Yeah, it's that scan where you step onto a machine that looks like a weighing scale, then you're asked to hold out your arms straight while holding two handles that protrude from the ‘scale’.
After about a minute (the one torturing minute where you keep praying that your body fat mass would stop going up), TADAAAA, you have just completed a full analysis of your entire body fat & muscle mass. Still feels absolutely surreal that such technology exists, but it's very cool.
Anyways, there are a lot of numbers on this report and a kind staff member from the company running the scan took the liberty to explain them.
In short, while my BMI is generally normal, I'm lacking muscle in almost all areas of my body while having a higher-than-suggested body fat percentage.
This scenario is coined as ‘sarcopenic obesity’, which is the coexistence of obesity (determined by excess fat mass in the body) with sarcopenia, characterized as low skeletal muscle mass and function. So basically, my muscle-to-body fat proportion is not as healthy as it should be.
Deeper insight via the Segmental Lean Analysis shows that every area of my body is lacking muscle mass (percentage), and every part of me needs to be trained to build muscle while reducing fat mass.
A good part of me felt terrible about it, but hey, at least my BMI wasn't obese too? This scan quickly became a viral conversation in the office, with colleagues discussing their results with each other.
Apparently it's common knowledge that women have higher body fat mass percentage compared to men, who are more lean. So this is an expected result amongst my female colleagues.
Honestly, I didn't know that at all - the big mark on my result paper that states ‘Sarcopenic Obesity’ honestly scared me and made me wonder if I am truly that unhealthy, when I have always tried to cut down salt and fatty foods, while trying to maintain a consistent gym routine. Of course, some days became cheat days, but it truly could not have been THIS bad.
Even though it's expectedly a normal result amongst females, it made me wonder if women will always be a victim of sarcopenic obesity, simply given how our body works. The effort needed to be put in to change is is honestly enormous, and unless we sacrifice other aspects of our lives to maintain it, a single drop in muscle mass can easily push us back into the sarcopenic obesity zone.
For me, I'll always shake whenever I see those words - ‘obesity’, regardless of it's true definition, is enough to start blaring alarms in my head. And with this, sarcopenic obesity is now a new term that'll always be on my mind.
This honestly reduced by quality of life a little, when I'm too afraid to enjoy the food I usually love albeit being only 26 - but it is what it is. Women, with our constant challenge of sarcopenic obesity.
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C Chai (crystal.chaijeecheng@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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