A Trip to Reality

This isn't about science fiction. I know, I know. It looks like you'd enter this pod and end up on Mars or somewhere else you could only imagine in your imagination. The place I ended up was far more scary. Reality. It wasn't too surprising since I look in the mirror occasionally and step on a scales once a week But still...

The test was painful  painless. We were instructed to wear a one piece swim suit, or compression shorts and a shirt or sports bra. Since my swim suit is more of loose fitting swim trunks and top, I went and found compression shorts.

Sitting in the machine I waited for claustrophobia to set in. Luckily, it didn't. I was told to sit still and in 40 seconds they would open the door, then repeat two more times. I sat and waited. There was a bit of a popping noise and then the sound of a panting dog. My ears started to pop a little bit from the air pressure, but that was about it.

I survived the experience. I promise, I didn't even lose my arm; even though it looks like I did in the picture. Don't ask me why I was posing like that!

The results printed and I found out my fat percentage is at an extreme risk. When I lose 24 pounds I will be at a high risk. 55.7 total pounds and I will be down to a potential risk (which is my six month goal for myself.) A total of 76.5 pounds will put me in a neutral zone and 84.10 total pounds will put me in good health.

The trick is to lose the weight in body fat, and not in my lean muscle mass. Which is where the Metabolic testing comes in. This testing was extra, but promised to give us an accurate amount of calories we could eat in a day and be in an optimal range to burn fat and not muscle.

Before the testing I couldn't eat for 4 hours. It was the afternoon at work, and my stomach was growling pretty loudly. I won't lie. After the metabolic testing I'm feeling overwhelmed!

I sat down and was given a nose clip, to plug my nose so I would breathe through my mouth into a tube. Then I was told to close my eyes lean back and relax for 10 Minutes. (That was a little easier said than done.)

In the end my results said my metabolism was 3% over normal. I was told that to get in the Weight Loss Zone I should eat between 1430 calories and 1786 calories. Anything under that and I would be burning muscle mass. This is where I get overwhelmed and freaked out a little bit. According to this, if I eat the right amount of calories, but burn more calories exercising, I would still be burning muscle. This is hard for me to wrap my head around, because exercise should help me and not hurt me.

At this point, I'm not sure if I'm going to let this change my strategy. I am going to start wearing my Body Media Fit band, and work on counting calories (I haven't been counting them while on the Shred, as I've just been eating what he suggests in the book.)

For now I will let this information sink in for a couple of days. I will write more about the Shred later this week, and add a post about a recipe I found on Pinterest. As far as this challenge though, Game On! I'm anxious to see everybody participating in my office come September!