Firstly I used say not sure if this query comes under nutrition, training, medical or pain and rehab.
I joined a public gym yesterday after using a power cage in a family members garage. I stepped on Tanita Body Composition Analyzer and to my it said I had metabolic age of 48. Being in my early thirties this was a bit of shock. I’m also 5 foot 11 and male. Before I stepped on it the fitness instructor said that’s it’s quite a old machine and they selected a standard body button as opposed to the athletic body button (Not sure what I am am or if it even matters). Should I take much notice of this or be concerned by this? I’m an active person eat reasonably well and can lift quite heavy relatively to the general population (north of a 400lb Squat, 300lb Bench and 500lb Deadlift).
I believe Tanita calculates your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), then compares that to a reference population. This has obvious problems:
- How well does the device calculate BMR? This is dependent on the accuracy of LBM analysis, since they probably use the Katch-McArdle formula [370 + (21.6 * LBM in kg)]. Some BIA devices are decent at this, though they often overestimate lean body mass.
- What is the reference population and how was their BMR calculated?
- How does BMR comparison correlate to metabolic “health” and “age”?
Whether you should be concerned about this is another question. While your strength appears to be quite good, I’d be curious what your bodyweight is and waist circumference to have an opinion on metabolic health/health risks without further testing.
So, I don’t put much stock in Tanita’s metabolic age, but I also don’t think it should be immediately dismissed either.
-Jordan
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I’m 93.7kg and my waist, which I measured just now is just below 36 inches like 35.9.
Nothing about that screams “abnormal metabolic age” to me. The waist-to-height ratio is quite good.