Muscle or Fat: Know Your Body Composition
A great tool to include in your weight loss plan is body fat measurement. Having this done every three months will show you how you have progressed in shedding the fat.
Body composition measurement determines what percentage of your body is made up of fat versus lean tissue (muscle) and bone.
Various methods are used to measure body fat percentage:
- Hydrostatic Weighing (underwater weighing)
- Dual Energy X-Ray Abdorptiometry (DEXA or DXA)
- Bod Pod
- Bioelectrical Imedance (BIA)
- Near-Infrared Interactance (NIR)
- Skin Fold Thickness
- Waist-to-Hip Ratio
If at all possible, use Hydrostatic Weighing, which is considered the “gold standard” of body fat composition assessment. DEXA is becoming more widely accepted and, in the near future, may become the new “gold standard." However, availability is limited.
Skin Fold Thickness, which is more reasonably priced and easier to find, measures your body fat through the thickness of a skin fold at various locations on the body.
Take these steps to assure more accurate results with each measurement:
- Use the same method of measurement each time (e.g., if you used BIA the first time, don’t use Skin Fold Thickness the next ).
- If possible, have the same person measure you each time.
- Have the measurement done at the same time of the day, eating and drinking the same thing before every measurement.
- Be sure the person measuring you is proficient in body fat measurement. To be considered profient, the person should have completed roughly 100 to 200 measurements.
For more information, please contact
30 River Park Place West, Suite 340, Fresno, CA 93720
(559) 459-1630 Fax: (559) 459-1710
This information is made possible in part by gift from Cambridge Homes
