About a year and a half ago I began to think about what I wanted my goal weight to be.  I was down about 103 pounds by that time, and people began asking me what my ultimate goal was.  Having been overweight pretty much my entire life, I had no idea!  Many people have a point in time when they were happy with how they looked or how they felt and they aim to get back to that place.  I don’t have that reference unfortunately.  So I began really thinking and researching.  The healthy BMI range for my height is 131-164 pounds, and I’ve always been told I have a frame that is on the larger side. My initial thought was to talk with my doctor about it.  Makes sense, right?  My doctor would be able to have an intelligent conversation with me about my current weight, my frame size, and what goal weight would make sense for me.  Wrong.

I went to my yearly physical, weighing in at around 185 pounds, and broached the subject (after being told that I needed to lose a few pounds and then prompting him to take a look at my weight from the last couple of years, and him profusely apologizing).  He then told me, without looking at me or having any sort of conversation, that I should aim for about 140 pounds. That would mean about 45 more pounds to lose. I couldn’t believe my ears. I didn’t want to question his medical opinion, but had a hard time imagining that a weight closer to the bottom of my range would really be a healthy (and maintainable) place for me to land. In fact, I sat in stunned silence while he finished my exam. Before leaving I managed to bring it up again, asking again if he really thought 140 pounds was what I should aim for. He then said that I should just keep doing what I’ve been doing, and once my body got to a healthy place I would know it, my weight loss would even out. He really just wanted to see me within the healthy BMI range. I was already having an issue with plateaus and “evening out”, so I found this advice to be completely unhelpful. I came away from the appointment disappointed, angry and unsure as to what to do next.

I continued my research to try and figure out how I was going to come up with a goal. I didn’t want to continue aimlessly. I had been at this weight loss thing for over 3 years and needed to have a more solid end to shoot for. I began to find information on measuring the body’s fat percentage, specifically with hydrostatic weighing. Hydrostatic weighing, also known as underwater weighing, is a method of determining body density using water displacement. Basically you are submerged into a tub of water, expelling as much air from your lungs as possible, and you are weighed underwater. This information is used along with your weight on a regular scale and your body composition is calculated. Having heard about the importance of fat versus lean percentage, many people believing this being the better test of health than the BMI scale, I decided this was what I wanted to do. The next step was going to be figuring out where I could do this testing.

I decided to speak with my trainer at the gym, as he was a student at Akron U in the exercise science program, and I thought he would have some ideas. He told me about the Bod Pod that Akron U has, and suggested I look into doing this instead of the hydrostatic weighing. He said it was a newer method and even more accurate. I looked into it and it was indeed reportedly even more accurate, and I could do it right there at Akron U for only $25!

My good friend Tanya at Not Really Hungry did a great summary of what the Bod Pod is and how it works, which you can find here. For those old enough to remember Mork & Mindy, the devise reminds me of Mork’s spaceship; it’s like a giant egg with a window on the front. It measures body composition by air displacement, as opposed to water displacement in hydrostatic weighing.

I made my first appointment and went in April of 2015. My body fat percentage was measured to be 32.6%. It was very insightful to get this new and different perspective on what really made up my body. The suggestion was that I re-test every 3 months or so. And so I have done since that time. While looking into the Bod Pod and doing my own research, I came across a website which had instructions as to a formula that could be used to calculate your body weight at a certain percentage of fat, using the information gleaned from the Bod Pod analysis. Eureka! I could use my new body composition information to identify a healthy goal weight based upon a healthy body fat percentage that I would chose. I decided to first aim for a body fat percentage in the middle of the “moderately lean” category, 22.1-30%. At a body fat percentage of 25%, the formula gave me a body weight of approximately 160 pounds. Now that was a weight that seemed within reach and reasonable! That would put me just 4 pounds below the top of my BMI range, giving me a bit of a buffer. I was so happy and relieved to finally have a tangible goal!

I’ve had some ups and downs over the last year with the Bod Pod (partly in figuring out earlier this year what I really needed to do in order to make each re-test as consistent as possible with previous tests). But overall I’m happy with the information and feedback.

Bringing us to last week’s appointment! I’ve been working hard both with my eating and working out, making good progress with my lifting in the gym and with my running, so I was excited to see my information this time around. I wasn’t disappointed! I had made it down to 28% body fat, a 1.4% decrease from the last time I tested in early May.

The Bod Pod has been a great source of information for me as I near a new point in my journey. It has served to validate the work I’ve been doing, even when the scale doesn’t show it. I feel like I have a better idea of where my health really is, and a good devise to continue to measure my body composition even after I reach my goal weight.