Coming face to face with FAT



Alright, 99%* of triathlete are obsessed about their weight. We are constantly talking about trimming down to "race weight", so we can climb hills better, run faster and look better in Lycra. I know personally, I have had a battle with body image and weight my whole life.

BODYSCAN results

Since I started with triathlon about 5 years ago, I have come to accept my body shape and the way my body develops when I do exercises. I have always had this magical number of 55kg as my ideal race weight. I know and understand that if I am to lose weight to reach this level, I need to lose fat mass and keeping in mind that I will also be gaining muscle mass just from training (especially during the strength phase of the season).

To gauge a better understanding of this, I had a DEXA body scan done lately and it has given me a better understanding of my own body composition and where I store my fat.

So my fat-free mass (my mass without fat - just bones, blood and organs) is (2.09kg + 41.6kg) I have about 16.8kg of pure fat. Now I am well aware of our body's need for fat to actually survive especially for females so there is no crazy plans of losing too much fat mass here. Based on the results and where I am sitting on the Fat Mass scale, I am within the healthy range (just above the lean). The doctor advised me that losing 4kg down to 55kg is acceptable and will be within the halfway range for lean. The results are all normalized (taking into account my height, sex and age etc), the healthy fat mass range is 15.9-21kg and lean is 10.8-15.9kg for a person my height, sex and age.

Another thing to note is that my bone density is also slightly above normal (very slightly) at 0.3. Anything in the negative range is poor bone density.

I did the scan lying on the x-ray table and also with my super skinny jeans on so for my next scan, the doctor has advised that I wear the same jeans for a like for like comparison.



I have posted some of my results below.

*not fact, this is something which I just made up for the fun of it, chill out.



DEXA Results