Do You Have Too Much Body Fat?

With the many health problems caused by too much fat, a lot of people are now very conscious about the percentage of body fats found in their bodies. Some people also want to maintain a certain amount of body fat in order to remain attractive based on the standards of society. For athletes, losing body fat is very important for people who need to stay in a weight category or move to a lower one. Here are some ways of measuring body fat:

This is a measurment of body fat based on an adult's height and weight. You can try using the different BMI calculators online or you can find your BMI by using the Imperial BMI Formula or the Metric BMI Formula. In the Imperial BMI Formula, the weight in pounds is multiplied to 703 and divided by the square of the height in inches. The Metric BMI Formula, on the other hand, involves dividing the weight in kilograms by the square of the height in meters.

Imperial BMI Formula:

BMI = (weight in lbs * 703) / (height in inches)²

Metric BMI Formula:

BMI = weight in kilograms / (height in meters)²

And, based on the value that you calculate from any of these equations, you can easily determine the category in which you belong in. The for categories are:

• Below 18.5 --- underweight
• 18.5 to 24.9 --- normal
• 25 - 29.9 --- overweight
• 30 and above --- obese

Although this is the easiest method of measuring body fat, it tends to be inaccurate for athletes because they tend to have a higher amount of muscle mass which is heavier than fat. Neither is it a good basis for old people whose muscle mass is receding. They tend to be lighter because of the decreasing muscle mass.

By taking the circumference of the narrowest part of your waist and widest part of your hips with the use of a measuring tape, you can compute for your waist-hip ratio. A Waist-Hip Ratio of 0.7 is ideal for women while 0.9 is ideal for men. According to observations, these ideal values can be correlated with health and fertility.

Gym instructors usually measure this before giving their clients a program. With the use of caliper, they measure the thickness of the subcutaneous fat layer which is found beneath the skin in different areas of the body. They usually measure the triceps, subscapular, suprailiac, abdominal, thigh and biceps. For men, the skinfold measurement in the chest area is also taken. The downside of this method of body fat measurement is the fact that only the body fat deposits under the skin are measured, leaving out visceral adipose tissues such as the fat found in the abdominal cavity.

Another method of measuring body fat that is done by fitness experts is the measurment of the girths of different parts of the body like the bicep, forearm, abdomen, hips, thight and calf. Just like the skinfold measurements, this is a great way of measuring body fat. Unfortunately, the visceral body fat cannot be measured by this system. This can only done throught medical tests that can be found in hospitals.

This is actually integrated with electrical weighing scales and can also be found in the form of hand-held devices. By passing a single, low frequency BIA through the body, one can find out how much body fat you have based on the speed of the current that flows between two electrodes. Since fat-free components like water and hydrated fat-free body tissues have a higher electrolyte content and lower resistance, the current passes more quckly through this area.

By knowing your body fat measurements, you would be able to decrease or increase your body fat making some changes in your lifestyle. One thing that you should remember is that these measurements also include essential body fats which your body needs to function properly so make sure that you don't sacrifice your health by losing too much weight.