The most common method of measuring ideal weight is the height and weight chart. These charts, guid...

1. utf8_encode(Are Body Mass Index (bmi) Charts Effective
Enough?)
The most common method of measuring ideal weight is the height and weight chart. These charts,
guide you how much you should weigh based on your height. Though these charts are still popular,
they are very ambiguous, specially to sportsperson and bodybuilders who carry more muscle than
most people do. “Ideal weights” from height-weight charts do not take body fat into account;
therefore, they cannot accurately recommend how much you should weigh.
Body Mass Index (BMI) is another common way to determine whether someone is at a “healthy
weight”. Like the height and weight charts, BMI is a valueless measure of fitness because it takes
only height and weight into account. In addition, it does not take into account fat versus muscle
tissue. Body builders and other sportsperson carry more lean body mass than the average person
and will therefore be classified as overweight if BMI is used as the criteria for determination.
The primary objective to measure body fat percentage is so you can distinguish between fat and
muscle, which the ideal weight and BMI calculator does not. Average percentage body fat vary
among the sexes and among different age groups. The female hormone estrogen causes women to
have about 5% more body fat than men. The average woman has about 23% body fat and the

2. average man approximately 17%. In both sexes, body fat increases with age while lean body mass
decreases. The following are the techniques widely used for determination of body fat percentage.
Underwater Weighing (Hydrostatic)
Underwater Weighing has consistently been considered the best for measuring the body fat
percentage in comparison with other measurement techniques. The basis for hydrostatic weighing is
the fact that fat floats and muscle sinks. To get your fat measured by underwater weighing, the
person must remain dipped underwater in a chair that hangs from a scale. The fatter you are, the
more buoyant you will be, and the more buoyant you are, the less you will weigh underwater.
However, underweight weighing has its own disadvantages; the most important one is the
inconvenience of being dipped in water. In addition, underwater weighing underestimates the fat
percentage for persons with denser bones. Unless race, age, and sex are uprightly taken into
account, the estimate of body fat could be having a serious error. To summarize, underwater
weighing is not very practicable, although it is always interesting to go get it done once in a while
just for pleasure.
Bio- Electric Impedance Analysis
Bioelectric Impedance Analysis (BIA) is a modern scientific instrument that measures body fat
percentage by testing the electrical resistance of your body's cells to a flow a small harmless
electrical signal. Fat has a low water content in comparison with muscle, so has an insulating effect,
and is therefore less conductive. Research shows that BIA is a fairly accurate and valid measure of
body fat percentage. The impedance measure is affected by body hydration status, body
temperature, time of day, and therefore requires well controlled conditions to get accurate and
reliable measurements. If a person is dehydrated, the amount of fat will likely be overestimated.
Near Infrared Interactance
Near Infrared Interactance (NIR) uses the principle of light absorption and reflection to determine
body fat percentage. The measurement is taken on the person's dominant arm. The light wand sends
a beam of infrared light into the muscle where variations in the reflections of the wavelengths are
used to estimate total body fat low calorie diet percentage. The measurement is very safe, simple
and easy to use with less practice. The disadvantages include the high cost of the instrument, and
the questionable accuracy and reliability like it assumes fat in the arm is proportional to total body
fat, which may not be true.
Skinfold Measurement
Skinfold testing is based on the fact that you store most of your body fat directly beneath your skin.
The skinfold test is performed with a simple instrument called a skinfold caliper. The jaws of the
caliper pinch a fold of skin and fat and measure the thickness of the fat fold in millimeters. Using the
calipers, skinfolds measurements are taken at different sites around the body and then the
measurements are added up. The sum of the skinfolds is then looked up recipes for dinner on a body
fat estimate chart that comes with the calipers. A skilled tester can produce a body fat measurement
with accuracy very close to underwater weighing, which is considered to be standard of body
composition testing. Most importantly, skinfold testing is extremely practicable and lot more simpler
than many of the measurement techniques. However, the accuracy of the measurements may vary
from tester to tester.
Other Methods
There are many other techniques used to determine body fat percentage, including Total Body
Potassium, Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA), Total Body Electrical Conductivity (TOBEC),
Whole-Body Air-Displacement Plethysmography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computed
Tomography (CT scan). While some of these modern methods may be incredibly accurate and useful

3. in the laboratory, none of these methods is practical at least for personal use for a weight loss
program.
Now you came to know the importance of body fat versus body weight and you understand that
height and weight and Body Mass Index (BMI) charts are worthless. It is also clear that losing
weight is not of prime importance, but losing fat is.