Tuesday, 23 December 2008

Couple of thoughts

I wasn’t going to post anything today but a couple of things have cropped up so I thought I should share.

First off I am pretty annoyed with myself. I have been watching K2 racing kayaks turn up on eBay, the bids have raced up beyond my budget and I have not even watched them finish. This week a couple of boats (one of which was a boat that I really liked the look off first time out and was being re-listed for some reason) have been on. I watched them but knew that I was never going to be able to afford them so didn’t follow their progress. In the end both boats finished with such a low winning bid I could have been the owner of a brand new second hand K2 racing kayak by now! Next time must watch the auctions a bit more closely.

And then as you know, I have been monitoring my weight and BMI and how it has been changing since starting with this fitness thing. Well the Body Mass Index is not a very good indicator of fitness as muscle weighs more than fat. A better way of measuring fitness is the Body Fat Percentage.

I have found out that there are several ways to measure your body fat. Bioelectrical Impedance, Skinfold callipers, Hydrostatic Weighing Tanks. All of which are techniques not available to a home sports scientist like me. And then while mooching around the internet I found this little gadget.

http://www.menshealth.co.uk/base/bodyfat

I appreciate it isn’t going to be as accurate as a hydrostatic weighing tank but it is a tad easier. So this morning I got the wife to wrap a tape around my waist to give me an unbiased measurement of my girth.

With a weight of 154lbs. and a waist of 33 inches. My body fat percentage is %19.41

According to that gadget that plants me firmly between In Shape and Athlete. I’m happy with that for starters. I will add this to my sporadic experiment measurements and see how that also changes over the coming months of training. Though I fear Christmas may push me backwards.

1 comment:

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