fat chicks rawk, damn it!
So, after reading a body image/dieting/whatever thread on one of my forums, I decided to have my body fat measured when I went into the gym yesterday.
Everything was going well until I actually encountered the person who'd be performing the task. After listening to her prattle on for 5 minutes, I realized that she was the trainer I'd overheard a week ago blabbering out a constant stream of "You should exercise just to feel better. I feel good when I exercise."-type comments to her sweaty overweight charge. I remember feeling annoyed on her client's behalf. The woman had, after all, already committed to the sessions, so it wasn't like she needed to be sold on the benefits of exercise. Who could've known that I would soon be annoyed with this trainer on my own behalf?
To me this personal trainer, "Jenny" her name is, said, "You've lost ten pounds in a year? Wow, you could've done that in six months. It's probably your diet. You know, you should keep a diet journal. Just write down everything you eat for a week and then average the calories out for a month and then..."
After a few minutes, she remembered why I was there and got out the calipers. When done measuring, but before doing her calculations, she said, "Just so you know, this isn't going to be good." Then started up with the monologue again. "How often do you do cardio? Every day? Then it's definitely your diet. Most people don't know how many calories their body needs in a day. I bet you're eating, like, 2000 calories a day..."
Finally, she crunched the numbers and said, "That's not so bad. You're in the 'average' group. Have you had this done before? Yes? And he said you were in the 'athletic' group? Oh, he *lied* to you. See, look here..."
Then she re-measured my waist area and realized that she'd transposed a couple of numbers, writing down 18.5 rather than 15.8. "But that doesn't really change anything. You're still 'average.'"
Then she did a demo with the calipers to show how much skin she'd pinched in the areas she'd measured. According to her measurements, the only part of my body that isn't fatty is my biceps. As for everything else, she bets that if I watch my diet I could lose 9% of my body fat in, like, 2, 3 months, tops.
This was very depressing. Last time I'd had my body fat measured, the number seemed too low to be correct. But at least it was progress. According to Personal Trainer Jenny's calculations, though, I'm just as fat now as I was this time last year.
On the plus side, because I was so annoyed, I worked much harder on the rowing machine than I have previously. On the minus side, I wish I'd told Personal Trainer Jenny to shut it. Rather than mumbling my assent to her recommendations and being secretly embarrassed because I know I overeat and that this habit is keeping me from losing the next ten pounds, I should've said:
"In the past year, since I started exercising regularly, I have lost fat, gained muscle, and dropped 2 or 3 pant sizes. I've also run a half-marathon. That's 13.1 miles. So what if I've only dropped 10 or so pounds according to the scale? Perhaps you should spend some time finding out about a person's fitness path before you start making erroneous judgments about what progress they have made or would like to make."
Then, perhaps, I should've keyed her car. Except that's kind of a mean thing to do. And, being a twit, I doubt she'd understand the reason behind such action, so the risk wouldn't be worthwhile.
Everything was going well until I actually encountered the person who'd be performing the task. After listening to her prattle on for 5 minutes, I realized that she was the trainer I'd overheard a week ago blabbering out a constant stream of "You should exercise just to feel better. I feel good when I exercise."-type comments to her sweaty overweight charge. I remember feeling annoyed on her client's behalf. The woman had, after all, already committed to the sessions, so it wasn't like she needed to be sold on the benefits of exercise. Who could've known that I would soon be annoyed with this trainer on my own behalf?
To me this personal trainer, "Jenny" her name is, said, "You've lost ten pounds in a year? Wow, you could've done that in six months. It's probably your diet. You know, you should keep a diet journal. Just write down everything you eat for a week and then average the calories out for a month and then..."
After a few minutes, she remembered why I was there and got out the calipers. When done measuring, but before doing her calculations, she said, "Just so you know, this isn't going to be good." Then started up with the monologue again. "How often do you do cardio? Every day? Then it's definitely your diet. Most people don't know how many calories their body needs in a day. I bet you're eating, like, 2000 calories a day..."
Finally, she crunched the numbers and said, "That's not so bad. You're in the 'average' group. Have you had this done before? Yes? And he said you were in the 'athletic' group? Oh, he *lied* to you. See, look here..."
Then she re-measured my waist area and realized that she'd transposed a couple of numbers, writing down 18.5 rather than 15.8. "But that doesn't really change anything. You're still 'average.'"
Then she did a demo with the calipers to show how much skin she'd pinched in the areas she'd measured. According to her measurements, the only part of my body that isn't fatty is my biceps. As for everything else, she bets that if I watch my diet I could lose 9% of my body fat in, like, 2, 3 months, tops.
This was very depressing. Last time I'd had my body fat measured, the number seemed too low to be correct. But at least it was progress. According to Personal Trainer Jenny's calculations, though, I'm just as fat now as I was this time last year.
On the plus side, because I was so annoyed, I worked much harder on the rowing machine than I have previously. On the minus side, I wish I'd told Personal Trainer Jenny to shut it. Rather than mumbling my assent to her recommendations and being secretly embarrassed because I know I overeat and that this habit is keeping me from losing the next ten pounds, I should've said:
"In the past year, since I started exercising regularly, I have lost fat, gained muscle, and dropped 2 or 3 pant sizes. I've also run a half-marathon. That's 13.1 miles. So what if I've only dropped 10 or so pounds according to the scale? Perhaps you should spend some time finding out about a person's fitness path before you start making erroneous judgments about what progress they have made or would like to make."
Then, perhaps, I should've keyed her car. Except that's kind of a mean thing to do. And, being a twit, I doubt she'd understand the reason behind such action, so the risk wouldn't be worthwhile.