The past two weeks have been an opportunity to blend technology with my lifestyle, to help reset benchmarks for continued progress. At least that was my goal.
I often hear, “Hey Chuck, you’re in great shape…, for your age!” Honestly, people often think I’m eight to ten years younger than I am.
But my real goal is to just be in great shape. For me. For my family. For my health and well-being.
Yes, I admit, I am in much better shape than I was two years ago. When I look at the transformation page on my Box’s web site, I am reminded that I have come a long way indeed. Call me greedy, but I want more.
In spite of all my successes over the past two years, I am battling several health issues that indicate, a) I haven’t gone far enough, or b) I haven’t gone in the right direction, or c) all of the above.
When I competed in my Masters Comp in late June, my dear friend, Erica made a point to tell me I was fat. Yes, she cares enough to say it. Of course she didn’t say it to my face, she texted it to me in the middle of the night. She woke me up to tell me that I should “…maybe focus on getting rid of some of the visceral stuff in abdomen.”
Now I know I am not jacked like the twenty-somethings on the gym. But I know I look OK (when I suck my gut in) with my shirt off. Two years ago I wouldn’t even take my shirt off to take a shower.
Anyway, Erica forced me to confront my fat issue head on. My first challenge was to establish a benchmark for improvement. So I decided to get an accurate reading of my body composition with a Bod Bod reading.
As you can see from the photo above, it is an egg-shaped capsule that measures the amount of air your displace, compared to your weight. The technician takes three forty-second readings, the computer averages the result and prints out a report.
Let’s begin with the good news, I was under 200 pounds for the first time this year. 199.9 pounds to be exact. I’ve dropped six pounds since my stress test two weeks ago.
The bad news is that I am 51.5 pounds of fat. 25.9% fat. This freaking machine has placed me in the category of obese. For males, greater than 24% is considered obese. 15-20% is labeled “acceptable”. 11-14% is labeled “good”. Where do I need to be? Well I am not working this hard to simply be mediocre, so I need to target the “good” range.
What does that translate to? Let’s target 14% as an example. If my weight remained 200 pounds, I would need to convert 23 pounds of fat to muscle. Is that even reasonable for a 63 year old man? I think it sounds impossible.
My other choice is to lose fat, but without losing muscle. I would need to get down to 175 pounds. That sounds like a ridiculously low weight for a man who is 6’1″. Assuming it is an attainable goal, is it reasonable to also assume that by so doing, I will improve my endurance, my blood pressure, and my blood sugar?
I would love to hear thoughts from other Masters CrossFitters and athletes on this matter.
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