Published: 2021-11-02
Views: 222
Author: Riley White
Published in: Fitness

For women who are making the effort to lose weight, understanding your body fat percentage in addition to the minimum essential fat percentage can be beneficial.

The other important things to note aside from knowing how much essential fat you must have includes your lean body mass or the weight of your bones and organs, this can be calculated using our height, weight, and gender.

It is also very easy if you want to find out how much extra fat you have as well as how much weight you can lose without jeopardizing your health by combining lean body mass and essential fat.

Since your main target is to lose fat, it is important to track your body fat percentage on a body fat percentage chart which will show you how successful you are.

In case you are losing weight majorly through increased exercise, then checking your weight may not be effective.

Although, you may add some weight which is usually because muscles are denser than fat, the end result is a slimmer body.

What causes excess body fat?

In as much as you want to keep your body fit, you should always remember that what you eat and drink provides the energy – or calories – that your body requires.

Your body usually operates using a supply and demand system when it comes to calories. This means the food that you eat meets the 'demand' of your body and helps you to carry out movement and activity throughout the day. In the process, all of the calories will be converted into the energy you require.

But, when you give your body too many calories than it requires, those extra calories will not be burned by activity, your body will end up storing the calories in fat cells.

Note that when you find out that your reading shows that your lower body fat percentage is lower than the healthy range, this leads to problems such as osteoporosis later in life. Make sure you speak with a health professional about how to increase your body fat percentage in a healthy way.

Body Fat Percentage vs. Body Mass Index

You should not be shocked to find out that many people have wondered if BMI and body fat percentage are the same thing.

This is why it is very important for you to understand the distinction between body fat percentage and body mass index.

The data that you will get from your body fat percentage will show you how much of your body weight is made up of fat.

In addition, the data from your body mass index (BMI) will aid you to determine if you are at a healthy weight for your height.

Although, there has been some claim that calculating your BMI can tell you whether or not you have too much body fat. This may be misinformation because it is not an accurate measure of the body fatness or even overall weight status.

Since the data from BMI will only show your height and weight, it cannot accurately assess body composition.

You will easily find this scenario among people with a lot of muscle mass, such as bodybuilders.

How to Measure Body Fat Percentage

#1. Use online body fat calculator

Body fat calculators attempt to determine your body fat percentage based on your age, height, weight, and level of activity.

These should be ignored immediately because they are incorrect.

#2. Hydrostatic weighing

This underwater weighing procedure calculates body fat by weighing you both on land and in water.

Because fat is lighter than bone and muscle, having a high underwater weight indicates a low body fat percentage.

In terms of data accuracy, this is one of the best methods of calculating body fat percentage, the downside is that it is very expensive, and this is why you may easily find it at hospitals, universities, and sports organizations.

#3. Skin calipers

Calipers, which is commonly known as the skinfold method is used to estimate body fat by pinching your fat in a few locations around your body to measure your body fat.

It is one of the cheapest methods since it is easily affordable. But, getting an accurate result from this method depends on who is performing the testing as well as the accuracy of the areas chosen for testing not forgetting the testing technique.

One thing you must understand about the use of the caliper is that two different 'testers' cannot obtain the same result for the body fat measurements when taking the same skinfold measurement on the same body.

More accurate skinfold calipers, such as Skyndex, can be prohibitively expensive.

#4. Bioelectric impedance

The two common types of bioelectric impedance are handheld devices and body fat scales.

The devices usually send a low-level electrical signal into one foot or hand which then measures the time it takes for the signal to travel to the opposite foot or hand.

Fat slows this down, whereas muscle, as a water depot, accelerates it.