Am I fat? The results are in. And they were kind of what I expected. A full body analysis at Sheffield Hallam University gave me the honest truth.

Way back in 2013 I had a full body analysis with the super state of the art machine at Sheffield Hallam, mainly for interest, but also to see if it was worth playing the ‘last card’ to raise performance by losing weight. Basically, the results showed I had absolutely no-where to go in terms of weight loss, which I kind of knew and sighed with relief over a Mars bar or two. Despite eating whatever, including cakes, flapjacks and a daily chocolate overdose, a life of routesetting, cycling, climbing, training and running after kids kept things at bay.

But I’ve been a bit slack recently, with recently extending to about June last year, with a particular slackness over Christmas, so when I got involved with a study at Hallam I figured it was the ideal time to have an analysis and work on the findings.

Top climber Nigel Callendar is conducting the study, looking at many different factors affecting performance, with some top climbers involved like Jim Pope. I spent a while there yesterday wired up with sensors working on max finger strength tests, max pull-up force and VO2 max running tests. Nige will get back to me with the results on that. But what about the analysis?

So, there I have it. Apparently there is some margin of error, back in 2013 I was very skeptical of a 3% fat level, but even if it was wrong, there is a trend to note; but it’s what I would have guessed. 2013 test was in May when fit and psyched, 2018 is straight after a lard mission. The results work out exactly for a gain in weight, loss in muscle and gain in fat. On the plus side, the results are still good overall, and if anything it’s a massive motivator to get back in the zone. Another test will be done in a while, better get back to the gym!