Body mass index or bmi which takes into account both your weight and height is another good measure unless you are very muscular. A basic way to measure body fat percentage is by using a soft tape measure like the kind youd use for sewing to record measurements of different parts of the body. Bioelectrical impedance analysis bia is a commonly used method for estimating body composition in particular body fat and muscle mass. You can also find tape. Measuring the circumference of certain body parts is a simple method of body fat estimation. Use a tape measure to determine your waist wrist hip and forearm circumference.
Either using a handheld scale or standing on a bia scale a signal passes either from hand to hand or foot to foot. In part 1 of this series you learned about how body fat testing is a prediction not a measurement. However the convienience of this method comes at a price of accuracy. When you step on the scale a small electrical current runs up through your leg and across your pelvis measuring the amount of resistance from body fat. While not as accurate as skinfold measurements taken by a trained. Then the sensors in the scale measure the.
To get the best results measure to the nearest 14 inch 05 cm. Now lets talk about bia. Then input your gender and measurements below to receive a body fat index based on average values. Most body water is stored in muscle. The body fat index is not an indicator of fitness level since the calculation is made with no regard to height or weight. The resistance between the conductors will provide a measure of body fat since the resistance to electricity varies between adipose muscular and skeletal tissue.
For example the us army uses a body fat calculation that simply requires an individuals age height. Body circumference measurements and body fat scales that use bioelectrical impedance are both methods you can do on your own. In part 2 you learned about underwater weighing and in part 3 you learned about the bod pod. One of the best ways to see if you have too much risky body fat is to simply measure your waist. Bioelectrical impedance bia bia is one of the quickest and easiest methods for predicting body fat. In bia a weak electric current flows through the body and the voltage is measured in order to calculate impedance resistance of the body.
The nih has this online bmi calculator. Use the metric units tab if you are more comfortable with the international system of units si. The body fat calculator can be used to estimate your total body fat based on specific measurements.
Gallery of Body Fat Resistance Measurement
