How do you like your bod?

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. – Staff Sgt. Eddy Tompkins, 5th Force Support Squadron intramural sports director, sits in the Minot Health and Wellness Center’s Bod Pod at the McAdoo Sports and Fitness Center here May 25. The Bod Pod is a state-of-the-art tool which aides base personnel in tracking and monitoring their fitness improvements. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Thomas Dow)

Experience the BOD POD at the Minot Health and Wellness Center

Published Oct. 9, 2012
By Kristina Hokenson
5th MDG Registered Dietician

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- Are you interested in losing weight? If the answer is yes, have you ever thought about what kind weight you would like to lose? Most people don't want to lose just any weight, they want to lose fat. How can you determine if the weight you are losing is fat? The answer is the BOD POD located at your neighborhood HAWC.

The BOD POD is a bullet-shaped machine that is used to determine your body fat percentage. During the BOD POD process, you step on a scale to measure your body weight, and then you sit inside the BOD POD to determine your body volume. The BOD POD uses this information to figure out your proportions of body fat and lean mass.

Why would you want to know this information? Well for one thing, muscle burns 3 times more calories than fat does. Basically, the more muscle you have, the higher your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR = the calories your body needs just to function). A higher RMR means that you get to eat more to maintain or lose weight. The BOD POD will estimate your RMR, so you can determine your caloric needs to reach your fitness goals.

Also, a pound of fat takes up more space in the body than a pound of muscle. If you look at two people who are the same weight and height, the person with the higher body fat percentage is going to be wearing a larger clothing size. You may have experienced this if you reached a goal weight, but your size was larger than the last time you were at that weight. Chances are you were eating below your RMR which caused your body to use lean muscle for fuel.

Truly successful weight loss involves losing the fat pounds and hanging on to the lean pounds. All are welcome to use the BOD POD, and the cost is free. So please take advantage of this resource and give the HAWC a call at 701-723-5399 to set up your initial BOD POD appointment. Follow up visits are encouraged every 8 weeks to see how your hard work is paying off!