Body Fat Percentage
"Your body fat percentage can be measured in many ways.
But no matter what, when you are serious about losing weight,
you need to measure your body fat percentage.
I am going to list here some ways to do this. How you chose to do this depends on your resources. The goal here is to have a standard way to measure the change of your fat loss, not to find your exact body fat percentage. We want to be able to track the changes in your body fat percentage. This is key. Your progress should be tracked as a change and not an absolute value. I am not as concerned with what your body fat percentage is as I am concerned with whether it is changing or not. As I spoke about in "Fat Loss vs. Weight Loss", fat is the target here and not weight. So you have to measure fat loss. Consistently, my clients get discouraged when they see their weight is stagnant. This despite, making changes, and working harder. But I always check their fat loss and sure enough, that has dropped even though the total body weight has not changed. The body fat is being replaced by other healthy tissue. Measuring your fat percentage as well as body weight and your measurements is a more comprehensive way to track your "weight loss". Take a look at the graph below. This is a graph of my body fat percentage and body weight during a 90 day workout routine called P90X. You can see that there are times where my body weight was stagnant. But the body fat percentage does not match these times of stagnation. Body fat percentage can change independent of your body weight. The blue graph is my body fat percentage and the yellow graph is my total weight. These are reverse axis graphs, so as the numbers reduce, the graph goes up and when the number increase they go down. I just like it that way. You can track it any way you want. There are several ways to find out your body fat percentage. As with most things, the more accurate the method, the more of a hassle and/or expensive it will be. I am listing a short brief on different methods available. It is not a complete list. - DEXA scan – It is a full body X-ray scan of the same type used for bone density. It is very accurate. But it's inconvenient, time consuming and expensive. Since we are not looking for absolute measurements of your body fat percentage, and only looking for changes in your body fat percentage, don't use this unless you really want to know what your actual body fat percentage is. For my program you don't need this. I do suggest doing it every 90 days or so to track your progress in an intermediate basis.
- Hydrostatic Weighing – Weighing under water (completely submerged, with all air blown out of lungs) – Very accurate when done professionally. This is great but it is very inconvenient and can be expensive. Again, this is great to get your absolute measurement of your body fat percentage. But for my program, it is not needed.
- Skin-fold calipers (“pinch test”) – Simple, but takes some practice. You'll get the hang of it after practicing and locating the same spot on your body. Whenever taking a measurement, take several to make sure you are getting the same measurement. Take measurements at the same time of day. This I recommend. It will give you an ability to track the change in your body-fat percentage. Below is a sample of one that I used to use and many of my clients use.
- Bioelectrical Impedance (BIA) – These are scales and hand-held devises that run low-level (and painless) electrical current through you. They can be accurate, although the accuracy varies according to the specific device (do your research) and how it is used. Best results are obtained first thing in the morning with no alcohol consumed for 2 days prior, and no exercise the night before. If you can afford this, then use this but use it at the same time everyday. This also helps you track your body fat percentage change by inputting your beginning measurements to measure against. Below is a sample of what I currently use and recommend.
- Navy tape measure method - This is a formula based on several body measurements taken with a tape measure. It can be quite accurate (it is used by the military), but it does depend upon your ability to accurately measure. Using centimeters rather than inches is the best, but using inches within ¼ of an inch works. To be sure, measure yourself 3 times and take the average. I have a calculator using this method. It is especially useful for tracking yourself over time. This is good and free but can be cumbersome. You can get good at this in about a week. Again, take measurements at the same time of day.
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Metabolism Makeover
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