Sorting out of the data...

After losing nearly 50 pounds, I became interested in body composition. My Garmin scale said my body fat percentage was over 25%, which means that I'm obese even with a BMI less than 25. That seemed odd. So I got a Renpho scale. The Renpho scale has two settings; Athletic and Standard. On the Athletic setting, it indicated my body fat percentage was around 15%, while the normal setting pegged it at 21%. I cannot abide such discrepancies so I got a DEXA scan. Along with the DEXA scan, I did a VO2 max test, a resting metabolic rate test, and a 3D body scan.

The DEXA scan indicated my body fat percentage was 24.1 percent which is under my peer group but certainly higher than I want it to be. I need to lose 15 pounds of body fat including 1.6 pounds of visceral fat.

My fat free mass index is 19.1 kg/m2 which is low. It needs to be at least 20 and ideally 21. I need to add 5 to 10 pounds of muscle to fix that. Some would say that my weight loss contributed to muscle loss. I don't believe that to be the case. My lean mass today is 123 pounds and that is almost certainly greater than my lean mass when I graduated from college weighed 140 pounds. To have more lean mass at 57 than I had at 22 is a huge win by anyone's standards.

People are concerned that you will lose bone density when you lose a lot of weight quickly. I don't have that problem. My T-score is +1.2, which means my bone density is 1.2 standard deviations above the average healthy 30-year-old. So my bone density is normal and healthy.

They also tested my resting metabolic rate which is 1965 calories per day. One risk of losing weight and restricting your diet is that your RMR will fall and it will be more difficult to lose weight. I don't have that issue as my RMR is relatively fast due to all the exercise. But it presents a conundrum. To lose that 15 pounds of body fat, I need to continue exercising and maintain a diet of 2000-2500 calories daily. To gain five pounds of lean mass, I need a diet of 3300-3500 calories a day. My priority at this point is losing the 15 pounds of fat while not losing muscle mass. I'm going to target a daily diet of 2,200 calories, add protein supplements, and start doing resistance training. When my weight drops to 150 pounds, I'll start trying to add lean muscle.

My VO2 max tested at 43. The test is very disorienting, particularly if you can't see as I can't because I couldn't wear my glasses. I would score higher if I took it a second time. However, the results align closely with the results of my Garmin watch, which puts it at 44, and the 12-minute Cooper test, which puts it at 43-45. Long story short, if you are a runner and want to know your VO2 max, the 12-minute Cooper test is a quick, easy, and accurate way of determining your VO2 max.

One thing I'm not interested in is my heart rate zones, which were determined to be the following:

Zone 1 - 80-107

Zone 2 - 107-143

Zone 3 - 143-159

Zone 4 - 159-185

My average heart rate on my training runs is solidly in Zone 4. I can't comprehend training at 143 or less, so that's just off the table. The individual explaining the results explained that it was impossible to maintain efforts in Zone 4 for more than a few minutes. I told him that I had done a 58-minute run at an average heart rate of 165 the day before, and another the day before that, and the day before that, I did an 80-minute run with an average heart rate of 167.

I think there are two kinds of people in the world. People who buy into heart rate training and people who ran high school track and cross country where near maximum efforts three, four, and five times a week are the norm. I can't shake what I learned in 10th grade and I'm not interested in doing so.