Measuring Body Fat

One of the best ways to determine actual fitness

Although the everyday bathroom scale is the way many of us track our weight loss, measuring your body fat is a more effective way to make sure you are losing the weight you want to or, in other words, the fat. By determining your body fat index, exercise regimes and workouts can be more specifically tailored to suit your individual needs and keep you safe at the same time.

What does you percent body fat mean?

Your body fat percentage is simply the ratio of lean body mass to fat body mass. Too much fat leads to heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol and many other serious health problems. Correspondingly, keeping your body fat within reasonable levels will keep you healthier and slimmer.

For men and women, optimal body fat percentages are vastly different and shouldn’t be compared side by side. For women, a body fat percentage of 10-12 percent is necessary and anything above 32 percent is considered obese. For men, 2-4 percent body fat is necessary and anything over 26 percent is considered obese.

How do you determine your body fat percentage?

There are two basic ways of determining your percentage of body fat: manual measuring devices and electronic measuring devices. In general, both work as well as the other but electronic monitoring will usually be more accurate.

Monitoring your body fat manually

Calipers that measure the skinfold thickness in various areas of your body are one way to measure your body fat percentage. This method is very accessible as it can be done at most health clubs or clinics for little or no cost.

You can also determine you body fat index by using a body fat calculator. Rather than a body fat percentage, a body fat calculator, when combined with the proper formula, indicates whether you are overweight or obese.

Monitoring your body fat electronically

DEXA, or dual energy x-ray absorptiometry, measures your body fate percentage and indicates where most of the fat is. The DEXA works by using a whole body scanner and two different x-rays to read your body mass. This method is the most accurate but can be somewhat expensive.

Another method is called hydrostatic, or underwater, weighing. This is often done at colleges or health clinics and, while not as expensive as DEXA, can still be costly. However, it is also very accurate.

More information on body fat monitors