Originally Posted by
Iride01
So what useful things for cycling does knowing your body fat or bone mass do? It just seems like one of the many gee-whiz numbers we like to boast.
Few people are going to have a body fat low enough to worry about materially adjusting their nutrition. And for your bones, diet and resistance exercise to keep those bones strong is needed regardless of whether they are currently losing strength or not.
So I'll do a Dexa scan when I get into my seventies and the doctor wants to determine if bone loss is happening. Till then I just do the normal things that keep them strong. I just get the body composition from my scale whenever I need a chuckle.
Nice.
As regards the question - I first measured my bone mass as part of a research project 40 y ago (for the nerds out there - dual photon absorptiometry as it was pre-DEXA.) Since then, I've tended to always wear hip padded shorts when commuting and touring, and after flipping a track bike a couple decades ago, I have elbow protection as well.
Might not want to wait until your 8th decade of life to check how much bone mass you're starting with - a baseline can be helpful. In my case, if my first bone mass was yesterday, folks would be scrambling to get me medication. As my doctors know I haven't lost bone mass throught the decades, there's some reassurance I can continue on with my program.
Jus' a thought.