Body composition tests - measuring the fat

The results are in! I took my urine-filled jugs and 12-hour fasted self to the nutrition lab, laid under the DEXA x-ray machine for five minutes, and got to see a shiny print-out of my body composition.

The verdict is that I am 23% fat. If I recall correctly, the chart I looked at after my scan stated that the average Canadian woman is about 32% (don’t quote me on that – I don’t have the print out in front of me, and I won’t get my copies until they give me the results package in a week or so, which will include the analysis by a qualified nutritionist). According to the Body Composition Clinic, who also uses DEXA scans to measure body composition, this puts me in the “fitness” category of body types. Their classification table is:

Classification
Athletes - Women: 14-20%, Men: 5-13%
Fitness - Women: 21-24%, Men: 14-17%
Acceptable - Women: 25-31%, Men: 18-25%
Obese - Women: 32%+, Men: 26%+

The Body Composition Clinic also gives a good description of necessary and storage body fat, DEXA scans, and why body fat is important. Browsing their information is highly recommended.
The body composition study folks also weighed and measured me, and at just under 5’9” and exactly 134 pounds, I think that I could stand to put on a few pounds of lean muscle. As I work out quite a bit and include strength training along with my dance and cardio, I believe the next steps to take are to add a few more calories of protein to my diet. 134 is a bit on the skinny side, but I don’t want to gain weight in fat and after doing a double take at my diet diary, I realized that it was pretty damn meager. It could be that by averaging 1,800 calories a day and going through my various workouts and generally active lifestyle, I’m not feeding my muscles enough to allow them to build up more lean tissue.

But that is a topic for another day. Namely, that is a topic that will be addressed when I get my results back and receive the promised info from the body composition study’s nutritionist! When I get the results back, I’ll also go deeper into reporting the actual results chart. It should be quite interesting!