The Amiel Blog

Dictation, aka 8th Take on My Break

What did you think of my last post on day 2 of the meditation experiment? I dictated it using my new Dragon dictate software. Given that I am a genuine beginner  at dictation, I am having quite a bit of fun with this. Before dictating these 2 blog posts, I sent 2 e-mails using dictation. 

All of my faithful readers will recognize this as a direct response to breaking my arm. Therefore, I am thinking of the new possibilities created through dictation as the 8th take on my break.  Perhaps this discovery following the accident will lead to more prolific writing and a greater fulfillment of this gift God has given me.

Body fat update

After yesterday's surprising Bod Pod result, I decide to give the old Accu-Measure 3000 caliper a try.

Did I really double my fat percentage in three years or did the instrument have as much error as the Bod Pod guy told me? 

After measuring myself at 14mm (19.6% body fat using the algorithmic math the Accu-Measure booklet does for you), I thought, "Well, Bod Pod guy must be right. This instrument is imperfect."

Then I got curious. How many mm would I need to pinch to get to 24.5%? Turns out the number was 20 mm. Hmm...is there any way to measure myself to come up with that number?

Not surprisingly, there was. By placing the caliper two inches further away from the center of my body, I came out with--yes, you guessed, it--20 mm, which translates to 24.7% fat.

So the little-caliper-that-could is not so bad after all. And its claim to "measure within 1.1% of gold standard underwater weighing results" might not be overstated. In other words, this was a Case of User Error. The upshot: back when I thought my body fat was 12-14%, it was likely around 18%. So, yes, I've picked up fat the past three years, but not as much as I thought. 

Except...as I look now at the picture in the Accu-Measure booklet showing where on the body to measure, it shows the exact spot I used to measure! 

So much for user error. This leads us to Interpretation #2: Case of Unusual User. To be specific, the caliper directly measures only subcutaneous body fat. It doesn't directly measure visceral (a.k.a. organ) fat. To estimate visceral fat, it uses an algorithm. Well, what if that algorithm wasn't quite designed for this particular human being?