My Body Fat % is WHAT???

For 2 years now I have worked really hard at getting myself healthy, fit, I’ve lost 20 lb and kept it off with regular exercise. My diet is moderate, like many people that’s where I admittedly struggle. I have good days and not so good days. I try to make the good days be much more frequent than the bad. I try to make more good choices than bad choices. I’m not super strict but I think I’m pretty well balanced. I’ve come a long way and I’m really proud of that! I’m just aiming to be healthy, happy, and well balanced, not super restrictive.

So here’s what's bothering me. I really don’t weigh myself often, I go by how I feel and how my clothes fit. I don’t put too much importance on the # on the scale. Where I DO want to focus however is my body fat %. It seems no matter what I do, that toned physique tends to elude me. I know it’s my diet. Maybe I’m not eating enough protein, maybe I indulge a little TOO often. I haven’t gotten it down to a science yet.

I went to get a body fat caliper test yesterday at the UIC Human Performance Lab. Now I take this with a grain of salt because caliper testing is only as good as the person performing the test and it has a 4-5% error ratio. I really wanted to do the hydrostatic body fat testing which is the most accurate, UIC is the only location in Chicago that offers it to my knowledge, but they were having issues with their equipment. Anyway, the guy said he’s been doing this for 6 years, yadda yadda, he seemed to know what he was doing… And the result… 28% body fat. Say what? When the printer spit out that piece of paper and I saw the result, I wanted to puke. On paper, that’s borderline unhealthy. The healthy range for my height and age is 21-29%. I wear a size 0 for goodness sakes (and yes at 5’0” that is a perfectly healthy size). Size 0 and 28% body fat shouldn’t even go together in the same sentence. I guess this is what my friend Eva so appropriately calls “skinny fat”. Thin but yet not enough lean muscle. I know where it is too, mostly in my stomach. The scale at home gives me a BF% of 25.6. This is more consistent with a measurement that was done at work last month using some bioelectrical contraption that they have.

Regardless, I have some work to do. That little sheet of paper said I need to aim for 21% and lose about 6-10 lb. Really I’d like to be closer to 18%. Right now I’m comfortable, but I’m not at my best physically as I have been at certain points in the past 2 years. Comfortable isn’t good enough, if I ever want to achieve those 6 pack abs, and I will get there, I’ve gotta step outside of my comfort zone. I’ve gotta buckle down and be more disciplined with my diet. But I don’t even want to call it a diet, it has to be a lifestyle. And that doesn’t mean restrictive either. I can eat well and often, I just have to more consistently make good choices and not give in so much to cravings and temptation. They say you are what you eat and I want to be broccoli, not a walking slice of pizza ;) Good thing I’m starting the 21 Day Ultimate Reset tomorrow to cleanse my body of toxins and junk and reset it to an optimal level. They say it takes 21 days to learn a new habit and I have some habits I need to break and new ones to put in their place.