Are You Tracking Your Fat Loss Progress Accurately?
Finding a consistent method of measuring your body fat is critical if you are serious about reaching your goals. Sadly, many people fall into the trap of using the weight scale as the end all be all to their progress.
A scale does not provide an accurate snap shot of your progress. If all you are doing is looking at a scale, please stop. You need to measure your body composition if you truly want to know whether or not your approach is working.
Also, not all methods for measuring fat are the same.
Thus, here is a primer on how to measure your body fat levels:
1. Fat fold tests. Performed with skin calipers, fat fold tests are relatively accurate when done by an experienced professional. The key here is to make sure that the same person takes your measurements every single time. And also keep in mind that I have seen even the most highly skilled testers come up with skewed measurements.
2. Hydrostatic testing. Fat and lean tissues have different densities. And this test measures the density of your body to determine how much fast and muscle you have. Unfortunately, the preparation and the number of variables involved that can go wrong make this method not so attractive to the average person.
3. Electrical signals. There is a surplus of gadgets on the market that will perform this test for you. And they are relatively inexpensive. Unfortunately, they are also very inaccurate. Why? Because they send an electrical signal through your body and too many variables can interrupt the signal.
4. DEXA. Also known as dual energy x-ray absorptiometry, this technique sends a couple harmless x-rays through your body to measure levels of lean tissue. It is very accurate and requires little, if any preparation. The only drawback here is cost.
Of the methods described in this article, I would recommend staying away from electrical tests, they are simply too inaccurate. Other than that, the main factor affecting accuracy will be the skill of the technician performing the measurements. So use the same reliable person over and over again. - 17269
A scale does not provide an accurate snap shot of your progress. If all you are doing is looking at a scale, please stop. You need to measure your body composition if you truly want to know whether or not your approach is working.
Also, not all methods for measuring fat are the same.
Thus, here is a primer on how to measure your body fat levels:
1. Fat fold tests. Performed with skin calipers, fat fold tests are relatively accurate when done by an experienced professional. The key here is to make sure that the same person takes your measurements every single time. And also keep in mind that I have seen even the most highly skilled testers come up with skewed measurements.
2. Hydrostatic testing. Fat and lean tissues have different densities. And this test measures the density of your body to determine how much fast and muscle you have. Unfortunately, the preparation and the number of variables involved that can go wrong make this method not so attractive to the average person.
3. Electrical signals. There is a surplus of gadgets on the market that will perform this test for you. And they are relatively inexpensive. Unfortunately, they are also very inaccurate. Why? Because they send an electrical signal through your body and too many variables can interrupt the signal.
4. DEXA. Also known as dual energy x-ray absorptiometry, this technique sends a couple harmless x-rays through your body to measure levels of lean tissue. It is very accurate and requires little, if any preparation. The only drawback here is cost.
Of the methods described in this article, I would recommend staying away from electrical tests, they are simply too inaccurate. Other than that, the main factor affecting accuracy will be the skill of the technician performing the measurements. So use the same reliable person over and over again. - 17269
posted by X - Men at
3:56 AM
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