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Published on Jordan Independent (http://www.jordannews.com)

I'm healthy: That's motivation to keep working out

By Mathias Baden
Created 04/09/2008 - 10:22am

Working out isn't really a struggle for me anymore. It's a daily habit.

Since I joined Anytime Fitness in Jordan, I switched from weightlifting, basketball, and situps to doing all of that plus the elliptical. I've been losing weight and feeling better than before. I knew I would.

But I didn't really know how well I was doing until, during Celebrate Jordan, Jo Erp of Jo's Gym in Jordan gave me the results of a body composition analysis. 

After asking about my weight, height, exercise frequency, exercise intensity, and the amount of time I exercise, she figured out the following:

- The fat in my body weighs 24 pounds.

- My lean (fat-free) weight is 165 pounds.

- The total amount of water in my body is 54.42 liters, or 63.4 percent. 

- My body mass index (BMI), the relationship between weight and height that is often associated with health risks, is 24.3 -- at the high end of the ideal range. I'm not overweight or underweight. 

- Fat makes up 12.7 percent of my body, which is in the good range. I could do a little better.

As far as the body-fat percentage, I'd have liked to be within the excellent range -- from 6 percent to 11.8 percent. So I have some work to do. Mostly, I want to maintain my weight and lower my body fat.

Last year, at the conclusion of my most recent physical examination, my doctor told me not to come back for three years. He also warned me that I ought not to gain much more weight, instructing me to stay active.

As I was growing up, I was always a skinny kid -- a swimmer. I had never before been told not to gain weight. In fact, during college, after I took my first full-time job, my employer's physician told me he hadn't ever seen someone in such good shape. 

A few years of living in a dorm and eating pizza every night can change that. Plus, I'm older now -- 29 -- and fat just doesn't seem to go away so easily as it once did. 

It's always good to hear that I'm healthy, though. A little time spent working out every day does pay off.


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