How to measure body fat?

"Maxwell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

I see some comments in this ng about people who know what their body
fat
percentage is. How is it determined?

There are several ways to test bodyfat. The most common is skinfold
calipers - you pinch the skin in several places, feed the results into a
computer program or chart, tell it your sex, age, and maybe other
things, and it returns a number. Other methods include hand-held
electronic bodyfat monitors (my favorite - easy, cheap at about $50),
scales you stand on, underwater weighing (offered at relatively few
places - your weight on dry land is compared with your weight under
water, and again the numbers are added to other statistics about you
before a final number is reached), and a new thing called the "bodpod".

None are absolutely accurate, and some folks feel that one always ought
to enter a relatively young age, e.g., 21 years old, if you train
regularly - that charts all give you about 1% additional bodyfat for
each 5 years of age throughout adulthood.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

"Steve Freides" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

"Maxwell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I see some comments in this ng about people who know what their body fat
percentage is. How is it determined?

There are several ways to test bodyfat. The most common is skinfold
calipers - you pinch the skin in several places, feed the results into a
computer program or chart, tell it your sex, age, and maybe other things,
and it returns a number. Other methods include hand-held electronic
bodyfat monitors (my favorite - easy, cheap at about $50), scales you
stand on, underwater weighing (offered at relatively few places - your
weight on dry land is compared with your weight under water, and again the
numbers are added to other statistics about you before a final number is
reached), and a new thing called the "bodpod".

None are absolutely accurate, and some folks feel that one always ought to
enter a relatively young age, e.g., 21 years old, if you train regularly -
that charts all give you about 1% additional bodyfat for each 5 years of
age throughout adulthood.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

I never did get why age was important for body fat, as far as measuring it.
Sure, it may be acceptable to have a higher percentage as one ages, but %
is %.

"Kevin J. Coolidge" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

"Steve Freides" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

"Maxwell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

I see some comments in this ng about people who know what their body
fat
percentage is. How is it determined?

There are several ways to test bodyfat. The most common is skinfold
calipers - you pinch the skin in several places, feed the results
into a computer program or chart, tell it your sex, age, and maybe
other things, and it returns a number. Other methods include
hand-held electronic bodyfat monitors (my favorite - easy, cheap at
about $50), scales you stand on, underwater weighing (offered at
relatively few places - your weight on dry land is compared with your
weight under water, and again the numbers are added to other
statistics about you before a final number is reached), and a new
thing called the "bodpod".

None are absolutely accurate, and some folks feel that one always
ought to enter a relatively young age, e.g., 21 years old, if you
train regularly - that charts all give you about 1% additional
bodyfat for each 5 years of age throughout adulthood.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

I never did get why age was important for body fat, as far as
measuring it. Sure, it may be acceptable to have a higher percentage
as one ages, but % is %.

That's pretty easy to answer - statistic indicate that people gather
visceral fat as they age. What's not clear is whether or not this
happens to people who are athletic, which is why putting in a lower age
makes some sense.

I just checked myself with my hand-held gadget. I got 13.8% as my
actual age, 49, and 8.6% if I was 21 years old. I think I like the
lower number. 🙂 The good news is that I'm a couple of pounds heavier
than I was a year ago, and my bodyfat is about the same, so maybe I
added a little bit of muscle. The bad news is that I'm still planning
on competing as a 148, which will, no doubt, be harder and harder to do
as the years go by. Time for a run....

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

"Steve Freides" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

"Kevin J. Coolidge" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

"Steve Freides" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

"Maxwell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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>I see some comments in this ng about people who know what their body
>fat
> percentage is. How is it determined?

There are several ways to test bodyfat. The most common is skinfold
calipers - you pinch the skin in several places, feed the results
into a computer program or chart, tell it your sex, age, and maybe
other things, and it returns a number. Other methods include
hand-held electronic bodyfat monitors (my favorite - easy, cheap at
about $50), scales you stand on, underwater weighing (offered at
relatively few places - your weight on dry land is compared with your
weight under water, and again the numbers are added to other
statistics about you before a final number is reached), and a new
thing called the "bodpod".

None are absolutely accurate, and some folks feel that one always
ought to enter a relatively young age, e.g., 21 years old, if you
train regularly - that charts all give you about 1% additional
bodyfat for each 5 years of age throughout adulthood.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

I never did get why age was important for body fat, as far as
measuring it. Sure, it may be acceptable to have a higher percentage
as one ages, but % is %.

That's pretty easy to answer - statistic indicate that people gather
visceral fat as they age. What's not clear is whether or not this
happens to people who are athletic, which is why putting in a lower age
makes some sense.

I just checked myself with my hand-held gadget. I got 13.8% as my
actual age, 49, and 8.6% if I was 21 years old. I think I like the
lower number. 🙂 The good news is that I'm a couple of pounds heavier
than I was a year ago, and my bodyfat is about the same, so maybe I
added a little bit of muscle. The bad news is that I'm still planning
on competing as a 148, which will, no doubt, be harder and harder to do
as the years go by. Time for a run....

I see people quoting numbers like 13.8 or 11.5 and given the inherent lack
of accuracy in the measurement - tenths of a percent seem sort of silly.

"Jim Ranieri" <nah,> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

"Steve Freides" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

"Kevin J. Coolidge" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

"Steve Freides" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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> "Maxwell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
> news:[email hidden]...
>>I see some comments in this ng about people who know what their
>>body
>>fat
>> percentage is. How is it determined?
>
> There are several ways to test bodyfat. The most common is
> skinfold
> calipers - you pinch the skin in several places, feed the results
> into a computer program or chart, tell it your sex, age, and maybe
> other things, and it returns a number. Other methods include
> hand-held electronic bodyfat monitors (my favorite - easy, cheap
> at
> about $50), scales you stand on, underwater weighing (offered at
> relatively few places - your weight on dry land is compared with
> your
> weight under water, and again the numbers are added to other
> statistics about you before a final number is reached), and a new
> thing called the "bodpod".
>
> None are absolutely accurate, and some folks feel that one always
> ought to enter a relatively young age, e.g., 21 years old, if you
> train regularly - that charts all give you about 1% additional
> bodyfat for each 5 years of age throughout adulthood.
>
> -S-
> http://www.kbnj.com
>
>I never did get why age was important for body fat, as far as
>measuring it. Sure, it may be acceptable to have a higher
>percentage
>as one ages, but % is %.

That's pretty easy to answer - statistic indicate that people gather
visceral fat as they age. What's not clear is whether or not this
happens to people who are athletic, which is why putting in a lower
age
makes some sense.

I just checked myself with my hand-held gadget. I got 13.8% as my
actual age, 49, and 8.6% if I was 21 years old. I think I like the
lower number. 🙂 The good news is that I'm a couple of pounds
heavier
than I was a year ago, and my bodyfat is about the same, so maybe I
added a little bit of muscle. The bad news is that I'm still
planning
on competing as a 148, which will, no doubt, be harder and harder to
do
as the years go by. Time for a run....

I see people quoting numbers like 13.8 or 11.5 and given the inherent
lack
of accuracy in the measurement - tenths of a percent seem sort of
silly.

'swhat the gadget said, so it's what I said, too. Nuthin' more than
that, and I agree with you 100%.

-S-
http://www.kbnj.com

OK, so what's a good target bodyfat for a 56 year old guy 5'10" 170 lbs who
works out 3X per week?

--
Email replies to:
"Maxwell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I see some comments in this ng about people who know what their body fat
percentage is. How is it determined?

Maxwell said:

OK, so what's a good target bodyfat for a 56 year old guy 5'10" 170
lbs who works out 3X per week?

Quoted message said:

I see some comments in this ng about people who know what their body
fat percentage is. How is it determined?

That depends. (1$ to somebody)

Really, it depends. Healthy BF isn't what I'm happy with. The charts give
me a BF range much higher than I like to see. For myself anyway. If you're
<15%, you're doing great. In one of the recent treads here, someone posted
a current BF range chart. The ranges seemed high to me. I'm about 12% now
and comfortable, but I'd like to be around 10%. I'm almost 48 yrs old.

--
-Larry

"Usenet Posting" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

Indeed, but would you recommend someone say 20 percent as their
estimate?

14% +/- 2% would probably be more legit - but they wouldn't sell a lot of
units that way.

A very famous body builder told me that your body fat should be what makes
you happy and do not follow any charts.

Found this BF calculator online: http://www.linear-software.com/online.html

"Maxwell" <look@signature_to_reply.com> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

OK, so what's a good target bodyfat for a 56 year old guy 5'10" 170 lbs

who

Quoted message said:

works out 3X per week?

--
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"Maxwell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

I see some comments in this ng about people who know what their body fat
percentage is. How is it determined?

drhowarddrfinedrhoward said:

A very famous body builder told me that your body fat should be what makes
you happy and do not follow any charts.

He's right, for a goal-setting purpose.

But the proper use of BFP is for progress tracking.

Whatever method you use, get the arbitrary but stable
number, then track it as you work out and diet.

A steady decline* is a reliable indicator that you're
losing fat.

And it should be a reliable indicator that you're sparing
muscle, though there's no way to ensure that the lean-body
mass you compute from BFP*weight is your real lean-body
mass.

--Blair
"I may be a measurement error."

* - any graph will be jumpy, but over a reasonable number of
measurements a definite trend will emerge; the highs and lows
will track.