Thursday 7 February 2008

Steady six

I've got a confession to make. I've become slightly obsessed with the latest TV craze for saving fat people. And not in a good way. I find ridiculing fat people - and gasping and sniggering at their weekly intake - highly entertainment. Supersize Vs superskinny is my favourite just now. Watching the torture of an anorexic crying a kebab and a whale eating lentils is just fabulous viewing. Especially when said whale is making excuses about thyroids, genetics and the inability to say no to the 17th slice of cake. I know, I'm going to the big bad fire. Anyhow - yes, this is going somewhere - there was a freakishly skinny young chap on one of these programmes (so many, I can't remember which one) who only ate junk food. Although he only weighed eight stone, his body fat content was about 34%. I was totally amazed by this. This led me to blow the dust of the scales and check my own body fat. Mine came up at 21%, which according to chart below is right on the border for healthy and underfat for a gal of my age.



Having a bit of a freakish weather day in Glasgow today. Arriving at Garsube some the runners were commenting on their car temperature gage showing 12/13 degrees. Of course, I wasn't really aware of the effect it would have until about two miles in to the club's six miles steady. For once I was actually welcoming the wind.

Tried to keep the pack together in a steady pace - secretly because I was knackered from last nights' session and feared they would run me into the ground. There were three gals and three guys out in our group. I had to reign in a couple of the guys. You know what it's like, one guy pulls away, the other chases, the next gets competitive too...and before we know it we're racing along the street. Not a chance. Not on my shift. My stomach was in agony again tonight (for about the 10th day this year!) so the last few miles were tough. I'm working on a process of elimination to find out if there's a certain food that affects my stomach. So far I've narrowed it down to fruit and coffee. Of course, my two great loves are fruit (especially apples) and coffee. Hey ho, at least I'm OK with red wine and porridge. Phew.

Run tonight was top gate, Anniesland, GWR, Highburgh, Byres, GWR, Dorchester, Scaethorn, Maryhill and home. 6.38 miles in 55.23.

Steady pace splits as follows: 9.10, 8.32, 8.33, 8.27, 8.48, 8.56 (average 8.42)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi there, just read your comment about having 21% body fat. As far as I am aware there is no scales that can accurately measure body fat, So you may find that your body fat is a good bit lower

Stephen Mulrine said...

Body Mass Index is traditionally calculated by dividing your weight in kg by the square of your height in metres. As muscle is heavier than fat, athletes usually come out at the heavier end of the scale. Mark Lewis-Francis' BMI of 26 in 2004 makes him obese! By the same calculation, I am overfat (no laughing at the back). Not sure how it works out for endurance athletes.

Debs M-C said...

I'm not very good with numbers, so I just stand on the scales. The fancy ones I have calculate weight, fat in stones and percentage, water rate and BMI according to height and age. Don't quite know how it works, it's magic to me. As Johnboy said, I don't know how accurate they are.

I think body fat is a better way to monitor health and fitness than weight or BMI. Like I said, the lad on the TV was 5"10 and weighed 8 stone. He would have had a very low BMI, but his body fat was crazy high.

Thanks for the comments, chaps.

ianbeattie1 said...

Debs - are you ok? No postings since Thursday. I'm missing your blog!