BOD POD

happythermia

Tell me everything you know!
I'm going to start seeing a trainer 2x a week and he wants me to make an appointment with this contraption. I did a little googling and it looks TERRIFYING. I can be a little claustrophobic and it's freaking me the hell out lol

Any info, advice, whatnots are very appreciated!

Thanks!

happythermia

seriously, you guys! lol

spunkychelsea

Bumping for you. It was fast enough that I didn't care, but I don't mind small spaces. Hope someone that's done it in the last 5 years can give you more insight!

ken_hogan

I thought it would be neat to try it once but never have yet...

Wienerbua

I'm not claustrophic so it did not bother me. It's over in a few minutes and there is a window on it so you should not be worried. Not that much worse than being in an airplane bathroom in my view.

tomcornhole

It has a window and you can get out in less than a second, so it may be ok for you. The test takes about a minute and they usually do it 2-3 times. They will open the door between each test. It makes some air puffing noises while testing.

You can fool it if you like. If you want an accurate reading, don't do anything weird before you go (like laxatives, low food intake, low or high water intake, lots of exercise, etc...). Just stop eating and drinking 2 hours before you go. It works by measuring your body volume and weight and then doing some math to get LBM and BF%. I have found it to be accurate enough.

Tom

FrnkLft

I've done it, I'm not claustrophobic (spelled it right?) but it's not intimidating or anything. You just sit, and it takes pressure readings, then you get out. They do it three times (maybe twice?) but you can see outside at the guy doing it and it's fine, really.

mjl54

I Wouldn't say im clausterphopic or whatever the spelling I just don't like being around alot of people. i've done a bod pod a few times and didn't have any issues. maybe because its real fast i always have a reading in around 5min.

errorika

I tend to be on the claustrophobic side, and it was fine for me. It's not really that small, and the window helps.

Like the poster said below, don't eat or drink anything for 2 hours ahead of time. I don't know if it's like this everywhere, but I had to dress in spandex for mine-- a sports bra and compression shorts. They had some garments there if you didn't bring any, but be prepared! The guy who did it was super courteous and didn't make me stand around in spandex for long, the whole consultation is really quick.

tomcornhole

I wasn't going to post the cheats, but I will so you can avoid doing them.

Things to do to make it read a lower BF% than you really are:

1. Breath out completely and hold your breath while sucking in your gut. This will really F up the results. This reduces your volume and mucks up the equations that they use to convert body density to BF%.

2. Eat 4 protein bars before going in. This adds weight without adding volume. Or drink a liter of water (as long as it doesn't cause bloating in your gut). Same thing.

3. Take creatine for a month. This will add water weight without any additional volume because of the way creatine works.

Things to do to make it read a higher BF% than you really are:

1. Take a laxative and clear out your guts

2. Dehydrate

3. Exercise a lot right before the test

4. Excessive body hair (probably not an issue for you). But you will need to put your hair in the shower cap thingy they give you.

5. Loose clothing.

Just out of curiosity, I did some error analysis on the BodPod.

If it is off by 0.1L (that's 0.4 cups or just under 8 tablespoons) when measuring your volume, it will change the BF% result by 0.58%. That's why sucking in your gut will F it up. And if you exhale all your air and hold your breath, that will F it up because it assumes you are breathing normally and accounts for that in the math it does later (it's called thoracic volume).

If it is off by just 0.1 lbs, it will change the BF% result by +- 0.26%. That's where the 4 protein bars or 1 L of water can F it up. They weigh .4 - 1 lbs, so that could translate into 1% to 2.6% change in BF%. And if you are dehydrated or your gastro-intestinal tract is empty, that will F up the assumptions that the BodPod equations make about the relative density of fat vs lean body mass.

This is where the +- 3% error comes from on the BodPod. Hydrostatic weighing is susceptible to the same tomfoolery. It uses the same assumptions and equations as the BodPod. The biggest difference is that hydrostatic weighing does not assume thoracic volume. They expect you to expel all your air and hold your breath for the hydrostatic weighing. I guess the BodPod could do that as well, but the BodPod test takes almost a minute and not many folks could hold their breath for a minute after expelling all their air.

So, don't cheat and get periodic measurements to establish a trend. Three points make a trend.

Tom

This is my BF% data. I measure many ways, but the big red dots are my BodPod data. I cheated on the middle one. You can tell (it's not on a line with the one before it and the one after it).