Body Fat Testing and Resting Metabolic Rates!

So everyone, I went to the University of Utah's exercise science division (Peak Academy) and had my body fat and resting metabolic rate tested today! They use the Bod Pod, which is the gold standard of body fat measurement and is equal or better than underwater testing. You wear a swimsuit or lycra shorts and a sports bra, and put your hair in a cap. Then you step into what looks like a large egg, and have a seat. They run the test 2-3 times and it take about a minute each time. I was a little nervous. I did underwater testing like 14 years ago, and have had the electrical done several times over the years. In all of these I was 38-42% !! Horrible. The best I got was about 33% once after losing a bunch of weight. I just kept hoping it would be 30% or less, since I knew that even though I had lost a lot of weight, I had gotten pretty soft. I was pleasantly surprised to learn I was at 27% The categories were very lean, lean, moderate, poor, and very poor. I am smack dab in the middle of moderate. Not too bad. I have to drop 3%, to enter the "lean" category! So can you guess what my new goal is :)

Then they had me sit in a chair next to a machine with a long tube attached to it, with a mouth piece at the other end. You put your mouth around the piece and they put a clamp on your nose. Then you just sit there and breath for about 10 minutes. We finished the test and my RMR was 2100 calories just sitting there! That did not include normal activity or exercise. He said that was very high. So we ran the test again to be sure. This time it still came back high at 1858 before normal activity and exercise. So according to this with normal activity and 30 minutes of exercise per day (I average more) my daily caloric intake to maintain is 2606! I was pretty shocked. He asked what I felt, and I explained that for the last 4 months before my last round I maintained my LIW and ate whatever I wanted and never counted a calorie. He said that sounds about right ;) So it says that I should eat 1858-2413 to maintain, and 1488 to 1858 to lose. I have been eating right around 1900 and have lost twice on that. If I eat closer to 2000-2100 then I was the same weight. Sounds like it is in the ballpark. Very interesting stuff!!