Your health is determined not so much by your actual weight as by your muscle-to-fat ratio. Both direct and indirect measures of body fat percentage are available, all of which can give you a general idea of whether or not you are too heavy. Nevertheless, some measures are less effective than others, because they fail to take into account certain variables that affect your actual body fat percentage.
Ideal Body Fat Percentage
Your ideal body fat percentage varies according to whether you are male or female. According to the University of New Mexico, ideal body fat percentage for men is between 12 and 18 percent. For women, it is between 16 and 25 percent. Men are considered obese if their body fat percentage exceeds 25%, and women are considered obese if their body fat percentage exceeds 30 percent. The reason for the gender disparity is that women's bodies are designed to carry more fat for childbearing.
Body Mass Index
The body mass Index (BMI) is an approximate method for determining whether or not you are overweight by estimating your muscle-to-fat ratio based on height and weight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The advantage of using BMI is it's easy to calculate, although it is not a direct measure of body fat percentage. To calculate your BMI, divide your weight in pounds by the square of your height in inches, and multiply the product by 703. A healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9.
Variables
The disadvantage of the BMI measurement is that it does not take into account your gender, the size of your body frame or your level of muscular fitness. Because people with large frames can carry more weight at the same height than people with smaller frames, they tend to have higher BMIs than smaller-framed people--even if they don't have a higher body fat percentage. An athlete, for example, may build a lot of muscle mass, resulting in a misleadingly high BMI.
Alternative Methods
You can obtain a measure of body fat percentage that is more accurate than your BMI by using a caliper to measure your skin thickness at several points on your body. You can also obtain a more accurate number by measuring your waist size at its narrowest point, your waist size at your navel, your hip size at its widest point, and your neck at its narrowest point, as explained in the Resources section. Some fitness centers offer underwater weighing, which takes advantage of the fact that since fat is more buoyant than muscle, it weighs less underwater, according to the University of New Mexico.
Misconception
Portable body fat analyzers are generally not good at measuring body fat, according to the Mayo Clinic. This is because the quality of individual devices varies. Results can also vary considerably, depending on how hydrated you are when you take the measurement. For example, results could be very different if you measure both before and after a sweat-producing workout.
Member Comments