That's Fit

I'm not real concerned with the number attached to my body fat composition. But I have been curious about how it may have changed since last April when a fitness instructor at Tucson's Canyon Ranch pinched me here and there and told me I registered at 24 percent on the body fat scale. Since then, I've lost 15 pounds and spent considerable amounts of time working out. Surely, I have less fat, right? I mean there's less skin on my body. That must mean there's less fat to pinch.

I do think my body is carrying around less fat. It looks like it is, anyway. But that's about all I have to go on because after meeting with another fitness instructor today, I came away with a few new numbers. One was high. One was low. One right in the middle.

My first pinch test -- my instructor pinched my fat and measured with calipers a chunk of skin on my right arm, my side, and my thigh -- put me in the 27 percent body fat category. Ouch. My second test, with a device I held out in front of my face (height and weight were the only considerations for this one) told me I was in the 20 percent range -- I like this one. And my third test, a re-do of the pinch test, summed me up as a girl with 24.6 percent body fat.

What ever do I do with this information? Nothing, I suppose, except conclude that there really is no surefire way to detect how much fat is storing itself on this body of mine. Which is fine with me. I was just curious. And now my curiosity is satisfied.

For more on body fat measurement options, click here.