Test how much fat you have on your body

How do you usually know whether you have gained weight or lost weight recently?

In addition to self-feeling, the most commonly used method is to measure yourself on a scale.

But we know that it is very inaccurate to judge one's own fat by weight. A short fat person and a tall and thin person may have exactly the same weight, let alone understand the specific changes in fat ratio.

Today we are going to introduce many ways to measure physical conditions, including household measurement methods, commercial measurement methods and scientific research measurement methods. We will mainly talk about the first two methods that we can quickly operate.

Home method one: BMI body mass index

Difficulty of use: Easy

BMI is a method that can be calculated by simply measuring your weight and height.

BMI=weight and height squared. Weight is in kilograms and height is in meters.

This BMI result is within the normal range as long as it is before 18.5-25, and if it exceeds 30, it means obesity.

Disadvantages of BMI:

The results are more accurate for ordinary people or obese people, but are almost ineffective for athletes. Especially athletes with high muscle ratios such as bodybuilding, rugby, and weightlifting.

Their test results are basically obesity, because the weight of a large amount of muscle is also included in the weight data. If you have been exercising for a long time, you don't need to refer to BMI.

Home method two: WHR waist-to-hip ratio

Difficulty of use: Easy

You need to measure your waist circumference (height of your belly button) and hip circumference (the largest part of your buttocks)

WHR = waist hip circumference

Generally speaking, if the result exceeds 0.9 for men and 0.8 for women, they should start paying close attention to their health. The waist-to-hip ratio not only indicates whether the body is fat or thin, but a high index is often related to many chronic diseases.

WHR defect: Still unable to understand the fat ratio.

Home method three: skinfold thickness measurement method

Difficulty of use: many steps

This method is currently the most balanced method between cost and accuracy. You need to purchase a professional sebum pliers. Entry-level rulers are easily available and very cheap.

Use calipers to measure skinfold thickness at several specified locations on the body.

For ordinary people, you can estimate your body fat percentage by measuring the thickness at these eight locations.

Follow the instructions in the figure and refer to "Basic Theory of Physical Fitness" for details:

According to the added value of the skinfold thickness in these eight places, you can find your corresponding fat ratio on the left side of the picture, and then find your fat ratio based on your corresponding age on the right side. The two values are added together to get your approximate fat ratio. .

If you are a professional researcher, these data have more in-depth research value. Through various regression equations, you can get a statistically more accurate body composition ratio. This accuracy will be closer to the real situation. However, professionals need to take into account athlete factors, racial factors, etc., so I won’t go into details.

Commercial method: BIA bioelectrical impedance analysis method

Difficulty of use: harsh conditions

The human body can generally allow weak current to pass safely, but the conductivity of fat tissue in the body is very average. Higher fat content will increase the difficulty of current passing through.

If a specific current is connected to the human body, as long as the human body's influence on the current can be analyzed, the fat content can be analyzed through computer calculations. This is the core method used by almost all commercial body testers currently. It is a machine used by members in the gym to test body composition with bare feet.

Advantages: fast analysis speed, relatively comprehensive data, and automatic analysis function.

Disadvantages: The equipment accuracy level is uneven, the analysis mechanism is not unified, and the error may exceed 5%. In extreme sample processing, thin people will be measured as super thin, and fat people will be measured as overweight.

Coupled with uncontrollable factors such as human sweating, urination, drinking, and menstrual activities, the test results of the same machine will be significantly different in the morning and evening.

If you have the conditions to go to the gym to test and want a more accurate test, you need to make the following preparations:

Not eating or drinking for half a day in advance

Do not drink alcohol or take diuretics such as coffee or tea for twelve hours in advance

Go to the toilet half an hour early

Try to do each test at a fixed time, such as getting up early

The body composition calculation methods that we can come into contact with every day have basically been introduced.

Of course, there are many professional-level high-precision testing methods with complex operations, harsh conditions, and expensive equipment. We can only briefly introduce them.

Underwater weighing: The density change of the body is measured through the buoyancy of water. Obese people have a lower density.

Air displacement method: similar to underwater weighing, but measured by people changing the air pressure in a closed space.

Ray absorption method: Different components of the human body have different abilities to absorb rays.

MRI: scan the body layer by layer and directly observe and analyze the amount of fat in the body

Knowing your body composition is the only way to truly understand your health.

Does your body fat fall into the general range of 10-25% for men and 20-30% for women?

Is it because your body fat is too low, which affects your exercise level?

Are you already very thin and still want to lose weight?

Maybe the data tells you that you are fatter than you look?

If you want to lose weight healthily and get in better shape, you must start by understanding body fat?

Of course, it’s not enough to know how fat or thin you are. Fat loss is a very complicated process, and it definitely doesn’t just involve eating less and exercising more.

If you’re not that proficient in fat loss yet.

Then from now on you might actually understand.