record of it that someday might be useful to fall back on.
Anyway:
Weight - 188 lbs (vs. 180 in July)
Total Body Water - 60.7% (vs. 63.6%)
Body Fat - 8.2% (vs. 5.4%)
Fitness Rating - 9 (vs. 8; scale of 1-10)
Base Metabolism Rate 2242 calories (vs. 2213)
Lean Body Mass - 173.6 lbs (vs. 170.6)
Fat - 15.3 lbs (vs. 9.7 lbs)
[I am editing this due to some inaccuracies in the results that I have fixed as I have educated myself more on what these numbers mean. Added text will be in italics]
The big stat of course is the weight gain. Even at 6'1", 187.4 lbs puts me on the large side for a competitive runner, as Joseph points out. I've always coveted thinner runner's bodies, like that of my buddy Mike M. My BMI, which curiously is not included on the super-scale, is 24.7, which is just under the overweight threshold of 25. While I am large for a runner, noone who knows me would ever say I was close to being overweight in the conventional sense. A good illustration of the limitations of using BMI to judge being overweight.
"Ideal" body fat percentage is supposed to be 15%, according to this site. That, as Joseph points out, leaves me in pretty good shape, even with my less-than-thin body and my recent weight gain.
But what I'm more interested in is that I've gained 7 lbs in the last five months. 5.6 lbs of that gain can be attributed to fat. Given the margin of error that these measurements doubtlessly contain, this means that most if not all of my gain comes from additional fat. The other stat that interests me here is the BMR. It means that I could lay in bed all day and still eat 2200 calories without gaining any weight. This is reassuring.
Finally, does this mean I am going to change anything? I guess looking on the bright side, this weight gain and muscle loss occurred as I was injured and less active than usual. I'm assuming that as (lord willing) I get my mileage back up to my usual range I should drop some of these pounds. I also assume that some of the gain is due to the change in seasons, as my weight usually goes up a bit in the winter. Given that I'm not competing anytime soon, I don't feel any urgency to drop these pounds so I don't think I'm going to change my eating habits much. I'll do this weighing thing again sometime in January to see if there is any holiday effect on these numbers.
One thing that will likely assist in my dropping some of the pounds is the "surveillance effect." Just going through this makes me more conscious of weight issues, and means that I will be more aware of what I put in my mouth. So without trying my eating should change somewhat.
So all that ado and not much changes. A positive interpretation of the numbers, I suppose.
And, oh yeah, I ran today. Ran the Sweetbriar loop I ran last Tuesday, only today I went up to 49th St. to make it 8+ miles. It was warm enough to run in short sleeves, and I'm not driving Tony to school this week so I got to run in the morning light. Time was 64:38.
Anyway:
Weight - 188 lbs (vs. 180 in July)
Total Body Water - 60.7% (vs. 63.6%)
Body Fat - 8.2% (vs. 5.4%)
Fitness Rating - 9 (vs. 8; scale of 1-10)
Base Metabolism Rate 2242 calories (vs. 2213)
Lean Body Mass - 173.6 lbs (vs. 170.6)
Fat - 15.3 lbs (vs. 9.7 lbs)
[I am editing this due to some inaccuracies in the results that I have fixed as I have educated myself more on what these numbers mean. Added text will be in italics]
The big stat of course is the weight gain. Even at 6'1", 187.4 lbs puts me on the large side for a competitive runner, as Joseph points out. I've always coveted thinner runner's bodies, like that of my buddy Mike M. My BMI, which curiously is not included on the super-scale, is 24.7, which is just under the overweight threshold of 25. While I am large for a runner, noone who knows me would ever say I was close to being overweight in the conventional sense. A good illustration of the limitations of using BMI to judge being overweight.
"Ideal" body fat percentage is supposed to be 15%, according to this site. That, as Joseph points out, leaves me in pretty good shape, even with my less-than-thin body and my recent weight gain.
But what I'm more interested in is that I've gained 7 lbs in the last five months. 5.6 lbs of that gain can be attributed to fat. Given the margin of error that these measurements doubtlessly contain, this means that most if not all of my gain comes from additional fat. The other stat that interests me here is the BMR. It means that I could lay in bed all day and still eat 2200 calories without gaining any weight. This is reassuring.
Finally, does this mean I am going to change anything? I guess looking on the bright side, this weight gain and muscle loss occurred as I was injured and less active than usual. I'm assuming that as (lord willing) I get my mileage back up to my usual range I should drop some of these pounds. I also assume that some of the gain is due to the change in seasons, as my weight usually goes up a bit in the winter. Given that I'm not competing anytime soon, I don't feel any urgency to drop these pounds so I don't think I'm going to change my eating habits much. I'll do this weighing thing again sometime in January to see if there is any holiday effect on these numbers.
One thing that will likely assist in my dropping some of the pounds is the "surveillance effect." Just going through this makes me more conscious of weight issues, and means that I will be more aware of what I put in my mouth. So without trying my eating should change somewhat.
So all that ado and not much changes. A positive interpretation of the numbers, I suppose.
And, oh yeah, I ran today. Ran the Sweetbriar loop I ran last Tuesday, only today I went up to 49th St. to make it 8+ miles. It was warm enough to run in short sleeves, and I'm not driving Tony to school this week so I got to run in the morning light. Time was 64:38.
posted by seebo | 12:38 PM
2 Comments:
See, what's interesting to me is that you're Body Fat is so freaking low. Now, unless you're doing a bunch of lifting--and that only to the point of hypertrophy--it seems that you're just going to a strapped dude, a horse so to speak.
But you know what: your race times *show* that weight is just one part of the equation and that conditioning and training make up for any non "distance-runner" attributes you're endowed with.
Sure, odds are you won't ever run a 2:15 marathon with your build, but you certainly run times most "skinny" runners would give their left arm for.
That said, I'm loosing some weight, but mostly in the form of bulk. When I was in shape last summer, I had a similar BF comp to yours, but I was doing a lot of ancillar work/plyometrics. My coach wants me to scale back on that--in the process, we'll see if I can't get a little lighter. If so, fine, but if I get faster, that's what is important.
I don't think you need to change a thing. I love your Honky Tonk Badonkadonk.
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