Photo By Janecze Wright | Mark Buley, senior health educator at the Fort Cavazos Armed Forces Wellness Center,...... read more read more
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FORT CAVAZOS, Texas — The Fort Cavazos Armed Forces Wellness Center provides an array of services, to include body composition testing, to keep military members performing at their peak.
The center utilizes the BOD POD GS-X, considered the gold standard of body composition testing, to help military members achieve and maintain fitness goals with accurate measurements of body fat.
“The BOD POD is a very accurate means to measure body fat percentage,” said Mark Buley, senior health educator at the Fort Cavazos Armed Forces Wellness Center. “It can measure exact fat tissue versus fat free mass — muscles, tissues, bones, organs, water and blood. So, it gives you that nice accurate baseline of where you’re truly at.”
The BOD POD looks much like a giant egg with a small window in the front, but its demure exterior belies the advanced technology working within its interior.
The instrument is the world’s only Air Displacement Plethysmography system using whole body densitometric principles to determine body composition or fat and fat free mass.
Using pre-calibrated volume and density levels, the BOD POD measures how the user’s body displaces those levels when they are seated inside.
The interior pressurizes slightly, and the system measures the density of the user’s body and how it changes the pre-calibrated levels to produce an extremely accurate result.
Though the tape test remains the Army standard to measure body fat, the BOD POD is now approved as a supplemental measure to assess exact fat tissue and fat free mass.
The tape test is a body fat measurement, but it’s not extremely accurate, Buley explained. The BOD POD provides a true measurement and Soldiers can follow up with their results and see if they are losing true fat tissue, gaining muscle, or just losing water weight, a factor Buley says is important when determining overall progress.
“It’s important just to get a good baseline, so you can see if you are being successful or not. If all you have is the scale to rely on, that could be misleading,” he explained.
To help with the influx of Soldiers coming in for supplemental testing, the center has added walk-in hours from 1 to 3 p.m. Wednesdays on a first come, first served basis. Appointments are required during normal business hours, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday.
The first appointment is an initial consultation to go over goals, health history, diet and exercise, followed by an appointment to conduct actual testing.
Individuals must be fasted for at least two hours prior to the test, meaning no food, water or exercise and they are only allowed to wear spandex/lycra shorts (above the knee) speedo, sports bra without pacing or underwire or athletic swimsuit. No cotton, or jewelry can be worn during the test.
The appointment takes approximately 30 minutes in total, but the actual test requires two 45 second measurements with results available immediately.
Buley highlighted the importance of the BOD POD to track success beyond the scale.
“If you’re making health behavior changes, if you’re making dietary changes, you want to make sure that those are impacting you positively and that you’re moving in the right direction. Your scale number can go up and down, but the BOD POD will show you what’s truly changing.”
The service is open to all DOD ID card holders free of charge.
Visit the Fort Cavazos Armed Forces Wellness Center at 657 Wratten Dr., Bldg. 36031, or call 254-553-6196 to schedule an appointment for testing.
| Date Taken: | 11.22.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 12.04.2023 16:24 |
| Story ID: | 458811 |
| Location: | FORT CAVAZOS, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 108 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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