When I started down this path (trail, journey, mission) a few months ago now, I had a serious look at my body (as an engine!! running on diesel, slow but reliable?) and did some calculations about where it was (honestly) at and where I’d (realistically) like it to be prior to lining up for 24hours of Death Racing… I summed it up at that time that I’d like to lose another 6kgs and another 3+% of BMI, getting down to 20%. Using a simple mathematical equation (at the time) I got this result.
Mass in kgs/height (m) x height (m) = BMI or
67/1.68 x 1.68 = 23.74% body fat
I was happy enough with that and embarked (mentally) on my quest. As I train more my metabolism is increasing and I’m finding that I am hungrier, especially at around 3pm, than I have been in previous weeks.
So, the point of mentioning all of this is thus: about 10 days ago I broke my scales! I was sweeping the bathroom floor and had put the digital scales up on the vanity basin. As I went to put them back on the floor, they slipped off and into the bath tub. Nothing broken, and technically I didn’t drop them as they slid, but ever since then they have read (sporadically) about 2.5kgs lighter than I had been. Even though they still read 00:00 before use as if they are working, somehow they are wrong. This was great if I wanted to feel like I’d dropped a few kgs really quick, but it isn’t helpful to me tracking my real progress. As these scales only measured weight, I thought it would be good to have a set that measured BMI, muscle mass, bone density etc. They weren’t too expensive at $50, so I was excited to plug the battery in and see how much I’d lowered my BMI over the last 12 weeks.
You can imagine how gutted I was to read that even at the same weight, this scale said my BMI was 29+%!!! I couldn’t believe it. Generally speaking 20-25% is in the healthy range, and 25-30% is overweight! Not only had I not lowered it, but now I had an extra 6% to lose and I was bordering on obese (at over 30%)! How could two methods be so completely different? The scales work by sending an impulse up one leg and measuring the time it takes for that impulse to return down the other leg. With that it determines water content, BMI, muscle mass, bone density and how many calories you need to consume to maintain that weight. And I was feeling pleased with myself, thinking my tummy was getting a little flatter?! The only thing to do now is use a 3rd method to determine it. Calipers! They measure your skin folds by pinching them, and you measure 11 different sites around the body (I think its 11) and they are averaged to get an overall BMI. Maybe this will tell me which of the other figures are closer to actual.
The plus side to today is that I had a lengthy discussion with the podiatrist at work about my aching leg. She did a few tests and suggested that she felt it was only muscular, and as I’d caught it early and not continued running for weeks on end with paid, that it should be ok with rest and ice treatments. We discussed my shoes (and she was really well versed in the Brooks brand, so that was good) and we determined with good management it should be ok. Basically she said the new shoe was making my legs work differently, and the muscle wasn’t getting enough time to adjust and recover. I was so thankful to hear it isn’t likely to be shin splints; that could completely undo my plans for many months. So hopefully after this week resting and ice treatments, my leg should be ok. There is a possibility that having changed to the Adrenalin shoes, I may have to look at going back to the Ariel’s in a few weeks if the paid doesn’t completely subside. I really want to encourage my foot to work for itself, which is why I tried the new pair, but if all else fails it will be back to the old trusty. I was enjoying the fact that the Adrenalin’s were so light weight compared to the brick-like Ariel’s, but I can’t run if my legs don’t like the shoe! So time will tell, and I am sure things will work out as long as I stay smart and listen to the clues my body is giving me.
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