How To Measure Body Fat
|
When it all comes down to losing or gaining weight, most people turn to the scales to determine how much they should lose or gain to have the weight or the shape that they desire.
However, health experts said weight alone is not a clear indicator of good health because it does not distinguish between pounds that come from body fat and those that come from lean body mass or muscle.
Being over fat and overweight is not the same. Overweight simply means an excess of total body weight based on population averages for heights and body frame sizes. On the other hand, obesity is defined as an excess of body fat regardless of weight.
What we have to consider, experts said, in order to determine our fitness, is to know our body fat. Remember that body fat is a percentage of your total weight, so even slender people can have dangerously high levels of body fat.
Here are three ways of measuring your body fat:
1. Home Body Fat Scales-- Body fat scales claim to measure body fat quickly and conveniently. These body fat scales use the Bioelectrical Impedance method to measure your body fat percentage. A low-level electrical current is passed through your body and the "impedance", or opposition to the flow of current, is measured.
2. Skin fold Calipers-- Calipers are a tool that looks somewhat like a giant tweezers. These are used to grasp your skin folds at different points on your body and measure the thickness. These measurements are then compared to standard values for persons of your age and gender to give you your estimated body fat.
3. Hydrostatic Weighing-This is just a fancy term for underwater weighing. You sit on a scale inside a tank of water and blow out as much air as you can. You are dunked underwater, where you blow out even more air. Since fat is lighter than water, the more fat you have, the more you will float. The scale measures underwater weight to figure out body density. The margin of error is around 2-3%, but the accuracy depends on the amount of air you expel. You have to blow it ALL out or it will not be as accurate.
This is a difficult way to measure body fat since it can be uncomfortable and even scary to be dunked underwater with no air in the old lungs.
Weight Loss Product Reviews, top rated Weight Loss Product Reviews and site with best Weight Loss Products. http://www.weightlossproductreview.com
|
|
|
The Cost Of Gastric Bypass Surgery
The cost of gastric bypass surgery and other bariatric surgical procedures are high averaging between $20,000 and $35,000. Many insurance companies are beginning to see obesity as a serious health disorder, however, and have begun to cover some of the cost of gastric bypass surgery.Insurance companies will only cover the cost of gastric bypass surgery if the candidate is qualified. A qualified candidate is firstly at least 100 pounds overweight and has demonstrated in the past a serious effort to control their weight through lifestyle chan...(related: Weight Loss)
Weight Loss Maintenance Tip - Staying Aware
Stop Weight From Creeping Up By Staying AwareEveryone has small weight gains and losses but if those gains aren't noticed, and if the trend toward weight gain continues, then those extra pounds can become permanent. You'll know it because your clothes start to be too tight. If they get tight a...(related: Weight Loss)
Do You Jiggle When You Walk?
Today I stopped by my favorite coffee shop in Berkeley, right across from the campus and noticed this student, couldn't have been 20 years old.Now this kid was obese, no I mean OBESE. I felt bad, really bad, you know like empathy?!He jiggled when he walked and everyone would turn and stare the way I would turn at a beautiful girl passing me by.Anyway, it got me thinking about composition...(related: Weight Loss)
Why Isnt My Diet Working?
Have you been on a new diet for a couple of weeks and found that you STILL can't lose weight? Have you actually GAINED a pound or two since you've been on it? Are you just about ready to throw this diet out the window and try something else? Well, hold on a minute. There might be something else going...(related: Weight Loss)
A Personal Trainers...holidaze
Rules of day to day no longer apply as you surrender to the hearts and minds of those closest. Conversation, food and wine are intoxicating. You can't leave the table the conversation is too good. The holiday food keeps coming. I fall back into the silken warmth of family stories and recollections of past years.I generally eat until I am sated but now? its quest for space, I must keep up, I can't be that? "I don't eat that wimp". I can't spoil this mood and bring everyone down to reality! Somehow I manage to find space for that piece of dark nutty chocolate beckoning me to come home to my pallette, where it would receive all the comfort love and warmth I need to express in this state of holiday bliss. I have now...(related: Weight Loss)
Unearth The Weight Loss Values In An Egg
At the University of Illinois, a new research found that eating high quality protein such as protein found in eggs can help weight loss. An essential amino acid leucine reduces muscle tissue loss, promotes body fat loss and stabilizes blood glucose levels. Two groups of women aged 45 to 57 were put on a 1700 calorie weight loss diets. The first group ate high protein breakfast which had eggs, low fat diary products and lean meat. And the second group had high carbohydrate breakfast. Women who ate rich protein diet showed more weight loss than those on a rich carbohydrate meal. This research finding will help people who are battling with obesity...(related: Weight Loss)
The Low Carb Diet F.a.q.
When most people think of low carb diets they automatically think Atkins. For obvious reasons. Dr. Robert Atkins formulated the original low carb diet in 1972 and was met a with a hail of ridicule and negativity from the medical community at large.The Atkins Diet, since renamed to the Atkins Nutritional Approach, works on a very simple principle. Carbohydrates are what our body normally use to produce energy. If you restrict the carbohydrate intake of a normal person their metabolism changes. Changes? Yes your body looks to the next available energy source which is....fat. So now instead of...(related: Weight Loss)
Close Kept Secrets To Weight Loss Lesson #5
Wow! You must be on fire by now burning and churning up those calories on your way to your ideal weight. I know that taking steps to better your life is not always easy. It takes courage to do this. Sometimes it's easier just to keep in the mind set of surviving and do what you've always done. When you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten. Is this what you desire? Or do you want something differ...(related: Weight Loss)
Get Fit By Getting Fat
Getting enough of the good fats will help you lose fat, build muscle, and recover faster from your workouts. In addition, it has myriad health benefits, including being good for your heart.Good fats include: polyunsaturated (especially Omega-3's), such as those from fish and nuts, as well as monosaturated fats, such as those from peanut butter, olive oil, egg yolks, and fish oil.Bad fats include saturated fats from things such as animal and coconut fats. Then there is the worst kind of fat the man made kind, trans fatty acids which can be found in our typical, of no redeeming value, junk foods such cookies, chips, fries and margarine.Limit, if not stay completely away from, the bad fats and try to get about 30 - 35% of your...(related: Weight Loss)
Super Sizing: Money Shrinks While Waist Lines Grow
"Your Eyes are Bigger Than Your Stomach""Your eyes are bigger than your stomach," my mother said, which mea...(related: Weight Loss)
site-map - Copyright © 2006 | Contact Webmaster | All Rights Reserved. | Weight Loss