Hydrostatic Weighing

Sep 28, 2013

I went to my local university yesterday and completed a hydrostatic weighing session.  I wasn't crazy about the grad student seeing me in my borrowed swimsuit but at least I didn't have to traipse through the exercise physi lab in front of a bunch of people.  It was a surprisingly private set-up with the weighing tank in a room all by itself.  So it was just me, the tank and the grad student.  

I was worried that the results were going to bum me out; I fully expected the results to show me at a pretty high percentage of body fat.  I was high but it didn't bum me out at all - just the opposite!  So here's how it went:

1.  Even though my scale weighed me at 162 this morning I was at 164.2 by 3:00 p.m. this afternoon.   So that was the starting point. 

2.  They had me dunk under the water about 10 times and used my best 3 efforts to get a good average.  

3.  Fat mass:  57.7 lbs    Fat free mass:  106.4     % Body Fat:  35.16

4.  The way I figure it, if I can get to 141 lbs. with NO loss of lean body mass, I should be at 25% body fat.  Optimum for women is 22-25% (some professionals even go up to 32%).  

5.  I still plan to shoot for 135 as my goal weight and allow myself a 3 lb. "cushion".  

Biggest surprises:  how hard it was to blow out all my air and how still I had to be under water.  The scale is super-sensitive so I had to concentrate on moving slowly and as little as possible.  

This just goes to show that we shouldn't live-and-die by the BMI Charts.  Based on my height, I would barely be in the normal BMI range at 135 lbs.  But getting to 141 clearly puts me at a very healthy body fat percentage (if I can retain 105 lbs. of lean body mass). 

So that's my challenge for the next three months:  Lost 20-25 lbs. of FAT while retaining all my non-fat body mass.  

Wish me luck!  

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