"Metabolic Age" fun

R

Ruthenian

New Member
I have one of those Tanita IronMan scales and I know the only thing it tells you directly is your weight -- everything else is based upon equations and population studies related to bioimpedance.  But it is helpful to track your trends.

Mine also has something called "Metabolic Age" that you might presume is a kind of overall fitness measure.  

So during this cut I am now down to a metabolic age of 32!!  Yeah, it's voodoo, but at an actual age of 47, I  can't help but feel good about it.

OK, just a little something to celebrate!  
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<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Metabolic age?</div>
From Tanita website:

&quot;WHAT IS METABOLIC AGE?
This feature compares your BMR to the average age associated with that level of metabolism.

&quot;If your Basal Metabolic Age is higher than your actual age, it is an indication that you need to improve your metabolic rate. Increased exercise will build healthy muscle tissue, which will improve your metabolic age.
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">where did you pick up your scale?</div>
Local REI store.  Be aware that a lot of folks think these things are crap.  My initial experience was that it read my BF dead on (validated by hydrostatic and calipers), but as my BF changes, I don't know how accurate it remains.  Nevertheless, it does seem useful for tracking trends.

I have noted that it tends to read higher BF than the handheld devices.

As noted, none of these bioimpedence devices are reading BF directly -- they are correlating electrical readings against similar ones for the general population.  So there are some shortcomings:

(1) How accurate they are for any particular person can be an individual thing.  
(2) They are highly sensitive to hydration levels. (Tanita recommends taking your reading just before dinner.  You tend to be slightly dehydrated in the morning and I definitely get higher readings then.)
(3) They pretty much don't read accurately for folks far outside the realm of the general population (ie, sub-10% BF bodybuilders).
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">What about us aging fatass lifters?</div>
I'll let you know when I get down to my target BF.  I plan to go validate the scale against a hydrostatic and caliper test then.  I also need to validate my own caliper technique then so I can do it at home.

Speaking of fat asses, after the last bulk I started at a pretty high BF (close to 23% according to the scale), but nobody believes as I have a naturally slender body type that carries it well. I am only going for 15% this cut so I don't loose too much size.  I'll do 1-2 bulking cycles after that and then make the final cut to 10-12%.

As an aside, the local Adventist hospital here has a wellness program what will do the hydrostatic testing for $30 the first time and $25 any time after.  The price is low enough that it makes getting the test 2-4 times a year pretty affordable.  Folks might want to check their local Adventists if they are interested in this sort of thing.
 
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