Best Ways To Measure Your Body Fat Percentage

How hard it is to do regular intensive exercise and still see no change in weight. Your body weight won’t mean you have some conditions or that you are unfit. People who are clinically overweight may also be falsely diagnosed as underweight. High normal body weight does not necessarily imply poor health or even an unhealthy body weight. Conversely, being borderline overweight does not necessarily mean that a person is unhealthy or unhealthy at a healthy weight.

So how can we justify if the person is reducing weight at a healthy level? This is done by reducing the level of body fat. The fat percentage determines the actual health stats. When you have the record for your total body fat and you work out on that, it will help in keeping you fit for a long run.

This can help determine how much you’ll need to trim in order to meet the physical standards for your target weight category. So this body fat goes like- the lower you have the fat percentage, the higher you have the lean muscle mass.

Let’s just say that you probably have more body fat than muscle, regardless of your total body fat percentage. In other words, the lower you can keep your body fat percentage, the more muscle you will have. However, that does not mean you will necessarily get bigger. Actually, there are two parts to this equation: weight gain and fat mass.

This means that if you have a low body fat percentage (because you have nothing to lose), the closer you get to your ideal body fat percentage (more muscle), the more the upper body starts to look flabby. When you get leaner (more muscle and less fat), your cortisol levels fall, and with them your ability to store body fat.

This in turn means more fat is stored in your body. In addition, more protein is released from your body which has even more of an effect on your hunger.

We have a complete guidelines on how to measure your body fat in order to have an ideal body with a healthy living. Let’s just dive into it!

• Skinfold measurement

This method is not a new thing. It has been there for over 50 years. and are the most widely used method to quantify lean body mass and fat mass in humans. It can provide an estimate of body fat based on the symmetry of the skinfold measurements taken over the body’s primary fat depot (near the abdomen).

Skinfold measurements for men are typically taken around the neck, while those for women are usually taken on the upper arms. The waist measurement is taken across the mid-thigh, whereas the hip measurement is taken at the  side of the thigh. In general, the mean lean body mass in female subjects is a few grams (1 pound) lower than in male subjects.

These measurements can tell you a lot about the types and distribution of fat in your body, how active you are, your likelihood of getting and maintaining heart disease, and whether you have type 2 diabetes.

The more you weigh, the thinner your skin folds are, and the better the information you can get out of a fat measurement. While most people try to stay as slim as possible, some people may feel more comfortable with a thinner body.

Ways to Calculate Skinfold

You can find the skinfold calculator on the calorie-counting websites.

To calculate your skinfold, first measure your chest, arm and waist with a tape measure. Then cross each measurement off your body measurements. Finally, multiply the result by .8 to convert the number to a standard skinfold. The greatest skinfold number is 11, which is 2 inches from your chest to your wrist.

The biggest advantage of these clippers are that it is quite affordable in your budget and can be customized to fit any body type, although this feature isn’t absolutely necessary. Also, they are removable and easily cleaned, and because they don’t require the placement of brakes on a frame, you don’t need to worry about whether you have enough suspension to provide enough steering precision for you, or have a front brake to squeeze off braking forces on your neck. The easiest way to clean the calipers is to clean them with warm water and soap, and you can use an electric toothbrush as well.

• Body circumference measurement

Everybody has a distinctive shape and hence the body mass varies from person to person. Whatever your shape is, it provides valid information about your body fat. Body fat is simply the percentage of fat in your body. Body fat can be classified as Percent Body Fat, Total Body Fat or Perimeter Body Fat.

Total body fat is the overall amount of fat in your body. Low body fat percentages indicate a person is not doing a good job maintaining or burning fat. High body fat percentages also indicate an unhealthy, unhealthy fat profile. Perimeter body fat consists of the fat around your waist and hips. Many people assume if you have lower body fat, you have “thin legs” when in fact it is the fat around the center of your hips and waist which is your “thinner legs”.

The circumference of your body parts tell you about the body fat. What you need to do is to measure the circumference of your body and record the reading on the various body parts listed here. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that the average weight of men and women is 184 lbs. Men have a larger upper body and the thighs, and women are more built in the buttocks area.

Men have a larger waist than women. Women have less weight on their hips and thighs. Men have less skin on their face than women, because they have more muscle mass than women. The average shoulder to body ratio is closer to 1:1 for men, but if you are a woman you should use the ratio of 1.8:

The advantage of this method is that it is quite affordable and all you have to do is to measure one small section of skin and the distance from the surface of the skin to the measurement point. The circumference is then multiplied by body fat percentage.

• Dual energy Xray (DXA)

DXA is a method whereby you will be put to an x ray machine where two different types of radiation will give you a rough sketch on your fat percentage. X-rays of moderate energy and X-rays of high energy are generated by different machines. The level of radiation is proportional to the body fat percentage you’ve measured.

The higher you are in body fat percentage, the higher the level of radiation. The mass of the machine or radiation source is also proportional to the body fat percentage you’re measuring. The higher you are in body fat percentage, the more powerful the machine or radiation source, and the more the person will be affected by the radiation.

Some people can detect very weak body radiation. This is the case with individuals who, due to advanced aging, have increased levels of tissue, in particular, fat. This method is also helpful in giving a detailed picture of your bone density and some other vital information on lean mass and fat in your individual body parts like torso, legs and arms.

• Hydrostatic weighing

This is the technique of weighing your body fat with the help of this machine called as Hydrostatic Weighing. This helps in estimating your body fat while you are submerged under water. You need to exhale the air as much as possible.

Your lean mass (fat free mass) is the most stable and highest proportion of your overall body weight. Lean mass is composed of the muscles (whereas the rest of the body is made up of the water and all the tissues) and organs which form the framework and constitute the structure of the body.

As our body mass increases, the potential for body composition changes will also increase. Because the other components of the body don’t change, those changes will be reflected in a change in the density of your body mass.

It also implies the type of work being done by your muscles. This technique will find out the density of your body which will then be equated with other information. This body density will later be used for the calculation of your body fat percentage.

So we have so many options to weigh our body fat, hence the question comes in our mind as to which method is the best! That depends on these questions:

• What is your main purpose for the body fat percentage
• How important it is for you to have the high accuracy
• The frequency of weighing your body fat percentage
• Which method is more comfortable for you to perform at home
• What’s your price range

Widely, the availed methods are not suitable to use in your home to get the highest accuracy. Therefore, you are advised to visit your doctor for a medical check up prior to start any of the above-mentioned ways to monitor your body fat percentage.