Body Composition 20 Years Younger Than Your Chronological Age?
We were sat in a semi circle round the Tanita body composition kit. I was on my Health Assessment Specialist training and this was the practical where each of us was to manage and then also undergo the customer experience of a body composition assessment. In my fifties at 56 years old I was the oldest in the 6 person group. The others ranged from mid twenties to mid thirties.
I was customer number 5. So far the metabolic age the analysis had given people was 2 to 6 years different to their chronological age, some younger some older. No big surprises, most of us have an interest in health, a couple of personal trainers, a nurse and a yoga teacher.
Standing still on the foot plates I was expecting quite a good reading, everyone seemed interested to see what the result was ( I had done surprisingly well on the grip test ). I saw the body fat percentage first, 14%. Pleasing, not my usual 10–12% but hey these things vary over the year. As I was scanning the screen, the assessor read out “ The analysis is giving you a metabolic age of 36, that’s a calculation that gives you an idea of how old you are on the inside.” Silence.. .
Now here I feel I have to add that this calculation gives you an idea of your age on the inside. It’s not measuring the biological age of your cells. For that you need to use something like Horvath’s epigenetic clock. But this metabolic age gives you an idea of how your body is operating. For me operating, and feeling for that matter, 20 years younger than my chronological age? I’ll take that any day.
“Bloody hell, that’s the same metabolic age as me.” The silence was broken and some chat ensued. After some training on the ECG procedure we broke for lunch. All of a sudden after that metabolic age result there was a lot of interest and questions for me. Mostly around what a health coach is and what did I do to get that result.
Well as a health coach I specialise in behaviour change, helping clients find their easiest and fastest route to better health ( here’s a link about benefits of health coaching in general ) I also got quizzed on my knowledge: food, movement, stress and the like. What I do was interesting for most, I explained how personally I have developed a routine where I minimise time in a gym, focus on health and longevity over athletic performance, don’t count calories and prioritise making food delicious. Mostly it was interesting as it was different to what most of my colleagues expected.
If you want to find out more you can book a call with me, read more of my posts or if you fancy being your own health coach read my medium post here.
