For a very long time, the scale and the mirror were considered to be the best tools to determine your progress with fitness. But due to a rise in psychological syndromes like body dismorphia, anorexia nervosa and bulimia, this has become a bit out dated and definitely not right for some populations.
By now you know the basics on how your body is
composed, but to determine the real percentages we need to dig a little deeper
into the literature and in some cases, our wallets.
the body mass index (BMI) whit which we can see
if an individual is in the healthy weight range, or maybe over or underweight.
This methods biggest disadvantage is that it focuses only on the weight of the
person and that it doesn’t distinguish between lean body mass, water, fat mass
and bone mass.
In my opinion, I would definitely stay away
from this method if you are lifting weights or if you are very “number driven”
person (number driven – your whole self image is dependent on the number on the
scale).
The best and cheapest way to measure your body
composition is the skinfold measurement. It is the
most widely used body composition test method for assessing the body fat
percentage and it is 98% accurate. Just be sure to have the same person doing
it, because the results can vary greatly. You can use a 3 or 7 site skinfold
method.
3 site skinfold is measured differently in men
and women. In men we take the measurements on the abdomen (vertical fold; 2 cm. to the right side of the umbilicus), chest (Diagonal
fold; one-half the distance between the anterior axillary line and the nipple.)
and the thigh(Vertical fold; midway between the knee and hip).
In women we take the measurements on the triceps(Vertical fold; back of the hand, halfway between the elbow and shoulder), thigh (same as men) and on the suprailiac
(about 2.5cm above your right hip bone) location.
The 7 site skinfold is done on the chest,
triceps, abdomen, thigh, and on the subscapular, axillar and suprailiac locations.
Even though it is a
very easy and an inexpensive method (plus if you have the caliper at home, you
can take measurements as many time as you would like) it still has some
disadvantages. The results can vary greatly if there are multiple people taking
the measurements, due to different experiences. Plus it isn’t the best method
for obese or very lean people.
The last one I would
like to describe is the Water weighing method. It uses the Archimedes principle
of buoyancy to determine the body composition. Fat floats so the more the
buoyant the client, the bigger his/her fat reserves are because muscles and
bones are denser than water.
This is a great
method, but it isn’t accessible to a lot of people due to the magnitude of the
equipment involved. You can usually find it in research centers or in
universities.
Until next time, stay
strong and be kind.
Picture taken from: http://tiny.cc/zkgnhw
References:
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