Body fat refers to the fat content in your body as compared to the bones, water, organs, tendons, and muscles. To be healthy and reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases, you should lower the fat levels of your body to between twenty-five and thirty-one percent which is acceptable. It is advisable to measure your fat levels to know if you are healthy.
Ways of measuring your body fat
The easiest way to know your body fat is by comparing yourself to a taken picture. If you are very keen while doing this, then you will be able to take an accurate measure of your body fat. You can seek the help of a friend to help if you do not seem to make an accurate estimation.
Use of fat callipers
Fat callipers are units that work by prompting you to pinch fat from your body with the fingers and measuring its thickness using a fat calliper. Callipers are of different types with others allowing you measure in one area and others require that you measure different areas. The callipers are calibrated to measure skin fold in millimetres, and the reading you get should be compared to chart readings. Callipers are cheap, and you can have one in your home. Despite being cheap, callipers usually give accurate results. It is advisable to use callipers that measure only a single test area.
This gives the best standard of measuring body fat. To get an accurate figure, you need to get submerged in some special water tank. The logic is that since your muscles and bones are denser than water, you are bound to have more weight in water if you have low body fat percentage. If your body fat percentage is high, then you will be light in water. Blowing air out of the lungs before weighing yourself will help give accurate results.
This is dual energy X-ray and is another accurate way of testing your body fat. It determines fat distribution on parts of your body. This process involves the use of a scanner that has a low dosage of x rays so that you are not exposed to high levels of x rays. It can be done easily in hospitals to help you know your body fat.
There are various ways you can test your body fat thus you do not have a reason to worry about being unhealthy. Choose an affordable method and one that is easy to implement so that you do these tests easily and maintain a healthy body fat.