Tell Me Why
What is the value of knowing your percent body fat and keeping track of it over time?
Knowing Your Body Fat Percentage
- It gives you a better measure of fitness than your weight alone.
- It will give you a better idea of your health risk. Body Mass Index (BMI), a ratio of weight to height, is often used to assign health risk. But new data shows that BMI misclassifies about one out of four people and therefore should not be used in athletes, the frail elderly, and cannot be directly applied to children or adolescents.
- It prevents you from being misclassified based on your weight. The scale can label you "overweight" even if you are not "overfat" or it can label you "normal weight" even if you have too much body fat.
- It lets you know the composition of your weight loss when you are losing weight. Your health depends on losing body fat and preserving lean body mass.
- It can help you identify fad diets that promote water loss and the loss of your lean body mass, especially muscle.
Keeping Track
- It can help you maintain your percent body fat within the healthy range.
- It helps you make important health-related decisions. For example, if you see an increase in your percent body fat, you may decide to do something to lower it.
- It can be motivational! If you are working to decrease your percent body fat, you can see the progress you are making towards your goal.
- It's an excellent way to check to see if you are achieving your goals of improved eating and exercise habits.
- It's now easy to do. Some methods are just as easy as measuring your weight and can be done in the privacy of your home.
