How To Measure Body Fat
Just measuring your weight is not enough to determine if your health is good or not. Weight alone cannot distinguish between pounds that belong to body fat and pounds that belong to muscle mass. If you have too much fat, you’re at the risk of becoming obese, thus having other health problems like diabetes, heart diseases and even cancer. So make sure you measure your body fat correctly.
And to help you with that, here is some specific information on how to measure your own body fat.
If you are willing to visit a special laboratory, you might benefit from the advantage of measuring your body weight underwater. It is the most accurate method, but it is not that easy to apply, is it?
There are other alternatives to measure your body fat, but you must have in mind that the measurements should be done by specialists.
One of these alternatives is measuring your skin fold thickness. This is done in several parts of the body such as the upper arms, thighs and abdomen. Another alternative is the bioelectric impedance analysis. The process implies sending small harmless electric currents through your body. Both alternatives are used in the majority of gyms around the world, but the result is not one you can fully trust in.
The instruments used for the measurement are nit as important as the following process which implies accuracy and processing of numbers. Two well-known tools that are used in body fat measurement are the weigh-for-height tables and the body mass index (BIM).
Weight-for-Height Tables
It is very common. You can find it in every doctor’s office. These tables consist of ranges of normal weight for a person with reference to her height. Of course, there are pros and cons that appear when using this instrument.
Pros
The researches done to create this instrument were thorough and millions of people contributed to its final shape.
Weight-for-Height Tables is easy to use, it quite simple to decipher and it takes little time to make an accurate measurement.
Cons
Unfortunately, Weight-for-Height Tables doesn’t take into consideration where the body fat is located.
The tables cannot separate body fat and muscle fat.
The tables have not been updated since 1983. the world had changed, so new studies are required.
Body Mass Index (BMI)
Body Mass Index is in fact a mathematical formula based on a person’s height and weight. It is a wide spread method among doctors, because it has the advantage of defining healthy weight, overweight and obesity. In this case also, there are pros and cons.
Pros
BIM is a chart which is simple and easy to look at.
Researches show the health risks that are associated to both high BMIs and low BMIs.
Cons
BMI does not locate body fat exactly.
It cannot classify body builders in an accurate way.
It cannot make a separation between body fat and muscle mass.
There is a close relationship between fatness and BMI, which is influenced by age and gender. It is a known fact that women are more likely to have a high body fat percentage than men having the same BMI. It is the same thing with older people.
If the BMI of a person is really high, the consequence is that the person risks developing a disease, or even dying.
Bottom line, it is very important that you should measure the amount6 of fat in your body. You can prevent the alarming risks of obesity and you can adjust your diet in order to live a healthy life. Measuring yourself day by day will help you see palpable results in the process of weight loss and will help you motivate yourself in order to reach your objectives.
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