Am I reading this right?

flatblade

I recently had a health evaluation at my facility's Healthy Living Center. I sat in the "bod pod", was weighed and measured, then had a stress test, followed by strength and flexibility tests. My body fat percentage from plethysmography (bod pod) was 20.2%, my calculated BMI was 28.6, which leaves me well into the "overweight" designation. The 20.2% body fat put me in the category of "excess fat" by .2%. The note also said that I was in the 71-75 percentile for my age. I've taken these tests before and my body fat percentage and BMI were pretty close. Since my last test, I have lost almost 37 pounds of fat while gaining 3.4 pounds of lean tissue. My reading of these numbers is that my body fat number is now quite good, much better than the calculation giving me a 28.6 BMI would indicate. Is that the way I should read this, or am I missing something?

mudonthetires856

BMI is an outdated method. It goes by height and weight but doesn't take into account the amount of muscle or body fat that you have. It's body fat that you want to lose, so I would only pay attention to the body fat percentage. Someone at the same height and weight as you with lots of muscle and very little body fat would also be classified as overweight.

flatblade

That is pretty much what I thought. Many professional athletes would be classified as overweight or obese because they are so heavily muscled. Thanks for your help.

nancybuss

Yes - I agree. Great job on the weight loss and muscle gain!